Generations - Swerve

"Swerve is a genius, but you wouldn't know it to watch him drive. He's often so preoccupied by the analysis of whatever material he's been given that he completely loses track of where he is or where he's going. When he's working on a tough problem, it's not uncommon for him to wander aimlessly into the middle of a battle."
Name: Swerve
Continuity: Generation One
Toy Line: Generations - Asian Exclusive
Size Class: Deluxe
Faction: Autobot

Strength: 6
Intelligence: 8
Speed: 6
Endurance: 8
Rank: 6
Courage: 7
Fireblast: 2
Skill: 7

Robot Mode

Swerve's robot mode is red and white, with some black and silver pieces spliced in to save it from being too bright throughout.

His torso is made from most of the front of his vehicle mode and features a grill design on his abdominal area, a raised chest (kept over from the Kup version of this mold who used a similar design in his War Within designs), and features some shoulder-pad pieces on the sides, which are topped by his vehicle mode headlights, and are also connected to his front wheels which are connected by a pair of connector pieces to add more decoration. His back-pack is made from his cab-area, including windscreen, hood and the clips to hold his rifle on.

His head is connected to the top of his torso by a small connector that allows it to rotate side-to-side as needed, and also nod a bit as well (plus he can fold his head back fully, but that's just for his transformation really). The head is formed from a round-ish red helmet with a silver face (sculpted with nose, chin, mouth and other small pieces). His eyes are sculpted and fitted with a light piping effect (activated from the back of his head), but it's been negated by painting the back piece black, and the actual eyes blue.

Swerve's arms are connected to his upper torso by a double-hinge-pivot connector that allows them to bend pretty much in any way desired. His upper arms are split in half by a pivot joint (where the black and white pieces meet) that allows them to rotate fully. His elbows are created by a double hinge again, allowing them to bend inwards at two near-locations. His lower arms are "guarded" by some panels of his vehicle mode (parts of his doors) and can be rotated as some shield weapons if needed. His hands are connected by a pivoting joint that allows them to rotate fully once again. The hands are also sculpted with fingers and a thumb, and are positioned to form a "hidden" peg hole for his weapons.

Swerve's legs are connected to his groin area by a set of ball joints, giving them a lot of kicking action, the upper legs feature a half-way pivot (like the upper arms do too). His knees are formed with a hinge point that allows them to bend either way by about 90 degrees each, he also features some knee-pads (just UNDER the knees however). The lower legs are formed from his holding area at the rear of the vehicle mode, with the feet formed by folding them out, giving him giant feet and some sprawled out heels at the back, allowing him to stand stable on most surfaces.

Vehicle Mode

Swerve's vehicle mode is a mostly red pick up truck with a silver bumper and grill, black headlights, engine hood, side mirrors, wheels and semi-translucent windows. The floor of the holding area at the back is white with a grilled effect as well.

Swerve features a large black Autobot insignia on his roof (sort of makes it obvious he's a robot in disguise of course). He is sculpted with a lot of decorative details (licence late area, door handles, doors etc) and also features a set of fully rotating wheels, and despite his gun being found on his undercarriage, isn't obstructed when rolling out. He also has an opening door at the back of the holding area so you can pretend you're loading it up for holiday or something.

Accessories

Swerve's gun is dark grey, with a white clip connected by a ball joint. The clip can be used to attach the gun to Swerve's back by a pair of clips (or in the same place in vehicle mode). The gun can also be clipped in the undercarriage to become a second exhaust pipe (albeit a different colour to the other one). The gun can also be inserted into Swerve's hands by the peg hole's by the handle, seen above.

My Final Thoughts

This figure is great.

I really enjoyed this mold when it was used for Kup originally, but with his new head and colour scheme, I'd say it's been improved greatly, and works very well for G1 Swerve. I think a major point why I like this figure is because of Swerve's new role in the More Than Meets The Eye comic series (of course it's not the same character model or anything, but he's still lovely). The only way to make this figure better would have been to have him come with a drinks tray accessory and maybe a back-drop of his bar from the series too.

If you can find this figure (IF) then I really do suggest you pick him up, he's so worth it. I got mine for £20 (which is cheaper than if I imported him from a website or something btw) so I'd say that'd be a reasonable maximum price for him (and his wave-mates).

