The 2008 Universe line of Transformers broke new ground in many ways, but the biggest impact was left by the shared mould of Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. Whilst that is a story for another day, it is clear that these figures inspired the parts sharing of Tracks and Wheeljack.
Tracks turns into a blue supercar of indeterminite model. There are a lot of angles here, and the car is actually quite ugly on a design level; looking like it was built for function over form, somewhat different to the norm in a modern Transformers line. The cartoony flame design from the G1 toy has been replaced with a more modern tribal style flame. This has caused a lot of argument within the fandom, but personally I like the update. As with the original, two white missiles are visible under the doors. The vehicle can assume a somewhat unconvincing flying car mode; although tweaking the official conversion improves it somewhat and it is nice that the designers made the effort.
Robot mode is very close to the G1 model, with typical classics upgrades to articulation and proportions. The controversial flame detail isn't visible on the front of the robot, instead a lot more white comes into play, and Tracks's distinctive red face is faithfully reproduced. The missiles from the vehicle modes are now on his shoulders, not taking up as much space as on the G1 toy but with just as much visual impact. The wings, along with his leg detail mark this out as Tracks, despite the proportions being more skewed towards Wheeljack. This follows the pattern set by Sunstreaker of the less accurate member of such a pair seeing release first, and is a wise move by Hasbro in my opinion.
From the first images of Tracks it was clear that this mould had more than meets the eye to it. With Wheeljack now released in the USA, people are noting exactly how much work went into making each character unique. Tracks is very much his own character, and was a great start for the Reveal the Sheild line.
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