General Information: Images:
*Images from Transformers.com.
Text from Transformers.com: Prepare yourself for a battle of prehistoric proportions with this awesome figure! Detailed robot-to-beast figure features a smasher ball and chain weapon in robot mode and converts to a claw-ready Pterodactyl in beast mode! Among the original five Dinobots, Swoop was unique in that he was the only member with an aerial beast mode. Unfortunately, he was also unique in G1 because his toy was probably the easiest to break in the original toy line. Surprisingly, despite how much kids love dinosaur-esque creatures (Pterosaurs aren't really dinosaurs) and flying things, another Swoop was not made until 2004's "Energon" line, and the results were shall we say, less than optimal (ok, it sucked). With the introduction of Swoop in "Animated", this aerial Dinobot finally gets a chance at having another figure, but are the results any better than before?
Beast Mode: Swoop is extremely thin, which is very nice to see. The designers definitely used the original Swoop as inspiration, the big giveaway being the head design which features a crest that sweeps back from the top of the head and a long, sharp beak (as opposed to a more rounded one found on some Pteranodons). This leads to a neck piece that goes to angled armor pieces which are clearly the robot shoulders. The front arms are connected to the wings, much like scientists believe a real life pterodactyl would have had. A tab secures each wing to the lower arm and each has three claws at the end. The robot legs also form the beast mode legs, with each larger in size than the arms and featuring angled designs and four claws on each. Swoop is cast in four primary plastic colors: dark grey, light metallic blue, dark metallic blue and gold. Most of the main body such as the arms, shoulders and legs are dark grey. His wings and the armor on his back are cast in light metallic blue. Smaller parts such as the upper arms are cast in dark metallic blue. Finally, his claws are cast in gold. Paint applications are done up in gold, dark metallic blue and silver. Gold is used for some other jagged points such as the blades on his shoulders and his beak. Silver is used for an Autobot symbol stamped onto the forehead of the beast mode and the metallic blue is used for the chest and waist sections on the main body of the beast. From looking at Swoop's fellow Dinobots, Grimlock and Snarl, you may wonder just where blue comes into play in the overall scheme of Dinobot colors when gold, red and silver/grey seemed to have been the primary colors of the original Dinobots. In fact, Swoop's blue color influences come from the action figure created in Japan for the Diaclone line that eventually was made into Swoop in the US (and later around the world). The Diaclone version of Swoop had a blue body in the center and a red crest. With that in mind, it is easy to see where that influence came from, and it is a nice nod to the origins of the Transformers toy line. While his form is sleek and thin, Swoop has some nice detailing. The head is sculpted with sharp teeth along the edges of the beak. The crest is sculpted in two sections, a long crest and two shorter parts at the base. Triangular holes are made for the eyes and if you look into them you'll see the robot mode's eyes peeking out from behind the holes, an interesting design choice that appeals to me due to its unique nature. My favorite sculpted details are circuit patterns on his back and wings. All these are lines set at angles on his back and then leading out to his wings and ending in circular points. It looks fantastic and really emphasizes the robotic nature of the creature. Swoop has thirteen points of articulation in this form. He can move obvious pieces such as his lower beak and his legs. I was also surprised to see that his heel claw on his feet can move as well. My favorite point of articulation are his arms and wings, which can move down and up in a flapping motion. In a (perhaps inadvertent) nod to a real life movement of the pteranodons, you can move his wings all the way down so he can do a four legged type walk using his wings and rear legs, something scientists believe the creatures may have done on land. Swoop comes with a "smasher ball weapon", a flail with a spiked ball on a chain. This weapon can connect to the pegs on Swoop's feet by inserting the peg into the screw holes on the ball of the weapon. It doesn't look particularly elegant, but it does give him a "storage option" for his weapon in this form. I really like this beast mode a lot. It has good posability, nice sculpting, cool colors with a nod to G1 and the toy that led to the original Swoop all at the same time. Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode: Swoop's colors from the beast mode carry over into robot mode, with light metallic blue used on the face and eyes. The dark metallic blue becomes more obvious here, especially around the chest and waist area. A bit more gold also shows up on the area around his face, making it look like his beak flattened during transformation and wound up surrounding his face. A tiny bit of black paint can be found on his mid-section, right above the waist. In robot mode, Swoop has twenty three points of articulation, a huge jump from the beast mode. This is partly thanks to the wings and neck/head, which add rather uncommon points of articulation to the figure. I was also happy to see waist articulation worked into the figure as part of the transformation since it could have been easily glossed over had the designers wanted to be lazy. Because Swoop's shoulder and elboe joints are ball joints, I was surprised how well he is able to hold up his mace weapon since it is positively huge compared to his arm size.
Final Thoughts:  |
|||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|
