Wheelie (Transformers)

Wheelie is the name of a fictional character in the Transformers toy line and fictional storyline.

Transformers: Generaton 1
Wheelie's transformation is a futuristic, one-person car in yellow, white and orange.

Animated series
The official theory as to his origin is that he was the sole survivor of an Autobot colonization ship which crashed on Quintessa, but a more complex theory occasionally surfaces that suggests he was an Autobot exile who landed on Quintessa by mistake. Others think that his parents commited suicide after hearing their child's freakish voice.

Wheelie is introduced roughly half-way through the movie as an unknown Autobot youth watching from the shadows as Hot Rod and Kup are dragged away to the court of the Quintessons. He meets up with the Dinobots and leads them to the courtroom just in time to save the two Autobots from becoming Sharkticon lunches. After the Sharkticons start chasing the Quintessons, Wheelie points the Autobots toward a ship in exchange for them taking him with them when they leave Quintessa.

A young Autobot, Wheelie's function is listed as "git" (pretty much a given, considering he's spent who knows how many years trapped on Quintessa). He despises the Quintessons and their Sharkticon minions, but only fights when he has no alternative (no doubt a survivalist trait).

During the third season, Wheelie's role in the series changed from survivalist to the Autobots' "little brother", a cute little kid providing comic relief and acting as Daniel Witwicky's best friend, paralleling the relationship between Spike Witwicky (Daniel's father) and Bumblebee in the pre-movie series.

Wheelie and Daniel, along with the Dinobot Grimlock (whose character changed dramatically in the third season from hugely powerful brute-warrior to a silly, cuddly oaf who actually wears a giant apron at one point) were written as main characters in several episodes in which they got themselves into various predicaments.

Wheelie was one of the few characters to appear regularly in the Japanese Transformers spin-off series "Headmasters". Often sided with Daniel, and Arcee on the battleship Fortress Maximus. (Unfortunately, Wheelie's role as a foolish source of comic relief is drastically increased, leading to severe disdain by more serious fans of the original series or Headmasters.) In this series, he no longer rhymes when he talks, unlike previous serious.

Wheelie also had a cameo appearance in Transformers: Armada along with Fortress Maximus in the episodes "Past" parts I & II.

Wheelie, like many Transformers in the various cartoon series, suffers from a speech defect. Wheelie occasionally speaks in the third-person, but more noticeable is that he has a high-pitched voice and always speaks in rhyme, which generally made him reviled by much of the fanbase. This speech defect is absent in Japanese and in Italian dub.

Marvel Comics
Wheelie's existence was acknowledged only by the U.K. comic continuity (where adventures where inserted in between the stories sourced in the U.S.).

He aided Wreck-Gar in escaping from the Quintessons, whose homeworld was dying due to a rift in space-time. The two unlikely allies then transmitted 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.

Books
Wheelie appeared in the 1986 story and coloring book The Lost Treasure of Cybertron by Marvel Books.

Dreamwave Productions
Although Wheelie never appeared in the Marvel Transformers comics, he had a reasonably prominent role in Dreamwave's War and Peace mini-series. In the comics, he was true to his characterization of a survivalist, as he was member of a small Autobot resistance group fighting against Shockwave's oppressive control of Cybertron. He had also befriended the Sharkticon Gnaw, who needed someone to make others see he was not the vicious monster his appearance led many to believe.

IDW Publishing
Wheelie would make a brief cameo appearance in IDW's Spotlight issue on Optimus Prime. At the start of the issue, one of the viewscreens Prime is monitoring features Wheelie asking for someone to talk to (an apparent reference to the character's unpopularity amongst fans).

Transformers: Mosaic
Chase, Daytonus and Wheelie were featured in the Transformers: Mosaic story called "Chasing the Cards." In this story Chase beats Daytonus and Wheelie and a card game, but afterwars Wheelie jumps Chase and takes his winnings.

Quotes
Quotes:
 * "Friends find look behind."
 * "You look wrong way, you fool I say."
 * "Picture you got, now fool you not!"
 * "You get ship if I get trip."
 * "Skip stare, over there!"
 * "What Wheelie wanna know, why we not think this up long ago?"
 * "Looks like someone's got more brains than other." (Translated from Transformers:Headmasters Episode 1. Wheelie's japanese dub was without rhyme)

Toys

 * Generation 1 Wheelie (1986)
 * In Japan, a toy was released by E-Hobby in 2005. they repainted Wheelie in yellow, white and blue and renamed it Dion. they also changed out the grey plastic windshield for a see through blue plastic windshield and packaged the figure with a repainted Targetmaster Kup as Orion Pax