Reveal The Shield Wreck-Gar
Wreck-Gar's first toy was a motor bike made to tie in with the first Transformers Movie in 1986. We waited Twenty Three years for a new version before Animated Wreck-Gar came out at the start of 2009, brilliantly reincarnating the collector of rubbish as a dust cart. Two years later we have another version of Wreck-Gar out as part of Reveal The Shield d this time we're back to being a motorbike. The new RTS version slims down the bike and makes it much more realistic than the original. The new one is quite high too, making it feel a bit like an off road bike. Both wheels spin freely, but neither is wide enough to support the bike so a fold down stand is supplied on the right side of the bike. The placement of this part will cause some problems later. Neither the front forks or handlebars turn out to the sides. The colours are similar to the originals with lots of brown, sandy brown and grey. The seat on the back of the toy has a nice feature: there's two slots on it which precisely match tabs found sticking down from the waist of Wreck-Gar's robot mode. This allows Wreck-gar, or one of his repaints to ride Wreck-Gar, rein acting the battle on Junkion scene in Transformers The Movie (The proper one!) At the rear of the seat is a single 3mm bar for c-clip weapons. Mine's not terribly well aligned, formed as it is by two parts attached to either side of the saddle.Transformation: pull the exhaust pipe and attached rear wheel fork half away to the side - they're connected to the other half of the fork by a c-clip that passes between the wheel and the body of the bike. Pull the other half of the fork away from the body then bend the rear wheel up along the right side of the rear of the bike. Pull the saddle back and fold out to become one of the legs. Pop the front of the bike off the front forks and pull up. Push the windscreen & headlight back folding the front mud guard out & turning around to form a foot. Bring the hips together and turn the toy so the saddle form the leg on your right and the windscreen the leg on your left. Turn the upper half of the toy round so the flame & gun barrel side of the chest faces front. Fold the vehicle parts on the robot's back out to the sides to form the arms which are then unfolded. Fold the head up. Unfold the removed fork half and exhaust. Move the blades of the wheel hub at the end to form an axe, similar to the armour axe carried by the original.
Sounds easy? Try going the other way! An absolute nightmare!
Wreck-Gar's robot mode resembles the original, with more than a hint of the differences shown in his original design drawings. The head *looks* like it's shaped from the front of the bike, but isn't, that's ended up on his right ankle. The eyes are a clear lightpipe from the windscreen on the head, with the the eye end tinted red. The chest is a much more angled version of the original with added flame detail and the guns poking out in a position that I'm trying not to talk about. The original Hasbro publicity photos shows Wreck-Gar with a red chest but the version I have here is the same brown used elsewhere on the toy. His articulation isn't bad: turning wrists, bending elbows, bicep swivel, ball jointed shoulder although his left one is a bit of a problem as his left upper arm has the front wheel attached to it but the body side of the joint has the stand attached to it meaning they have a habit of meeting each other. It wouldn't of been too hard to make either part attach to the other side of the toy. The head is ball jointed, the waist turns, both hips are ball jointed, the knees bend but watch the transformation joint on his right leg that's near the knee and the ankles are on ball joints. Unfortunately, like RTS Optimus Prime, he suffers from plastic stress both on the palms of his hands and on the top of the ball joints for the shoulders, which have a pin passed through them to strengthen them. This is putting me off the open style of hand that's becoming common recently and I'm hoping the closed fists make a come back soon. The robot mode features three 3mm bars: one on his left ankle, one on his left knee and another on his back which can be used to store his weapon.
Overall: I like the toy in both modes but the stress mark issue brings it down a bit. Transforming back to vehicle mode can be a bit of a pig too!
Reveal The Shield Wreck-Gar was released in the US in January 2011 and in the UK a month later. If you're looking for one in the UK then visit Toys R Us, which, at time of writing (02/03/2011) is receiving them and pricing the toys at £9.97.
For more pictures see these Blog entries showing United & RTS Wreck-Gar and various toys riding Wreck-Gar
Transformers United Wreck-Gar
The Blog entry linked above has some wonderful comparison images of the two different versions of Wreck-Gar. Broadly similar in vehicle mode, the RTS Version has a sandy seat mount and brown windscreen mount while these paint colours are reversed on the United version. In robot mode United Wreck-Gar loose the flames on the chest and paints it red, with the grey of his right shoulder, waist and upper legs becoming a sandy colour. The differences aren't quite enough to make them into two different Junkion characters though.Wreck-Gar was released in late February 2011 as Transformers United toy UN-18 alongside UN-15 Perceptor, UN-16 Blur & UN-17 Kup.
