There is only about a month to go until the new Transformers Rise of the Beasts film hits theatres and the hype is building, with everything from toy lines hitting shelves to art exhibitions taking place to celebrate the upcoming flick.
However, it wouldn’t be a Transformers movie without there being something contentious to make the fandom all scream at each other, and in this case it’s the design of Wheeljack.
Wheeljack, the very first Transformer to ever hit screen, was the Autobots mad-scientist, always coming up with whacky inventions and weapons that more often than not backfired. This combined with his distinctive headscuplt, easy-going personality and slick Lancia Stratos Turbo race car alt-mode meant that he was a fan favourite and one of the better known Transformer characters.
Wheeljack nearly appeared in the Dark of the Moon Transformers movie, but the decision was made at the last second to call the character ‘Que’ instead, as an homage to James Bond’s gadget guy. Still, this decision was made so late that some toys and in the associated video game the character was still called Wheeljack.
Wheeljack made his proper live-movie appearance in the Bumblebee Movie. Whilst he had but a single line, he could be seen battling on Cybertron at the start of the flick and was instantly recognisable. Despite being on screen for a very short amount of time, he received a very cool Studio Series figure which had an altmode of a Cybertronian HoverCar, instead of the Cybertronian HoverVan mode he had in the G1 cartoon.
In the upcoming Rise of the Beasts movie, a sequel to the Bumblebee flick, Wheeljack has completely changed from the previous film, with a completely different robot mode and altmode to any he has sported before. Some fans are really not happy, with other fans really not happy that those fans are not happy.
So where does my opinion lie in all this? Well let me tell you:
“Don’t be a slave to G1, don’t be a sook – characters change!”
This is the argument that a lot of fans are giving to those that don’t like the look of the new Wheeljack. And I think they’ve got the argument slightly wrong. I believe it’s not that people are annoyed that this incarnation of Wheeljack in not a carbon copy of his G1 incarnation, it’s that he’s not really recognisable as Wheeljack at all.
People, for the most part unless they are the most staunch geewunners (which do sadly exist), don’t mind some changes to characters, as long as they retain some key essence of the original. It keeps the characters fresh and interesting. Fans had no issue with Wheeljack being a Wrecker with a rebellious personality in Prime (2010). Wheeljack having a country accent and a mouth in Cyberverse (2018) and the new Earthspark (2022) cartoon have also been received without complaint. Despite some changes these incarnations were still instantly recognisable as Wheeljack, due to either their physical appearance and/or personality. This incarnation doesn’t look, act or sound like Wheeljack (that we’ve seen thus far – who knows what may happen in the film). So I completely understand why some fans are going ‘Why not just make it a new character instead of completely changing an old one?’.
To use an example from a different pop-culture franchise – it’s like Batman; there are dozens of different iterations of Batman with varying costumes and personalities, but you can generally pick up a comic or see a movie and still go ‘yep – that’s Batman’.
No one is demanding that every Batman look like Adam West, they just want it to still be recognisable as the character. If they did a comic where Batman was actually a 6’10” Slavic insurance-claims adjuster who lives in Brisbane, and at night throws rubber ducks at criminals whilst making poultry-puns, people would be like ‘WTF? That’s not Batman!’
If we were to use a Transformers character such as Grimlock, we see the pattern repeated. He is usually a grey Cybertronian T-Rex with a rebellious attitude. But we have seen different versions of him over the years. In the Alternators toyline he turned into a Ford Mustang, in Titanium a Cybertronian tank, in Rescue Bots Academy a Dino-cycle, in Age of Extinction a Gigantic Rex-Dragon. In the RID15 Cartoon he was back to being a Cybertronian T-Rex again, but now green with a teddy-bear like head and a goofy personality.
Each of these differed greatly from the core G1 character, but there was still enough recognisable elements that you could look and go ‘yup – that’s Grimlock’.
‘There have been different Wheeljacks before – they reuse names all the time, get over it!’
Yes, lots of characters got their names reused in Beast Wars, then again in early 00’s in shows like RID & Armada, but those were generally exceptions where they just randomly used names in order to keep the trademark. Wheeljack in Armada was a bitter Autobot that swapped allegiance, and besides a car altmode had nothing to do with the original. Similarly Grimlock, whom we were discussing earlier, turned into a excavator in RID and had zero connection to the original character. So the precedents are there.
That being said, Hasbro has taken a far more uniform approach to their characters in the modern era and, outside of the Movieverse, these aberrations have happened very little over the last 15 or so years.
So am I going to boycott the movie because Wheeljack is essentially unrecognisable? No – I’m still looking forward to it! And for all I know I might really like the character on the big screen and go out and buy the SS figure of him. But do I understand why some fans have a beef with how he is being portrayed – yes I do.
So my 2-cents are: if you don’t like how you think the ROTB Wheeljack looks/acts/sounds – go watch the movie next month and see if he grows on you. Heck, he might be good enough that he earns a right to simply share the name, like G1 and Beast Wars Inferno do.
To those who have a problem with others disappointment in what the character looks like so far, give’em a break eh – it can be a bit heartbreaking to see a character you’ve loved for years changed beyond recognition for no obviously discernable reason. But yes, when you’ve read the 50th ‘they’ve destroyed the character!’ rant, I can understand how your patience would wane.
And my final words are – it’s all just toys and movies, don’t take it so seriously, just have fun!
Got an opinion on the whole Wheeljackgate? Pop it in the comments section below!