Wheeljack/Cartoon continuity

Wheeljack. Autobot mad scientist since 1984.

The Transformers cartoon
Four million years ago, on Cybertron, Wheeljack was sent on a mission with Bumblebee to search for any available energy that could be found on the drained planet. The pair located some energy conductors, and Wheeljack transformed into his boxy vehicle mode so that Bumblebee could load them up, even though he didn't believe they would last a quartex. On the return trip to Iacon, the pair were attacked by a team of Decepticons, but Wheeljack was able to break through their barricade of fire using his bumper-mounted cutting blades and then eluded their pursuers by heading underground. Despite their successful return with the conductors, Optimus Prime decided to expand the search for energy to other planets. Wheeljack was among the Autobots selected to embark on this mission, but in mid-flight, the Autobots' spacecraft was attacked by the Decepticons and crashed on prehistoric Earth, entombing all aboard in stasis.

When the Transformers were reactivated by a volcanic eruption in 1984, Wheeljack was reformatted by Teletraan I with the alternate mode of a Lancia Stratos Turbo custom racing car. Soon after their awakening, Wheeljack was part of the battle unit organized by Jazz to defend a human oil rig against an attack by the Decepticons, and used a fire-extinguishing mechanism installed in his forearm to douse the inferno that resulted from the conflict. Wheeljack next helped attempt to stop the Decepticon plot to overload Sherman Dam, and then journeyed with the other Autobots in pursuing their foes to Burma. There, he gave Bumblebee and the Autobots' new human ally Sparkplug Witwicky a bomb that would collapse the mine the Decepticons were current raiding, trapping the villainous robots for good. Alas, Wheeljack overestimated his skills, as the Decepticons were able to escape the collapsed mountain with ease. Wheeljack later participated in the battle to stop the Decepticons from escaping Earth aboard their new space cruiser.

Some months later, when an antimatter-powered Megatron attacked Autobot Headquarters, Wheeljack had just the invention to save the day: a remote control unit that would put Teletraan I in control of a Decepticons' body. Through the bravery of Spike Witwicky and Chip Chase, the unit was planted on Skywarp, and the Autobots used him to foil the Decepticons' plan.

Wheeljack's mechanical expertise was put to the ultimate test when Optimus Prime was critically wounded by a Decepticon attack. With Ratchet's help, Wheeljack struggled to keep his leader alive, discovering that his vital cosmitron component had been damaged and needed replacing. A team of Autobots were dispatched through the Decepticons' space bridge to Cybertron, where they located Wheeljack's old laboratory and recovered a replacement cosmitron to save Prime's life.

Upon discovery of dinosaur bones in caverns within the Ark's volcano, Wheeljack and Ratchet were inspired to construct robotic version of dinosaurs, resulting in the creation of the Dinobots. Upon activation, the behemoths promptly ran out of control and badly damaged Autobot Headquarters, until Wheeljack brought them under control with his magnetic inducer. Optimus Prime deemed the Dinobots too dangerous to continue functioning and commanded that the project be abandoned, but Wheeljack secretly persisted, developing memory components that would increase the Dinobots' intelligence. This bout of insubordination proved fortunate when almost all of the Autobots were captured by the Decepticons at the Great Falls, prompting Wheeljack to activate the upgraded Dinobots and take them into battle to save the day. Wheeljack was willing to accept any punishment Prime would hand down for his disobedience, but Prime accepted his judgement had been hasty, and allowed the Dinobots to remain among the Autobot ranks.

Learning of Decepticon activity in Peru, Optimus Prime had Wheeljack and Sideswipe head for the Arctic Circle to unearth the frozen Autobot Skyfire, so he could carry the Autobot forces to South America. Once the Decepticons' plan to use the Crystal of Power as a weapon had been stopped, Wheeljack invented a device to cap the geyser of energy that had resulted from the crystal's destruction. Spike was a little concerned over whether or not the device would function, but it went off without a hitch, even surprising Wheeljack himself a little.

Wheeljack had his work cut out for him when the Autobots faced two simultaneous threats: a mysterious meteorite crashed on Earth, and when the Dinobots were left to guard it, they were tricked by Megatron into allying with the Decepticons. Analyzing a fragment of the meteorite, Wheeljack discovered it was wildly unstable and poised to explode at any moment. Working with Ratchet, Spike and Chip Chase, Wheeljack developed two new Dinobots, Swoop and Snarl, and sent them in to defeat their forebears. The meteorite exploded harmlessly, and the Dinobots, convinced of their mistake, returned to the Autobot side.

When the Decepticons attacked a solar power plant on the coast of India, Wheeljack outfitted the Autobots with hydrofoils so they could approach the plant from over the water. The attack was discovered to be a distraction when Wheeljack received a report from Autobot Headquarters that the Decepticons had struck there and kidnapped Sparkplug. Wheeljack was part of the Autobot team that raided Decepticon Headquarters and recovered Sparkplug, but he and Spike soon realized that there was something wrong. Sparkplug had, in fact, been made a mind-controlled Decepticon slave thanks to a hypno-chip, as part of a plan to transport Cybertron itself into Earth orbit.

