Hauler
<div id="title-factionicons" style="float: right; display: none;"><div style="position: relative;"><a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Autobot" title="Autobot"><img alt="" src="RoadHauler_files/30px-Symbol_autobot_reg.png" width="30" border="0" height="30"></a></div></div>
- RoadHauler is an <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Autobot" title="Autobot">Autobot</a> from the <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Generation_1" class="mw-redirect" title="Generation 1">Generation 1</a> <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Continuity_family" title="Continuity family">continuity family</a>.
[[Image:|right|300px|thumb|ALL CONSTRUCTION VEHICLES MUST BE BRIGHT GREEN FOREVER AND EVER.]] Back on <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Cybertron_%28planet%29" title="Cybertron (planet)">Cybertron</a>, RoadHauler was a <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Constructicon_%28G1%29" title="Constructicon (G1)">Constructicon</a> involved in the building of the <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Crystal_City" title="Crystal City">Crystal City</a>. When his teammates were <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Robo-Smasher" title="Robo-Smasher">reprogrammed</a> as <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Decepticon" title="Decepticon">Decepticons</a>, RoadHauler turned to the <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Autobot" title="Autobot">Autobots</a>, joining their ranks. This choice would eventually put him on board the <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Ark_%28G1%29" title="Ark (G1)">Ark</a> for its doomed voyage that ended on <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Earth" title="Earth">Earth</a>. When he awoke with the rest of the crew in 1984, he resumed his primary function: the discovery and procurement of energy sources. This task sends him far and wide across the planet, and his tendency towards capricious self-expression often results in him coming back with different colors and parts.
His crane mode can lift 60 tons, and in robot mode, he can launch his hands from their wrist-sockets. The hands can fly through the air under his remote-control guidance, allowing him to perform tasks normally beyond his reach.<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-0" title="">[1]</a></sup>
<a name="Origins"></a><h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=RoadHauler&action=edit§ion=1" title="Edit section: Origins">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Origins</span></h2> RoadHauler has a bit of a complicated history. In 1984, it appears that <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Hasbro" title="Hasbro">Hasbro</a> intended to release the <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Diaclone" title="Diaclone">Diaclone</a> "Crane" figure as part of the first year of the Transformers toyline as a character named "Hauler". Packing cases for the 1984 <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Autobot_Cars" title="Autobot Cars">Autobot Cars</a> contained twelve figures, but only eleven toys were released (with an extra <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Mirage_%28G1%29" title="Mirage (G1)">Mirage</a> filling the empty slot), suggesting that Hauler was to be the twelfth. For unknown reasons, these plans were halted, and the figure was held back and eventually released in 1985 as <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Grapple" title="Grapple">Grapple</a>. However, this change came too late to remove Hauler's solitary cartoon appearance, in "<a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/More_than_Meets_the_Eye%2C_Part_1" title="More than Meets the Eye, Part 1">More Than Meets the Eye, Part 1</a>". Following this episode, the character (who never spoke, and never transformed) promptly disappeared from the cartoon, and was never seen or referred to again. When the episode was dubbed for release in Japan, Hauler was not even referred to by name, and most fans assumed him to be Grapple.
Nearly twenty years later, when Grapple's mold-partner, <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Inferno_%28G1%29" title="Inferno (G1)">Inferno</a>, was reissued as part of the <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers_Collection" title="Transformers Collection">Transformers Collection</a> series, <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/E-Hobby" title="E-Hobby">e-Hobby</a> decided to release an exclusive redeco of the Grapple figure and turned to <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Hirofumi_Ichikawa" title="Hirofumi Ichikawa">Hirofumi Ichikawa</a> to create a character that this toy could represent. Ichikawa selected the anomalous Hauler, dubbed him "RoadHauler", and crafted a biography to explain the character's perpetual absence. However, Hauler as he appeared in the cartoon would not have actually been a redeco of Grapple (as they were both orange), so Ichikawa decided to render RoadHauler in the classic purple-and-green of the <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Constructicon_%28G1%29" title="Constructicon (G1)">Constructicons</a>. The character's <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Bio" title="Bio">bio</a> established that he was a former member of that team (presumably in reference to the scene in "<a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Five_Faces_of_Darkness%2C_Part_4" title="Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4">Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4</a>" that erroneously depicted the Constructicons with two extra members), and justified his different coloration in the cartoon by explaining that he often changed his color scheme.
Not as complicated a history as <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Prowl_II" title="Prowl II">some characters</a>, but there you go.
<a name="Fiction"></a><h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=RoadHauler&action=edit§ion=2" title="Edit section: Fiction">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Fiction</span></h2>
<a name="Generation_1_cartoon"></a><h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=RoadHauler&action=edit§ion=3" title="Edit section: Generation 1 cartoon">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Generation 1 cartoon</span></h3>
[[Image:|left|180px|thumb|Shut up and lift the guy with the toy.]]
