Swindle (Animated)

Swindle is a Decepticon from the Animated continuity family.

"Ladies and gentlebots, I'm going to show you the greatest upgrade ever made. The SwindleCo™ Blast-o-Matic™ can blast your enemies to julienne fries with all the precision and quality you've come to expect from a SwindleCo™ product. But wait, there's more!"

Quick, hide the silver! An entrepreneur with few equals, the smooth-talking Swindle is always ready to make a deal. Trading extensively with many alien races and loaded down with their respective technologies, his goods are highly useful to interstellar warlords, bounty hunters, and many, many others. Though nominally a Decepticon, he just views the Cybertronian civil war as yet another business opportunity, one which has kept him living posh for centuries and could be great for his bottom line again now that it's starting back up.

Fiction

Animated cartoon

Voice actor: Fred Willard (English), Nobutoshi Canna (Japanese), Dieter Memel (German), Ivo de Palma (Italian), Felipe Grinnan (Portuguese), Arto Nieminen (Finnish), Jorge Lillo (Latin American Spanish, seasons 1 and 2), Sylvain Lemarié (French)

While Blitzwing was negotiating with Lockdown, he was interrupted by Lugnut, who was incensed that his comrade-in-arms would deal with bounty-hunting scum. Finding himself outgunned in this fight, Blitzwing was extremely lucky to find that Swindle had chosen that moment to pay a visit to the base on New Kaon. Providing the Triple Changer with enhanced weaponry (and a convenient payment plan), Swindle watched as the fight escalated. Each time, he was more than happy to provide each side with ever-increasing hardware, up to and including planetbuster weaponry. So much for New Kaon. Once the pair of Decepticons found out that Swindle was arming both of them, they took things up with customer service, leaving Swindle a fair bit worse for wear. But, he took it in stride. After all, the customer is always right. Everything Must Go

"What would you say if I told you that you don't have to fight Autobots? You'd say I'm crazy, right? That I'm out of my head? Well that is exactly what I'm telling you about this amazing product from SwindleCo™!"

Swindle found out about the situation on Earth after a little business transaction with Lockdown. Upon his arrival, he made a deal with the newly formed Society of Ultimate Villainy: they'd steal components he needed, and he'd give them monetary compensation. He set the arrangement up anonymously, communicating with them through the radio in their new getaway vehicle, a present of sorts that he'd provided. When they had stolen the parts, he had them construct a generator. Sadly, the deal went sour when he asked Slo-Mo to hand over her AllSpark-powered timepiece. She refused, and he let them in on his little secret: He was the getaway vehicle.

"That's not all, though! If you order right now, I am offering this exclusive accessory package, compliments of the good folks here at SwindleCo™!"

He dispatched most of the SUV and used his force field (acquired in a deal with a race known as the Vok from Nexus Zero, nice folks) to protect himself from Slo-Mo's watch. He took it from her and contacted his old client Megatron. After a few pleasantries, he demonstrated the generator's ability to freeze everything mechanical in Detroit, including the Autobots. Unfortunately, before the deal could go through, a shielded Autobot and the SUV burst in and managed to knock him over the side of the parking block on which he had stationed himself. While he managed to reacquire the watch, he was frozen in his vehicle mode when a blast ricocheted off of the Autobot's shield. He was last seen being towed by the police, who promised to strip apart the paralyzed Decepticon and sell his insides at a police auction. Bloody hell! (The irony probably wasn't lost on him.) SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy

Swindle was later "apprehended" by Sentinel Prime... in that Sentinel paid a fine to the Detroit police department and had the still-stuck-in-vehicle-mode Decepticon towed to the Autobot ship. Five Servos of Doom Along with the other captured Decepticons, Swindle was transported back to Cybertron. Predacons Rising