E-Hobby Junkion Scrap Heap
Late in 2010 E-Hobby announces a pair of three packs featuring the Henkei/Transformers United versions Autobots and Decepticons from the 1986 Transformers Movie. The Autobot set consists of a slightly recoloured & battle damaged Kup, a clear blue Hot Rod, supposedly from the scene where Hot-Rod catches the Matrix in the Autobot sick bay, and a new Junkion character, who was eventually named Scrapheap. The bike mode is a darker brown with some more silvery grey while the dark brown on the robot mode moves to the hands, chest and lower legs, with red upper arms and waist and most of the rest silver. A new head, featuring a face plate and no handle bars is also included.More Junkions are good. *REALLY* tempted by these two sets.
Generations Junkion Junk Heap
Reveal The Shield Wreck-Gar's instructions show a second new head, this time with visored eyes and a visible face which will become the one used on Wreck-Gar's Generations repaint. Early on we had heard this toy referred to as "Scrap Heap", the eventual name used was Junk Heap.The toy swaps the brown used on Wreck-Gar for a more burgundy red while swapping some of the grey moulded parts, including weapons blades, wheel rims and upper arms, for yellow.
A much more colourful toy and good to get a second Junkion in the west for Wreck-Gar to ride on!
Botcon Shattered Glass Wreck-gar Scrap Iron and Junk Heap
The Shattered Glass Junkion set for Botcon 2012, which unites all three Junkion heads in the same place, features a common colour scheme for all three toys based on the Insecticons. The brown is swapped out for purple with the clear parts becoming clear yellow and lots of grey and black.Very pretty!
TFSS 3.0 Tarantulas
I can honestly see what the club was going for here: Since Transmetal Tarantulas has a third motorcycle mode it makes sense to try for a motorcycle Tarantulas from Wreck Gar especially as there is a passing resemblance between the Scrap Heap head and the original Beast Wars Tarantulas head. Unfortunately the colours used here also are more those of original Beast Wars Tarantulas and to compound the matter the green used is horrible pale and washed out. To simulate his claws and the Arachnoids he used in the show a pair of purple Arms Micron Ida are included.Not one of the club's finest hours sadly. Could have been loads better.
Platinum Edition Clash on the Planet of Junk Wreck-Gar and Scrap Heap
When the Planet of Junk set was found in the TRU computer in December 2015 there was much speculation as to what could be within. 2015 had featured several sets of Platinum Reissues from the original line so the thought was this was possibly the original Wreck-Gar, 1986's only Junkion and a thus far non re-released toy, and something. When it was revealed in mid January 2016 there was some disappointment that it was yet another Classics Rodimus and repaints of Wreck-Gar and his repaint with a new head Scrap Heap there was some heavy disappointment with many feeling this was a wasted opportunity.My personal opinion was that I didn't have a Wreck Gar any more, had never had a second version of wreck Gar to try the riding trick, Scrapheap had never been available in the west and Wreck-Gar & Rodimus were last on sale five years ago as an RTS Deluxe and part of the RTS Battle In Space set. Interestingly a later Platinum reveal showed that Cyclones, the other half of the Battle in Space set, was also getting a repaint packed with two Scourges.
When my Platinum Clash on the Planet of Junk set arrived my main problem was trying desperately to remember how to transform the Junkions! Sadly the mists of time seems to have clouded any difficulty I had transforming Wreck-Gar into bike mode: I'd parted company with my original in 2010 and not owned one since. Actually that's not strictly true: a friend found me one in a set of three RTS deluxe toys he obtained cheaply but for some reason I'd never got round to opening it! This proved useful as I had a properly transformed bike in hand to see what I should be aiming at. Didn't help, and in the process I discovered you really shouldn't push down on the motorcycle window while transforming the toy!
Essentially Wreck-Gar and Scrap Heap are the same toy casts from the same plastics: brown for the lower legs, chest, lower arms, hands & head, grey for the upper legs, waist, shoulders & bike forks, pale brown for the upper arms, chest spikes and inner pelvis and clear orange for the eyes, lightpipes and windscreen. Each has the same head as their earlier version, the first time the Scrap Heap head has been available at general retail.
Intentional or not there appears to be some mismatched parts here. Wreck-Gar's lower arms and left leg, around the bike saddle, are painted a goldy brown. The edges of his right leg and the surround for the headlight is painted bright yellow.On scrap heap these colours are swapped. Every picture shows this configuration so I'm assuming it's intentional but to my eye it would make more sense if all the yellow parts were on one robot and all they brown/gold parts were on the other. If you're brave enough to remove the screws in the hips you can swap them round. IF you're brave enough....
I'm feeling generous so I'll attribute the problems transforming these, and the subsequent parts breakage, to my deteriorating hands. I'm glad to have Junkions in my collection again and think this is a great set.
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