Swerve and Flanker

Review by Dkun

When Hasbro announced that they would be doing several of the IDW characters and designs in the Generations line, I was pretty excited about the promise of many fan favorite characters getting toys. When Hasbro announced that they would be doing both Tailgate and Swerve in the Legends 2-pack line, I was no longer just excited, I was ecstatic. As two of the cutest and memorable characters in the current More Than Meets The Eye comic series, I was determined to get them as soon as I saw them. Now that I have Swerve, I have to say I'm pretty happy so far.

Much like his original toy, Swerve is a tiny red truck. This is one of those toys that in pictures looks like it could be much larger than it actually is. There's a lot of nice sculpting on this chunky little truck, and I especially like the gas tank lid on the right side of the car.

That's about it for the truck mode to be honest, there's not too much to it. I do have to say that it rolls incredibly well though.

Like all of the other Generations Legends, Swerve comes packed with a little partner named Flanker. Flanker is a tiny ship, which to me looks like it could be a drone or something of some sort. At least that's what I get from the fact that it has no cockpit or anything.

A slight bummer for this toy is that there is no combined mode or feature for Swerve and his partner. The best you can do is peg Flanker onto Swerve's rooftop so that he can fly, I guess?

Transforming Swerve is easy, like incredibly easy to the point where there's nothing really neat or smart about it. This is one of those toys I can transform with just one hand in under 30 seconds. It's nothing new, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun to do.

The end result is a very comic accurate version of everyone's favorite bartender who can never shut up. I have very little complaints with the robot mode. It's pretty spot on and nothing major wrong with it.

Swerve is perhaps one of the most characterful Transformers toys done in a long time. Just look at his cheeky grin! He even looks like the sort of guy that would annoy everyone.

The articulation on Swerve is pretty good, though not quite up to par with Cosmos. His shoulders, elbows, and hips are ball jointed and his knees are on swivel joints which have a very wide range of motion due to his transformation.

One of my favorite tiny bits of articulation is that his head can actually tilt up and down! That means you can have this guy look up to normal sized toys like Skids and Trailcutter. Unfortunately, that also does mean that he doesn't have a neck that can look left and right though.

Also it's worth noting that this guy has some of the most powerful crotch thrust I've ever seen.

Swerve's partner Flanker is a very neat little Targetmaster buddy, and he's one of my favorites so far. You transform him to robot mode just by standing him up on his legs and them moving the wings backwards. His robot mode is just very nice, with a powerful stance and a neat little head.

But what really makes Flanker shine is his weapon mode. You basically pull his robot mode open before repositioning the entire body forward into a gun position! The end result is a freaking three-barreled gun that looks way too dangerous for Swerve to be handling.

That's not to say it doesn't look right at home in Swerve's hands. Just make sure he doesn't point the gun at himself.

Swerve is a pretty nice toy all things considered, even if he isn't as good as Cosmos yet. Regardless of that, I think that Swerve and Cosmos as a wave are two of the best Legends done so far. I think it might have something to do with the fact that these characters and toys are supposed to be smaller toys in the first place, unlike Optimus or Megatron. The scale feels more natural and fitting with the rest of Generations toys and fills out a cast more effectively. So yeah, Swerve? A great representation of the Lost Light's loudmouth. If you want a cheap fun simple toy, I would definitely check him out.