No matter how tied into a show or movie a Transformers line is, there’s always those random extra characters that never make the leap from plastic to screen. When I was a kid, I’d often wish the random Transformers figures that filled these lines had made it into media, mostly so I knew who they were beyond their bio notes, especially during Beast Wars, when pricey CGI meant that what felt like 75 percent of the line wasn’t on the show. But, I’d come to feel over time that those fiction-free randos are important for impressing your own traits on, and in terms of design and characterization, often feel more creative than what makes it into media. These days, we rarely see toyline-only characters, so they feel like a bit of a bygone thing.
Speaking of Beast Wars, here’s a favorite rando of mine that managed to survive all the way from my own childhood (a rarity, I wasn’t great at storing and maintaining my playthings). I found it while moving some storage around, and he’s been hanging out on my desk for weeks now, so I figured I’d write him up. It’s Prowl, who’s on-card bio note (another thing modern figures really lack) had him believe that he was a reincarnation of the G1 guy. He’s a Transmetal 2, from the final year of the toy line,after the designers had absconded with realistic animal modes, and switched to asymmetrical cyborg mutants (as was the style in the 90s). Since then, this specific Prowl’s had minor cameos in stuff, but mostly remains a rando (and what relation he may have to the original Prowl, or the other Beast Wars one that changed into a lion, is vague, confusing, and easily ignored). Regardless of who he is, let’s see how he holds up.
Owl Mode
Respect for the elders.
Deluxes have really never changed since the 90’s, and so this bird’s about in scale with your modern Generations ‘bot. This specific bird’s a cyborg representation of a Great Horned Owl, and there’s a lot to take in here.
See, outside of the bio-mechanical look, Transmetal 2’s were all about asymmetry, and so almost none of his sculpted detail is mirrored, with extra work going in to keep it all mismatched.
His shins, knees and thighs, his three-orbed chest, the backs of his wings, his tailfeathers, all over him, a concerted effort was made on him to ensure that no part of his design was symmetrical, and I keep noticing little details. His chromed parts, and clear red sides seem to be the only parts that are identical, and they still have impressive levels of intricate sculpt work on them.
His owl head in particular has got a cool cyborg thing going on, with one organic looking eye, and a translucent red panel hiding the other, more robotic eye. But even the organic eye has robotic patterns in it.
You can tell he’s smart because of his visible computer brain.
My favorite detail is the top of his head. It’s covered in a clear red dome, with a pile of circuits and technology sculpted inside it. When I was a kid, and played with my cousin, I pretended Prowl was the Maximal computer given a body, thanks to that dome.
He seems like the type to offer sagely, possibly cryptic advice to his commander.
Prowl’s got a ton of colors on him, to go with that sculpting. He’s mainly a light, greyish white, clear red, and chromed blue, with a few darker grey bits. On top of that, though, he’s also got a ton of tiny paint apps picking out his details, including beige on his chest and beak, yellow and black on his face, and different kinds of airbrushed fades on his horns, tail, and sides. Some of this paint has become worn with age, but he wears the wear fairly well.
He’ll thank you not to stare at his molting chrome. He’s sensitive about it in his old age.
Speaking of wear and tear, anyone who owned a Transmetal or Transmetal 2 can tell you that the shiny chrome parts found on every figure are a big problem, in that the chrome will chip, flake, and wear away over time, with minimal to no handling required, making mint loose figures virtually impossible to get. Sure enough, this copy of Prowl’s got tiny chips missing from basically every chrome surface on him, exposing either uncolored silver, or the milky white plastic beneath. But they’re minor chips, and many of his contemporaries had it a lot worse. It’s simply the cost of aging, and Prowl’s particularly busy design makes them blend in, and sort of work with him.
It’s a real mess down here.
In terms of construction, Prowl’s not as solid stable as he could be. His folded up robot arms are hiding between his legs and tail, and don’t really lock in, or have a set position, same with the blue panels on either side of his legs. This whole mass of stuff also leaves him a bit backheavy, making it easy for him to keel over backwards. That being said, he can rest on his tail just fine, so he doesn’t have far to fall.
His spinny head really want to assume positions like these.
