Reveal The Shield Legends Prowl
Prowl's only previous Legend was of his Animated Version. Looking at the Reveal The Shield legend, it's obvious that it's meant to be the 1984 Generation 1 Prowl. You might think it's a retool of Universe Legends Jazz: At first glance they look *VERY* similar, with the straight back door wings and the Transformation even down to the shape of the chest and the positioning of the screws. But looking closely almost every part is different. The only pieces that MIGHT be unaltered are the wheels and the inner shoulder joints linking the body and the arms which end in the shoulder's ball joint. The rear wheels move location on this design ending up on the arms and we get more articulated heels but that's it as regards functional changes.TF: fold up the chest piece to become the bonnet. Fold the feet in, bring the legs together and fold the lower legs up over the upper legs to become the back of the car. Fold the arms into place as the doors and the rear wheels.
Prowl was absent from Reveal The Shield (RTS from here in) Legends Wave 1 which contained Megatron, Starscream and Gold Bumblebee where all were two per case. Thanks to Hasbro UK we never saw that case in Great Britain! However those 4 toys reshipped in Wave 2, the box that actually did reach the UK, at one per case alongside Prowl and Trailcutter which were two per case. Needless to say Asda had a lot of Trailcutters and Prowls leftover for a while!
EZ-Collection Prowl
RTS Legends Prowl was the one "new" RTS Mould not used in Transformers Chronicle EZ Collection Series 1, I presume because Jazz was included and, as I intimate in the review they share, both toys are very similar. Jazz, being a more popular character in Japan, won it and Prowl turns up here.Save for swapping the rubsign for a painted Autobot logo RTS Prowl & EZ-Collection Prowl are identical.
This toy was released blindboxed in EZ-Collection volume 2 in a case with Generation 2 Optimus Prime & Starscream (RTS Legends Wave 1), Prowl (RTS Legends Wave 2), Hound (Universe Legends Wave 2), Rodimus (Universe Legends Wave 5), Generation 2 Combat Hero Tank Megatron/Archforce (a purple repaint of Tank Megatron from Universe Legends Wave 2), Skywarp (a repaint of RTS Legends Wave 1 Starscream) and Skywarp (Bluestreak/Silverstreak, a repaint of Prowl from RTS Legends Wave 2).
EZ-Collection Streak
The Prowl mould has two repaints: Bluestreak and Smokescreen and it was kind of inevitable one of them would get used as a repaint for the RTS Legends Prowl mould. Bluestreak won. Because he's Japanese he uses the Streak name and thus avoids all the Bluestreak/Silverstreak naming problems.From the Prowl colours black - be it plastic or painted - remains the same. White becomes a silvery grey *except* on the upper legs where it's now painted cherry red as are the horns on the head. Gone is the lightbar, but there's a square of grey plastic now occupying where it once sat.
He's slightly darker than what you might expect for Bluestreak but still a very good representation of the character.
Generations Bluestreak
So Bluestreak, whose EZ-Collection version had been in high demand by western collectors, made an appearance in the GDO Legends wave in later 2012. Initially solicited as a Chinese exclusive these toys were later imported into the US by Hasbro for exclusive distribution to the Toys R Us chain.Bluestreak isn's a straight import of the EZ-Collection version: The grey bodywork gets a darker grey stripe over the centre of the bonnet and the roof. In robot mode the entire body is painted dark grey, not just the lower chest, but the hands have been left silver grey the same as the bodywork.
Like all the other Generations Legends Bluestreak features some mould modifications to allow the toy to use 3mm Cyberverse weapons. He gains a 3mm hole in each door and a 3mm hole in the hand. He comes with a superb miniaturised version of the rifle the original toy had. Unfortunately the gun has pieces projecting from the top and the bottom which prevent it from being mounted on the car doors in vehicle mode. If the holes were repositioned upwards so they're in the windows this would allow the toy to attach the gun in vehicle mode and provide mounting points for it to use Cyberverse 3mm peg weapons as shoulder cannons in robot mode.
That one caveat aside Bluestreak is a very nice upgrade to the EZ-Collection version. The ability to hold weapons is always welcome in toys so I appreciate the C-Clip hands and additional gun.
Bluestreak shipped at 1 per case alongside 3 of Motorbreath (repaint & remould of RTS Legends Wave 1 Optimus Prime), 2 each of Thundercracker (repaint & remould of RTS Legends Wave 1 Starscream) & Hoist (repaint & remould of RTS Legends Wave 2 Trailcutter)
EZ Collection Gum Prowl
OK....Take the RTS Prowl.
Colour with a slight metallic sheen to the plastic and paint. Nice, but not as striking as the other toys in the Gum collection.
Add on the modifications for the GDO Legend Bluestreak - 3mm holes in the doors, 3mm c-clip hands. Woo, a gun holding enabled Legends Prowl - result.
One slight problem is that the holes on the doors lie within the area covered by the door graphics so there's a hole in the tail of the P on his left door and covering most of the E on his right. I can live with that if it lets me attach weapons to him. But the other problem is he doesn't come with the gun that Generations Legends Bluestreak has! Will someone please KO the Generations weapons?
Very decent, worth having.
Transformers GO EZ-Collection Prowl
I now have FOUR Legends Prowls.The Transformers Go version that arrived today is a bit odd. In car mode it looks like the original EZ-Collection version, but with silver grey windows rather than pale metallic blue. However when you transform is it you find Prowl has the 3mm C-Clip hands of the Generations Bluestreak modification.
What's happened here is the holes in the doors have been filled in. You can see marks where the holes would be but otherwise it's a flat surface once again with the wording on the doors over the holes.
I'm not keen on having lost the peg holes here: if he had a gun (and he doesn't - will someone *PLEASE* KO the Generations Legend Bluestreak gun?) you'd have nowhere to attach it in vehicle mode. And somehow the silver/grey windows don't work nearly as well as the blue ones did.
I await a future Generations version with door holes, original paint scheme and a gun for the perfect Legends Prowl.
Future Repaints
Smokescreen is the obvious choice here.
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