Wild Wild Wheel
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| "Wild Wild Wheel" | ||||||
| Production company | Allspark Animation | |||||
| Airdate | February 21, 2020 (UK) | |||||
| Writer | Dan Salgarolo | |||||
| Director | Jean Texier | |||||
| Animation studio | Boulder Media Studio | |||||
A forgotten bot returns to Cybertron, looking for revenge.
Synopsis
On a seemlingly ordinary day at Maccadam's—now run by Perceptor—things are pretty quiet and casual... until a hooded stranger enters demanding the location of Optimus Prime. Perceptor refuses, prompting the newcomer to grab his pistols and shoot the Energon mugs on the bar.
As a shuttle lands on the Decepticon side of Cybertron, a mysterious bot steps out, shooing the shuttle away as he makes his way towards the city. Seeing Ramjet and Dirge amuse themselves by harassingly shooting a Decepticon trooper, the mystery bot points out the unfairness of their game. The two coneheads try and make it fair by pointing their weapons at the newcomer... who effortlessly snipes off their barrels before they can even fire a single shot. Intimidated by this disarmament, the coneheads opt to flee. The harassed trooper thanks his supposed savior only to be bombarded with pistol fire as the mystery bot demands the location of Optimus Prime.
Making his way into Croaton City, the mystery bot gets ambushed by Insecticons. A showdown soon breaks out and the mystery bot overpowers their attacks and lassos one of them, catching a ride on its back to the town square. A furious Megatron initially threatens the newcomer, but quickly sees an ally upon hearing him demand Optimus Prime. Leading him to the borders, Megatron offers a spot on the Decepticons to the newcomer before he takes off.
Muscling his way past a border, the newcomer follows a rancher's advice to Maccadam's, where a patron leads him to Cobalt Springs. Sure enough, Prime is there assisting in restoration efforts, including the erection of a massive Energon tower. Unfortunately, the tower is felled by a stampede. After saving a few civilians, Prime comes face to face with the saboteur, who eventually reveals himself to be a former crew member of the Ark by the name of Wild Wheel.
As the Ark set off through the cosmos, Wild Wheel and a few other Autobots ended up in stasis. Unfortunately, the ship had a hull breach, and Wild Wheel was one of the many who fell through. His pod bursting open midway through the atmospheric re-entry, Wild Wheel crashed on Earth, landing in a swamp. Millions of years passed until he finally broke free, but by then it was the time of the wild west. Despite his apprehensions, Wild Wheel had to become an outlaw to survive, and committed thousands of crimes across the universe just to get a ride home.
Concluding his story, Wild Wheel stated that he was one "the good guys" until Optimus left him on Earth to rot. A sorrowful Prime apologizes, and Wild Wheel responds by scaring the citizens on the sidelines. Prime offers Wild Wheel a chance to rejoin the Autobots, but the outlaw refuses by shooting Optimus and a civilian who tries to fight him. This merciless act convinces an outraged Prime to a standoff, and he promptly wins the showdown. Once again offering a chance to rejoin the Autobots, Optimus can only watch with guilt as Wild Wheel refuses yet again and heads off to Decepticon territory, knowing his life as an Autobot is over.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Others |
|---|---|---|
Quotes
Notes
Continuity notes
- Wild Wheel's stasis pod was one of those seen getting sucked out of the Ark during Grimlock's flashback in "King of the Dinosaurs". (Hey, we totally called that it would be plot-relevant one day!)
- Perceptor seems to have taken over Maccadam's bar since his demise in "The End Of The Universe III".
- Speaking of Perceptor, his optics are still fried from his prison break in "Battle For Cybertron I". Even if his microscope fills in for them just fine, you'd think Ratchet would at least take a look at them.
Transformers references
- In his flashback, Wild Wheel can be heard calling to Jazz.
Real-world references
- This episode features all the tropes of a story about the wild west, including a ranch, bar scenes, creature riding and even a showdown.
- The title is a play on "Wild Wild West."
- Though Wild Wheel himself is an entirely new character, his design—namely the hat, poncho, and gun-slinging skills—are based on the Man with No Name of Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy".
Other trivia
- In fairness to Wild Wheel's grudge, irrational and misplaced though it may be, in all this time none of his former crewmates have been shown sparing even a passing thought for him or his whereabouts. No wonder he's pissed. Of course, the out-of-universe explanation is that Wild Wheel was not conceived until this episode.
Animation and technical errors
- TBA
Foreign localization
- TBA
Home video releases
- TBA
