*looks through his site to see what he said about the Swerve that's getting summarily replaced*  Huh.  Apparently my verdict was "he's red."  Well!  

This new one's red, too, in addition to being (almost) perfect.  Swerve's always been pretty cool!  He's a Transformer who can't drive, despite being a car.  He never really got any good fiction, like, ever, though, so all he's had to go for him all these years has been that Tech Spec write-up.  Until recently, that is!  The "More Than Meets The Eye" ongoing comic book series (which you may have heard me talk about for forever and ever) has thrust him into the spotlight as an insecure loudmouth jokester.  And he's pretty great.  And this Legends Class toy is really really good at looking like that Swerve does.

Sure, the toy transforms into an Earth vehicle instead of the Cybertronian car he does in the comic, but that's details.  What's important is that he's a tiny ball of annoying energy and that perfectly sculpted little always-yackin' face of his.  Even his toy can't keep his mouth shut.  

He transforms pretty simply, as you'd expect.  Unfold his legs, pull out his arms, and collapse his hood back over his roof.  Remember to push forward his head from his shoulders so he's not staring at the sky.  I mean, you can have him do that, if you want -- he's pretty short, and so up articulation on his head comes in handy sometimes.  This articulation means his head can't turn left and right, though.  That's no big deal.

Up there, I put (almost) in parenthesis in front of "perfect."  The only thing that keeps him from being so, really, is that I really wish he were sculpted with fingerguns.  You know, index fingers out, both of 'em.  That woulda made him perfect.  Dude needs some third-party forearms.  

Swerve comes with a little Micromaster dude who's basically Sky High but named "Flanker" for trademark reasons.  Sky High transforms from robot to weapon to jet and back.  I know less about Sky High as a character (there's not much to know) so I'm less excited about him.  Here's a gallery on Tumblr if you wanna look at him and more of Swerve.

I got mine from RobotKingdom.com.  He's not in the United States yet.  I'm sorry, but you have to wait.

Goddammit, I hate when I can't find a vintage toy to photograph alongside my updated version.  I know my Swerve is SOMEWHERE.

So Asia got these exclusive Transformers and we're getting them later as exclusives blah blah blah, and Swerve was one of them.  I want more than him, but he was what I was able to order, which turned out okay, since I'll be able to get the rest for domestic retail price anyway.  I'm only paying import prices for Swerve.  That news of them coming stateside came just in time.  (I got mine from TFSource, btw, which is one of the big sponsors of TFWiki.)

Long, long ago, Swerve was a truck.  Then he was a car, then another car, and then even more cars. This is the first truck he's been since the original, unless I'm having a brain fart.  He's Generations Kup with a new head, the alternate one featured in Kup's instructions.  And he's, y'know, in Swerve colors.

He's not nearly as awesome as my Kup, not gonna lie.  First of all, Kup has always been one of my favorite characters and his toy here has been on my desk for a year because I love it that much; second, mine has a cigar 'cuz of that third party head I got; and third, he's a glorious combination of brilliantly saturated teals since he's the e-Hobby release.  Swerve's combination of red, white, black, and light gray is very attractive, but it's not friggin' teal, y'know?  Teal is the friggin' bomb.  Swerve's use of this mold isn't bad, not by a long shot, he's just not the best use of this mold.  That'd be hard anyway, so I don't hold it against him.

The weird thing about Asian Swerve (and the rest of his Asian-exclusive toyline) is that while his packaging is completely English... the domestic-release ones displayed at Comic-Con had Chinese all over them.  I guess maybe they think kids will think that's neat?  Maybe!  I really have no idea.