So glad I held out on the original for this guy. I can live without the stars (although why they were nutered is still a WTH reason whatever it is probably), and the wheel being a little inacurate, as long as the armor works for the most part. I can't wait to pick this guy up and pose him next to my first-run Lockdown. And have them hunt down my future Animated Sunstorm together. 

 

dang hasbro and there need to sell toys the ninja stars wouldnt open so you would have to buy the original...but otherwise i must have him and great reveiw peaugh

 

I'll be picking him up for sure. I may try to track down some spare shuriken from the original one.

 

If you've got some time could you please give an image of it if you're not too busy.   Thanks. ^^;

 

Looks awesome.

 

Wow. I'm going to have to pick this guy up. The removable armor is a plus too.

 

Well, not captured, but at least cornered:

Sure. It's not SUPER stable, it's mostly using the spoiler bit on his elbow to stay in place, but it's doable:

 

I'm sold...he will be mine as soon as I can find him.  

If it isn't any trouble, can you take a picture of Samurai Prowl with the core Autobot cast?

 

Sure!

 

I received this guy today along with Wreckgar and Waspinator. He has quickly become my favorite Animated deluxe, with Blurr now in second place. However, there are a couple of things I'm not too fond of. I would have liked for his hands to be painted and for the "pockets" on his thighs to have been molded in the same color plastic as the original Prowl instead of black. Also, he can't turn his head while wearing the helmet. Other than that, this is an excellent figure and looks good among the other figures from the line.


Quick Update: I added a Reprolabels autobot insignia, and IMO looks much cooler

 

Tracking shows HTS shipped him out along with Waspinator on Friday...
Looks like I'll be getting him tomorrow morning!


  HTS

 

i got mine saturday and have yet to put him down i loved the first prowl alot but this one is just well..... awesome i got him and waspy together and i have to say prowl is the better fig but i love waspy but ill leave that to its thread for me this prowl is an easy 10/10

 

Have to admit wile I'm not a fan of Animated this is the kind of mold upgrades I like to see as admittedly it does make him look pretty neat.

 

Got him today and the sidecar add-on alone made this one of the most fun figures to transform.

Downer is that, like Peaugh mentioned, the sidecar wheel doesn't split into a shield for one arm and sword for the other despite it showing that it can on the back of the packaging.  

Oh and for some reason the front wheel is incredibly annoying to get to stay still in motorcycle mode. The little latch on the top of the wheel/knee that's supposed to latch on to the bottom of the handlebar area does not want to stay in.  

The shuriken not being able to open up is a "wha?" as well.

But overall, one HELLUVA upgrade to Prowl.

 

Agreed.

 

It's an impressive upgrade to Prowl, to be sure. The unfortunate side is the compromises the remolding and redistribution of paint apps has caused to the base mold. In some cases it helps, like the knees have a better (unmodified) range of motion here, but on the other hand the shurikens are now inoperative chunks and Prowl is an absolute pinhead when not wearing the armor helmet. I do appreciate that the armor sidecar stays all in one piece instead of part-forming (with the exception of the wheel-sword), though the transformation process is a bit fiddly and occasionally frustrating in my experience.

Overall, while I like the idea, and appreciate the work that went into this toy, I think I'll get more out of this trying to kitbash with the original Prowl toy for an ideal specimen.

 

The armor piece doesn't fail. IT feels very well thought out. It reminds me a lot of City Commander Armor for ultra magnus. S. Prowl retains a lot of his articulation and the shoulder pads can also be adjusted to move with the shoulder. Great for dynamic poses.

The helmet is kind of restricting, you can't turn his head, but it can look up. Luckily the helmet is on a ball joint, so you can pull it off and place it on prowl's head when it is turned.

There were complaints that the helmet didn't fit entirely on prowls heads, noticeably the eyes were still showing under helmet. But it's not the case if you fiddle around with it. I got it to only show his chin.

One major thing that bugs me is that prowl's stability with the armor on is decreased. I guess the backpack armor is a little top heavy for him. If hasbro gave S. Prowl foot heels, it would make this figure a lot more stable for dynamic poses.

Overall S. Prowl is a very well thought out figure and the modifications from the old prowl are very nicely done.

