HAULER
Appearances:
Season 1 Episodes
More Than Meets The Eye, part 1
Quote:
None, had no lines.
Alt-Mode:
Crane-truck
Description:
Hauler's only real claim to fame is that he was one of the most hi-then-bye characters in the cartoon's history. He showed up, had his name mentioned, then was never seen again. Oh, that and the fact that he looked a lot like Grapple. A very large amount like Grapple...
In fact he looks almost identical to Grapple, even down to the arm-forms at his sides and colour scheme. Interesting, eh?
Biography:
When the Autobot Hound fell off the side of a cliff (thanks to an attack by Laserbeak), they Autobots needed some one to lift him out of trouble, so they called on Hauler. Hauler showed up, lowered his crane, and pulled Hound out of trouble.
After that he was never seen again. Oh well.
Tech Specs/TFU:
He doesn't have one. But I could probably put up a link to a Grapple tech spec...
Toy:
Of all the obscure characters out there, I think Hauler is the one most suited to having a toy: namely Grapple's. I can even give you a pretty good idea of how he would TF... his crane unit would become his head/back. His cab would become his chest, his truck sides would become his arms and his underside his legs...
I mean, look at this picture and then look at your Grapple toy (or failing that, your Inferno toy). Doesn't that look exactly like Grapple? You can see the arm detailing on the side! The crane is the same! He's the same colour! The only difference is that Hauler was actually used for hauling things, and Grapple built stuff.
Strange that he built stuff and his name was 'Grapple'. Shouldn't he have always been grabbing stuff?
Errr. Getting back on topic, Hauler was Grapple. If you want a kitbashed Hauler toy it's simple; take your Grapple toy and never Transform him. Simple as that.
Over All:
Hauler is one of those intriguing little characters who seems completely out of line, after all, he's almost identical to a year two toy, yet he's in a year one cartoon. How is that possible?
To answer that you simply need a few pieces of information. First of all: Transformers was not a toy line based on original moulds created by Hasbro technicians. Instead it was based on moulds bought by Hasbro from several Japanese companies (with the most prominent being Takara). Grapple was in fact on sale in Japan (and some places in Europe) several years before Transformers came into being!
The second piece of information that you need to keep in mind is that toy lines are subject to possible change right up until the last minute. Every character has several possible or prototype names (and sometimes even prototype moulds). Sometimes names are dropped because of legal reasons, other times simply because they think of something better.
My theory is that Hauler is actually the prototype name for Grapple, a name which changed before Grapple hit the TV show and toy shelves officially.
The other option is that the artist on this episode was simply incredibly flukey and just happened to draw Hauler as almost identical to Grapple by a complete coincidence... it could happen, couldn't it?
Hmmmm...
Gallery:
More Than Meets the Eye, pt 1:
