Machine Wars Prowl

Happy New Year everyone! I thought I would kick off 2010 with part one of a series of reviews on the long forgotten, short lived Machine Wars toy line. The first figure on this list to kick things off is Prowl. For those of you who have never heard of this line, Machine Wars was released in in 1997 as an attempt by Hasbro to rekindle the flame of the vehicle Transformers. Beast Wars had proven to be a massive success upon its debut in 1996, and it is credited with reviving the near dead Transformers franchise. The toys were super successful and the new animated series was a big hit. The Machine Wars line was short lived (only consisting of twelve figures), and the toys were Kay-Bee-Toys exclusives. There were three class sizes. The first were the ultra class which consisted of Optimus Prime and Starscream. Then, there were the voyager class figures consisting of Sandstorm and Soundwave. Last, but not least, were the basic sized figures consisting of Megatron, Megaplex, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Hoist, Hubcap, Mirage, and today's figure Prowl.

The basic class figures consisted of four molds with two repaints each. These molds were all left over from the Generation 2 line, while the other four figures were repainted versions of European exclusive molds. The jets were all Decepticons, while the tow trucks and formula racers were Autobots. Prowl shared a mold with Mirage and is reborn as a white formula one race car. The mold looks good in both modes. The race car has some good details from the stickers to the actual design. The transformation is super simple. You pull up on the spoiler and the car transforms automatically into robot mode. All you really have to do is unpeg the legs and pull and assemble the gun parts from his legs.

As I mentioned, I actually like this figure. Although the transformation was automatic, it had the great articulation of the Beast Wars toys, and the paint scheme made the figure feel like Prowl. Although I really don't care too much for him not being a police car, as least he wasn't a combo of a formula one racer and a police car. That would be so dumb....oh wait, Hasbro did one for Energon. The fun thing about the Machine Wars figures is that they did bring back the classic memories of the old school toys. However, because of their limited distribution and slapped together feel, they didn't achieve any level of success of Beast Wars or even Generation 2.