Cliffbee.com Universe Animated Legends Prowl Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Prowl
Series: Universe
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Police Motorbike



MOTORBIKE MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 7cm Width: 2cm

   A brown motorbike with a beige front mudguard and fueltank area, Prowl has grey tyres and gold wheels. There's a red Autobot logo stamped above the front mudgaurd and rudimentary red and blue strobes on the saddle. The colours are a simpler version of those found on the deluxe albeit with a different mapping of the gold painted details. He looks pretty good although the colours here are a little drab and the stroberack is simpler than it should be - it barely looks like a stroberack.

   This bike is quite simple, with some cheats. The wheels only turn on the right side - the left side are actually solid cast. The kickstand just in front of the rear wheel is fixed in place and can only support his weight on one side - the left - so he can fall to the right if you're not careful. The fueltank has a gap in the middle through which we can clearly see the robot head.

   To be fair, the transformation scheme on this character is very unusual and to even attempt it on a Legends toy is ambitious, so I can live with these issues - even if they do bring the bike down a little. The colours work well enough and the paint job isn't cheap and sparse as is often the case with Legends toys. Prowl's clearly a police bike too, so overall this is a good bike mode.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Swing the wheelcovers down, pivot out as legs and fold the wheels down to form shins. Rotate the waist piece underneath the front mudguard and stand him up. Split the saddle to form arms, swing them down to his sides and rotate the forearms. Lift his head up and you're done.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 8cm Width: 4.5cm

   A brown robot with beige upper arms, hands and a beige groin, Prowl has the grey tyres as shins while the Autobot logo is on his waist. His face is grey with a baby blue eyestrip. This colour scheme matches that of the deluxe quite closely, although it lacks the throwing stars.

   This is a very lanky robot mode, but then that's how the character is. Prowl's distinctive wheels are present on the shins as mentioned, along with the wings behind his head which also features the giant jaw so characteristic of the Animated series. As I mentioned, there are no throwing stars and thankfully no stupid headlight weapon thing. The poseability is good with shoulders that lift out to the sides, ball jointed elbows and hips and hinged knees, providing for some good poses.

   A very good robot mode for a Legends toy, Prowl is well painted with a good bodyshape and well thought out articulation. There aren't really any negatives here.

VARIATIONS

   Prowl is sold either alone or bundled with Legends Starscream and Rescue Ratchet - this bundled version has a silver Autobot logo (thanks to christalcase for this info).

OVERALL

   A very ambitious character to attempt at Legends size. Amazingly, they pulled it off. The robot mode is excellent, the transformation is elegant and works without any real problems and the bike mode is solid. Okay, so the bike mode makes some compromises but it still works fairly well and is far from a failure. This toy is an example of what can be done with a Transformer that avoids any sort of gimmick, and is a Legends toy I definitely recommend - even if you dislike Animated - 9.5/10

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