As some of you can tell...I like this mold. It's based off the Corvette (but this one is aiming for for that Lancia Stratos Turbo look) which is one of my favourite cars, and the fact that they were able to take Tracks and remold him into Wheeljack is nothing short of genius.
Speaking of the remolding, Tracks was heavily modified to make Wheeljack possible. The front end added a "lip", rear end got a spoiler, missiles replaced with exhaust/tools, different "wings" from Tracks, the obvious head change, and a LOT of remolding under the hood to make the legs different to allow the wheels to move down a la G1 Wheeljack and a clipping point for his tools.
Great mold but wasn't a fan of the lack of detailing on him. The stripes looked weak...no numbers on the doors...no sponsor decals...it's understandable that certain things needed to be cut back for the amount of remolding that went into this toy. This is were Reprolabels comes in and saves your bland Wheeljack and turns him damn near perfect.
Hows abouts we does some before/after looks at the robot and vehicle mode? Shall we?
Robot Mode
Before:
http://i54.tinypic.com/2d8qmw2.jpg
http://i55.tinypic.com/4jp1lh.jpg
After:
http://i56.tinypic.com/2udx2tt.jpg
http://i52.tinypic.com/k2jya.jpg
From the front the main changes seen are on the chest and the legs. From the back you can see the numbers on the doors, the sponsor stickers on the "backpack" and spoiler. Either way these stickers still add to this figure nicely in robot mode. Looking at the before and after shots really made me realize how simple changes can really make all the difference.
Mold wise the robot mode captures Wheeljack perfectly, down to the shoulder missile launcher, "wings", and of course the iconic head, complete with "glowy ears" that'll light up thanks to light piping.
Vehicle Mode
Before:
http://i56.tinypic.com/157gq9x.jpg
http://i52.tinypic.com/nh1ag8.jpg
After:
http://i51.tinypic.com/6fo6zk.jpg
http://i52.tinypic.com/28b45k0.jpg
Wow...night and friggan day. From the smallest thing like completing the green stripe on the door to the huge covering of the hood with brand new stripes these stickers really delivered.
As you can tell it's pretty much his G1 striping with some new decals while maintaining his classic "Alitalia" ones and good ol' number 539. My only complaint is some times the white on the stickers don't seem to match the plastic but it's not ridiculously off so it's easily overlooked. Thankfully too where it sticks out the most is on the sponsor decals so if anything you can brush it off and believe it's an actual sponsor sticker that was added :P
Moldwise, this figure still has that sexy sports car look and the added lip and spoiler really pull him into that original Wheeljack look. As for his "tools" they become cool little exhaust that comes out under the doors, which look a little nicer then Tracks's missiles that look a little off just hanging off the side of a car.
Conclusion
A great figure was remolded to make an awesome equally great figure that when you look at the 2 side by side it's hard to tell they share a similar origin. The stock paint apps may not be the greatest but as you can tell I'm a huge fan of these easy to obtain reprolabels stickers to really bring him up to par with what an updated G1 Wheeljack should look like. These stickers did more then even Takara tried to with United Wheeljack and even manage to surpass what they concocted with this mold. In conclusion it's a phenomenal toy with weak paint apps, but it can be fixed quite easily. I honestly can't look at the before pics now without thinking the original looks like a cheap KO in comparison to the Reprolabel version.
