Wreck-Gar (Animated)
| This article is about the garbage truck from Transformers Animated. For the Junkion from Generation 1, see Wreck-Gar (G1). |
- Wreck-Gar is a very confused individual from the Transformers Animated continuity family.
Recently brought to life by the power of the AllSpark, Wreck-Gar is simple-minded and highly suggestible. As he attempts to learn more about his identity, he never loses his sense of humor. His trash bin is an impressive bag of tricks, able to stash and deploy many useful (and even more useless) items at a moment's notice, or make them seemingly disappear forever. This ability is a bit of a mixed blessing, as Wreck-Gar will frequently confuse your request with something that sounds vaguely similar.
Wreck-Gar's primary goal in life is to acquire an identity. Additionally, he is eager to help people and be liked. He will automatically take on whatever role is suggested to him. This makes him rather unpredictable and prone to making the wrong move at the wrong time. However, if he can learn to think for himself instead of relying on others, there's potential in this friendly mix-and-match bot.
| “ | I am Wreck-Gar! I am only good for one thing... GARBAGE! | ” |
—Wreck-Gar cheerily takes Ratchet at his word, "Garbage In, Garbage Out" | ||
- Italian dub name: Pattumiera ("Trash can")
Fiction
Animated cartoon
- Voice actor: "Weird Al" Yankovic (English), Joachim Kaps (German), Claudio Moneta (Italian), Mitsuo Iwata (Japanese)
Wreck-Gar emerged from a garbage scow, activated by a shard of AllSpark energy that was close to Sari Sumdac's AllSpark Key, self-aware but with no sense of history or identity. He tried to figure out what he was by studying objects in his environment and was briefly tricked by a food label into thinking he was high-fructose corn syrup. Spying a blimp proclaiming the Detroit Metro Police Department was "here to help", Wreck-Gar went off in search of the police for help. Once ashore, Wreck-Gar's clumsy curiosity prevented police officers from apprehending the Angry Archer, and the villain quickly conscripted Wreck-Gar as a sidekick, even giving the confused mechanoid his new, shorter name (as "worthless-wreck-walking-pile-of-garbage" was a bit overlong). Wreck-Gar helped the Archer disable an armored car("I Am Wreck-Gar, I knock things over!"), allowing him to steal a canister of unknown content right in front of the Autobots Ratchet and Bumblebee.
Upon seeing the Autobots and overhearing that they protected life and caught bad guys, Wreck-Gar decided he wanted to do that, slapped an Autobrand on his chest, and chased the escaping Archer. Throwing the Archer high into the air in order to "catch" him, Wreck-Gar only got the canister, as the Archer used a grappling arrow to escape. After being harshly told by Ratchet he was only good for one thing, GARBAGE!, Wreck-Gar proudly declared he was good for only one thing—GARBAGE!—and set about trying to deliver the stinky stuff to the entire citizenry of Detroit. (Detroit just happened to be in the middle of a garbage strike as well. Hooray!) The Autobots gave chase, having discovered the canister Wreck-Gar held contained experimental Sumdac Systems garbage-eating microbots, which Ratchet worried would be dangerously mutated by Wreck-Gar's AllSpark energy.
This mission became much more dangerous when he was approached by Lugnut, who was out to retrieve the AllSpark shard from Wreck-Gar's body. Thanks to Wreck-Gar's habit of repeating everything said to him (specifically, Ratchet's proclamation that "you're not an Autobot, and you never will be an Autobot!"), Lugnut believed the newcomer was just as much a loyal Decepticon as himself. When Ratchet accosted Wreck-Gar, Lugnut prepared his Punch of Kill Everything, which Wreck-Gar took to mean the universal greeting, so he gave Lugnut a high-five that left a colossal impact crater. As the Autobots ran for it, Wreck-Gar hopped on the pursuing Lugnut, pulling out the now-cracked microbot canister he'd gotten. A small amount spilled on Lugnut and began eating through his tail section. Wreck-Gar helpfully disassembled the tail, sending Lugnut plummeting somewhere in Detroit, with himself and the tail landing in a full garbage scow, which the nanobots quickly began to consume. From the shore, a group of bystanders began cheering as they saw the scow's load diminish. Now supplied with a fresh load of garbage and mistaking the cheers as intended for his delivery of said garbage, Wreck-Gar pushed the scow full steam ahead.
