Flywheels

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Flywheels is a Decepticon Duocon from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Howitzer'd!

Flywheels (aka Skytread) tries to keep it together and stay upbeat, he really does, but it's hard when your mind (and often your body) is literally divided in two. A split personality would be trouble enough, but to add injury to illness, Flywheels' two halves are very jealous of each other and basically hate each other's guts. They spend more time fighting one another than the Autobots. It doesn't matter whether they're unified in robot form or not, Flywheels' two halves go right on arguing, which can be disconcerting to others around him, to say the least.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.
"Hi. We're off to do other things now... elsewhere. Without you. Bye!"

Flywheels was a part of Scorponok's army of Decepticons on Cybertron. Upon learning the co-ordinates of the planet Nebulos from Lord Zarak, requesting the Decepticons help in ridding the Autobots from his world, Scorponok ordered his army to lay siege to the alien planet. Flywheels was seen in jet mode as part of a battalion carrying Decepticons from their spacecraft to the surface of Nebulos, where he remained out of sight, away from the main events. Broken Glass! Later, every Decepticon on the planet left Nebulos in pursuit of the Autobots to planet Earth. Brothers in Armor!!

Back on Cybertron, Flywheels appeared in a brief battle against Ultra Magnus and the Sparkabots. He was knocked out of the air by Ultra Magnus and was captured by the Autobots. As a prisoner, he was soon forced to fight with his captors against a horde of zombie Transformers in Kalis. Though the Autobots had taken away his blaster, Flywheels was still able to pull his own weight in destroying the encroaching horde by using his tank mode. After he realized that they were slaughtering former Autobots, Ultra Magnus ordered a cease-fire, hoping they might instead come up with the means to revert the zombies to a fully-living state. Flywheels disobeyed Ultra Magnus' order, but soon stood down when his captors threatened to blast him next. The group retreated to a nearby building, where they puzzled out that they were indeed fighting the dead, but the zombots hadn't been risen through supernatural means; rather, a powerful radio-signal was controlling the motor functions of Cybertronian corpses. With this information in mind, Flywheels led Ultra Magnus to the Baird Beaming Transmitter so they could jam the signal. Reluctantly, Ultra Magnus returned Flywheels his weapons, so that the Decepticon could watch his back while he worked on shutting down the zombies. This proved fortuitous for Magnus, as Flywheels saved his life from a zombie who had managed to sneak up on him, just as he was finishing up his task. City of Fear! Ultra Magnus then allowed Flywheels to go and get reinforcements, though he had little expectation of the Duocon's return. Legion of the Lost! Surprisingly, Flywheels did come back with Trypticon to give the remaining zombots a good stomping, and force his way into the inner sanctum of the crazed scientist, Flame, responsible for the entire Kalis incident. Meltdown!

He later joined the Mayhem Attack Squad and took part in their joint attack with the Wreckers on Galvatron and Megatron. He was one of only three Mayhems to escape alive from the gruesome twosome's base, but was killed by Galvatron after the retreat to the Decepticons' heavy transport. Time Wars

Although Flywheels's death is not shown, Galvatron grabs him by the right arm during his and Megatron's assault on the Mayhems' ship, and his corpse (with the right arm torn off at the shoulder) can be seen on the ground just before Rodimus Prime and the other Autobots intervene to save the remaining Wreckers and Mayhems. It's pretty clear what happened off-panel.

Regeneration One

Template:Noterg1 Flywheels took part in Soundwave's attack on the Baird Beaming Transmitter in Kalis, where he berated Ruckus for making too much noise. Counterpoint

Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Headmasters cartoon

Voice actor: Yūki Satō (Japanese){{#if: John Culkin (English, Omni Productions dub)|, John Culkin (English, Omni Productions dub)}}
What is this ominous light that threatens to engulf us?

