1984's Transformers Are Forty!

[Philip Ayres]

Action Master Wheeljack also has no launching missiles and can't transform.

[The Doctor]

So? It's not designed to and he comes with a giant transforming car.

-Ralph

[The Huff]

Action Master Wheeljack is probably a lot more popular with his fellow Autobots than the original as he can give them lifts in his automobile to the local shop or pickup from the Scrounge's Arm pub when needed.

[Benn]

Also he has eyes, so he can see what he's doing and not make so many explosive mistakes in the lab.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Aug 21, 2024 7:54:55 GMT The Doctor said:

So? It's not designed to and he comes with a giant transforming car.

-Ralph

A car that’s too big for Earth roads and looks like Hot Rod (puttup!)

I’ve never given shelf space to an Action Master and am confident I never will. Strangely though, I will buy nice die-cast models of 1984 TFs in vehicle mode which don’t transform.

Martin

[The Doctor]

How do you know the car is too big for roads?

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Because the driver Wheeljack is car sized. Nucleon didn’t shrink the robots.

Martin

[Philip Ayres]

Aug 21, 2024 9:59:22 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

Aug 21, 2024 7:54:55 GMT The Doctor said:

So? It's not designed to and he comes with a giant transforming car.

-Ralph

A car that’s too big for Earth roads and looks like Hot Rod (puttup!)

AM Wheeljack is driving AM Hot Rod, frozen in car mode, and enslaved by his former "friend"

[The Huff]

I often wonder if the cartoon continued and Action Masters were introduced, whether the idea would be that all the robots were human sized.
It would make for a difference kind of interaction on Earth and would make more sense when you think about it. Theyd have no need to be giants if they dont need to become cars etc. The vehicles would also work better too.

[Philip Ayres]

You could well be right.

However the comic has a near exclusive lock on doing Action Masters and their depiction is robots the size of traditional TFs

[Philip Ayres]

Wheeljack's had some top updates over the years. His Energon version, Downshift, was good enough to stand in in my classics line up till the Generations version came along, which is superb. Earthrise is nice but I would like a second, mirror image, launcher

[Philip Ayres]

This has reminded me that I want a Superlink Wheeljack, who swaps the pale green for grey.

Had a near miss on one a few years back

[Pinwig]

That Generations Wheeljack is one of my favourite moulds ever. I love the Club Battlechargers that come from that mould too.

[Benn]

I was never really a fan. I still have one carded somewhere.
Liked the Tracks version even less, mind.

[The Huff]

Aug 21, 2024 10:59:53 GMT Philip Ayres said:

You could well be right.

However the comic has a near exclusive lock on doing Action Masters and their depiction is robots the size of traditional TFs

But, alas, with no vehicles.

[Philip Ayres]

I bet there would have been in US 81/UK 333

[Fortmax2020]

Why would AMs become human sized? They are not giants to each other or many other in-universe races.

And err, Wheeljack. Great name for a mechanical engineer.

[The Doctor]

Aug 21, 2024 10:06:48 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

Because the driver Wheeljack is car sized. Nucleon didn’t shrink the robots.

Martin

But they may still retain mass-shifting powers.

-Ralph

[The Doctor]

Micromasters were human sized in the comics so Action Masters must be bigger?

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Aug 21, 2024 14:27:26 GMT The Doctor said:

Aug 21, 2024 10:06:48 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

Because the driver Wheeljack is car sized. Nucleon didn’t shrink the robots.

Martin

But they may still retain mass-shifting powers.

-Ralph

I wasn’t aware that the likes of Wheeljack ever had mass shifting powers. The few Action Masters we saw in the comics were full sized. Being human sized in robot mode is what makes Micromasters Micromasters.

Martin

[The Doctor]

They all mass shift. For example, Micromasters are shown as human height in robot mode but turn into bigger vehicles.

-Ralph

[legios]

Also, either the Autobot Cars or the Decepticon Jets must be changing size and mass given that they are roughly the same height in their humanoid modes despite the fact that the folk like Jazz and Sideswipe turn into sportscar which are the same size as normal sports cars and Starscream et al turn into F-15s which are the same size as normal F-15s (i.e significantly larger and more massive than sports cars).

Either the Autobots are getting noticeably larger, or the Decepticon Jets are getting noticeably smaller when they transform back to their humanoid modes.

There isn't evidence to confirm that both groups are changing size, but one of them must be.

Karl

[The Huff]

I can still see the cartoon making them human sized. Especially if it were handed over to Dic like GI Joe was.
And it would lead to some stupid stuff...

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Aug 21, 2024 16:45:40 GMT The Doctor said:

They all mass shift. For example, Micromasters are shown as human height in robot mode but turn into bigger vehicles.

-Ralph

Yes, Micromasters mass shift, the 1984 Autobots do not. Apart from artistic inconsistencies, there is no evidence, certainly not in writing, that any 1984 characters except the gun and tape guys change size. I know this means the jets are larger in robot mode than they are generally portrayed, but I’m OK with that. If Wheeljack always had the power to shrink to human size, it would say so on his tech specs!

Martin

[The Doctor]

Karl has elimated your argument.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Kaptain Karl, the Argument Assassin

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Aug 22, 2024 7:59:25 GMT The Doctor said:

Karl has elimated your argument.

-Ralph

No he didn’t, I specifically answered his. Karl’s argument is based on the assumption that jets and cars have the same height in robot mode, which depends on artistic representation. Mine is based on vehicular Transformers often being artistically represented as the same size before and after transforming.

I do however accept that many fans like to think of Starscream and Jazz to be the same height when having a fistfight, so I am willing to accept Decepticon jets shrinking a bit when transforming to robot mode. But size changing is one of the stupidest things in Transformers as it is so much more far fetched and technologically advanced than sentient transforming robots which is supposed to be the main concept, so it should be used in stories to an absolute minimum. And not imposed retrospectively on Action Masters.

Anyway, Action Master Wheeljack’s vehicle isn’t an Earth disguise so there’s nothing to suggest it is intended to fit on Earth roads.

Martin

[Benn]

Maybe it could be an evolution of the Japanese Pretender tech, where the robot doesn't need a shell to assume human size.

[The Huff]

I've always seen the Decepticon jets as taller than Autobot cars. Not tall enough to be accurate but definitely taller.

[pulsar]

Do we know that the jets are actually as big as real F-15s? The cars drive on roads with real traffic to compare them against, but it’s more difficult to judge the size of a plane flying overhead. Even when they have dogfights with Earth aircraft, we don’t know exactly how far apart they are.

Back to Wheeljack. He was the only toy that the TV show sold me on. His brief introduction in #2 left me wanting to know more, but those 5-minute segments in Roland Rat were what really brought him to life. He’s one of the first characters we see, and his ears make him stand out among the other Autobots. (Soundwave was the real standout thanks to his voice, but I was already sold on him.)

I actually liked the mad scientist archetype. It meant that his powers/weapons weren’t limited to what was described in the tech specs, and probably helped stimulate my imagination a bit. It also gave him plenty to do in the comic, even if not as the main character.