Dave's Alternators Rant

     15. Swerve

     Swerve is a remold and recolor of Tracks that comes with the flame
stickers made for the Binaltech Tracks.  It's the second remold of Tracks,
with Battle Ravage being the first.
     http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Alt/Tracks is my review of the
original.  This review will, as usual for a recolor, concentrate on the
differences.  

CAPSULE

     Nice recolor, but minimal remolding and not a whole lot of reason to get
it if you already have one of the other versions.  $19.99 at Toys R Us.

RANT

     Packaging: Standard red Alternators box, although I just now noticed
that they moved the number from left to right upper front corner at some
point (specifically, between Meister (7) and Swindle (8), which goes to show
how much attention I paid to that detail). 
     The box shows the toy with the hood decals applied, but the toy is not
pacaged with the decals already on, which makes it a little harder to pick
out from Windcharger at first glance (although the fact that it's not a
convertible helps).  The co-sell on the bottom is for Decepticharge.  The box
art has Swerve being red, dark gray and yellow, but the pictures make sure to
put little gleams everywhere to demonstrate that the yellow parts are
actually shiny gold.  
     While it's still in the package, I can't see any mold variations from
the Tracks original.
     The usual taped tab bubble holds the toy in the box, with a single band
around the car to keep it together.  Inside, the instructions baggie has the
hood sticker...which is EXACTLY the BT-06 Tracks sticker.  They just used
either leftovers or printed new ones without changing the thing at all.  The
sticker is two pieces so it splits across the hood...I think I'll put mine on
Tracks, rather than make Swerve look too Hot Rod-ish.  The instructions have
been modified to have the correct head and show the flame decal in some
panels.  
     The flame decal, BTW, is yellow and red, with red flames bordered in
yellow surmounted by a yellow triangle containing a red Autobot symbol.  It's
2" (5cm) wide and 1.5" (4cm) tall in a rough V shape.  It's made of plastic,
not paper or foil, and fits into the curves on the hood well.  Tracks looks
very spiffy now with the decal.

     Vehicle Mode: Even out of the box, I can't find any mold differences
here.  Even the hubcaps are the same, and that's something they usually
change for recolors.  The body is red, but unlike the seamless paint job on
Tracks (his roof is clear plastic painted metalflake blue), Swerve's roof is
blatantly brighter red.  The slight translucence of the red plastic makes it
look darker, there's probably less difference "in the vat".  The license
plate is silver rather than the usual white (overcompensating with the
shinies?) and has an Autobot symbol on the left, "SWERVE" on the right.
     On mine, a bit of the red paint from the roof got onto the rear window,
but it was easily scraped off with a fingernail, no damage to the plastic.

     Robot Mode: Okay, it looks like there's not an ultra-simple color swap
on the plastic.  All the blue plastic becomes red, and all the white becomes
pale gold.  The medium gray of the hands, upper legs and upper arms becomes
pale gold, and the brownish gunmetal of the chest and "skirt" become black
(well, very dark gray).  It looks like all of the black on Tracks stays black
on Swerve, and the smoky clear plastic is unchanged.  The arm cannons remain
light gray.
     All of the chromed exhaust system bits are still chromed.  The silver
paint on Tracks's kneecaps is not present on Swerve.  Almost all of Swerve's
paint apps are pale gold (and are in most of the same places as Tracks's, but
not all).  The only non-gold paint apps are a silver face, red goggles and
other red details on the gold plastic head, plus a silver Autobot symbol
outline on the chest.  Oops, missed one...black paint on the upper arms where
Tracks has red.
     The gun is almost the same, but the red paint is a bit pale.
     The only mold change I can find is the head.  It is almost exactly the
head of G1 Swerve, with jsut a few tiny changes and of course more paint
details.  
     Swerve's missiles are on very loose joints on mine, so I think I'll
leave them stowed behind him to help increase the visual "distance" from
Tracks. 

     Overall: Well, it's the third version of this mold.  While nicely
visually striking in red, gold and black, I can't say it's really worth $20
if you have either of the other versions.  The main selling point, I think,
is the hood decal (and that's probably been repro'ed by now anyway).  Combine
this with reported difficulty in finding it (Wal-Mart will not be carrying
Alternators chain-wide until Spring 2006, reportedly, and a lot of other
stores seem wary of the line too), and it becomes "not worth the effort".  I
got lucky and found mine under a stack of Windchargers, but if I hadn't, I
probably wouldn't have bothered to track it down online.

     Dave Van Domelen, also got Leobreaker and Mudflap today, but reviewing
the easy one first.