Hauler is an Autobot Constructicon from the Generation 1 continuity family.

ALL CONSTRUCTION VEHICLES MUST BE BRIGHT GREEN FOREVER AND EVER.

Back on Cybertron, Hauler (aka Road Hauler and Load Hauler) was a Constructicon involved in the building of the Crystal City. When his teammates were reprogrammed as Decepticons, Hauler turned to the Autobots, joining their ranks. This choice would eventually put him on board the Ark for its doomed voyage that ended on Earth. When he awoke with the rest of the crew in 1984, he resumed his primary function: the discovery and procurement of energy sources. This task sends him far and wide across the planet, and his tendency towards capricious self-expression often results in him coming back with different colors and parts.

His crane mode can lift 60 metric tonnes, and in robot mode, he can launch his hands from their wrist-sockets. The hands can fly through the air under his remote-control guidance, allowing him to perform tasks normally beyond his reach.^[1]

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Shut up and lift the guy with the toy.

Soon after the Autobots awakened in 1984, Hauler and Ratchet were brought by Cliffjumper to aid the fallen Hound, who had been sent tumbling into a ravine following a battle with Laserbeak. While Ratchet and Cliffjumper jumped down to check their buddy out, Hauler remained up top and used his winch to lift Hound to safety. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1

Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Why am I here?

Road Hauler was among the Constructicons who built Megatron. This was later recounted by the Legends World's Waspinator to his own Megatron. Bonus Edition Vol. 13

Road Hauler also constructed Crystal City with the other Constructicons and joined the Autobots after the rest of his teammates were lost in an attack by Megatron. He was part of Optimus Prime's crew that crashed on Earth and lay dormant for four million years. He woke up with the others. After aiding in recovering Hound, Road Hauler then set out on his full-time mission to scour the Earth for new sources of energy, frequently changing his color scheme and optional equipment. Toy bio

In the late 1980s, Road Hauler was part of a team that attempted to protect the Transform Super Cog from being stolen by the Decepticons, but the Battlechargers were able to rev past Road Hauler and a few others into the Ark. Slugslinger's Ambition

In the 21st century, when the Constructicons tricked Grapple into rebuilding the Crystal City on Earth, Road Hauler participated as well. Crystal City Reconstruction Project!

Road Hauler competed in the Speedia 500 for the chance to become leader of Velocitron, intending to use his political power to build a massive bridge on the planet with his friends if he won. He used his crane boom's specially-outfitted claw attachment to catch and remove falling boulders from his path rather than juking and weaving around them... unaware of the Scourge coming up behind him. Velocitron Speedia 500 Part 1 Scourge would violently knock Road Hauler aside, but the former Constructicon managed to get back into the race only to ultimately lose to former champion Override. Velocitron Speedia 500 Part 2 In the second week of the race, three new racers would join the competition, and one of them, Crasher, attempted to prevent the others from proceeding by creating a chasm that the unfortunate Clampdown fell down. Road Hauler was able to extract the fallen Autobot from the crack and would subsequently see another new racer, Galaxy Shuttle, win the race. Velocitron Speedia 500 Part 2

Wings Universe

I'm in robot mode and in my toy's colors? Oh my lord!

Nine million years ago, Hauler was a member of the construction team that built Crystal City. It was during this project that he introduced Hook, Scavenger, Scrapper, Bonecrusher, Mixmaster, and Long Haul to Omega Supreme. Hauler grew suspicious of his colleagues when they returned to the construction site one day with seemingly drastic personality changes. Following the destruction of Crystal City, Hauler felt the six Constructicons were to blame, which led him to join the Autobots. Hauler's profile in Club magazine #42

Hauler was present alongside several other Autobots within Iacon when Megatron and his Decepticons smashed through the walls. The wall-smashing was made possible by his Robo-Smashed former friends, who had combined for the first time into Devastator. Battle Lines, Part 5 At Dion's suggestion, Hauler joined his fellow Autobots in shooting at Devastator's knees. This successfully disassembled the combiner, facilitating the Autobots' victory. Battle Lines, Part 6

During the third Cybertronian wars, Hauler and Erector were among the Autobots who ambushed the Constructicons at Elevation Recostalus, neutralizing the Decepticon team. Transformers I.Q. last issue review Five million years later, as he helped equip the Ark for its voyage, Hauler convinced Wheeljack to bring the Sky Spy on board. Battle Lines, Part 6

