Review: #77
Name: Prowl Elite Guard Version
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: EZ Collection (Volume 4)
Year of Release: 2010
Size Class: Legends
Variations: a repaint of the original Legends Animated Prowl (that was released as part of the Universe 2.0 line)
PACKAGING:
This version of Prowl was only released in Japan, and he was blindpacked, which meant that if you wanted this guy, it kinda sucked since it'll come down to luck (or if you buy the whole case, of which you'll get two of him). On the other hand, you gotta love the awesome artwork on the box which features the other characters from this volume.
VEHICLE MODE:
There are no mold changes here (not that you'd expect any from a Legends class), this is the same Legends Prowl bar a new paint job. He is now in a hypothetical Elite Guard deco, just like the Deluxe repaint that was released for the Tokyo Show. He is primarily white (clearly inspired by the G1 version) with some gold details.
Only one side of each wheel rolls, so he tends to slide on smooth surfaces. He can stand in vehicle mode, but a bit haphazardly. The 'kickstand' doesn't really work and more often than not, he will fall over to one side.
He keeps a very similar transformation, and you can see his hands at the back, but since they're black, they blend in (against all odds, against the white) just fine. There isn't too much to fault with this bike mode, sure, it's not the best, some of the proportions are off, but it's still a really decent effort.
You can just see his head poking through the arms at the top. Prowl is a tiny figure, very small and feels quite delicate. A good bike mode, there are better ones out there, but very solid.
TRANSFORMATION:
If you were impressed with the transformation of the Deluxe version, you would be impressed with this tiny figure. He keeps the same general transformation scheme, just simplified, but they don't dumb it down. It is really ingenious on how they handled it. They could have just fudged it and do it the lazy way, but no. The wheels become the shins, arms from the back and the bike becomes the chest. Amazing that they managed to pull it off in such a small scale.
ROBOT MODE:
Since he keeps a similar transformation scheme, he retains the same basic appearance. The wheels on his shins aren't as natural but still work very very well, and overall, Prowl is very skinny and tiny, even more so than when he was a bike.
The articulation is okay, the shoulders can only lift out which can be an annoyance at times, but the worse thing is that while he stands perfectly in a neutral pose, any attempt to have the feet a different way, and you cannot get him to stand upright.
Prowl has no kibble whatsoever, okay, maybe some negligible pieces, but its virtually none. This lets him achieve a very clean and elegant look.
For such a small figure, the head sculpt is well done, containing all of the important details and well painted to boot. The head is fixed though, and can only lift up and down as part of transformation.
As you can probably tell, I like this robot mode, a lot, it captures the essence of Animated Prowl really well and is so show accurate that it's ridiculous.
OVERALL:
Obviously, I'm pretty impressed with this figure. It packs a lot of ingenuity here, and you have to admit that it's ambitious of the designer to even attempt such a transformation here. Definitely recommend the mold, whether it's the Takara Tomy version or the Hasbro version.
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