Transformers are alien robots hailing from the planet Cybertron. They are divided into two factions: heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons. Autobots and Decepticons have been locked in an apocalyptic civil war for millennia. The line was launched in the United States in 1984 with an accompanying animated television series, it followed in Europe later that same year. Many of the Hasbro-distributed toys were actually rebranded versions of the existing Japanese ‘Microman’ and ‘Diaclone’ toylines made by Takara. The combination of vehicle and robot, and the often complicated series of movements required to change between the two modes, meant Transformers were extremely popular children’s toys during the mid-1980s.

Wheelie is an Autobot child, first introduced in the 1986 animated feature film ‘Transformers the Movie’. He remained a regular in the subsequent television series’, intended as a foil the main human character, Daniel Witwicky. His primary characteristics were his resourcefulness and his speech, which was always in rhyming couplets. The toy has a very simple transformation between robot and ‘futuristic car’. Wheelie was the only new mould introduced in the third year’s release (1986) of Autobot ‘Mini-Vehicles’, a more cheaply-priced sub-group. The other five toys from that series were recoloured and renamed existing toys.