RoadHauler (called "Hauler" in his one appearance) joined <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Ratchet_%28G1%29" title="Ratchet (G1)">Ratchet</a> and <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Cliffjumper_%28G1%29" title="Cliffjumper (G1)">Cliffjumper</a> in recovering <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Hound_%28G1%29" title="Hound (G1)">Hound</a> from the bottom of a ravine. He never spoke or transformed to robot mode. He was also yellow, which made him look like <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Grapple" title="Grapple">Grapple</a>. <span style="border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-width: 0pt 1px; padding: 0pt 5px; font-size: 10px; background-color: rgb(236, 236, 236);" class="tt1_nowrap"><a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/More_than_Meets_the_Eye%2C_Part_1" title="More than Meets the Eye, Part 1">More Than Meets the Eye, Part 1</a></span>
[[Image:|right|200px|thumb|"Why are we making the ultimate tyrant if we're not evil yet?""Shut up, Hauler."]]
Later, during a spiritual journey through the <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Matrix_of_Leadership" title="Matrix of Leadership">Matrix of Leadership</a>, <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Rodimus_Prime_%28G1%29" class="mw-redirect" title="Rodimus Prime (G1)">Rodimus Prime</a> was shown a vision of eight Constructicons creating <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Megatron_%28G1%29" title="Megatron (G1)">Megatron</a>. <span style="border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-width: 0pt 1px; padding: 0pt 5px; font-size: 10px; background-color: rgb(236, 236, 236);" class="tt1_nowrap"><a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Five_Faces_of_Darkness%2C_Part_4" title="Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4">Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4</a></span> The identities of the two extra Constructicons remains unknown, though quite possibly one might be RoadHauler.
<a name="Toys"></a><h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=RoadHauler&action=edit§ion=4" title="Edit section: Toys">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Toys</span></h2>
<a name="Generation_1"></a><h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=RoadHauler&action=edit§ion=5" title="Edit section: Generation 1">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Generation 1</span></h3>
[[Image:|left|150px|thumb|It's not easy being green. Especially when you're supposed to be orange.]]
- RoadHauler (Autobot, 2003)
- Japanese ID number: 88
- One of the first original-deco toys released as part of the <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/E-Hobby" title="E-Hobby">e-Hobby</a> <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Exclusive" title="Exclusive">exclusive</a> series, RoadHauler is a <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Redeco" title="Redeco">redeco</a> of the Autobot <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Grapple" title="Grapple">Grapple</a>, transforming into a hook-crane truck. He was sold only as part of a set with his fellow "<a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/More_than_Meets_the_Eye%2C_Part_1" title="More than Meets the Eye, Part 1">More Than Meets the Eye, Part 1</a>" cameo-character <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Sunstorm_%28G1%29" title="Sunstorm (G1)">Sunstorm</a>.
- A <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Retool" title="Retool">retooling</a> of this mold was used to make Generation 1 <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Inferno_%28G1%29" title="Inferno (G1)">Inferno</a> and <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Artfire" title="Artfire">Artfire</a>.
<a name="Trivia"></a><h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=RoadHauler&action=edit§ion=6" title="Edit section: Trivia">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Trivia</span></h2>
- There is some conjecture over the romanization of his name, as
many fans call him "Load Hauler." However, when the e-Hobby website featured the toy, it spelled the name "RoadHauler."<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1" title="">[2]</a></sup> The <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Binaltech_%26_TF_Collection_Complete_Guide" title="Transformers: Binaltech & TF Collection Complete Guide">Transformers: Binaltech & TF Collection Complete Guide</a> reinforces this spelling, calling him "ROADHAULER" in all caps, as it does with all names.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2" title="">[3]</a></sup>
<a name="References"></a><h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=RoadHauler&action=edit§ion=7" title="Edit section: References">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">References</span></h2> <ol class="references"><li id="cite_note-0"><a href="#cite_ref-0" title="">↑</a> RoadHauler's on-package bio (see TFU.info link below) <li id="cite_note-1">[#cite_ref-1" title="">↑</a> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20050322161037/http://www.e-hobby.co.jp/cgi-bin/omc?&port=33301&req=PRODUCT&code=ho_sun Archived version of eHobby page for RoadHauler] <li id="cite_note-2">[#cite_ref-2" title="">↑</a> <a href="http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/monzo/Roadhauler01b.jpg The Transformers Binaltech & TF Collection Complete Guide romanization of his name.]</ol> <a name="External_links"></a><h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=RoadHauler&action=edit§ion=8" title="Edit section: External links">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">External links</span></h2>
