Wheelie is the name of multiple fictional characters in the Transformers series. All of the versions of Wheelie are Autobots, though some were formerly Decepticons.

Template:Transformers character The first character named Wheelie is a young Autobot survivalist who turns into a car. He has a distinctive style of speech, in which he rhymes his sentences, while speaking in a high pitched voice. He despises the Quintessons and their Sharkticon minions, but only fights when he has no alternative.^[1]

In Marvel Comics, Wheelie’s existence was acknowledged only by the UK Transformers Marvel Comics community, where adventures were inserted in-between the stories sourced in the US. He aids Wreck-Gar in escaping from the Quintessons, whose homeworld was dying due to a rift in space-time. The two then transmit the Quintessons’ plan for colonization throughout the galaxy, making the Quintessons’ targets aware of their plans. Wheelie retains his distinctive style of speech in his comic appearance.^[2]

Wheelie was featured in the “Wreckers” comic series produced by 3H Enterprises for Botcon, where he joins Arcee and Daniel Witwicky in battling an army of drones based on the Nightbird robot (featured in the G1 episode “Enter the Nightbird“). During the battle, Wheelie is badly wounded, and Daniel and Wheelie are surrounded by the enemy. As a last resort, Daniel sets off a bomb, destroying the Nightbirds and protecting Arcee and Professor Fujiyama (who Daniel and Wheelie were assigned to protect), but killing himself and Wheelie in the process.

Wheelie is the central character in Spotlight: Wheelie. In the story, when stranded on an alien planet, Wheelie confronts the Decepticons that make up Reflector: Spectro, Spyglass, and Viewfinder. Upon meeting one of the planet’s natives and learning their language, he picks up his distinctive rhyming manner of speech.

In films, Wheelie first appeared in the 1986 film The Transformers: The Movie.^[3] Wheelie also appears in the 1986 Marvel story and coloring book, The Lost Treasure of Cybertron.^[4]

Wheelie was chosen as the “Annoying character of the day” by IGN,^[5] and Topless Robots voted him one of the top robot characters that does not look like his toy.^[6] He was also voted the 9th worst Transformer by X-Entertainment.^[7]

In 1986, a Generation 1 Mini-Bot Wheelie toy was designed for the The Transformers: The Movie.^[8] In Japan, a yellow/white/blue redeco of the figure was released by E-Hobby in 2005, labeled as a Dion figure. In 2010, a Transformers Universe Legends Wheelie was created. In 2012, another version of Wheelie, labeled as a Generations Deluxe Wheelie, was created. This version was an Asia-exclusive orange redeco of Reveal the Shield Deluxe Special Ops Jazz, but with a different head sculpt, as well as a slingshot weapon instead of Jazz’s gun.

Template:Transformers character In the Transformers Cinematic Universe, Wheelie is a blue RC Ford F-Series monster truck. He starts out as a Decepticon, eventually becoming an Autobot. He appeared in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). In contrast to the good-natured, rhyme-speaking G1 character, the film character is foul-mouthed and slightly perverted, apparently due to his Decepticon background.^[9] In some early script drafts and fiction, the character was called Wheels.

Wheelie first appears in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. He was sent by Soundwave to spy on Mikaela Banes, who is given a shard of the All Spark by her boyfriend Sam Witwicky. However, when trying to steal the shard from a vault, he is immediately caught by Mikaela, who destroys his left eye with a blowtorch. He pleads for her to give him the shard, as it is needed for The Fallen to survive. Mikaela then locks Wheelie in a suitcase and flies to the East Coast to rendezvous with Sam. When Mikaela, Sam, and his dorm mate, Leo Spitz, meet up with former Sector 7 agent Seymour Simmons, Mikaela releases Wheelie from the suitcase and tries to convince him to translate some symbols from the Sector 7 photo archives; Wheelie says that he does not know the language that they are written in, but offers to help the humans find someone who could. He then helps the humans locate the former Decepticon Jetfire at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Washington, D.C. After Jetfire is awakened, Wheelie swears allegiance to the Autobots, as he hates the Decepticons. He then joins the group in searching for the Matrix of Leadership in Egypt, but disappears after a while.

Wheelie reappears in the 2011 film Transformers: Dark of the Moon and its novelization as Sam’s ‘pet’, alongside his new friend Brains. Wheelie and Sam have been dumped by Mikaela, and Wheelie isn’t entirely happy with his and Brains’ “living arrangements”, as the U.S. government didn’t care for the two small robots. His damaged eye has already healed by this point. Wheelie and Brains are among the Autobots exiled from Earth and presumed killed when their ship is blown up by Starscream. Later, during the battle in Chicago, Wheelie states that the Autobots are staying to win the war, and though excited to help, he is angry when he and Brains are accidentally left behind by the Wreckers from Shockwave. Wheelie and Brains wander the streets, eventually finding and using a crashed Decepticon fighter to fly to the main battlecruiser. Once there, he and Brains sabotage the ship, saving Bumblebee and the other captured Autobots, and the ship comes crashing down in the water.

Wheelie returned in the 2017 film Transformers: The Last Knight. Wheelie is among the Autobots hiding in Cade’s junkyard. When the Decepticons invade the town, Wheelie hides and asks Cade if he can escape.

Wheelie appears as a character in the book Transformers: Dark of the Moon: The Junior Novel.^[10]

Wheelie has received mixed reception from critics, and is considered a troublemaker. Some film reviewers commented on the negative racial stereotype of Wheelie’s character,^[11] while IGN described Wheelie humping the leg of Mikaela as one of the worst moments of the Transformers films.^[12] However, Wheelie was picked as the 100th “Coolest Movie Robot” by Matt Patches of UGO.com.^[13]

Two versions of Wheelie were made for Revenge of the Fallen. One, labeled the Deluxe Class Autobot Wheelie, transforms from a toy truck into a robot, with a chest panel that switches between Autobot and Decepticon symbols. The other, labeled the Legends Class Autobot Wheelie, was sold by itself, as part of a 2-pack with Legends Soundwave.^[14]

Categories: Autobots Decepticons Fictional characters introduced in 1986 Film characters Transformers automobiles