Wheeljack Instant Immobilizer

The Wheeljack Instant Immobilizer is a powerful device created by Wheeljack to immobilize Decepticon enemies. Or anything else, for that matter. It is operated by a small remote.

The Transformers cartoon
Wheeljack created the Immobilizer in order to stop the Decepticon forces dead in their tracks. He demonstrated it at the Ark, and required Hound's hologram of Laserbeak to show off what it did. However, Ironhide mistook the hologram for the real thing and began shooting wildly, damaging the Immobilizer. Wheeljack sent Bumblebee and Spike Witwicky to go to town and fetch a new polarizer, but Ravage found out about the Immobilizer and planted a micro-bug on Bumblebee. The Decepticons discovered Ravage's data and wanted the Immobilizer for themselves.

When Spike and Bumblebee returned to the Ark with the polarizer, Wheeljack demonstrated the powers of the Immobilizer on a waterfall, where Spike stepped on the remote device and immobilized Wheeljack himself. Luckily, the effects of the Immobilizer were only temporary and Wheeljack reverted to normal a short time later. Unfortunately, Megatron got his hands on the device and was able to change the effect from temporary to permanent.

During a battle with the Autobots, Rumble used the Immobilizer to freeze several members of the Autobot team. With Brawn's help, Carly managed to get close enough to the Immobilizer to switch the device's polarity, in effect reversing the immobilizing effect. The affected Autobots reverted to their normal selves once Ironhide managed to hit them a second time with the Immobilizer beam. Ironhide then smashed the Immobilizer into the ground to keep it from falling back into Decepticon hands.

Story of Binaltech
When Wheeljack constructed a Binaltech body for himself in the early years of the 21st century, he armed it with a newly adapted version of his Immobilizer technology installed within a sword. This version of the device generated an immobilizing field that surrounded the sword's blade, and which, rather than paralyze Wheeljack's enemies, was instead fine-tuned to such a degree that it immobilized the very molecules in the area of the blade's strike. This cessation of molecular motion immediately enveloped the area of the point of impact in freezing cold, leaving it easily shatterable, and saw the blade dubbed the "Cryo-Sword".

Unite Warriors
By 2021, Wheeljack had refined his invention and created the Immobilizer V2, which was even capable of freezing the semi-corporeal body of Starscream. He also granted Sky Reign the ability to fire Immobilizer beams when he formed the combiner's arm.

United EX
Working with humankind on the Power Core Combination process in 2035, Wheeljack helped develop a sparkless drone named Assaultmaster, which would serve as a spare body for Optimus Prime. The mecha was equipped with an Immobilizer, which could only be called upon when Assaultmaster merged with his Assault Drones. Assaultmaster was taken into battle earlier than expected when the human Clouder donned an interface exoskeleton to pilot it against the Decepticons, but when their mysterious High Regent Scrash began to take control of it, Clouder set the Immobilizer to overload rather than let it fall into his hands.

Transformers: Devastation
Wheeljack builds and uses an Immobilizer as part of his Ultimate Attack.

Foreign names

 * Japanese: Immobilizer (イモビライザー Imobiraizā)