Many millions of years later, Hauler was one of the sparse defenders of Cybertron available to serve during the Machine Wars. Obsidian had Hauler and a motley collection of Autobots and Decepticons assembled to serve as guerrilla soldiers under his command. Termination

Of Masters and Mayhem

Following a battle on Cybertron that left the entire area in ruins, Hauler surveyed the remaining buildings and concluded that none were salvageable. The Toxic Transformer

Beast Wars: Uprising

Road Hauler was a Micromaster Builder who joined Buckethead's Constructicons in the wake of the Grand Uprising, forming the left arm of the newest incarnation of Devastator. Wideload, a Decepticon member of the team, worried about tension between the two, but found that their old factions didn't seem to matter anymore in the post-war era. The Inexorable March

2019 IDW continuity

An erroneous account had a shocked Roadhauler look on as Gauge fled back to the brig. A Truth for a Truth

A native of Velocitron, Roadhauler participated in the Speedia 500! Tread & Circuits Part 2 When Mayhem tried to sabotage the race, Thunder Clash temporarily used him as a stepping stone as the Wreckers leader hopped from racer to racer in his pursuit of Axer and Submarauder. Despite this interference, Roadhauler seemed to be one of the participants who finished the race. Tread & Circuits Part 3 Subsequently, Roadhauler was present at the inauguration of Velocitron's next First Senator, the winner of the Speedia 500, the Ascenticon Knock Out. He also raced towards the stage immediately following the attempted assassination of Knock Out and Mayhem's attack thereafter. Tread & Circuits Part 4

Games

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Hauler was a stand-in member of the Constructicons. Decepticon Directive

Toys

Collector's Edition

It's not easy being green. Especially when you're supposed to be orange.

• RoadHauler (Autobot Car, 2003)

• ID number: 88
• Accessories: Left & right fists, "vibro-force gun", 3 "Earth-auger missiles"
• Known designers: Hirofumi Ichikawa (deco artist)

One of the first original-deco toys released as part of the e-HOBBY exclusive part of the Collector's Edition series, RoadHauler is a redeco of the Autobot Grapple, transforming into a Mitsubishi Fuso hook-crane truck. Both of his forearms contain a spring-loaded missile launcher so he can fire his own fists, or the included silver missiles. (As a Japanese release, this feature is fully functional, as they have different safety standards for projectiles in Japan.) Notably, the Autobot symbol on his cab/chest is a tampograph rather than an added sticker detail.

He was sold only as part of a set with his fellow "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1" cameo-character Sunstorm; the toys were packaged separately, but could only be bought as a set. Pre-orders for the set closed on May 15, 2003, with the toys shipping out in July.

A retooling of this mold was used to make Generation 1 Inferno and Artfire.

• More information on RoadHauler at TFU.info

Legacy

You deserve a prize! Here, have a head that's always screaming!

• Road Hauler (Voyager Class, 2022)

• TakaraTomy ID number: TL EX-04
• TakaraTomy release date: January ??, 2023
• Accessories: Blaster, claw, nozzle
• Known designers: Sam Smith (Hasbro)^[2]

Part of the Transformers: Legacy Velocitron Speedia 500 Collection, Road Hauler is a slight retooling of Earthrise Grapple, transforming into a neon green crane. Road Hauler features more paint apps than Grapple, as well as a retooled head with a shouting expression. Oddly, the molded open mouth is entirely hollow – the inside of the mouth being the green mushroom peg to which the head is attached. The pegs on Road Hauler that connect to the feet in the vehicle mode have also been changed to that of the Kingdom Inferno mold; they are shorter, sturdier, and less likely to snap off.

Road Hauler comes with the same accessories as Grapple: the claw and nozzle can peg into the 5 mm ports on his wrists once the hands are folded away. The claw can also peg into the crane's boom when its hook is folded down.

Amusingly, Road Hauler's rendered product shot on the rear of the packaging appears to have both the nozzle and claw attached to his left arm at the same time, with each accessory clipping through the other.

