On board the Lost Light, Swerve was able to open a bar unbeknownst to Ultra Magnus and Rodimus. Here, the ship’s crew could have a drink and unwind… or get blasted by Fort Max. The bar was aptly named “Swerve’s” after its proprietor, and it’s been one of the more charming elements of James Roberts’ More Than Meets the Eye. It gives Swerve purpose in the comic, and it’s the spot where many of the characters mix and mingle.
As soon as I had MakeToys’ Trash Talk (3rd party Swerve) in my mitts, I knew I had to put together a bar of some sort for him, but I had no idea what I could use that would serve that purpose. While perusing the forums at tfw2005.com, a member posted a pic of what he had used to create a bar, and it looked perfect. Naturally, I can’t find that post now and I can’t remember whose idea this was, but I took the idea and ran with it.
It’s a very simple execution and one that requires zero custom skills. All you need to do is march yourself straight over to your local Toys R Us store and pick up a few of these champion shelf-warmers:
I know you’ve seen these. They’ve been rotting on the shelves at my local Toys R Us stores for at least a year, and at this point they’ve been clearanced down to about $4, which means they’re perfect for some repurposing.
The Iron Man figure isn’t important — toss that sucker to the side. What is important is the stand. The stand is meant to showcase the Marvel Universe figure it comes packed with, and multiple stands can be conjoined to create a full circle that showcases the full Avengers team. All we need here is a half-circle, so four of them will do the trick. There are two Avengers stickers on each stand that can easily be removed (I just peeled them right off with zero difficulty), and once they’re gone, join the four stands together and voila — an awesome Cybertronian bar!
Now, this bar is not comic-accurate or anything; it just looks really awesome, especially when it’s all lit up. The original concept art for Swerve’s can be seen below, and it’s clear the actual bar is very different.
This makeshift bar is taking some creative liberties for sure, but strict accuracy wasn’t the goal here. The goal was putting together a cool bar for about $15. Mission accomplished:
The light-up feature in the bases is awesome and it looks great in any light.
I am a bit partial to it in dim light, however.
The base pieces themselves aren’t quite the right height to work with the average Transformers figure, so I’ve used a few of those bases that came with the Marvel Legends Avengers movie figures and some museum putty to fasten them all together. It makes the bar the perfect height for Swerve so he can sling some drinks for his crewmates.
It works great for my purposes and it’s become the centerpiece in my IDW Transformers display.
The best part is anyone can do this. All you need to do is take advantage of the clearance sale at Toys R Us. If strict comic accuracy isn’t an absolute must for you, then this bar will do the trick. And I don’t have the figure yet, but I imagine it’ll work great with the official Hasbro Generations Swerve as well.
So pull up a seat and enjoy a cold one at Swerve’s!