Flywheels, alongside Battletrap, worked under Scorponok, who first sent them into battle when the Autobots and Decepticons were fighting over a disk containing data on the Master Sword. The Duocons' double amount of vehicle modes was enough to overwhelm the Autobot Targetmasters, and the Decepticons quickly grabbed the disk and retreated. The Master Sword Is in Danger!! Flywheels soon appeared again to defend Scorponok as he used the disk's data to manufacture the Zarak Shield. The Zarak Shield Turns the Tide

The Duocons' next mission was to hide a time bomb on the asteroid Juno, so that Scorponok could blow up Sixshot and Chromedome when the two arrived for their duel. Duel on the Asteroid Flywheels later participated in the climactic battle against the Autobots at the North Pole and retreated into space when Scorponok put his plan to destroy the Earth into motion. The Final Showdown on Earth (Part 2)

Transformers Legends comic

In 2021, Flywheels was among Scorponok's Decepticons who battled Fortress's Autobots near a black hole, where he got his butt handed to him by Brawn. Scorponok's detonation of the black hole caused the combatants to lose their bodies, and they were forced to convert their heads into small Headmaster forms and travel to the Legends World in search of new ones. Targetmaster Chapter Prologue Flywheels joined up with the Astrotrain Transport Company for a free body, only to be enslaved by Astrotrain until he and the other Headmasters were able to escape. Bonus Edition Vol. 40 Now unemployed, Flywheels used his speed to pick pockets until he met Zarak, an alternate version of Scorponok from another dimension. Tempted by his offer of a new body, he figured any Scorponok was worth being loyal to and agreed to recruit additional soldiers to his cause, convincing Grimlock and Brawn to join him at his "new workplace". When Zarak moved to conquer the world, however, Flywheels was punched out by an angry Grimlock, then swatted into the distance by Zarak for daring to suggest he could help by forming Scorponok's head. LGEX Headmaster Set Chapter

Flywheels was unfortunate enough to be hanging around in Akihabara when Trypticon landed on top of it. Bonus Edition Vol. 43

Transformers in 3-D

Flywheels and the Decepticon Clones volunteered for Sixshot's mission to make Hot Rod's weekend more interesting. Whether they succeeded was never recorded. The Test

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

"It is only logical that there will be no side-effects from this whatsoever."

Battletrap and Flywheels were created by Shockwave as early prototypes for his Triple Changer fascination. Instead of achieving three alternating modes, however, they gained the ability to separate into two different alternate modes at once. More Than Meets The Eye #8

IDW Generation 1 continuity

Flywheels was a "twitchy neoprimalist with big feet" who suffered from a possibly made-up form of psychosomatic hyperflexia that caused him to change form when he lied. Rules of Disengagement During the war, he was stationed at Grindcore, where he outfitted new prisoners such as Skids with nasty transformation-hindering inhibitor spikes. Speak, Memory: Part 1

Flywheels about to feel the agony of "de feet."

Flywheels became part of Krok's ragtag Decepticon crew along with Misfire, Spinister, and Crankcase after the Great War ended. Searching for energon and supplies on the planet Clemency, Flywheels mistook the still-living body of Fulcrum firstly for a miracle and then for a zombie and an affront to Primus. Once that misunderstanding had been sorted out the group then chanced upon a P-6 Worldsweeper, a type of ship that Flywheels noted was famous only for "crashing". What they found on board the ship, such as aborted protoforms, disconnected brain modules and a robot apparently made out of wood was disturbing enough, but then they were contacted by the Decepticon Justice Division through Flywheels' communicube and given an ultimatum to surrender one of their number so that the other six could watch him die. As there were only six of them the group reasoned that the D.J.D. must have miscounted, until Krok discovered that the ship also contained Grimlock in a stasis pod. Rules of Disengagement

After agreeing on the seemingly-suicidal plan to fight their way out, the Scavengers spiked Grimlock's stasis pod with circuit speeders and left him out for the D.J.D. to find. While Tarn battled the Dinobot leader, the rest of the Decepticons tried to slip away but were ambushed in turn by the rest of the D.J.D. and Flywheels was killed by Tesarus. His surviving comrades looted his corpse for spare parts and energon and left the body on Clemency, where, 18 months later, his remains were examined by the Necrobot. Who's Afraid of the DJD?

