Tets' Toys and Shenanigans: Tokyo Toy Show exclusive, Elite Guard Prowl from Animated in my hands!

This is a re-colour of Animated Prowl, released at the Tokyo toy show 2010, it is a white version, which is out of continuity from the cartoon as Prowl never gets the chance to become an Elite Guardsman, but it is in theme with his concept art and the G1 colours of Prowl (although they were different colours). As a result, I was terribly terribly eager to get my grubby mitts on one, no matter the cost and I am pleased to say have. Whats he like?

Bloody good!

Now, before I forget, let me slap in a linky link to Derrick Wyatt's blog, as he was a character designer for Animated and has some artwork showing a white concept version of prowl here. Definitely an interesting read as he talks about the designs and how the models had to change for transformation. Love ya work Derrick!

I will come out and say it now. Transformers Animated is my second favourite series of Transformers. Naturally G1 is number 1, but Animated is following behind by the tiniest little whisker. If an Animated Omega Supreme toy was released, I think it would push it over into the number 1 spot. Prowl however was not one of my fave toys. His legs pop off all the time and he can be hard to stand up, however, he is very very articulate!

Wow, I really like that standing photo if I may say so myself. Looks quite cool, tough and relaxed all at the same time. Anyway, he can bend at the knees and thanks to transformation in the middle of his shins, around the tire, this combined with his ball jointed feet (making an ankle) gives him the opportunity for excellent balance. He comes with a couple of accessories that the normal Prowl came with, name 2 shuriken that fit into the wheels in his legs and a traffic light on a string. Yep, you read right. A traffic light... I guess it's due to the 'improvising on the weapon' skill that a ninja should have, but I would have preferred a sign post, as he actually would grab them and use it as a bo-staff in the cartoon. He NEVER grabbed a traffic light...

As you can see, he can be made to look quite dynamic. The only down point though, is all the ball joints are a touch loose. After this photo shoot, his hips were quite floppy, this I can fix with a coat of nail varnish, which I might have to do sooner rather than later. The shuriken have blades that have gears which allows you to fold them all away by pressing on one. They then fit into the centre of the tyres to form the spokes of the bike. Very nice and sleek and a great way of hiding the weapons!

Someone at work suggested it be used like a nunchuk-traffic light. Eer, Nunchuks are not very ninja weapons.

I was intrigued to see a bit of chrome paint for the gold on his backpack wings, but after more scrutiny, I am not sure it is gold paint. It seems the whole chest piece is a chromed plastic and the paint applied to it comes up nice and metallic. He has chromed headlights on the bike and I noticed a bit of peeled paint on his shoulder that reveals chrome under the white paint. Curious.

There is no light piping in his head, but his blue painted eyes work just fine in this case. Mine has a few paint decal problems, the photo above shows a grey blob on his nice white chin, and on his forearm gold stripes, he has a white blob as well. Nothing that ruins the looks too much, I guess his left side is his better one.

He is the same height as normal Prowl of course and a touch smaller than the inappropriately name Samurai Prowl. His arms can lean across his body as long as you carefully manipulate the shoulder joints a bit and he has quite good waist movement as well. Overall he is a flexible fellow, as a ninja should be. I really like the contrast of the figures, after having a look at them all together. I think it looks nice.

L-R Prowl, EG Prowl and 'Samurai' Prowl (sans armour)

The bike mode is somewhat plain, with the color of his eyes and cowl hidden, you mainly are faced with gold, whit and red of his siren lights, but even so it looks kind of regal and not too boring. Again, it makes a nice contrast to the others. He has a kick stand for standing and the shuriken fit snugly. The tyres would look odd without them in I think.

Woo Shiny lights!

The Elite Guard Insignia is nice and bright on his windshield, but I my one seems to look a little crooked. It could however just be my imagination. I don't really have too much to say on the bike mode. It stands nicely with the kick stand and rolls smoothly. The front wheel can get a little loose sometimes, but it is fairly sturdy.

Generally we have a fairly good toy with a nice use of colours to create and exclusive. A few bits feel a bit cheap with some paint in places where it shouldn't be, but considering how this was just made for a run with the Toy show, which runs for about 4 days I think, you can see why they would try to keep costs down. He eve comes in Prowl's box, with an "Elite Guard Version" sticker stuck on. Still very nice and as you can see by the volume of pictures I took, I am quite chuffed to have it.

Enough blabber, please enjoy my other pictures!