Name: Prowl
Series: 6" Titaniums
Allegiance:
Function: Strategist
Alternate Mode: Cybertronian Police Cruiser
Thanks to kup for loaning me Prowl for this review.
POLICE CRUISER MODE
Height: 3.5cm Length: 13cm Width: 15cm
A black skimmer with white front fenders and wings towards the rear, Prowl has silver details here and there and a transparent blue canopy at the back. There are red and blue strobe-themed painted details in a few places and a silver star on the front left fender sporting an Autobot logo, simulating a police badge. The colours are fairly close to those of the original, albeit with more black which I guess brings things closer to the typical US police car. It's an attractive colour scheme which suits the character well, and the painted details are well considered, including details such as silver headlights and those strobe themed elements.
I say this is a skimmer because it has wings and no wheels. I'd expect Prowl to hover just above the ground - the wings are really just winglets and would stabilise Prowl without providing enough lift for true flight. There are silver turbines at the back offering thrust, mind you. The centre of the vehicle is quite gappy, which wouldn't bother me except that there are pegs located just inside the front fenders which ensure those fenders can't sit flush - so he's gappy and permanently slightly out-of shape.
There is no play value here, and while most 6" Titaniums are designed with display value in mind, a complete dearth of vehicle mode play value is unusual. The sculpt is good, as you'd expect from this line, although the gappy area in the middle has a little too much kibble for my liking - at least it's black.
A great idea hampered by poor execution around the middle. The permanently out of position fenders are annoying, the gaps in the middle only serve to accentuate the fender issue and there's a distinct lack of play value - not even a gun to attach somewhere. He still displays fairly well, but only at a glance - the problems are quite visible close up.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Unclip the wings from the rear section. Extend, split and rotate the rear to form legs, flip up his feet. Pull the front fenders out to the sides, pull the front forward slightly and rotate to form the chest, flip out his head. Swing the rear parts of his fenders out to form the arms, rotate his forearms. Swing the winglets up over his shoulders and rotate so they face forward.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 16cm Width: 14.5cm
A black robot with transparent blue windows on his boots, grey forearms, while shoulderpads and a white head, Prowl has a silver face with blue eyes and red antennae, along with a yellow crest. The wingpods hover above his shoulderpads as silver missile launchers. While there's a lot of black here, there's still a strong semblance to the original toy, with those windows on his boots and the front of the vehicle running across the line of his shoulders. His head is also fairly similar to that of the original - although I'm not sure where the yellow from - and the floating missile launchers are also reminiscent of G1. The red and blue strobe theme continues here while that Autobot logo badge sits on his left shoulderpad.
While the are some nice markers of the character here, there are also proportion problems. His shoulders are very, very wide, since the fenders sit as shoulderpads between his torso and his arms. The missile launchers float a full inch above the shoulders, on sort of posts. Together they really give Prowl a distorted look, and it's not a look I'm comfortable with. His legs are well proportioned and the windows on the boots look good. The torso looks gappy, although this isn't actually the case - there are gaps between Prowl's actual torso and those shoulderpads.
The poseability here is okay - the articulation is good but many arm poses just don't work well. The head is fixed while his waist rotates. His shoulders swing and lift out to the sides while the elbows are hinged with rotators. His hands are fixed, and they form closed fists - again Prowl lacks a weapon accessory - he relies on the overhead cannons. His hips swing and lift out to the sides while the knees are hinged with rotators in the thighs. His feet move a little and while he lacks heelspurs, he has large footprints which help anchor poses. The die-cast metal in this toy is present in the boots and chest - and there's far more mass in the boots than chest, so Prowl is quite bottom-heavy, so he's stable in a wide array of poses.
While the idea is nice, the weird shoulder setup and unusual weapons - along with the lack of a handheld weapon - hold Prowl back. Again the colours work for the character despite the addition of more black, and there are some nice character elements such as the front of the car and the windows on his boots, but they're not enough to save this robot from the awkward proportions. His poseablity is good in the lower half and hampered in the upper half, so it doesn't really benefit Prowl's display value.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
As with many 6" Titanium toys, Prowl suffers from flaws that should have been ironed out. The poorly-aligned vehicle mode and badly placed arms in robot mode hamper a toy a lot of potential. Granted he doesn't suffer the paint issues of some earlier toys in the line, but the lack of a weapon is an issue carried over from some of the earlier toys. The colour scheme and tribute are good and the vehicle mode is a nice idea, but the flaws really hurt his display value. Considering his relative scarcity, I'm not convinced by this toy - 4/10
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