Red Alert [Age of the Primes/Voyager Class]

In Transformers Armada, fans got introduced to a new character named Red Alert whom was much different than the G1 original. This Red Alert was a different character who served as the teams medic. If you're noticing the similarities to Ratchet, you're not alone. That was his name in Japan. Red Alert was styled after Robocop and Power Rangers. I strongly remember the conversations about how much he looked like Robocop before it was confirmed. At BotCon 2002, there was some design art inside the convention booklet.

A few images of Red Alert were there, this lead to my friends and I talking again how much he looked like Robocop. Later after the convention and getting home, my job had screwed up my scheduled time off and I had to go in just a few hours after getting in from the long road trip. Later that evening, a very tired me stopped by Walmart on the way home for some food and they had the newly released Red Alert in stock. After talking about how much he looked like Robocop the days before... I bought him on the spot. Initially I wasn't very interested in him, but at that point had to have him. He looks like Robocop, ever notice?

Opening my new toy while eating my frozen pizza... I quickly became a fan and have been ever since. He was great! Though I initially thought he should have been a smaller toy, something that the Deluxe Class Cybertron figure would be a few years later. Still, there's nothing better than a big chonky robot toy. So thankfully this new figure is a Voyager Class, but it's a little smaller than that original despite being a comparable price class (Voyager Class wasn't the term until Cybertron, they were called Max-Con during Armada). Times have chance in the 23 years since that original... and so has the price.

This new Red Alert still is a very good update of that toy bringing it to the year 2025 with current engineering. He looks pretty much the same but there's a lot more articulation (and sadly no Mini-Con gimmicks). The left hand retains the swappable gimmick with two different weapons that can be plugged in. Whichever is not in use can store in the alt mode kibble on his legs. Since there's no Mini-Con gimmicks (and you get less toy for the money), the kibble doesn't fold down into a repair bay. His gun still attaches to the vehicle roof and can unfold into a shoulder mounted cannon from there, or be removed to be held traditionally. It still has that claw missile, but doesn't fire anymore. I don't mind that honestly.  Since we're talking about that vehicle mode, transformation is pretty easy and could probably done by veteran TF fans by muscle memory as it's similar to several other toys. The only real challenge is some of the joints are pretty stiff.

Red Alert's cool Rescue SUV looks just as great as ever. It's super satisfying and all around pleasant. There's no electronics, so you'll have to just say "RED ALERT WOO WOO WOO" on your own... and I assume many of you are doing that anyway. As someone who enjoyed the original upon it's release, this is a real treat... even if it's a stark reminder of how much $20 got me then, vs what $35 gets me now and it's kinda a bummer. I do wish there was Mini-Cons... but they're just not in use currently. There is some ports throughout his body where at Battlemaster could probably fill the roll. Regardless, it's an excellent toy that I'm very happy with. Yes, he's got some long legs. It's a thing.

Wheeljack [Legacy United/ Deluxe Class]

Transformers is a funny line. Now in it's 41st year, it's been reinvented countless times while still revisiting older settings quite often. As a life long fan whose been around since it launched, there's a clear split down the middle of before the 2007 movie and after. Before that movie, there was tons of reinvention with some revisiting. Ever since the movie, there's been tons of revisiting with some reinvention. I say that as today we'll be looking at the Legacy United update of Wheeljack... the one from Transformers Armada.

Beast Machines was fundamentally the end of the mainstream G1 timeline (excluding prose, comics, etc). Robots in Disguise (2001) served as a filler while Hasbro changed directions behind the scenes. Originally, Beast Machines was to be followed up with Transtech. Transtech would have continued the story with a combination of classic and beast era characters. However, as Beast Machines wasn't as successful as Beast Wars before it and things were getting pretty convoluted for what was meant to be a kids show... it was time to refresh.

Transformers Armada kicked off what was called The Unicron Trilogy with cartoons,comics,video games, merchandise, and of course toys. Armada reintroduced the Autobots and Decepticons on a new adventure chasing after Mini-Cons and ending with a big showdown with Unicron. There was a mixture of new and old characters with a lot of name reuses... which sometimes lead to a lot of confusion. That's where Wheeljack comes in. Some of you might have noticed he's definitely not the classic Wheeljack you're familiar with. This Wheeljack used to be a young Autobot warrior, who was believed to have died in battle. However, Wheeljack survived and believed he had been abandoned. The understandably angry bot joined the Decepticons and became quite the adversary for Hot Shot, whom he had blamed for the abandonment. That's the reason for the cool scratched out Autobot symbol and admittedly hard to see in the picture (it got a little lost in the black) Deceptcion emblem underneath.

Now you might have thought he looks more like Sideswipe and that the name Sideswipe would fit the character better. Well... it would have, but there was another Autobot named Side Swipe... who didn't look anything like traditional Sideswipe. Somehow, a lot of names got thrown around leading to this kind of madness and for whatever reason it just stuck. Don't ask me, I had nothing to do with it. Even more confusing was that a year later In Energon, there was a PERFECT new Wheeljack figure... that was named Downshift. Because there was already a recent Wheeljack. Pass the Tylenol. For what it's worth, his name is Rampage in Japan... which I like. In Hungry his name is Volán Jack. That translates to 'Steering-Wheel Jack'... and I kinda love it.

I've spent a lot of time talking about the time Wheeljack originally came out and his confusing name, but not a lot about his newest toy that we're looking at today. As many of you can tell, he's based on the Siege Sideswipe toy mold that's been heavily reused in Transformers Generations. It's a great toy, but I've covered the details before a few times. I've gotten most of the molds uses and really like it. Wheeljack does have a new head sculpt that resembles his original toy and show model quite a bit.

While there isn't any Mini-Con unlock-able gimmicks as in the original, he does have those clubs weapons. They were firing missiles from the Mini-Con gimmick that could hold as melee weapons. In the cartoon, lasers would fire from them... it never was very clear what they were exactly... admittedly they were a bit of strangeness in a very cool toy. The clubs serve as running boards in car mode and they look pretty neat. The car mode has a new front fascia and doors to make it resemble the original more. He does include Sideswipes missile launcher which can be held as a gun. I love those classic shoulder launchers, they look great on anyone.

Wheeljack is colored to match his show model, which matched his Japanese toy deco. The Hasbro version featured yellow stripes in place of the blue ones and a more grayish car mode. It was never quite clear as to why the difference. Often the toy designers answer to someone in marketing, so they could have been given an order based on... anything. It still looked great and there was a future recolor of the mold as Drench in Transformers Universe planned at the time. That toy never came to be, but a similar design was used for the BotCon exclusive Shattered Glass Sideswipe that used the Armada Wheeljack toy mold.

This Sideswipe always felt like the toy Wheeljack was meant to be and has always been popular. It's popped up in Blokees and even inspired a character in SSSS. Gridman, which I've talked about here before. Wheeljack and SG Sideswipe have a great look and it's not surprising to see it get homaged. I've always felt like the blue stripes on the black resemble Nightracer and Shadow Striker. That's neat. Both the Hasbro and Takara versions looked great, but I'm glad this version is show accurate. Wheeljack is a cool character with a great toy regardless of his confusing name. To me he's a solid representation of the time shortly before the launch of the 2007 live action Transformers movie. I don't think that was what the Hasbro designers had in mind when they decided to update him, but that's what they did... and I'm glad.