Friday, September 16, 2022

TFtember: Prowl

Prowl 


Starting out as a Diaclone police car Fairlady Z, Prowl had a few international variants, mostly paint differences. Prowl stayed as the police car for a bit, getting released as part of the Classic line in 1990 and a few commemorative lines through the years but the toy was more or less the same. 

In 1990 Prowl got a remake for the Action Masters line, this time as a regular action figure that didn't transform but with a bike that did. Never cared for that version, always looks too puffy to me. 

His file card labeled him as a military strategist (so I guess Overdrive was a regular one?) He's described as being able to focus on a task for as long as it takes but the unexpected can scramble his logic circuits. 

For the comic, that isn't totally inaccurate. For most of the series, Prowl was a pretty static character. He had the same role as Ironhide mostly, being referenced as Prime's old friend but that was about it.

He wouldn't get a real character arc until near the end when Prime seemingly died again and left Grimlock is charge. Prowl rightly calls this out and steps up as a diplomat, but his every effort ends in failure. He manages to survive until the end of the series, so that's something. 

The cartoon was also different. Voiced by Michael Bell (sounding a heck of a lot like Duke from GI Joe), Prowl was just...there. He showed up in most episodes from the first season and quite a few in season two but with either very little dialogue or just being there. He did get made into a chair by Blitzwing through, so there's that. 

Then he got shot dead in the movie. 

So yeah, a hyper focused strategist who can't handle changes to the routine could have been a neat character, especially playing off of the Dinobots, but he didn't do that much. 

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