Cyberverse Wildwheel

Prelude: In 2008 Animated Lockdown was the first Transformer to rock the space poncho look, but he wouldn’t be the last. Enter Wildwheel from Cyberverse, the Transformers incarnation of Sergio Leone’s Man with no Name. Sadly, the toy lacks the space poncho, but he’s still a cowboy robot with a removable hat. Is that enough to compensate for the missing space poncho? Let’s say go!

Robot Mode: Now let’s get my biggest complaint about this toy out of the way first: in the Cyberverse cartoon Wildwheel really rocked the Italo Western look with a space poncho (technically a sarape). While the toy figure here still has quite a few cowboy trappings, it ditches the poncho. Why? Probably because of the gimmick or maybe because the designers couldn’t figure out how to make it work as part of his transformation, who knows? So, no space poncho. We shall have to live with that.

Wildwheel is a roughly Deluxe-sized figure and, as I already mentioned, looks like a cowboy. He is mostly brown with a big bandoleer across his chest and – most importantly – a cowboy hat. A removable cowboy hat at that, which he can also plug into his back for storage. His face is sculpted to have a mustache and chin beard, slightly paying homage to Lee van Cleef, I believe. He comes with two transparent-green colts he can hold in hand or holster in his thighs. So in terms of looks – at least from the front – Wildwheel does very, very well.

It’s when you look at the figure from the back, however, that you realize that a lot of the available budget went into the gimmick. The lower legs are completely hollow, to the point that there is practically no heel, which makes Wildwheel prone to toppling over backwards. He also carries a huge buttflap, pretty much the entire roof and windshield of his car mode. You also notice that his forearms are very flat, as they are little more than the doors of the car mode. Articulation is decent, but he cannot move his head, not twist his hip, and his hands are really just holes in his forearms with some minor sculpting around them.

Finally, there is the gimmick. Wildwheel is part of the Battle Call line, Trooper Class subline. Which means he’s got a light inside his chest that goes on when you flip the button on his left shoulder and then yell at him. Or blow at him. Or just talk loudly in his general direction. You might notice my enthusiasm for this gimmick isn’t all that big. 

Wildwheel also comes with “Energon Armor”, really a huge transparent green breast plate that also covers part of his face, plus two tiny wing pieces that go on his shoulders. The purpose here is for the light in his chest to light up the entire armor, which does look pretty cool on the package artwork, but nowhere near as cool on the figure itself. The light in his chest is red, the armor is green. That doesn’t really work well together. Some other Battle Call figures apparently did that gimmick much better. 

So bottom line: awesome cowboy look, removable cowboy hat, but a pretty pointless gimmick with bad color coordination on top. At the end of the day I like this robot mode, but it should have been a lot better than it is.

Alternate Mode: In the Cyberverse cartoon Wildwheel transformed into a flying car with had slanted thrusters in place of wheels. The toy transforms into nearly the same car, just a bit simplified, but it now has actual wheels and drives on the ground. Which, given that the character has “wheel” in his name, probably makes more sense than a flying car with no wheels. The transformation is pretty easy overall, except for one thing. You need to take Wild Wheel’s head off for the transformation. You can either leave it aside, then the transformation is really easy, or you plug it into the robot mode’s back and leave it there. The transformation is still the same, but now you really need to be very careful with lining up the backpiece with he shoulders and arms, because it’s a very, very tight fit with the hat inside.

Once finished, you have a pretty non-descript, slightly futuristic looking car with no visible robot bits as long as you don’t look at the undercarriage. Detailing is minimal, but all of his “Energon” parts can be applied, with the wings going on the back, the breast plate on the roof, and the guns either remaining in their thigh holsters or attached to the sides. So bottom line for the car mode: simply, but effective and looking like it’s supposed to.

Remarks: Wild Wheel used to be an Autobot and a member of the Ark crew. He was blown free of the crashing ship and crashed on ancient Earth, remaining imprisoned inside his pod for eons before finally breaking free in the 1800s, becoming an outlaw in America’s Wild West. Not knowing that the other Autobots were still in stasis, he felt abandoned and left Earth on his own, seeking vengeance against the Autobots in general and Optimus Prime in particular. After failing to kill the Autobot leader on his own, he joined the Decepticons.

As a toy Wildwheel is very much a mixed blessing. The Battle Call gimmick is barely worth the effort of flipping the on-switch and I’d very much have preferred a space poncho instead of the Energon armor and that huge flap on his butt. On the other hand, he’s a cowboy Transformer with a removable cowboy hat and that is simply awesome. So while he’s clearly a toy made for (younger) kids, he’s still lots of fun and I don’t regret buying him. I hope that we will one day get a collector figure of him, though, preferably one with a space poncho.

So bottom line: certainly not a cutting edge collector figure, but a very fun toy for kids. 

Rating: C+