Name: Wreck-Gar
Series: Generations
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Motorbike
MOTORBIKE MODE
Height: 10cm Length: 16.5cm Width: 6cm
A mid brown & beige motorbike with a lot of "Hasbro" grey on the mechanical aspects such as forks, chain & kickstand, Wreck-Gar has black tyres, handlebars & a black seat. There are black flames on the fueltank while there's a very small colourless windshield, on top of which is a "Reveal the Shield" rubsign. For some reason his headlight is painted red. It's a good colour scheme which alludes to G1 nicely, even if it's not the most aesthetically pleasing colour set. The red headlight is my only real gripe - such a stupid colour choice.
This is a much sleeker motorbike than the original, which was an awfully blocky affair. This bike looks more like a trailbike than your average road riding bike, with fairly wide tyres and chunky springs on the front forks. The handlebars feature rear vision mirrors & are composed of a soft black plastic, making sure that these details protrusions wont easily break off. The sculpt is pretty good actually, with a detailed fuel cap. The engine is quite detailed (and painted silver) while the grey mechanical details such as the chain, front brakediscs & muffler are all quite detailed.
There's not much play value here. His wheels turn and there's a small grey kickstand on the left hand side, which can be folded away (although Wreck-Gar can't stand up without it). Well, I guess we can count warming up the rubsign.
A good bike mode and one that evokes the character despite being more of a trailbike than a true road motorcycle. The sculpt is good and the colours mostly work. Nothing really stands out here, but it's a very solid vehicle mode.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Unclip and set aside the muffler (which also takes the right side of the rear wheel with it), fold up the chain on the left side, unclip the saddle & extend to form the left leg. Straighten the front to form the right leg. Lift up the front mudguard to form his right foot which will also fold in the handlebars. Flip out the left heelspur. Push the hips together & stand him up. Rotate the chest 90° so it faces forward, flip up his head. Swing the arms forward, fold down the forearms & rotate his hands. Unfold the muffler as his axe, open the blades & place in either hand.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 14.5cm Width: 8cm
A mid brown, beige & grey robot, the grey is actually the most prevalent colour here, on his groin, thighs and shoulders. His upper arms, hands, chest, head and boots are brown while the forearms are beige. Wreck-Gar also has some black, which is basically kibble - the saddle on his left boot, the handlebars on the right and the tyres hanging off the left shoulder & boot. There are yellow flames on his hood while the face is while with a black moustache & red eyes. There's no Autobot logo visible in this mode but the colours are those of Wreck-Gar, even if they're a little muddled.
Hasbro have generally been getting progressively better with motorbike Transformers, but Wreck-Gar is in some ways a step backwards. I say that because there's quite a lot of kibble here. The rear wheels assembly sits on the outside of his left knee, which is essentially G1 accurate, but the front wheel - and forks - on the back of his left arm is very awkward. The handlebars and windshield are on his right shin, so there are colourless false handlebars behind his head to match the G1 handlebars. The false handlebars are a nice touch, along with little spikes on his chest (as per G1) and yellow flames. Incidentally, the eyes are painted red over transparent plastic, giving Wreck-Gar an unusual but effective lightpipe.
The play value is good thanks largely to his cleverly designed axe. His neck & shoulders are ball jointed while the elbows are hinged with rotators & the wrists rotate. Wreck-Gar's left shoulder is somewhat hampered by the chunk of kibble on the back of it, sadly. The hips swing and lift out to the sides while his knees are hinged with rotators. The feet both have some wiggle room, but due to the asymmetrical nature of his transformation, this jointing is different on either foot, so it doesn't add much to his poseability. The axe is interesting, impressive & thanks to his wrist joints can be wielded in a wide range of poses. The front tyre can also detach and be handheld as a soft of shield - similar to the G1 toy.
A good robot mode despite some notable kibble. A lot of thought has gone into making this robot mode resemble G1 despite a vastly different transformation, the articulation is useful for the most part and the colour scheme works well. While there's nothing awesome about this mode, the face is very well done, the tribute works and the only real downside is the chunk of crap on one shoulder.
VARIATIONS
The TakaraTomy released United Wreck-Gar has metallic paint & a slightly different paint mask. Scrapheap and Junkheap are retools of Wreck-Gar.
OVERALL
While he's one of the weaker toys in the recent Generations toys, Wreck-Gar is still a very solid Transformer and there's a lot of attention to detail here - especially when it comes to the tribute. Both modes are solid and display well and it's a good tribute to a G1 character that hasn't been revisited before. While the engineering is sub-par compared to most modern Transformers, the tribute is good enough that he's a vital part of any Classics collection - 7.5/10
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