Titans Return Wheelie

Robot Mode: Whether you like the character of Wheelie or not (more on that below), the truth is that we have never really had a figure that actually resembles the season 3 cartoon character before. The original G1 Minibot didn’t, the few Wheelies we have seen since then didn’t. Until now. Because Titans Return Wheelie is the spitting image of the annoying rhyming Minibot from G1 season 3. Not just the head as with other Wheelie figures, but the entire thing.

The figure is ball-jointed throughout, thus very nicely articulated, and can easily sit on the neck of Masterpiece Grimlock for that extra TF movie fun. Strangely enough if you flip down the canopy forming Wheelie’s chest, which sports the Autobot logo, there is a place ear-marked for another Autobot logo below it. Why? No idea. Anyway, the only slight downside to this robot mode is that it’s missing a weapon (either a gun or a sling would do), but otherwise: this is clearly Wheelie. Mission accomplished.

Alternate Mode: Wheelie transforms into a futuristic little car that, amazingly, actually has a cockpit with room to seat a Titan Masters figure inside it. That’s quite a bit of engineering right there, given that the robot has no hollow space inside him. Anyway, the car looks very much the vehicle Wheelie became in G1 season 3 and has no visible robot bits. So no complaints here at all and props for the fact that the car can actually seat a driver. Nicely done.

Remarks: For the first two seasons of the original cartoon the kid-friendly, relatable character among the Autobots was, of course, Bumblebee. Come season 3, though, the Bee had to vacate that post in favor of Wheelie, a Minibot stray that Grimlock had picked up on Quintessa during the 1986 Transformers movie, who quickly became best buddies with token kid character Daniel Witwicky. Wheelie was nowhere near as popular as Bumblebee, his constant rhyming quickly got on everyone’s nerves, and once season 3 ended, he quickly disappeared, only occasionally returning in a few comics.

Now whether you like Wheelie or not, this figure here is most definitely Wheelie, no doubt about it. And it’s a really fun Transformers figure, too. So unless you absolutely do not like Wheelie at all, this figure is definitely worth a look.

Rating: B+