Since Swindle was mode-locked and offline, the Elite Guard simply parked him in their ship's brig, not taking care to secure him. This proved to be a mistake when an energy storm in space revived him. Swindle freed the other Decepticons, waiving the usual service charge as a sign of good faith to friends of his "best customer" Megatron. Swindle was able to use the numerous gadgets and weapons inside his own personal storage dimension to re-arm the Decepticons and defeat the Elite Guard — as well as accessorizing the Starscream clones so he could finally tell them apart. His Sonic Jammer 3000 got them through the Elite Guard's alarms and into the main bridge, plus handily incapacitated Jetfire and Jetstorm. After Jazz and Sentinel fell, Swindle convinced Lugnut to spare their lives for now, as not only would the prisoners make good bargaining chips, but Elite Guard parts could make them enough credits on the black market to retire to a beach island on Nebulos.

Oh no. Not again.

Unfortunately for the Decepticons, Sentinel Prime had managed to get a coded distress signal to Earth. The Earthbound Autobots were able to lock onto Swindle's private transwarp frequency and beam Optimus Prime right into Swindle's guts, giving them quite a surprise. Ordered by Lugnut to guard the prisoners while the rest chased after Optimus, Swindle instead took his time thoroughly looting the Elite Guard ship of as much valuable hardware as he could before making his getaway in an escape pod. Decepticon Air

Swindle's Spiel

One of the three Swindles of Swindle, Swindle and Swindle hit it off with Swindle after his personal storage dimension malfunctioned and sent him to Axiom Nexus. The two went on a date at Seizer's Palace and had a grand old time there. Unfortunately, one of the other Swindles didn't take to him, and after some wheel-greasing Swindle was sent back home to the Malgus Cluster. Swindle's Spiel

Legends comic

Having somehow learned of the existence of the peaceful Legends World, Swindle suggested Slipstream hide out there and, at gunpoint, provided her with transdimensional gyro-rotor technology that let her reach it. Bonus Edition Vol. 16

Travelogue

Swindle travels extensively, to provide his customers spectacular bargains from the far corners of the universe. His trade route includes:

• The planet Andellor, who make an excellent anti-gravity cannon.^[1]
• Cheyne, builder of fine Circuitry repair patches. ^[2]
• Com, where the Nemesis Shield type 2B is available.^[2]
• The planet Dahros, which produces the amazing product that is glass gas.^[1]
• Dabola, where he purchased escape ships.^[2]
• Ganzvort, home of the Omega bomb. He noted that he had to visit Okayama at some point.^[2]
• Garo, where Nemesis Shield type 11A can be purchased.^[2]
• Menonia, source of the robotic panacea of "super glue".^[1]
• Nebulos, where the energon is exceptionally smooth, and one can retire to live the good life on a tropical island.^[3]
• Nexus Zero, where the Vok manufacture superior force-field technology.^[4]
• Quintessa, where he picked up the fantastic Sonic Jammer 3000 for a great price, as well as all the oil he could drink.^[3]
• Prysmos, a future stop on his itinerary where he will trade with the Darkling Lords.^[2]
• Pz-Zazz, where he visited the scenic fifth moon.^[3]
• Talos Four, manufacturers of the triple crusher cannon.^[1]
• The world of Torkulon, source of the spectacular decompression pump.^[1]
• The home of Vandarian holographic technology, which Lockdown finds useful.^[2]
• Xeptos, the source of Chaosmaster Bombs.^[2]

Toys

Animated

"Are you seeing this? Are you loving this? I'm so excited I could almost spring a leak." (Hasbro version pictured.)

• Swindle (Deluxe, 2008 / 2010)

• Takara ID number: TA-36
• Takara release date: August 28, 2010
• Accessories: "Scatter blaster" missile launcher, missile
• Known designers: Eric Siebenaler (Hasbro)

Part of the fifth wave of Hasbro Animated Deluxes, Swindle transforms into an armored Humvee-styled vehicle with a roof-mounted cannon. This cannon mounts on his right arm in robot mode, and features a spring-loaded launching missile. The cannon also features an additional gimmick: when the missile is inserted into the cannon, the slits on the weapon change from a deep, clear purple (the same color used for the eyes, chest windows, upper arms and fingers) to a painted orange-red.

