Behold, the future of Transformers!  Movie toys!  I’ve only found one so far and it’s a character that doesn’t even appear in the movie.  It is however one that I was looking forward to picking up.  Let’s give a big hand for, Movie Swindle.

That name unfortunately kind of really sucks.  Mostly from the standpoint of “Swindle is a Jeep”.  Also Swindles is “part of a combiner team”.  I guess Hasbro is running short on names it holds trademarks for.  Personally after the recent Alternators release, this toy feels more like a Rumble or a Frenzy. In theory Swindle is a Saturn Ion, but there isn’t anything to directly link this toy and the likeness isn’t 100% like say, Barricade or Jazz.

The likeness could however be a bit off due to how poorly this toy fits together.  Even straight out of the package.  If you get the front part of the door panel in place, the back won’t fit.  Get them both and the hoot doesn’t quite mesh.  Or the rear window on the trunk.  There’s just too much that doesn’t mesh properly and not enough pegs to hold it.  The vehicle mode was part of what sold me on this toy but it looks ugly in person.  This isn’t helped by the rear which is flat out boring. 

I’m sure half of this bland look is to accommodate the gimmick.  Press a button and a jet booster… thing… pops out.  It looks more like a booster when it’s pushed in with the trunk “spoiler” up.

Transformation on this guy is a bit of a highlight.  It certainly is unique.  The car kind of folds up on itself and the legs uncurl interestingly to form the alien movie style legs.

You’ll notice I said the transformation was a “bit interesting”.  The bit part comes in because what good is a transformation is the end result isn’t all that great.

From the inset head and the massive “Belly Gun”, this guy just screams “Mass Produced Drone”.  The proportions are all off as well which helps push this idea.  The shoulders sit extremely low and he has literally no neck.  These aesthetics unfortunately make this one ugly toy.  His legs also have a strong ‘Chicken Walker” style but they don’t function in this manner.  This just goes to help the flat out ugliness of the toy.

Then there is is previous car mode booster.  In this mode it lands right in his stomach.  I can only assume it’s some sort of gun.  It’s not quite low enough to be horribly phallic but it’s not high enough to not come off as slightly ridiculous.

I can’t help but look at this robot mode and think this toy would be seriously helped by a neck.  Not an extension of the current design mind you, but replace that big chest block his head sits on with some sort of skinny post.  It would work for transformation too.  This would turn the belly gun into a chest launcher and the sides of the car’s front could become shoulder pads.  It might almost work.

As it is however, it doesn’t work.  Swindle is generally a pretty poor toy.  Nothing pegs in place where it needs to and the proportions are all off.  I’m a bit worried this will be a trend among the movie designs.  I, like many others was a bit wary of the style at first but it started to grow on me.  Once again, I’m worried.  I suppose that if the line is a bust, I’ll just have that much extra to blow on Star Wars junk.