Wheelie's alternate mode is a toy monster truck, and since it's a toy representing... well, a toy, having slightly cartoony proportions doesn't bother me in the slightest (his drivers' seat is a bit overly high, for example, and the truck bed a bit too short). What does bother me, though are the robot arms tucked unceremoniously between his wheels. Given the big gap in between his wheels (as is certainly fitting for a monster truck), it makes his arm pieces really obvious in this mode, and the clash quite a bit with the overall look of this mode, as well. In addition, Wheelie's mouth is right THERE in the truck bed, which is kinda distracting. The color scheme of dark blue and gray isn't exactly interesting, but it gets the job done-- what Wheelie really needs is some more paint apps, though. Important details like his grilled head- and taillights aren't painted.
    In robot mode, Wheelie really shows how much a Transformer can appear to "change size" in modes. In vehicle mode he's really compact and tiny, but here he's very spread out and you can see he's actually on the large side for a deluxe. His transformation is quite innovative and I'm surprised they were able to get something this accurate to the movie from that vehicle mode. His proportions are more or less movie-accurate, with a long neck-mouth, large eyes (though here they're blocks of plastic with details on them, as opposed to round pieces with eyebrow pieces hanging off, for obvious safety reasons, though it does look a bit overly weird). His chest is quite solid, and it contains Wheelie's main gimmick-- by rotating the switch on his stomach, you can change his allegiance from Autobot to Decepticon! Pretty cool, given everything else that's going on with him. I do wish his shoulder-wheels intergrated with his main body better, as it does on the movie model, but it's still decent enough here, and the skinny knife-like arms are done very well. His legs are a little on the weak side, being that the upper parts of them are a bit flimsy and made of parts of his vehicle mode turned sideways and whatnot to hide the lack of any real "substance" to that part of his body. The lower legs are pretty solid, having the "chicken-walker" stance with a wheel on each foot, though because of said wheel he's not the most stable Transformer in the line (though he can still stand up much easier than, say, deluxe Sideswipe). As for his articulation, Wheelie can move at his neck (at two places), at the place where each eye connects to his "neck stalk", and at the shoulders, elbows (at two points), at the base of each thumb, and at the base of the two fingers on each hand (as one piece, though each set of two fingers can move at two places). He can also move at the hips (at two points), the knees (at two points), and the ankles. Again, though, his relative lack of stability, and some of the pieces in his upper legs clashing with each other, makes him have less movement in his legs than you'd think from a read-out of his movable joints there.
    Wheelie is a really original design, and it's quite amazing how much he "expands" from vehicle mode to robot mode. The downside is that both modes do have moderate "kibble" problems, and he's not very stable. Still, a mildly recommended pickup if you're one for "different" Transformers.

Review by Beastbot

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