A makeshift Decepticon

Last month at Toys ‘R’ Us, I managed to find one of the elusive Transformers from the final wave of Dark of the Moon figures. A deluxe scale Mercedes-Benz E-class (“deluxe” meaning “small enough to crush in one hand, but not small enough to slip between your fingers”), this navy blue luxury car transforms into Que, the mechanical engineer who appears in the third Transformers movie.

Originally intended to be Wheeljack, the mechanic and inventor from the original TV series (who appears as Wheeljack in comic books based on the movie), director Michael Bay reportedly decided to name him after the James Bond character Q instead, who outfits 007 with high-tech gadgets just as Que outfits his Autobot brethren in the film. Furthermore, Bay thought it would be funny to give him a ridiculous faux-British accent, and make him look like the alien equivalent of Albert Einstein; Mercedes-Benz is a German company, after all. The result is disgustingly ugly, especially for an Autobot character.

While not entirely accurate, the Takara designers based the look of the toy on the CGI character. The result is depressingly ugly, especially for an Autobot figure.

That head has gotta go!

Otherwise, however, the figure is pretty sweet. The vehicle mode is very accurate, and looks even better with a little touch-up paint work to bring out sculpted details (like the front grill):

I added a little flat black to bring out the panel lines, and silver highlights around the Mercedes-Benz logo. The license plate was made in Photoshop and printed onto adhesive paper.

His hand-held tools can be stored under the chassis in vehicle mode, a feature undocumented in any of the instructions (nor anywhere online, as far as I can tell):

The robot is very well-proportioned, with long limbs and broad shoulders, and features a great deal of articulation; I just couldn’t abide that face, though. I removed the head entirely, and replaced it with the head of a “Gundam Converge” Delta Plus mobile suit. Now he looks like a kick-ass Decepticon, not an ugly-ass Autobot! I particularly like the look of that translucent red visor.

Also, since there are prominent 5mm ports on his back, I decided to attach the large cannons Big Daddy wasn’t using.

All that was left was to decide on a name for this new character, who now fits in better with the aesthetics of the ongoing comic series and toy line. There was a navy-blue Autobot luxury car among the Mini-cons in the Universe line named “Makeshift,” which seemed an appropriate name for a character born of a half-assed headswap; Makeshift also happened to be the name of a short-lived Decepticon spy in Transformers: Prime, who infiltrated the Autobot base pretending to be Wheeljack. Thus, the navy-blue Autobot luxury car (pretending to be movieverse Wheeljack) becomes Makeshift, a navy-blue Decepticon spy (pretending to be an Autobot mechanic). Serendipity, if I do say so myself.

Makeshift may not be showing signs of stress in this laid-back pose, but his plastic joints tell a different story. One thing to be aware of, for those of you who managed to acquire one of these figures: there are already prominent stress marks forming in the hands and the insides of the front fenders, where they attach to the arms. Note the white lines that have formed in the plastic, and take care not to subject those areas to significant pressure; it looks like breakage could be a definite possibility, if you’re not gentle with him.

Oh, and since the Delta Plus head attached so easily to Que’s body, I figured Que’s head might as well go on the Delta Plus body:

Somehow, the childlike proportions suit this head better, don’t you think?