Review – Transformers Animated Swindle

“Swindle is a one-robot black market. He’s only a Decepticon by default, since they’re the ones who most take advantage of his unbeatable deals on armor, weapons, and combat systems. If it shoots, explodes, or focuses light into a beam intense enough to melt high-grade armor, Swindle will sell it to anyone.”
— from the back of the card

Okay, first thing I have to say is that Swindle may still have his original name — and even his original basic backstory — but, like Tankor/Octane (who I reviewed last week), someone at Hasbro screwed up when they “updated” him to today’s market. You see, Swindle was once a part of the gestalt team known as the Combaticons, a group of badass Decepticon military vehicles who merged into a single awesome robot known as Bruticus. Today, though, in the Animated series, Swindle is all by himself. Poor, poor Swindle. Hell, at least the Transformers Universe Bruticus (reviewed at Turquoise Version) got the basic concept right.

As a child I owned the original Swindle; Easter, 1986 — in addition to the usual candy and other unnecessary sweets (no doubt part of the reason I so love candy corn these days) — I was given Swindle. You see, as a child my family used Easter as a sort of miniature Christmas in which we would get small gifts and that year was the year I was — like many my age — a Transformers fan. Specifically, by that time I was primarily collecting Decepticons since another kid in the neighborhood was focusing on Autobots (it wouldn’t do for us to both wind up with the same Transformers, so we basically made a pact that lasted for all of about five months . . . hey, that was a long time in those days; for the record, I broke the pact when I used summer money to buy Metroplex).

The original Swindle was small, inexpensive, and rather lame looking. He had a tiny head, a box-like body, stubby legs, and arms that looked ridiculous. Mark Bellomo’s Transformers Identification and Price Guide calls Swindle’s robot mode:

” . . . a bit short, stout, and boxy.”

That’s rather generous, in my opinion. If anything, the original Swindle looks stupid. Fortunately, that’s not true with this new Swindle toy.

Vehicle Mode

As with the original Swindle, this newer version of Swindle is a sort-of military jeep with a large cannon. The only real difference between the two vehicle modes is that the newer Swindle looks more like a modern day military jeep (a bit like a Humvee, actually) while the older version was an open air model. That and the new one looks great in vehicle mode while the old one looked almost as stupid as its robot mode. Looking back at the original Combaticons I’ve got to say that the only one that looked halfway decent was Brawl, and even he was a bit goofy. Man, some of those older Transformers toys really don’t stand the test of time.

Swindle’s almost a good toy truck, with rolling wheels and a giant gun, but the fact that bits of the vehicle drag prevent him from being a great toy truck. He holds together well in vehicle mode, with most of the pieces snapping tightly together, but when it comes to display time you’re really going to be happier with Swindle’s . . .

Robot Mode

This is where Swindle goes from being an almost good toy to an excellent, fun toy with some great poseability and a fantastic design. Swindle’s solid, with tight joints and a lot of articulation which allows him to stand in a wide variety of poses — the old Swindle could stand stiff and raise his arms up and down — and the false truck design (hidden underneath when in vehicle mode) for his abdomen combined with his cute face design really helps drive home the animated look.

Swindle’s got a few painted details but mostly he’s just molded in olive-colored plastic and some translucent purple. I have to agree completely with the review at Turquoise Version:

“I love the translucent purple. There’s no reason for it, but it’s a nice touch that works and enhances the toy. It doesn’t take anything away and in terms of personal story and imagination, you can always pretend the Vok have given Swindle a more energy based body or something.”

Swindle, as with the other Transformers Animated toys that I’ve picked up, looks as great in robot mode as any Transformer toy that I’ve ever seen and is better than most releases. He’s balanced perfectly, can be posed in more positions than anything from the 1980s line, and is overall a great toy. One slight problem with him, though, is that the prices on this Deluxe Class series have spiked in the last few months; these were $8-$9 in December but now most of them are $12-$13 — for the exact same toys. In a recession unnecessary extras — like toys — shouldn’t spike in price if the manufacturers want to keep the toys moving, but someone at Hasbro must know more than I do.

Closing Thoughts

Even though I was at first opposed to Swindle, his excellent design — and comparing him to the original toy from 1986 — won me over. This new Swindle is the best-looking Transformer to ever carry this name and, with luck, Hasbro will get to work on producing the other four Combaticons. And if they happen to combine into Bruticus . . . well, that would just be icing.

Swindle’s only real drawback is the price; even the dragging bits in vehicle mode doesn’t hurt the toy all that much, since most of the time I’m going to want him in robot mode rather than truck mode. If you spot Swindle at the old price — $8 or so — he’s worth grabbing. At the more recent prices, though, you should only grab him if you absolutely love this new character design.

I do.

For more opinions — and photos — take a look at review at Turquoise Version and this review at www.cliffbee.com.

Philip Reed wishes that Hasbro would get with the program and release the other four classic Combaticons in the animated style, but that looks pretty unlikely.