Swerve

Status: Released

MSRP: $20.00

Size Class: Deluxe

Suggested Age: 5+

Product Number: 83553 0000

Toy Variants: A yellow version was also seen on Ebay.

Additional Toy Info: Swerve was 100% commissioned and funded by Chevy, therefore Hasbro does not actually own the rights to the toy. He was offered initially in 2007 as a premium through Chevy dealerships and then the leftovers were offered online in late March 2008.

His instructions had the original Transformers Universe logo on them (as opposed to the new Universe line logo) so most fans consider him a part of the original Universe.

Swerve is a fairly faithful recreation of the Chevy Aveo in vehicle mode. He's mostly glossy red plastic in this mode, with tinted blue windows. His headlights are also done in blue plastic, although the taillights are painted on in metallic paint, which do not look as nice as the headlights, unfortunately.
The key details are also nicely picked out - the individual door handles and turn signals are all painted, as well as the car's grill and hood ornament. Unfortunately there is no silver paint on the mirrors which spoils the otherwise accurate deco of the mode.

There are also no license plates, although there is space on the rear of the vehicle for a plate, if someone wanted to customise with their own plates.

Transformation is clever but fairly straightforward. The legs are formed from the rear of the car, with the front doors and roof concealing the arms. The car's hood becomes the chest, with the head stowed in the space where the engine would be normally. The cleverest part of the transformation, in this reviewer's opinion, is how the lower legs are formed. The rear passenger doors wrap around the lower legs, which themselves rotate around from under the rear window of the car. You end up with the car's rear wheels forming the heels, and the bodywork of the rear end of the car making up the legs.

The robot mode is a nice design, a homage to the classic Transformers "car chest" design used by the likes of Generation 1 Prowl. The only difference is the front doors position vertically, level with the shoulders, opposed to horizontally level with the back behind the shoulders. Another cool thing about the robot mode is how the car's wheels are all tucked away out of view. Not many "car robot" Transformers accomplish this.

Swerve's robot mode detailing is excellent. Every panel is intricately detailed, from the lower chest to the arms, to the vents on the upper legs. The level of detailing is on a par with some of the Transformers Movie figures. Only the car parts are devoid of detail, as one might expect - their positioning in robot mode is a nice contrast with the robot parts. The robot's head is interesting, resembling the original Universe Swerve (himself a repaint of Armada Blurr) most closely, with his visor and re breather like face mask. My only criticism is that the face lacks personality - though, that could be the total lack of any human features in it. The robot mode colors are good, too - the main color is still red, carried over from the vehicle mode, but there is a nice amount of black and gray on the robot parts. It provides a nice contrast with the car parts, and it manages to gel together well without being bland. The gray also brings out molded in details very nicely.

The robot mode has excellent poseability. He is poseable in the following areas:

Head - balljoint, allowing the robot head to tilt to look up.
Neck - yes, neck. The balljoint the head is mounted on can tilt back and forward slightly.
Shoulders - balljoint.
Elbows - double jointed hinges. The lower hinge is a proper spot for the elbow, but the upper hinge gives some extra posing possibilities.
Wrists - swivel joints.
Waist - swivel joint, 360 degree rotation.
Hips - ball joints.
Knees - hinges, the hinges are also attach to swivel joints, allowing the lower legs to pivot so the feet can sit level even with the legs spread fairly wide.
Ankles - limited side to side movement. The feet also fold down as a part of the transformation.

As you can see from the above breakdown, there are no swivel joints anywhere in the elbow region, and this in my opinion is the greatest weakness of the robot mode. Some of the other joints are a little limited in their range of movement due to vehicle mode parts, mainly the head, which is slightly odd because if you twist it left or right, it wants to tilt, like Swerve is looking at things side on. The shoulders, with the car doors sticking up off of them, also can catch on the main body, and due to the door design, the arms look a little odd if they are raised past a certain point.
The legs are great, though, and can hold a lot of poses well. In some positions, they can look a little odd, but they function perfectly.

On the subject of accessories, Swerve comes up a little short - he does not have any. His hands are molded in an open position that means they can "hold" most accessories, although disappointingly they are just a tiny bit too small to take the common peg size used on most modern Transformers accessories (he does hold other accessories such as the gun from Beast Machines Airraptor nicely, if a little loosely).

Overall, Swerve is a nice little Autobot who manages to fit in with nearly any Transformers shelf. I truly enjoy his vehicle mode styling, which looks extremely convincing, though his robot mode is a mixed bag. While it's very poseable from the waist down, the awkward neck and the lack of elbow swivels hurt the arms. I also feel that while the detailing is good, Swerve seems very "generic" in his design. The expressionless face does not help his case, neither does the use of the typical "car front chest / back of car legs" and the lack of an official bio. Lastly, while I feel that the lack of an accessory is not a big issue, the fact the hands cannot hold most other Transformers accessories does hurt my enjoyment of the toy a little.
I would rate the Chevy Aveo Swerve a 7, because while his arms and hands are not fantastic and he may not have the best robot mode design ever, he has some good leg movement, and a truly excellent car mode. If you like Transformers with realistic alt modes, then you will definitely enjoy Swerve.

Contributors
Tony_Bacala, Sol Fury

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