His other stability issues are that his head spins a bit too freely, and his wings don’t tab down as well as they could. Still, the core of the figure is stable enough, and it’s not like Victory Leo, where the whole thing’s in danger of coming to pieces. That, and he manages to avoid the usual birdformer pitfall of having a robot body trying to hide in his belly (even the excellent Kingdom Airazor couldn’t avoid this), so I appreciate this different attempt at playing Hide The Person.
While this is no Kingdom Airazor, Prowl’s a bird with pretty good articulation. Outside of that too-freely-spinning head, his wings can unfurl, and flap backwards and forwards, meaning he looks good in flight and good at rest. He’s also got three joints in each leg, including ball-jointed ankle tilts, and despite that backheaviness, you can balance him leaning forward for a mid-flight pose.
For a moment, he forgot that he wasn’t a real owl.
His spring-loaded gimmick is weird, in a fun way. That loosely-spinning head is actually geared, and by pressing down on a grey tab on his back, you can spin it, kind of like the faces on the Earthrise Quintesson. It’s just a fun little thing to do with your hands. His other feature is found on the top of his head.
Spark is stored in the brain.
By rotating that computer-dome-thingie, you expose his Spark Crystal, plus some sculpted tech detail around it. It’s a green transparent marble with a Maximal symbol carved inside of it, a feature possessed by all Transmetal 2’s (with purple Predacon symbols for the other guys), meant to represent their mutated sparks, according to the show.
Transformation
Prowl’s nice and easy to transform, like most bird-formers. He does the typical head-to-chest thing, his legs unfold, and his arms flip out of their hiding place. Probably the most interesting thing about him is an unusually big rotation of the torso.
Robot Mode
There’s not too much different about this mode, at a glance. He’s got a robot head out, and his arms are now visible, but it’s mostly just rearranged owl otherwise, not that this is a bad thing at all, because all the same cool asymmetrical details are there, plus a few new ones.
Lightpiped side-eye.
His robot head’s interesting, in that it’s modeled after an owl itself, but with the beak reworked into a mouthplate. And in the name of asymmetry, he looks to be raising one eyebrow, or squinting, or giving you side-eye. He sees what you did there.
Two kings.
As for his arms, they remembered to make the details on his shoulders asymmetrical. His forearm details kind of vanish into the transparent red they’re cast in, but his left arm does have a slashing claw mounted above his hand. Usually, making limbs out of transparent plastic is a recipe for disaster, but unlike his chrome, these are still stable after all these years. In fact, for an old toy that was definitely played with, all of his joints are surprisingly, happily, tight and intact.
This is good, because his newly-freed legs have a lot more poseability, between the ankles, shins, hips, and waist twist, on top of the newly-revealed shoulder and elbow balljoints, and balljointed neck.
He does still have other stability issues, though. Mainly, his shoulder-mounted wings don’t actually peg into anything, and just sit there on his shoulders, ready to flop around without much provocation. That, and his owl head still likes to spin way too easily. But the whole package is overall more solid in this mode.
Good pose for a beam attack?
The only new feature he boasts in this mode is lightpiping for his robot mode eyes, which does look pretty impressive. Outside of that, you can still spin his owl head, and expose his spark crystal in the center of his chest. Looking at it now, I guess you could spin it, and imagine him shooting a beam out of his chest? When I was a kid, I always imagined his tiny claw could fire lasers, myself. Come to think of it, he really doesn’t have much of anything in the way of weapons, and no accessories. But somehow, that feels right for him. This owl seems more like a thinker than a fighter.
Except when he doesn’t have time for Rattrap’s sass.
Overall
I’ll admit that I’m attached to this guy from childhood, but, y’know, it’s a pretty good figure on its own merits. They put a ton of work into a very strong design and sculpt, and it shows in both modes. He’s unique, he’s quirky, he’s poseable, he’s got a lot going on, and there’s nothing else quite like him. He’s not as stable as he could be in either mode, and his chrome is going to chip no matter what, but the good outweighs the bad, and the uniqueness and charm outweighs that. And another good thing about randos: They tend to be cheaper to get your hands on than the people that made it onto TV, though, checking eBay, mint-on-card ones are still ridiculously overpriced.
He also seems like the type to keep the kids entertained with war stories.
Oh, also, there was a black repaint of this guy done as a same-character variant a bit later in the line, with a remixed colorscheme beyond a simple palette-swap. It’s cool-looking too, but I prefer this version, and I think the later one’s a bit less common, anyway.
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