Dr Wu Movie Collector Little Monster & Einstein (Bayverse Wheelie & Brains) review

You probably don't know this, but I fucking hate G1 Wheelie. His rhyming gimmick gets old very fast, his voice painfully makes him Frank Welker's worst role in his spotless resume, and his design looks so stupid. I bet even Geewunners would want the little runt dead, at least from when I used to watch video reviews from Mitchsantona and Dynasis talking shit about his old toy (the former isn't really a Geewunner, and I don't remember if the latter is, but it's been so long). As for the ROTF version of Wheelie, I thought he was genuinely entertaining. Seeing a little scrap drone struggle to do a single mission and later be humbled by the human allies of the Autobots made him special, especially when he gets a BFF in the form of Brains. Plus, Wheelie has always been one of Tom Kenny's underrated roles (along with Skids), and if we can't get the Twins, then Reno Wilson voicing the overheating laptop genius makes this duo the next best thing. I always felt they made some of the better comic relief in the live-action movies, at least compared to some of the characters trying to fill their roles in AOE-onwards, though it sucks we never saw them reunited after it turned out they both survived. But hey, owning figures of these two means I can reunite them for today's review! They're made by Dr Wu for their Movie Collector series, and they consist of Little Monster and Einstein. For simplicity sake, they will be named by what we know them officially as: Wheelie and Brains.

Here we have them both in their vehicle modes. Wheelie turns into a monster truck modified after the Tamiya F-350 High Lift RC toy. As for the laptop, it is a genericized Lenovo Think Pad. Wheelie reminds me of a G1 Minibot with how chibified and compact he looks, especially with those giant wheels below his beautifully painted body. The silver used on the extremities of the truck, the metallic blue for the lights, and the black decals on the sides, he looks so good I could almost believe he has either rubber tires, diecast, or a pull back motor feature! Brains, being made of panel lines and intended cracks on his surface area, does make him.more visually distracting, though maybe having his screen painted black could help reduce the visibility. However, some of the light blue in his bot mode peeks through the bottom.

The laptop can close up, which helps keep it a bit more solid since it can be undone at times. I will admit that the marbleized plastic could have been handled better. I know this is common with many Hasbro toys aimed at older fans with reasonable expectations, but a third party figure not sound anything about this is disappointing.

Looking at them underneath reveals they will be performing origami and spy on you. I will admit that Brains's head design in Dark of the Moon is better than how he looked in Age of Extinction. Unless there was an explanation for his design changing between movies, I'm sticking with the fact that by making him less greebly like with the other robots, it ends up working less for him since he ended up looking more cartoony. 

Transformation is very involved for both figures, especially for the sizes they were made in. Hasbro's Core Class designers could never have done these two justice, while the ROTF Scout Class designers might have a chance in comparison. Wheelie actually has his tires split in the middle to reveal the blue detailing, and the various hinges in Brains help turn that flat rectangle into a proper three-dimensional robot. Do be careful that some of the joints on Wheelie would only move if oriented or angled in certain ways. Also remember that Brains's head is on a neck hinge and ball joint. Both of their robot modes are appropriately gremlin-like, being these unusual yet charming designs that capture their "lil shit" personalities. I love how ugly Wheelie looks in a good way with his asymmetrical eyes and his wheel feet, while Brains has that stumpy Oompah Loompa build to him with a head sculpt that screams "Einstein if he was crazier and had the O_o emoticon lenses". That being said, it can be tricky to keep them from becoming undone.

For their back kibble, Wheelie sticks out from the back somewhat while Brains looks like he has a camping pack, but it is still appreciative seeing how far they can go at this scale.

Thankfully, the figures are put together without any severe QC issues though I wish they could tab in for certain spaces.

Articulation is pretty good for these two, though I'll cover them individually:

Wheelie has a ball and neck hinge combo for his head, his shoulders move front and back within the wheel assembly (though the silver bits sometimes move with them) as well as move in and out on a swivel hinge. The elbows use a similar joint while the thumbs are articulated. He has a waist swivel, ball joints and hinges for the hips, hinged knees, and wheels that can roll around if you hinge the heels away.

Brains, in the other hand, has a similar neck system but his shoulders and elbows have ball joints. His hands are on hinges due to transformation, but he has no waist swivel. His hips are on ball joints as well as his ankles, though his knees, despite having normal hinges, can be disjointed due to the swivel above making him look bow legged or knock knee'd.

For a size comparison, here they are alongside Energon Megatron. Though not apples for apples, I always wished that the Core Class figures meant for Movie characters could go even further like with the Scouts we used to get, especially given how intricate their designs were. It would be one thing if it was Cyberverse 2011, where the main factor was cheap and cheerful playset fun, but I think Hasbro was probably fine with doing our duo as slug figures meant for Shockwave. Still, these two are great to have even as unofficial figures.

And here we have him with his G1 counterpart, for a visual reminder that ROTF Wheelie beats that orange twat who turns into a butt plug on wheels.

Overall, Dr Wu outdid themselves with Little Monster and Einstein. Wheelie beats any official version of himself made by Hasbro, and Brains manages to impress me even more given his unusual altmode dimensions! While they can get annoying with being undone at times, they still make up for it with their glorious engineering and impressive level of articulation using as few ball joints as possible. And best of all, Wheelie is scaled appropriately to hump any hot woman's legs such as Power Girl's. Stay mad, Geewunners and Bayverse haters. As for any other versions of the duo, Little Monster and Einstein come in pink and more movie accurate colors (darker blues for both, while Wheelie goes a step further with a dirty wash and a damaged eye thanks to Mikaela); that being said, only LM comes with a translucent version as well as an ambulance repaint reminiscent of those Rescue Ratchets Hasbro did back then.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (for both)