Swindle

Status: Released

Release Date: December 2008 (December 2008)

Wave: Animated Deluxe Wave 5 (2009 Wave 1)

MSRP: $9.99

Size Class: Deluxe

Suggested Age: 5+

Assortment Number: 83462

UPC/Barcode Number: 653569341956

DPCI Number: 087-06-0024

Voice Actor: Fred Willard

Cartoon Overview
Swindle appears during the episode S.U.V. In fact, his vehicle mode is what inspires Nanosec to name the crime syndicate made up of him, Slo-Mo, Professor Princess, and The Angry Archer "Society of Ultimate Villainy".

Swindle is the ultimate smooth talker. An arms dealer who would sell his own motherboard, given half the chance. His favorite customer, apparently, is Megatron. He also knows Lockdown and trades with him on occasion.
During S.U.V., he manipulates the human villains to build a device for him that can magnify the immobilizing effects of Slo-Mo's timepiece over a large area, with the intention of selling it to Megatron for a small fortune. Unfortunately for Swindle, he underestimated the humans, who teamed up with Bumblebee to face off against him. Not much of a fighter in spite of possessing a small arsenal of weapons, Swindle is defeated relatively easily, and is immobilized himself when Bumblebee reflects a blast from Slo-Mo's timepiece at him, freezing him in vehicle mode.
Swindle is last seen being towed by Captain Fanzone to be stripped and sold for parts at a police auction.

Evidently, Swindle was not actually stripped for parts, although the time freeze effect never wore off either. Sentinel Prime picked up Swindle, still stuck inactive in vehicle mode, between scenes in "Five Servos of Doom", and transported him along with the other Decepticon prisoners back to Cybertron at the end of "Predacons Rising". In "Decepticon Air", as a result of Sentinel Prime flying through a spatial anomaly, Swindle was brought back online, and he promptly freed the other Decepticons on learning they were all loyal servants of Megatron, and provided them all with their weapons (or copies of them). He also gave the two Starscream clones, Sunstorm and Ramjet, unique helmets so that he could tell them apart. Swindle helped the Decepticons to take over the ship, and personally took down Jetfire & Jetstorm using a device that he picked up on Quintessa. He then persuaded Lugnut and the others not to kill the Elite Guard, on the grounds that they could sell their parts and get enough credit to retire to Nebulos, and beat some information on Megatron's location out of them.

However, Swindle's Transwarp link to his personal storage dimension produced an unpleasant twist when Bulkhead, Isaac Sumdac and Sari locked onto it and sent Optimus Prime through their newly-completed Spacebridge - Optimus materialized in Swindle's chest and forced his way out, greatly upsetting Swindle. The rest of the Decepticons set off to pursue Optimus, leaving Swindle to guard the rest. Swindle promptly decided to loot the ship of anything of value. He witnessed the battle between the Elite Guard and the Decepticons, which had now moved outside of the ship, and briefly considered helping, before going back to his looting (although he seemed to have a hard time deciding, so he must have some real loyalty to Megatron... or at the least, be afraid of him).

Even though the Autobots ultimately won the battle and recaptured Blitzwing and the two Starscream clones (with Lugnut lost in space) Swindle escaped, stealing one of the Elite Guard flagship's shuttles.

Powers and Abilities

Swindle's main ability is his smooth talking attitude. He is an arms dealer first, and a fighter second. In spite of this, Swindle also possesses a small arsenal of weapons dotted around his body, including his signature arm cannon on his right arm (also mountable on the roof of his S.U.V. mode), a tractor beam on his left, cannons on both shoulders, a gatling gun in his chest, and a shield emitter he apparently acquired in a deal with the Vok at Nexus Zero.

His chest cavity also contains a Transwarp link to his own personal storage dimension, which he can pull any weaponry needed out of, including sets of weapons for the Starscream clones, weapons for Blitzwing, and so on. If only the toy had this feature you'd never have to worry about losing accessories again!