The villains soon accomplish their terrifying goal, and the Autobots found themselves battling the natural disasters that the presence of the planet caused. Wheeljack called upon the Dinobots to aid them in their struggle, though first he had to convince them that it was worth their while to help. Seeking information about the Decepticons' hypno-chips, Wheeljack was part of an Autobot team who travelled to the orbiting Cybertron, though no sooner had they arrived on the planet than the smaller members of their party (Spike, Bumblebee and Brawn), fell through a trap door. Wheeljack and the others were unable to follow directly due to their size, but soon tracked their friends down to the Decepticons' headquarters and rescued them from an attack. The team took cover in Wheeljack's old lab, where Wheeljack analyzed a computer disk containing information on the hypno-chips that Bumblebee had stolen and developed a device to negate the chips' effect. The Autobots test-drove the device on Sparkplug, and when it proved successful, they quickly returned to Earth and Wheeljack used it to liberate all of Megatron's slaves. Finally, the world was saved when the Autobots blew up Megatron's stockpile of energon cubes, blasting Cybertorn out of orbit. Wheeljack then helped repair the damage caused to Earth, directing the Dinobots as they performed some heavy lifting.

Wheeljack was part of the Autobot unit dispatched to Bali to investigate reports of robot insects, where they faced the threat of the Decepticons' newest allies, the Insecticons. Wheeljack aided Skyfire by fixing his malfunctioning transform mechanism, and unsteadily taking to the air to back him up in an Insecticon dogfight. When Spike deduced that the Autobots' rubber tyres would protect them from the Insecticons' lightning attacks, Wheeljack rode atop Sunstreaker and Sideswipe to help send the critters packing. To reward Spike for his bravery, Wheeljack offered to make a him a "true Autobot" by designing a motorcycle transformation for him, but Spike decided he'd better wait until he was at least old enough to drive.

The sudden appearance of Megatron in the airspace of Autobot Headquarters was cause enough for Wheeljack to try testing his new shock blast cannon, but the weapon simply blew up in his hands. As luck would have it, Megatron had not arrived to fight, but to challenge Optimus Prime to a one-on-one duel in accordance with Cybertron law. Wheeljack spoke out in favour of Prime accepting the challenge, as it would end the Transformers' war, but none of the Autobots expected the eventual result of the fight: Optimus lost! Wheeljack could not understand how Megatron had claimed victory, but Teletraan I soon provided the answer —- Megatron had taken on the powers of all the other Decepticons, breaking the rules of the fight and invalidating its outcome.

When Spike was badly injured by Megatron and needed life-saving surgery, Wheeljack developed cybernetic attachments that allowed Spike's mind to be transferred into "Autobot X", a makeshift body constructed from spare Autobot parts by Sparkplug. A little later, Wheeljack disagreed with Ratchet over which wire needed to be pulled to deactivate the Decepticons' Solar Needle device, but Optimus Prime put an end to the argument by yanking both of them.

Wheeljack was among the Autobots who travelled to New York City to defend it against an attempted Decepticon takeover. The sight of Devastator climbing the Empire State Building reminded Wheeljack of King Kong, and he took a leaf out of the movie's book by sending remote-controlled helicopters against the combiner. Devastator easily swatted the craft out of the air, and Hound consoled Wheeljack with the fact that Devastator had probably seen the movie too.

The first tests of Wheeljack's newest invention, the paralytic "Wheeljack Instant Immobilizer", did not go very well: first, the device's polarizer was damaged by an over-enthusiastic Ironhide, and once it was replaced, Spike accidentally stepped on the Immobilizer's remote, immobilizing Wheeljack himself! Luckily the effects of the device proved temporary, and Wheeljack soon returned to normal. His next invention, an anti-transfixation grenade developed to restore the other Autobots when they were frozen in their vehicle modes by the Decepticons' new Transfixatron, proved much more successful.

When Wheeljack was captured by the Decepticons' new sea-dwelling Sub-Atlantican allies, their treacherous king, Nergill, studied his systems and developed magnetic dysfunction ray that could disable Transformers based on them. When Starscream was blasted with the ray, he tried to use energy from Wheeljack's systems to restore himself, but was caught in the act and stopped by Bumblebee and Spike. The duo proceeded to repair Wheeljack, who then called in the Dinobots to sent the Sub-Atlanticans packing.

After helping to free Quantum Laboratories from the control of TORQ III, Wheeljack attended the unveiling of the human-made ninja-robot, Nightbird. Wheeljack did not have a high opinion of the comparatively primitive robot, but once the Decepticons stole and reprogrammed it to serve them, Nightbird made Wheeljack eat crow by outsmarting all the new security systems he had installed in Autobot Headquarters. Later, Wheeljack was among the Autobots fooled by Megatron's clone of Optimus Prime.