 

This is, I think, the first remold I've ever had that completely solved every issue I had with the first release. Better leg articulation thanks to seperated ball joints for the hips. The leg armor no longer impedes movement. The joints, at least on mine, are tighter and hold together better. And the wings on the back fold up like in the toon.
The single downside is the loss of the stars, but fortunately, I purchased two original Prowls for just this reason so I'm good.

This is now one of my all time favorite transformers. He's absolutely wonderful in all modes.

 

When I get this toy, I'll swap arms and shurikens with the original, and leave out the armor.

 

For more pics click on the image above

Robot Mode: Let's get the shorter part out of the way first: The actual Prowl robot is mostly, though not completely, identical with the first Animated Prowl figure. His head is slightly smaller (to accomodate the helmet), he has a bit more black on him, and the windshield of the motorcycle on his chest is tinted blue. His knees are slightly different, too, which makes it a bit easier to bend them. The wings on his back are now jointed, so they can angle upwards, a necessity for attaching the armour. And finally, the hubcaps on his legs, which form his throwing stars are... messed up. They're identical to the first ones except for the colour, but the three blades can't extend. They're actually welded in place. Don't ask me why. I don't know whose idea that was, but it was a pretty bad one. Thankfully Samurai Prowl is fully capable of using the original Prowl's throwing stars and those fit on his legs as well.

The real reason for this new version of Prowl is, of course, the battle armour he comes with. It's basically a rucksack with an attached helmet, shoulder pieces and hip guards. Additionally there is a new weapon, a long Samurai-style blade which unfolds from the big wheel that Prowl can attach to his arm as a shield. Look-wise the armour and weapon fit Prowl very nicely. The shoulder pieces integrate seamlessly with the rest of his torso, the helmet fits well on his head (though he can no longer turn it now) and the blade also looks very nice. So absolutely no complaints in terms of look.

Much like a real suit of armour would, though, the pieces somewhat restrict Prowl's awesome posability somewhat. His legs can still more freely, as the hip pieces can be pushed aside whenever necessary, but his arms are hampered by the shoulder pieces. The connection to the rucksack actually goes under his arms, so while he can still move his arms sideways, moving them forward is almost impossible now. He can bend his elbows, of course, but he can't angle them forward at the shoulders.

So the bottom line here is: Awesome look, but some minor points deduction for the hampered posability. And really, what's up with those throwing stars? Whose idea was that?

Alternate Mode: Prowl still transforms into a motorcycle, of course, and the changes to it are the same minimal ones I've mentioned above. More black, blue-tinted windshield, that's pretty much it. Much more interesting is the samurai armour, which folds together quite nicely into a side car for the motorbike. Here, too, the look integrates very nicely with that of the main figure. The side car plugs into two tiny slits in the bike's side and is pretty stable there (and provides more stability to the bike in turn, of course). I'm not sure someone could actually sit in it, seeing as the helmet forms the interior (or rather just fills it up), but the look is spot on.

Not really a whole lot more I can write here. The side car looks very wholesome, not like the jumble of different parts it becomes in armour-mode, and fits perfectly. So pretty much a flawless alternate mode. No complaints.

Remarks: In the Animated episode "A Fistful of Energon" Prowl joined forces with bounty hunter Lockdown to hunt down Starscream. Lockdown supplied Prowl with an upgrade package, which is what we see here in this toy. Prowl was all for it at first, but later rejected Lockdown's upgrades-rule philosophy and returned to his previous form. Now, according to the toy's profile, he's rediscovered the upgrades for the purpose of dealing with Lockdown once and for all. We'll see if that somehow factors into season 3 of Animated or remains a marketing gag.

As a toy Samurai Prowl is great, though one can't overlook the fact that it's basically the same figure we got once already, just with a little upgrade (and messed-up throwing stars). A great upgrade, but it's still little more than a re-issue. So while I really, really like Samurai Prowl, I'm not sure I can recommend him to those who already own the first Prowl. Then again, you actually need to have the first Prowl, because Samurai Prowl's hubcap throwing stars suck, so you need those of the first Prowl for this new Prowl. Complicated, I know. Let's see if I can boil it down to a one-sentence conclusion:

Samurai Prowl is a great figure, but unless you're a die-hard Animated and/or Prowl fan, you don't really need both versions of Prowl. If you don't own a Prowl yet, though, go get him. Damn, two sentences after all. Well, you can't have everything.

Rating: A-


Read the German version on Transformers-Universe.com or NTF-Archive.de