G1 Flywheels

Robot Mode: At first glance Flywheels seems to be a typical Jet-former with the cockpit forming the chest. Then you notice his exceptionally large feet with tank tracks on them. Eventually it becomes apparent that this is a robot actually created from two different vehicles mashed together. And while Flywheels isn’t the first Transformer with a double vehicle mode (that honor belongs to Sky Lynx, I believe), he (along with fellow Duocon Battletrap) is the first with a humanoid robot mode. So he is somewhat special in that regard.

Apart from the Duocon gimmick, though, there is little here that is special. Flywheels is almost immobile, his articulation restricted to lifting his short, stubby arms sideways. That’s on the low end of the articulation spectrum even for a G1 figure. The detailing on his body is okay, but far from great, and his few stickers do little to change that. He originally came with a gun that he could hold in his hand but never point forward to shoot someone. So, yeah. Flywheels’ play value is pretty much restricted to the gimmick of one robot becoming two vehicles.

Alternate Mode: As a Duocon Flywheel’s robot mode splits into two different vehicles, a jet and a tank. Both are on the small side and feature only the most basic in detailing, but on the plus side neither shows any hints of there being (parts of) a robot hidden inside. The tank can raise it’s gun upwards and mount the (missing) handgun, too, and... yeah, that’s pretty much the extent of what I can write here. Oh, you can also keep the two vehicles combined without them turning into a robot, if you want, but a jet sitting on top of a tank looks even stranger than a space shuttle sitting on a blue box.

Missing Parts: Flywheels’ handgun is missing.

Remarks: 1987 marked the beginning of the dreaded gimmick years, where pretty much every new Transformer belonged to a group of toys with similar gimmicks. Flywheels was one of two Duocons, robots that transformed into two separate vehicle modes. Despite being shown in the intro trailer of the season 4 Transformers cartoon, he never did appear on the TV screens in the western world, only in the Japanese Headmaster series. His comic appearances are more numerous, the latest being in IDW’s More Than Meets the Eye series as part of the Scavengers. He didn’t last long, though, being killed by the Decepticon Justice Division despite their admiration for his exceptionally large feet.

As a toy Flywheels isn’t terribly interesting apart from his underlying gimmick and maybe the idea that he is basically the prototype for Overlord (a jet and a tank combining into a robot). I got him cheap and he takes me one step closer to having at least one representative of every G1 gimmick ever made, so that’s my reason. Overall he’s a fun idea, but the implementation could be much better.

Rating: C+