The Velocitron Speedia 500 Collection was exclusive to Walmart in the US, with Hasbro Pulse receiving limited quantities of the figure. The series went up for pre-order on July 21st 2022, and started arriving in stores by August 1st. Road Hauler shipped in a single-character case of six toys, rather than the normal 3/3 split with fellow Voyager Override (who also shipped in her own single-character case). The series was a TakaraTomy Mall exclusive in Japan, and a Farmers department store exclusive in New Zealand.

This mold was also used to make Generations Selects Artfire.

Notes

This isn't what it looks like!

• There is some conjecture over the Romanization of his toy's name, as many fans call him "Load Hauler". However, when the e-HOBBY website featured the toy, it spelled the name "RoadHauler".^[3] The The Transformers: Binaltech & TF Collection Complete Guide reinforces this spelling, calling him "ROADHAULER" in all caps, as it does with all names.^[4] This was further reinforced by his Legacy toy.
• Hauler's Wings continuity profile in Club magazine #42 says he's called "Load Hauler" by some. It also calls his Cybertronian alternate mode a "binary load lifter", a reference to the droids of the same name from the Star Wars franchise.
• The Wings Universe profile for Devastator, published alongside Hauler's, eschewed the Japanese "Five Faces of Darkness" retcon by establishing that Megatron was created by an entirely-distinct splinter group of a much larger Constructicon faction. So no, despite appearances, that bit of artwork from issue #45 of the magazine isn't implying that Hauler and Erector were amongst the creators of Megatron.
• Hauler appears in Timelines #8 as a "virtual redeco" of Reveal the Shield Voyager Class Grapple.
• The 2008 Italian re-dub of The Transformers "fixed" the Hauler "error" by changing his name to Grapple.
• In the 2019 Transformers Hall of Fame poll, hilariously, Hauler was included alongside the other characters from the first season of the Sunbow cartoon. But in the end, he lost to Skywarp (you had ONE job!).

Origins

Hauler inexplicably appears in a single scene of the first episode of the original 1984 Transformers cartoon. The character appears only in vehicle mode, never speaking or transforming, and never appears in the show again after this one scene. Visually, he was clearly based on the Diaclone "Crane" figure, but this toy was not part of the 1984 Transformers assortment. Exactly who this character was, where he came from, and why he was included in the scene remain a mystery, but generally fans have assumed that Hasbro must have intended to release the "Crane" figure in 1984 as "Hauler," only for plans to be halted at the last minute, too late to remove Hauler's solitary cartoon appearance. The "Crane" figure would eventually be released in 1985 as the new character, Grapple, who received an entirely new animation model for his appearances in the show's second season. When the series was dubbed for release in Japan, Hauler was not even referred to by name, and most fans assumed him to be Grapple. To add a little more confusion into the mix, the 1985 Action Card depicting the scene also referred to Hauler as Grapple.

One piece of evidence that lends credence to the theory of a planned Hauler release is that the original 1984 Autobot Cars were shipped to stores in cases of twelve, but only eleven figures were released in the assortment (with an extra Mirage filling the empty slot, later replaced by Skids). This suggests that Hauler might have been intended to be the original twelfth figure in the case.

Hauler, quit building Megatron!

Nearly twenty years later, when Grapple's mold-partner Inferno was reissued as part of The Transformers Collection series, e-HOBBY decided to release an exclusive redeco of the Grapple figure. Someone at e-HOBBY, looking for a character that this toy could represent, found out about Hauler in Hirofumi Ichikawa's glossary info in the Transformers 2010 DVD box set and decided to turn the Grapple redeco into this Hauler character, now dubbed "RoadHauler".^[5] Ichikawa himself was then asked to write a bio for "RoadHauler", in which he explained the character's perpetual absence. Since Hauler as he appeared in the cartoon would not have actually been a redeco of Grapple (as they were both orange), it was decided to render RoadHauler in the classic purple-and-green of the Constructicons. The character's bio then established that he was a former member of that team (which at the time was presumed to be in reference to the scene in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4" that erroneously depicted the Constructicons with two extra members), and justified his different coloration in the cartoon by explaining that he often changed his color scheme. Eventually in 2015, a chapter of the Legends comic would confirm him to be one of the Constructicons present during the creation of Megatron, while the second "mysterious" member was established as Gravedigger in the United EX toyline three years prior.

Foreign names

• Japanese: RoadHauler (ロードホーラー Rōdohōrā)
• Russian: Bol'shegruz (Большегруз, "Heavy Trucks")

References