ROTF/DOTM Transformers movie-scale "Wheelie" (finished)

[KINGBOTZ]

Wheelie's finally done after bustin'-ass for almost 3 months, (actually about 2-1/2 months) this was a hectic nail-biter that I wasn't sure would make the deadline. A complex, involved piece like this really takes some design-time, work & resources to make happen, so I made the necessary sacrifices to ensure it became a reality by the due-date. Not the most complex-piece I've ever done, (compared to Frenzy), but the most complex piece I've done in the time-frame that I had for sure. This little guy came down the wire, paint & glue was still dryin' as I was takin pics the day before it had to ship out! Wheelie was a commissioned movie-scale figure for a client that will be displaying him with his official movie Beater-Bee-camaro this weekend at "Valley Con." To give me a little extra-incentive to make the deadline, the client will be taking some pics of himself with Wheelie and actor/voice-actor Tony Todd and gettin' some signed-copies of the pics for us! How cool is that!! I hope to share the pics from the 'Con with y'all here once I get 'em. :bay

Here's a cool video I made of all the entire Wheelie project from start to finish....


So here's the Wheelie-stats:

-About 28" tall, roughly 6lbs
-Mostly scratch-built, for the exception of the tires, fender-guards, front
brush-guard, shocks, engine cooling-head & roll-bar lights. All blue paneling & trim was either scratch-built or cut straight from the Ford F350 r/c truck-body.

-Fully articulated & posable
-Working LED-eyes & roll-bar lights
-Made with aluminum flatbar & angle, pvc & styrene-tubing, pvc & styrene-sheeting, wood-dowels, pvc-pipe, nuts, bolts & rivets.

​

 

[Howlrunner]

Looks spectacular!

 

[Badgersbunk]

That's the coolest thing I've seen in a while

 

[NathansPROPS]

Simply amazing work. he moves, lights up, has facial expressions! Wow. Great Job!

 

[KINGBOTZ]

Looks spectacular!

Thanks! I think the blue in contrast with the chrome really makes this little guy pop, that's why I decided to skip on the weird scaly-decals he had in truck-mode, they washed out the nice blue paneling too much. I was glad I did that.

That's the coolest thing I've seen in a while

Thanks man, it was extremely frustrating building this thing off of vague and limited reference pics and being forced to improvise, but humbly, I think I did pretty good despite that. This one was tough, as there was no actual movie-prop, this little guy was all CGI for the exception of a single leg prop for the mouse-trap scene in Revenge of The Fallen.

Simply amazing work. he moves, lights up, has facial expressions! Wow. Great Job!

Yeah this little guy was a major pain in the ass, but he really came out of the kinks! Good articulation in his face was absolutely critical, that's what really makes this little guy. :lol

 

[nick daring]

Is he able to stand on his own with only those two little kickstands?

 

[KINGBOTZ]

Is he able to stand on his own with only those two little kickstands?

Yep, they're both made of aluminum flat-bar & adjustable up and down, mounted to the bolts going straight through the rims. The tension on them is adjusted simply by tightening or loosening the lock-nuts holding everything down on the ankles. The ankle pivots back and forth, so the kickstands have to be readjusted to accommodate the new position. Wheelie couldn't stand on his own without them, so I did my best to make 'em as short as possible and blend 'em in the best I could without being an eyesore. I initially thought I could get away with one kickstand to keep it to a minimum, but he ended up being a lot more top-heavy than I anticipated, and had to go with 2 kickstands giving him 4 points-of-contact to the floor.