The Origin trilogy began with Bumblebee in 2021 when the Kingdom line was still running; the figure wonderfully replicated the flying saucer altmode while making the toy transform into a G1-accurate robot mode with as little kibble as possible. Jazz did a similar thing in 2023 with his altmode, and while there is still a but of concern over how the toy will age like with SS86 Jazz, it so far holds up bar maybe the pin making things worse. At the very least, both have very proportionate robot modes that their regular Earth counterparts don't. As for Wheeljack, we're about to see if he's worth obtaining given how he has quite the standards to fulfill in this trilogy. Let's review this guy and find out! And no, the figure lacks any Buzzworthy Bumblebee packaging as we are still in normal Legacy United aesthetics.
Here we have Origin Wheeljack in his vehicle mode, who is given the Voyager Class treatment with how big this thing kind of is compared to prior Origin figures. He looks hollow from the inside but there's a reason why as we'll get to later on. As far as aesthetics are concerned, this is more in-line with recent G1 figures in Legacy and SS86 than those of the WFC Trilogy, which is to be expected. The altmode is accurate to the brief appearance it had in the G1 cartoon, though I do find the cassette-reel looking detail below the windshield to be a bit similar to a sticker, it reeks of retro detailing. The stripes in the middle are fine though a bit confusing with the mint green looking more like part of the vehicle deco or if it was intended to complete the look of the window. Otherwise, it does the job of looking like how it did in the cartoon for a few seconds. And if this isn't cutting it, you can attach the blast shield so he can protect himself from a blockade of Seekers as well as deploy some fans to combat the fire of Hotlink's flamethrower, though these better resemble and also double as dominator disks.
If you own Origin Bumblebee, you can slightly mistransform him so he can properly ride inside Wheeljack. Yes, they're work buddies. To be honest, it might be my copy but this figure doesn't feel all that solid due to the hollow space from the inside lacking the usual structural support of a normal Transformer. Nowhere near as satisfying as shoving G2 Smokescreen into Dreadwing.from here, you can clip the 5 conductor rods included with Bee onto the sides of Wheeljack, though one will go unused so get used to the slight asymmetry.
Alternatively, you can store the conductor rods inside Wheeljack without needing to have Bee ride inside his larger partner. As for the blast shield, it can come apart so you can clip the pieces into an alternate road of sorts that feels kind of limited with display options. It's not as versatile as wooden train tracks while I have no faith in these being doable if this is done repeatedly.
For a size comparison, here he is with his fellow Origin figures. He is larger than the rest, which surprised me when I first heard of this figure being labeled as a Voyager and not a Deluxe, a rarity for a character like Wheeljack (and pretty much any Autobot Car that is strictly G1 and if we exclude Masterpiece and Alternators). Honestly, this looks just about what I'd expect from a Wheeljack in this form.
BUT THEN!
Transforming this guy isn't exactly like a shellformer, though it's kind of close. His altmode parts moreso fold into each other to fill in the legs mostly, though they look so bulky and quite messy from the sides, they end up looking too much like a typical shellformer design. This especially rings true for the backpack, where it is as wide as it is deep. At least there is some storage for the dominator disks/fans. The resulting robot mode feels stumpier than Wheeljack normally is, in contrast to the Origin versions of Bumblebee and Jazz being slimmer than their respective Netflix & SS86 counterparts. This all goes down to how nonexistent his biceps are in contrast to the Mega Man lower legs, the latter missing some details that should represent what will become the Lancia decals. Also those wings were laughable.
To the figure's credit, the head sculpt is just as good as it is on the Earthrise figure, and despite first glances, it's actually newly made from scratch. They didn't have to do it, but I'll always appreciate it.
Wheeljack's articulation consists of a ball jointed neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, wrist rotation, waist rotation, front/back hip movement, in/out leg movement, thigh rotation, knees that bend at 90 degrees yet have these indents likely due to transformation, and ball-jointed ankles. He can hold his gun, which I like that it's painted a gunmetalish silver like most of his head while the tip is translucent given how it's translucent like on the sprue.
His backpack is ridiculously huge as it is, so why not make it look more ridiculous by giving him the blast shield and make even more prominent wings. You know, for when Wheeljack needs to protect his back. At least his gun can peg on the shoulder.
For a robot mode size comparison, here he is in between Jazz and Bumblebee, also Origin figures as you can tell. Despite being a Voyager, he is the same height as a modern Deluxe, which does make sense given how it'd be bizarre for him to tower over both characters instead of just Bumblebee. Still, it's amusing to see how more proportionate the other Origin figures are in comparison to him. He's needlessly going camping compared to either character.
And here he is next to the Earthrise Wheeljack mold, albeit the Generations Selects version that has the proper white shade and toon window colors. I know some would find the WFCE Jackie mold to have his proportions similar to the Origin version, but it is easy to argue that they flow better on the Earth mode instead of the Origin version. Eh, it could be argued that he lost weight upon reaching the Earth. And you can see that the head sculpts are actually different between Earthrise Jackie and Origin Jackie, though it doesn't matter honestly. Overall, Origin Wheeljack is a pretty cool concept that I never thought we'd see come in an official HasTak figure, though I feel like the idea is better than the execution. I'm not saying he's a terrible toy, but I feel he could use a bit more refinement compared to the other Origin figures. Bumblebee is an underrated figure, and Jazz probably got the best proportions out of the trio; on top of that, it can be challenging to make a solid trilogy as we just saw. Both Origin figures before Wheeljack got discounted pretty quickly, so I'd say you can expect the same to happen for Wheeljack at any rate.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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