“We’ve got to find the 12 fragments of the Primal Key, unlock the Infinity Gate, travel sideways in time, defeat the Agents of Chaos, and restore order to the multiverse.” — Swerve
The Lost Light’s favorite barkeep has finally been released in the US as part of the Transformers Generations line and it is a massive relief. With the recent focus on IDW characters and designs in the Generations line, no current Transformers collection would be complete without Swerve because he’s been such a mainstay in the More Than Meets the Eye series, serving a duel role as comic relief and as the proprietor of “Swerve’s Bar,” the spot that serves as the meeting place for much of the cast and where much of the drama unfolds.
For at least a little while there, it was looking as though Swerve may have been a casualty of Hasbro’s cancelling the line, which has happened to other lines in the past. Rumors were claiming he was going to be an Asian market-only release, like the Rumble figure that ended up never being released domestically by Hasbro. Back in December, Swerve was very briefly available at Robot Kingdom, but when they sold out, there wasn’t a hint of availability anywhere else apart from eBay for quite a while. No big deal, but then the word “cancelled” started being tossed around. Immediately, even eBay’s slightly marked-up reserves sold out as fans feared the worst.
Thankfully, at this year’s Toy Fair, Hasbro announced that Swerve was still on the way, and a massive sigh of collective relief from Transformers fandom was audible all the way to Cybertron. And this month he’s finally hitting the pegs with wave-mate Cosmos, which is a joy to see. So is this figure worth all the bother? I’m happy to report that he absolutely is.
It’s awesome to be able to walk down the toy aisle at your local retailer and see Swerve’s smiling mug looking at you from the pegs. The artwork on his card looks to be lifted straight from the IDW comics; this is something I hope continues in the Generations line because I’ve become awfully attached to many of these characters, so to see Hasbro embracing the characters and their comic designs is a welcome trend.
These Legends Class sets are technically considered 2-packs because you are getting two figures, but it’s more like one figure and a triple-changing Target Master. In this set, Swerve comes packed with Flanker (who is actually the Micromaster Sky High, but had his name changed to “Flanker” for this set due to copyright issues).
Flanker/Sky High is a character from the later G1 years (debuting around 1990), and he hasn’t had much of a presence at all in Transformers fiction, so his pairing with Swerve does feel a little random. Not that that’s a big deal or anything because I’m willing to bet most collectors are going to be buying this set for Swerve, so Flanker/Sky High is going to be considered a pack-in extra, basically.
Swerve’s ‘bot mode captures the character from the comics nicely. The proportions and colors are definitely “Swerve,” but he’s not a straight-up plastic rendering of the comic character — there are elements here that serve as homages to the original G1 Swerve figure, most notably the off-white color of his torso and his silver upper legs. What we’re seeing here is Hasbro’s attempt to please both IDW and G1 fans, and they’ve managed to strike a nice balance that should please both camps.
Swerve’s head sculpt is full of personality, as it should be, but I find the facial expression they went with interesting. Instead of a big grin, we get an expression that looks to capture him in the middle of conversation — maybe being a little bit rude to, say, Hoist? Tailgate? Whomever his target is, the sculpt captures him at his sarcastic best.
There isn’t much by way of paint apps to mention, but what is here is mostly clean and sharp. However, when the paint job on his head is examined up close, flaws can be seen all over the place. Thankfully none of that is visible when he’s just standing on my shelf, so I’m satisfied with what I got with this figure.
In the above comparison pic, we’ve got MakeToys’ “Trash Talk” on the left, Generations Swerve in the center, and the original G1 Swerve on the right. The Generations figure looks to strike a perfect balance between the MakeToys and G1 figures, giving us a modern Swerve with clear ties to his G1 roots.
If you’re after a figure that accurately captures the character from the comics, the MakeToys figure is the one you want. Everything from his colors, his expression, his alt mode, and his accessories nail the IDW character perfectly. But if you’re not as hardcore about comic-accuracy, then the Generations figure will net you a very decent take on the character, and it will save you a good chunk of change ($10-$12 for the Generations figure as opposed to $70-$80 for the MakeToys 2-pack).
I love my MakeToys figure, but if I’m completely honest with myself, if I had purchased the Generations Swerve first, I’m not sure I would have bothered with the MakeToys set. I find that he meets all my “Swerve needs” almost as well as the MakeToys figure.
Flanker’s ‘bot mode colors are actually the inverse of the original Sky High figure, which is a curious design choice. Like all the smaller pack-in figures, he’s tiny, not very well articulated (arms move and that’s it), but the sculpt is surprisingly good for such a small figure.
Flanker’s gun mode does require your willingness to look at this and think “Sure, that’s a gun” in order for this mode to really work, but it’s not bad and works better than some of the other blaster modes we’ve seen in these 2-packs. I like that Flanker’s colors stand in contrast with Swerve while being held in blaster mode.
My only wish here is for Swerve to be able to wield Flanker with two hands. Swerve’s articulation is decent enough, but there’s sadly no way he can assume a 2-handed pose, which then compromises his ability to strike good poses while holding Flanker.
Speaking of articulation, in Swerve’s ‘bot mode we get:
- Ball shoulders
- Ball elbows
- Hinged head (only up and down movement, no swivel)
- Ball hips
- Hinged knees
It’s not a ton, but he’s got it where it counts. If I were to add anything, it would be articulation in his wrists and ankles — these are the only spots where I think he’s suffering from a lack of articulation.
One of the first things I did when I got Swerve open was to pose him with MakeToys’ “My First Blaster,” but unfortunately Swerve’s hands are too big to hold the blaster without help. In the above pic, you can see that I had to use some Museum Putty to make it possible for Swerve to convincingly hold the gun. With a little finesse it could be passable, but I was surprised to see that Swerve’s grip is so much larger than Trash Talk’s. This also means, of course, Swerve can’t hold any of Trash Talk’s drinks or his tray without help, but that’s just another opportunity for some creative posing, if you’re so inclined.
Swerve’s alt mode is a throwback to the original G1 alt mode rather than something that’s faithful to the comic’s Cybertron mode. Again, if an alt mode that’s faithful to the comics is what you’re after, then the MakeToys figure is the one for you. What we get here is an alt mode that is a nice modern update of the G1 vehicle.
It’s a clean-looking alt mode with just a hint of an unfortunate jigsaw-puzzle effect on his doors. Otherwise, Swerve’s alt mode looks great.
The truck actually looks a little more rugged than I’d expect for a character like Swerve. The G1’s penny racer look is more in keeping with his personality, but as an update to that original penny racer mold, I’m not sure we could have done better than what we’re seeing here. Maybe the character-to-alt mode incongruity we’re seeing here actually works as part of the character.
In the above pic we’ve got the (L-R) MakeToys Cybertronic alt mode, the Generations alt mode, and the G1 alt mode. There’s no more balance here — the Generations figure has completely eschewed comic accuracy in favor of being a G1 homage.
Flanker’s primary alt mode is a little drone shuttle that looks pretty cool. The sculpt is good, and what paint apps are there are sharp and clean. He could very well be my favorite of the pack-ins released up to this point.
Swerve is a must-have figure for fans of either IDW designs or G1 Transformers homages. He strikes a nice balance between the two (his ‘bot mode, anyway) and is one of the better and more satisfying releases in the Legends Class 2-packs line so far. He shouldn’t be too difficult to get if you’re after him — he’s packed four-to-a-case with Cosmos, so there should be plenty to go around, which is great because every Transformers fan needs this figure.