Review – Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Prowl

The one thing I learned from the Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Prowl* toy can be boiled down to:

Screw the Transformers Subscription Service 2.0 Barricade. Seriously.

An Unexpected Find

A few days ago I reviewed the Transformers Subscription Service 2.0 Barricade (review here). A redeco of the Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Prowl*, Barricade was a nightmare to transform and play with, the arms constantly popping off and the transformation process annoying as hell. In my review, reader Paul commented:

“I’m actually a big fan of this mold. I have the Smokescreen and the Prowl, and now I have Barricade. He is by far the fiddliest of any of the deluxes from that line. I’m used to it now, so the transformation process isn’t as bad for me.”

When I stumbled across the Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Prowl* for under $10 I remembered Paul’s comment and decided to give the toy a shot. I must have missed something in Barricade for Paul to designate this as a toy he’s a fan of, and now that I’ve transformed Prowl and compared it to Barricade I can see what’s wrong with the Barricade toy: It’s a piece of junk.

Prowl Keeps His Arms

The biggest advantage Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Prowl* has over the Subscription Service 2.0 Barricade is that fact that Prowl’s arms stay on during the transformation process. Not once did the arms fall off, and that tiny feature makes the transformation — while still more fiddly than it needs to be — survivable and interesting. Amazing. A toy that doesn’t fall apart is more fun than one that constantly falls apart.

The above shot shows Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Prowl* and Barricade and, as you can tell, Barricade wasn’t completely transformed. After thirty minutes of trying to get those arms locked down into place I quit even trying and transformed Barricade back into robot mode. Those arms just refuse to lock in without falling off.

Nicely Poseable

Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Prowl* has the wider range of poseability that we tend to get with today’s Deluxe-scaled Transformers, with the joint breakdown as follows:

• Head – Ball-jointed neck.
  
• Torso – Swivel waist.
  
• Arms – Ball-jointed shoulders and hinged elbows.
  
• Legs – Ball-jointed hips, hinged knees, hinged feet.

That’s not a ridiculous amount of articulation, but it’s enough articulation to make things fun and to make the toy far more poseable than most of the Transformers toys I had when I was a kid.

Closing Thoughts

After the disaster of the Transformers Subscription Service 2.0 Barricade toy (review here) I’ve gotta admit that this Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Prowl* is a fairly neat toy. I love the physical appearance of the toy, but I still feel it’s an overly complex transformation design when it comes to how the arms collapse into the body.

I do not at all regret buying the toy, but I don’t like the design enough to grab the Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Smokescreen* that I saw when I found Prowl. I cannot recommend that parents buy this for children, but collectors who like the look of the pics and can find the toy for $10 or so should take a chance on it.