IDW Overview When Lugnut and Blitzwing have a feud in a tail occurring parallel to the events of Thrill of the Hunt (depicted in IDW's Animated: The Arrival #5), Swindle is there. True to character, he ends up both supplying Blitzwing and Lugnut with increasingly powerful weapons - provided they have the necessary credits - all the way up to planet-busting doomsday weapons. However, Swindle got too greedy, and when Blitzwing and Lugnut tried to use their doomsday weapons on each other, they both discovered that the other also had a Nemesis Shield, bought from Swindle. The two promptly made amends and beat up Swindle. But Swindle did not care. "The customer is always right" he commented as they left, with Swindle crumpled up into a ball. During the course of the story, Swindle makes several references to other Transformers series, both in the weapons he sells, and in his "salesman speech": He sells Blitzwing the following: - Andellorian Anti-Gravity Cannon - Glass gas and a huge bat - Although not named, the gas' effect is very similar to the signature glass gas weapon employed by Generation 1 Cliffjumper to weaken his opponent's armor. - Unnamed giant bomb (most likely another Omega Bomb) - Nemesis Shield Lugnut buys the following from Swindle: - Talosian Triple Crusher Cannon - Omega Bomb - Nemesis Shield Swindle also mentions the following items and places: - Torkulonian Decompression Pump - Planet Dahros (and its infamous northern hemisphere with surly locals, watered down Energon and lousy service) - Menonian Super Glue

IDW Appearances Animated The Arrival Part 5

Notes
Swindle's dialog in both his cartoon appearance and his comic appearance is littered with references to various weapons and locations from Transformers mythology. Here is a list of those references for the curious:

S.U.V. - Society of Ultimate Villainy

Swindle mentions the Vok of Nexus Zero. The Vok were an alien race in Beast Wars, who caused lots of trouble for the Maximals and Predacons of that series including trying to wipe out the whole planet and abducting Maximals Tigatron and Airazor, who were later fused by the Vok into a super-powerful Transformer named Tigerhawk.
Nexus Zero was the home of the Vok, a nebula in deep space.

Decepticon Air

Swindle makes reference to the Quintessons of Quintessa, a reference to the five faced aliens from Generation 1. He refers to them as good traders with a ready supply of oil.
Nebulos also gets a reference as having a nice beach to retire to, with supremely smooth Energon. Nebulos, in Generation 1, was the home of the Nebulans, who were the partners of the various Headmaster, Powermaster and Targetmaster Transformers of the later years of Generation 1.

Everything must go

In his comic appearance, Swindle makes many references to different weapons and places as he sells increasingly powerful weapons to Blitzwing and Lugnut:

- Andellorian Anti-Gravity Cannon - Andellor was an advanced planet from the short-lived 3-D Transformers comics by Blackthrone. The Anti-Gravity Cannon has an equally obscure background - it came from a "find your fate" book. Another anti-gravity cannon was used by Skullcruncher in one of the Generation 1 comics.

- Glass gas and a huge bat - Although not named in the story, the gas' effect is very similar to the signature glass gas weapon employed by Generation 1 Cliffjumper to weaken his opponent's armor.

- Talosian Triple Crusher Cannon - The Talosian part of the name might be a reference to Talos Four, a planet mentioned in the backstory of the Transformers Collector's Club Astrotrain in the text story "The Dark Heart of Sandokan". It could also be a reference to the planet from the original pilot episode of Star Trek.
A Triple Crusher Cannon was wielded by the Generation 1 Seacon Nautilator.

- Omega Bomb - In the third season Generation 1 episode "The Quintesson Journal", the Quintessons tried to sell planet-destroying Omega Bombs to a pair of worlds who had been at war for generations.

- Nemesis Shield - The Nemesis Shield is a reference to one of three powerful weapons that Optimus Prime receives on the final level of the Playstation 2 Transformers Armada video game when he fights against Unicron (along with the Matrix Cannon and Vanguard Booster).

- Torkulonian Decompression Pump - Torkulon was a planet from the third season Generation 1 cartoon episode, Webworld.

- Planet Dahros (and its infamous northern hemisphere with surly locals, watered down Energon and lousy service) - Planet Darhos was one of the many alien worlds visited during the run of the Japanese Headmasters series. In spite of the different spelling, it is the same planet - as the northern hemisphere is generally not a pleasant place to visit in that series, either!

- Menonian Super Glue - Menonia was a location visited in the Generation 1 Season 3 episode Madman's Paradise.

Contributors: Sol Fury, Tim Formas

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