Titans Return marketing material

An ancient Titan Master, Skytread could team up with other bots to grant them the ability to create a clone decoy of themselves. Titans Return Skytread online bio

Beast Wars: Uprising

When the Decepticon-Hive alliance developed the Headmaster process, Skytread and Flywheels became one of the first Headmasters, escalating the conflict on Nebulos with their power. A Brush With Infamy–Prologue

Commercial appearances

Flywheels's appearance on the battlefield caught the Autobots by surprise when they first thought that a jet was about to crash into a tank, only for the two vehicles to transform into one robot! The element of surprise quickly wore off, however, and Flywheels had to contend with Rodimus Prime pouncing on him. Duocons and Throttlebots commercial

Animation from this commercial was recycled for the title sequence of season 4 of the Generation 1 animated series, even though Flywheels himself didn't appear in the show.

Games

The Transformers (PS2)

Flywheels is a non-playable character. He appears among the legion of Decepticon duplicates in the Autobot campaign.

The Transformers

Transformers Legends

Flywheels and Black Shadow encountered the D.J.D. on Clemency. They both died. Rules of Disengagement

Toys

Generation 1

"Hey, you know what they say about guys with big feet, right?"
  • Flywheels (Duocon, 1987)
    • Japanese ID number: D-97
    • Accessories: "Laser cannon" pistol
Flywheels' robot mode is made from the combination of two separate vehicles that make up his alternate mode: a maroon F-4 Phantom II fighter jet and a brown self-propelled howitzer of vague origin. Pressing the jet onto the tank's turret via friction-hold tabs triggers a spring-loaded autotransformation into the combined robot mode. Splitting the robot into the two vehicles is an entirely manual affair, however.
His only robot-mode articulation is the sideways-swinging movement of his arms at the shoulder, but thankfully his rifle has a 5mm post on the back end so it can at least point forward in robot mode, even if he has to hold it like a sword to do so. The rifle can also be mounted on the tank's front end or on the underside of the jet nosecone.


Generations

Oh sure, Battletrap gets a cool exclusive Voyager class and a new Legends Class toy! I lose my name! I lose my body! What do I get? A little more articulation and a little vehicle to ride around in. Huh.
  • Skytread (Titan Master, 2016)
    • Accessories: Tank accessory
A retool of Titans Return Terri-Bull, Skytread (presumably renamed for trademark reasons) is a small robot who can transform into a Flywheels head that is compatible with any Deluxe-or-larger Titans Return figure. He is packaged with a small vehicle accessory redecoed from Terri-Bull's, which can form a tank for Skytread to ride in robot mode, a 5mm gun for larger figures to wield, or combine with Skytread to form a jet. Due to the sculpt of the head mode face, it can be difficult to get Skytread himself in and out of the jet configuration.
As with Terri-Bull, the upper portion of Skytread's legs has been installed backwards. Due to this, his legs have a problem folding down in head mode due to their tolerance if not fixed.
This toy also doubles as the separate Beast Wars: Uprising character Skytread. It was re-issued along with Nightbeat for the fourth wave of Titan Masters alongside Shuffler and Repugnus, which unfortunately became prominent shelfwarmers.
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Legends

"OK Takara, now you fixed my legs; where's my larger body?"
Released as a Wonder Festival 2017 exclusive, this Headmaster version of "Flywheel" is a repaint of the Titans Return mold above, without the vehicle accessory, and features extensive paint apps. Unlike the Hasbro release, this Flywheel features correctly assembled legs.
Flywheel was released along with Grimlock, Chromedome, Hardhead, Gong, and Brainstorm.


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Notes

  • It's often speculated that Battletrap and Flywheels' names were mistakenly swapped during production, as the rollers of tank treads are not generally thought of as wheels. Their names are even swapped in the Headmasters episode "The Master Sword Is in Danger!!".

Foreign names

  • Japanese: Flywheel (フライホイール Furaihoīru)
  • Mandarin: Fēilún (China, 飞轮, "Flywheel")
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