One of the most impressive things about Hasbro's Transformers Animated line is how closely the toys match their animation models. Of course, Prowl seems a touch bulkier than his cartoon counterpart -- particularly when wearing the samurai armor -- but he retains his lanky robot proportions and simplified appearance in both motorcycle and robot modes, as well as certain details like the arrowheads on the back of the bike (which appear on his forearms in robot mode). The clear blue windshields even have some additional circuitry-like details which, while not seen on the cartoon, look uber cool. Anyway, Samurai Prowl isn't my favorite TFA sculpt, but he's probably the most impressive in terms of what Hasbro was able to accomplish with his appearance in both modes while retaining his ability to transform and considering that he comes with transforming sidecar armor to boot.
     If Samurai Prowl has one small problem, however, it's that tiny head! See, Prowl takes most of his parts from the original Prowl figure released sans armor, but Hasbro's retooled/remolded certain elements in order to accommodate the new samurai-style gear. For instance, rather than giving him an oversized helmet, Hasbro chose to shrink his head. While it looks fine when he's wearing the armor, poor Prowl looks like he's been stealing numbers in the Netherworld waiting room when he removes his gear. As such, although this Prowl can be displayed without the armor, you'd probably be better off grabbing the original (if you don't already have it) if you prefer the normal look.

Sculpt Score: 9 / 10

 
     As expected, Prowl relies mainly on cast black and beige plastic and bits of clear Allspark blue to get the job done. I was about to begin by writing that he only has one color of paint, but really he's got three -- the less prominent two being the silver Autobot stamp on his front and the bit of grey paint on his tiny elongated face. Gold is the color of the day, though even it's not all that dominant. The color shows up in more force in his bike mode -- where it borders the windshields and headlights, highlights details on the hubcaps, sides, and back end of the bike, and completely covers the seat areas -- but appears rather sparingly on his robot form; at least when viewed from the front, it appears only in small areas on his forearms, chest, feet, calves, what little of the wings you can see from a given angle... and that miniature crest on his tiny sunflower-seed head. It does appear more strongly on the armor, though.
     Still, it's not like a Transformer -- especially one with Prowl's simplified animated style -- needs a ton of paint, right? (I mean, whereas the Classics/Universe figures have enough sculpted details that they'd benefit from a wash or drybrushing here and there, all that would do with Prowl is highlight his seams and mold lines!) The cast plastic colors are an excellent match for the animation model -- and are in some cases an improvement, as with the clear blue areas of the armor -- and the gold paint is done really well except for a few fuzzy lines here and there. Heck, given the problems with yellow and gold paint that I've seen on other figures, I'm quite impressed by the excellent coverage Hasbro managed to get with it.

Paint Score: 8 / 10

      As you can see from the cluttered articulation graphic (and that's not even counting the few points of articulation on the armor), Prowl has tons of articulation -- and with true ball joints at the shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, and even mid-feet (although the ankles really only fit in three positions) he's capable of getting off quite a few poses. He can achieve even more poses if one makes use of the transformation joints, particularly the secondary knee hinges. In conjunction with the thigh swivels, the additional knee hinges actually allow Prowl to more/less replicate his "Processor Over Matter" meditation position! And while I don't recall Prowl using Energon chops at any point on the cartoon, the translucent lightbars can be swiveled around into that position for an additional cyber ninja technique.
     That said, the articulation's not perfect. Prowl lacks wrist joints, and the swivel neck and hinge at the base of his neck aren't terribly useful for tweaking his poses. The swiveling neck joint is even more ineffective with the armor, since the helmet pretty much keeps Prowl looking straight ahead. (In addition, the head itself feels a little wobbly... possibly because Hasbro shrank the head but used the same neck piece from the original figure.) Prowl's shoulders are also significantly hindered by his gear, which also limits the usefulness of the elbows since he can't raise them any higher than his waist. Unless Prowl finds himself battling Decepticon minibots, that forearm-mounted sword won't allow him to do much more than slash at thighs and ankles. At least the transformation joints on the lower portion of the armor do an adequate job of keeping the skirt from hindering Prowl's leg articulation.

Articulation Score: 9 / 10

 

Fun Score: 3 / 10

     Every time I take a non-clearance-priced Transformer to the checkout counter these days, I feel like an old man. "$12 for this thing?! Why, I remember when Transformers deluxes were $7.77!" Except that was only a few months ago, and there doesn't seem to have been any value added in the interim. In fact, Lockdown aside (I never could fix the problems with my pitiful Lockdown), Samurai Prowl is the most problematic Transformer I've ever purchased. He's also the most expensive deluxe I've ever purchased, which means that I can't give him anything above a very average score... even accounting for the dual modes and engineering that went into the figure. If the actual product is a fiddly, frustrating, limb-popping mess that won't hold together or stand upright without additional effort on the part of the consumer, it's not a great value.
     If you get a Samurai Prowl that's (much) less problematic than mine, however, you may feel compelled to give him a few extra points. He does have the sidecar/armor, and the wheel turns into a nifty sword weapon that pegs onto either arm, though it'd be more show-accurate with a wheel for each arm and the ability to spin the sword(s) out of the way. However, considering that this is an updated version of the original Prowl figure, you could easily skip this one unless you really want the armor. Samurai Prowl also has the shuriken embedded in the hubcaps, except they don't fold out and are so tough to remove that they probably aren't supposed to come out at all... so I guess he doesn't have the shuriken! You could swap these lumps out for the ones on the original toy, though.

 

Value Score: 5 / 10  

Summary

9 - Highly impressive approximation of the animation model in both vehicle, robot, and armored robot modes; minuscule legume head.

8 - Cast plastic colors effectively match or one-up the cartoon model; minimal paint but mostly clean and looks great.

9 - Lots of ball joints; transformation joints augment poseability significantly; samurai armor restricts neck/arm motion.

3 - Lots of loose joints; frustrating transformation results in limbs popping off and nothing pegs together correctly; nail polish/super glue, sandpaper/dremeling, and patience may be required to make toy remotely fun. Would make a child cry Decepticon-sized tears.

5 - Average value made worse by problems with this particular toy; not much new if you have original Prowl.

I really, really wanted to like Samurai Prowl... and in spite of myself I kinda do. Yes, his transformation is utterly hateful, and he required multiple fixes to get him up to par in robot mode, but now that he's there he looks pretty decent standing among his Autobot brethren. I wouldn't recommend him to a kid -- or even to a collector who doesn't own a dremel and doesn't know what you mean when you mention the nail polish trick (so if that part confused you, don't buy this toy) -- but fans of "Transformers Animated" who can find the figure and aren't completely averse to doing fix-up work might find him somewhat enjoyable... after the initial hatefest subsides.

[P.S. Leave a comment on this review for a chance to win a toy at battlegrip.com. Comment must be received by midnight on June 27th to be eligible. -TAO]