In robot mode, he features a few of his in-show hidden weapons, namely the flip-out Gatling gun in his midsection, as well as his twin over-shoulder double-blasters. The Gatling can be deployed in vehicle mode (and is even depicted on the cardback that way), but it rides so low that the front wheels won't touch the ground.

Swindle's cartoon-accurate cat-like pupils are simulated by carefully placed air bubbles within the light-piping plastic. Neat!

The TakaraTomy release of Swindle, released in the seventh wave of their Animated line, is largely similar, but has a few paint differences from the Hasbro version. The most obvious is the addition of the Decepticon symbol on his sternum, on the back of the Gatling gun piece. The dark metallic purple paint has been replaced with a brighter flat purple, and the gunmetal on his face and grills is now bright silver, as are the previously-unpainted hubcaps. His cannon now has a gunmetal-painted barrel, and the vents "light up" with purple rather than orange.

Unfortunately, Swindle is rather prone to breaking, due to the use of translucent plastic in his joints (particularly his shoulders and hips). This tends to worsen with age.

• More information on Swindle at TFU.info

But wait, there's more! It's not sold in any store!

• Mercenary Swindle (Deluxe, 2010)

• Accessories: "Scatter blaster" missile launcher, missile
• Known designers: Marcelo Matere (packaging artist)

A late-series redeco of Swindle in more "urban camo" colors was planned, but ultimately never released. Although the airbrushed stock photos make it difficult to determine its exact color, Hasbro packaging artist Marcelo Matere would later confirm Mercenary Swindle to have been grey.^[5]

Proceed on your way to oblivion. This item has been canceled, with no current plans for release.

Notes

• Swindle made his appearance because Derrick J. Wyatt lobbied hard for him to show up.^[6]
• Swindle's design is quite heavily influenced by his Generation 1 namesake's animation character model, from the "squarehead" with large, purple optics to the windshield-chest with grill-stomach to the right-arm-mounted cannon which can be mounted on the back of his vehicle mode. As a result, Swindle is the first of only two Decepticons to not have red eyes in Animated.
• Swindle is a double-homage, as he also features a chest cannon that is quite similar to his movie namesake's.
• He also makes a reference to Binaltech Swindle, who possessed a force field because his body was meant to be Trailbreaker's, but couldn't use it. This Swindle doesn't have that issue.
• He has a bolo tie. That's awesome.
• Swindle also possesses a chest compartment which is capable of storing many, many things, such as weapons, Seeker accessories, and even an entire Autobot. Though, at first glance, this sounds virtually impossible, Swindle explains that he has a transwarp link to his own "personal storage dimension" within this compartment.
• Part of the idea behind Swindle's characterisation was that he started out as an Autobot and defected to the Decepticons; things like his purple eyes and small (for a Decepticon) body-frame were informed by that idea, and his personal storage dimension was conceived as his Autobot "superpower", with his weaponry being later additions.^[7] This idea never made it into the show, but was alluded to in Strika's profile in The AllSpark Almanac II, which establishes that she doesn't trust ex-Autobots and has a particularly strong dislike for Swindle.
• Derrick J. Wyatt has noted that Swindle's mannerisms are based on Ron Popeil. In fact, in "Everything Must Go", Swindle even uses Ron's signature catch-phrase "Now, how much would you pay?", and in "Decepticon Air" he uses Ron's other catchphrase, "But wait, there's more!" (Coincidentally enough, "Weird Al" Yankovic has done a song about Popeil...But it was about his FATHER, though Ron used it on some of his adverts)
• Despite the two having never been seen together in the show, Swindle is apparently Starscream's 'agent', by the latter's testimony.
• An initially proposed exclusive toy for BotCon 2011 was a redeco of Swindle into Springer.^[8]

References