Wreck-Gar's attempt to deliver it was impeded by Ratchet, who first screamed at the junk-bot that the nanobots would destroy the entire city should they reach shore, but Wreck-Gar was adamant. Ratchet then did the hardest thing he'd ever had to do: apologize for his insults and bad attitude. Ratchet told the now-even-more-confused robot that he could be whatever he wanted and to not let others decide for him who he was. Wreck-Gar decided he truly wanted to be a hero, and slapping the Autobot symbol on his chest once again, began vacuuming up the nanobots. The nanobots began to overload within his backpack, however, and as Wreck-Gar tumbled off of what was left of the scow, he cried out his thank-you to Ratchet. An explosion of AllSpark energy burst from the water, and all Ratchet's magnetic power could retrieve was random junk...
And, at the bottom of the lake, Wreck-Gar smiled to himself, a hero. Despite being buried up to his shoulders, he assured the fish passing by he was there to help...but first...could somebody give him a hand or a fin? Garbage In, Garbage Out
Eventually roused from his lakebed slumber by the crude raft of Sari Sumdac's ragtag crew, he joined the Substitute Autobots to help liberate Detroit from the grip of Soundwave. A bit less befuddled than in previous encounters, he proved (mostly) effective in aiding Sari in battle, only being defeated once Soundwave was able to focus his attentions solely on controlling Optimus Prime. Afterward, he enthusiastically pitched in on the cleanup efforts, collecting the scraps of hundreds of Porter C. Powell's damaged Soundwave toys.
He even got into the holiday spirit a bit, playing Santa and handing out garbage to all the good little girls and boys. Human Error, Part II
Toys
Animated
- Wreck-Gar (Voyager, 2008)
- Japanese ID number: TA-32
- Accessories: 2 scissor-blade weapons
- Wreck-Gar transforms into a garbage truck with articulated lifting-forks. Pushing a small spring-loaded lever on the back of either of the lifting forks will extend the fork forward. The sliding lever on the top of the truck exposes both of his weapons from slots in the rear. These blade- or scissor-like weapons can attach to his forearms, or combine into a single bladed weapon which can also attach to either of his forearms. (Don't run with them!) His transformation involves pulling nearly his entire robot mode out from under the truck mode, meaning he wears his vehicle mode like a backpack. However, you don't care because Wreck-Gar is awesome (and it's show-accurate).
- According to the back of his box, he collects things others throw out, watches more TV than even Bumblebee, and believes everything he reads on the internet. How he did these at the bottom of a lake is unknown.
- Rather annoyingly, a number of Wreck-Gars have a problem with their right shoulders that causes the pin to move out of its position when the shoulder is moved during transformation. It is currently unknown if this would eventually cause the pin to pop out completely.
- He does have a waist joint, but it can only move slightly because of the backpack.
Notes
- Originally, the creators wanted Eric Idle to play Wreck-Gar, as he was the original voice for his Generation 1 namesake. As Idle was busy with the production of Spamalot, Weird Al was selected instead.
- Wreck-Gar's head is an old-fashioned portable TV set, complete with channel selection dials, aerial and a handle for transport. As art director/character designer Derrick J. Wyatt has admitted to being heavily influenced by Gainax shows, this may well be a visual cue to FLCL, along with the resemblance to the original Wreck-Gar's head and his "TV talk" persona. Plus, in the music video for Dare To Be Stupid, Weird Al 's head turns into a tv at one point.
- Wreck-Gar's line "I dare to be stupid!" is something of a double-callout, as the Weird Al song "Dare to Be Stupid" was featured in the original Transformers movie during the battle against the Junkions, and Wreck-Gar himself is voiced by Al.
- Then, of course, there's the accordion in one of the above images. Al himself has been an accordion player since the age of 7.
- Transformers Animated story editor Marty Isenberg stated in an interview that the idea of a garbage bin that Wreck-Gar can pull anything out of was inspired by Harpo Marx.[1]
- Among the things that Wreck-Gar throws at Ratchet and Bumblebee when they meet is a motorcycle resembling the alt mode of the original Wreck-Gar.
- Weird Al stated in a Q&A at BotCon 2009 that Wreck-Gar ended up working with Detroit's sanitation committee. Sounds like he's living the American dream!