A little side story though, I find it quite off that I got this figure, and his mold mate Kup both at different Auto Assembly conventions...strange....

Universe - Prowl

"As the right hand man to Optimus Prime, Prowl is right at home in the thick of the battle against the new Decepticon armies. Confused Autobots are scattered across the universe, easy pickings for the gangs of more organized Decepticons. As a dedicated administrator and logician, Prowl feels it is his duty to whip them into shape, and get them ready for a fight. It's only a matter of time until the Decepticons get themselves a real leader, and the Autobots need to be ready."

Name: Prowl

Continuity: Generation One

Toy Line: Universe 2.0

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 7

Speed: 7

Rank: 9

Firepower: 4

Intelligence: 9

Endurance: 9

Courage: 9

Skill: 9

Robot Mode

Prowl uses a mostly white masculine robot mode with black lowlights in some areas such as on the lower half of his torso, his lower "wings", knees, feet, lower arms and "collar". He also has some small red markings as highlights, such as on his legs, groin, chest and head chevron horns.

His torso is made up of most of the front of his vehicle mode, and with his windshield and front half of his roof on his back as some minor-kibble. He features a pair of shoulder missiles, homaging those he has in his G1 toy, and can be folded back if needed into his "back pack" depending on your personal preferences on his looks. His vehicle mode doors and sides of his front wheel's arch form his wing-kibble (which is much rounder than his G1 counterpart's was)

Prowl's head is connected to the torso by a pivoting joint on his "collar" that allows it to rotate on a full axis (exorcist style). The head itself consists of a white helmet with red forehead horns surrounding his white chevron, the helmet also features some sculpted details that are purely fro decoration, such as ridges and panels. His face is silver with sculpted mouth, nose and cheek-lines. His eyes are formed from a blue light-piping effect that is activated from a port on the back of his head.

Prowl's arms are attached to the main torso by a lever-hinge-pivot combination that leads to his shoulder-upper arm piece, which allows them to move as much as possibly needed (watching out for the wings of course). His front wheels are found on the backs of his shoulder pieces. The elbows are formed by a pivot-hinge combination that connects to the lower arm piece, allowing him to bend his arms inwards a little more than 90 degrees, and rotate on the pivot fully, if needed. His hands are connected to the lower arms by a clip that allows them to rotate fully as well. The hands are sculpted with non-moving fingers and a thumb that form around a peg hole designed to hold his supplied weapon, all ready for battle.

His legs are connected to his groin area by a pair of ball joints that give him a great amount of splits action, if wanted. His knee is created with another hinge-pivot combination that allows him to bend back his lower legs if needed (for when he's running away maybe). This knee-part connects to the larger lower leg parts by another hinge-style joint that can also fold back fully as well (mostly for transformation needs, not actually for posing...unless Prowl has four knees....) The lower legs are made from the rear of his vehicle mode and thus features his spoiler, exhaust pipes, back window etc. His feet are connected by a connector hidden behind the car parts and can be moved slightly by a bar it's connected to and thus can be placed on most surface types.

Alternate Mode

Prowl's alternate mode is a white and black police car based on his G1 incarnation's, but in a more modern style with red sirens, rear lights, front indicators and clear headlights. This mode also features some sculpted details like door handles, exhaust pipes, front grills, spoiler and other small details. The words "Highway Patrol" and "Police" are found on his doors. His windows feature an opaque black plastic that enables you to look inside, but not clearly.

His wheels are black plastic with sculpted tire-marks and a five-point spoke hubcap as well, which can move freely as needed across a smooth surface. His robot mode gun is found lodged in his undercarriage next to his head thanks to some small clips, but it doesn't hinder the wheel movement in any way (unless you place it in wrong)

My Final Thoughts

Prowl is actually quite a fun toy, definitely an improvement over the G1 version of his toy, so I would recommend buying him over the older version, he fits well with the other Classics-style figures (as you'd hope from a figure from that line). Also, despite being a different design, he still evokes the appearance of the older Prowl character model.

He's a little bit difficult to transform, especially if you're a bit young, but then again that's a trait of the figures released in this line, so they can have convincing looks in both modes.

This character model is used for Prowl's design in the All Hail Megatron storyline, and also in the IDW Ongoing series as well (albeit with some movie-like features in some places too) so he could easily be placed on any IDW shelf you might be making as well (if you do that)