To stop the Decepticons from drilling into the Earth's core and destroying the planet, Wheeljack invented dominator disks that the Autobots planted on the individual Constructicons, placing their combined form of Devastator under Wheeljack's control. The Decepticons were able to disrupt the disks, but this resulted in Devastator running amok, forcing the Decepticons to hand their device over to Wheeljack so he could combine it with his disks to restore Devatator to normal. Soon after, Wheeljack and Ratchet had to work fast to develop an antidote that would negate the destructive energy of the Nova Power Core, which had been consumed by the Insecticons and was threatening to cause them to explode.

Having spent some time trying to teach the Dinobots finesse, Wheeljack held a demonstration of his creations' newest abilities for the other Autobots, but unsurprisingly, it all went wrong. Optimus Prime decided that the Dinobots should train elsewhere, and they were sent to the recently discovered "Dinobot Island". Unfortunately, the Decepticons followed the Dinobots to the time-lost island and began draining its energy, causing time warps all across the Earth that Wheeljack worked with Chip and Teletraan I to track.

Wheeljack approved of Grapple's Solar Power Tower, but sadly, Optimus Prime didn't. Prime did approve of Wheeljack's own next invention, the Negavator, but so did the Decepticons, who made a few attempts at stealing it that ultimately required it to be destroyed. Later, when a Heart of Cybertron-empowered Megatron badly injured many of the Autobots, Optimus Prime had Ratchet repair Wheeljack first, so the scientist could build a forcefield to hold Megatron off.

When the Decepticons framed the Autobots for energy thefts, they covered for their own past villainy by claiming Wheeljack had invented a device that drove them to evil. The deception fooled the people of Earth, and the Autobots were exiled from the planet, but they soon returned to clear their names.

Instructed by Optimus Prime to dispatch an Autobot team to deal with a Decepticon incursion at an airfield, Wheeljack again had to convince the Dinobots to lend a hand. Soon after, Wheeljack and the other Autobots began to malfunction as a result of cybertonium degradation, necessitating that Spike and Carly travel to Cybertron to get more. Wheeljack supplied them with a photon light and a two-way thumb radio and set them on course for his old laboratory. Despite some Decepticon trouble along the way, the two humans eventually succeeded in their mission with the help of the Dinobots, and Wheeljack and the Autobots were restored.

Wheeljack was among the Autobots who stood by as reports on the search for the stolen Voltronic Galaxer came in,, then later temporarily received the power of an invulnerable electrum coating. Shortly thereafter, he had to help Sparkplug, Ratchet, and Hoist repair and restore a fleet of cars turned into war machines by the Decepticons, but was powerless to do anything when a space bridge accident hurled Optimus Prime and a small group of other Autobots and Decepticons to a world of alien giants. Later still, when Powerglide was injured attempting to protect heiress Astoria Carlton-Ritz, Wheeljack and Ratchet recovered and repared him.

When Wheeljack's lab on Cybertron was raided by the Decepticons, a mysterious piece of old technology he had kept stored there was carried back to Earth by Dirge, who wound up crashing in a movie lot. The Decepticon fought hard to recover footage the movie studio took of Dirge and the device, but it turned out the joke was on them: after the battle was done, Wheeljack revealed that whatever the machine was supposed to be, it had never worked anyway!

Wheeljack was part of the Autobot team that traveled to Cybertron to stop Megatron from using the mega-computer Vector Sigma to bring his new Stunticons to life, but they failed. To combat the Stunticons, Wheeljack helped Alpha Trion rebuild some aircraft into the Aerialbots. Only a few weeks later, Wheeljack had to returned to Cybertron to repair the damaged Kronosphere time machine and rescue the Aerialbots when the Decepticons attempted to trap them in the past.

Learning that racing driver Auggie Cahnay would be test-driving a car made from a new experimental alloy in the upcoming Europa 2000 race, Optimus Prime sent a contingent of Autobots, including Wheeljack, to participate in the race and protect Augie from any possible Decepticon interference. Wheeljack was thoroughly enjoying himself until the Stunticons joined the race, and he was crushed under Motormaster's wheels in Turkey.

When the Cosmic Rust plague threatened the Autobots, Wheeljack proposed using the matter duplicator to create more of Perceptor's anti-corrosive corrostop. Two problems faced the scientific duo, however: the matter duplicator didn't work, and they were out of corrostop! Working tirelessly (and with a few swift kicks to the machine for good measure), the pair got the matter duplicator functioning, and the Autobots recovered some corrostop from the Statue of Liberty to duplicate and save themselves.

During the Stunticons' latest rampage, Wheeljack used Teletraan I to pinpoint the location of the five Decepticons, and the Autobots quickly rounded them up. Examining the components the Stunticons had stolen, Wheeljack speculated that Megatron was making yet another super-weapon. A team of five Autobots disguised themselves as the Stunticons, and delivered a substitute ruby modified by Wheeljack to Megatron, which caused the new laser cannon it was installed within to explode.

For his final recorded adventure in the 20th century, Wheeljack helped defend Autobot Headquarters against an attack from the Decepticons' orbit disruptor cannon, using his gyro-inhibitor to prematurely detonate missiles launched by Onslaught.