I never liked G1 Wreck-Gar turning into a giant space bike, so when they announced AOTP Animated Wreckgar, I though it would make a nice alternative, so I picked him up.
Wreck-Gar turns into a post-apocalyptic garbage truck. It's not a bad truck at all, with copious detail and it definitely looks the part. Thing is, it doesn't really fit Animated Wreck-Gar. It's not just a matter of lacking the large trash containment thing on the back and the forklift arms. The chains and armored windows are a bit too Mad Max, for what is basically garbage truck Spongebob. Still, that part's well established, given this is a remold of Trashmaster. The colors are nice and vibrant, and the thing rolls well. Maybe the robot mode will win me over.
Robot mode is okay. The articulation is only basic and the bright colors shine through and do some work towards making this look more like Animated Wreck-Gar. The head carries most of the identity, however, with a very slavishly show accurate head. Problem with this is that the body doesn't match. The chains and armored windows make a return and are joined by spikes and gun barrels. This is far removed from Animated Wreck-Gar's goofy and more or less peaceful character. That's not even getting into how the body just doesn't match the source material in terms of kibble distribution and color. I could let it slide somewhat if the base mold were good, but this isn't great. the hipskirts are kind of large and mounted high up, making them an admittedly minor annoyance, but the buttplate consisting of the vehicle's front bumper and wheels just sort of hangs off him. Sure you could remove it but ugh. At least articulation's decent and he comes with the same chompy-thing that doubles as a reference to his Animated toy's scissors. The scissors mode kind of sticks out from his arm too much so I prefer to think of the Junkasaurus thing as his hand puppet. The hydraulic arms... just don't do anything. I guess you can use them with the Junkasaurus thing to be Temu Inspector Gadget or something. I really like the headsculpt and colors but that's about it.
He can split into parts to Armorize other toys but I'm kind of disappointed. The truck front chunks are literally just truck parts. The hydraulic arms could mount weapons in fun ways I guess. The Junkasaurus/scissor weapon can function the same for other toys. The shins are the biggest disappointment. They're shaped to be perfect boots/height boosters for other toys ala Victory Leo or God Bomber, but the peg is mounted on his thighs that are taller than the rest of the shins, making it awkward-looking to use for that purpose. Overall, kind of a half-assed weaponizer mode.
That's the story of this toy overall. Half-assed homage, half-assed gimmick and half-assed mold suitability. About the only thing that isn't halved is the pricetag. He's not a bad toy but he's thoroughly mediocre from the base mold alone. with the price hikes and considering his excellent wavemates, Wreck-Gar isn't cutting it.
