I know, we just looked at a Transformer figure yesterday, but he was new and Transformers Thursday is all about the figures of yesteryear. This week we’re wrapping up the Autobot Car Brothers with Prowl. I saved him for last because I recall him being my favorite. It’s been a year or so since I’ve had him out, so let’s see if that holds up! Like the others, he was released in two versions during the Robots in Disguise run and it looks like I kept the original, which is odd because I recall liking the deco on the second version better. Sometimes I don’t even understand myself.

In alt mode, Prowl is a Lamborghini police car, which is only odd if you have problems accepting G1 Red Alert as a Lamborghini Fire vehicle. Like his brothers, Prowl features a pretty realistic looking car mode, complete with clear windows, chromed out wheels, and real rubber tires, which are stamped “Transformers” on the sides. If you look inside the car, you can see that even his robot feet are sculpted to look like carseats. I love that! He has a rear spoiler and a police-style lightbar on the roof.

Prowl has a similar deco to the G1 Datsun version of the character, as he’s mostly white with a little black around the bottom. He also has Japanese lettering on the doors, which I was never all that keen on. Now, if he had the markings from G1 Prowl’s doors, I would have lost my shit with delight. Other than an Autobot insignia stamped on the hood, there isn’t much else to the deco here. Prowl comes with two missile launchers and you can clip these onto the spoiler to give him some added firepower in vehicle mode.

And there he is in robot mode… Wow, do I remember this guy differently. He’s still got a lot going for him, but for some reason I recalled him being the least kibbly of the trio, but my memory was being rather generous. Let’s look at the good stuff first. I like his torso, particularly the way the two tailpipes slant back and the way his chest looks like a giant engine block with an Autobot emblem on it. That’s classy. The shoulders are pretty cool. They’re stylish and there’s a lot of great sculpted detail in them. The legs might be a little scrawny for that big torso, but other than that they’re fine.

Yes, Prowl wears part of his car as a shield. All three of the Car Brothers seem to have been born with deformed left arms. In this case, it’s not so bad. It actually looks like shield being worn on his arm, and not like poor X-Brawn, where it looks like his arm is a snake digesting the front of an SUV. Surprisingly, my biggest issues with this figure are the doors and the way they hang off his hips. They’re on double ball joints, so you can move them all over the place, but nothing really seems to get them out of the goddamn way.

Prowl’s missile launchers can both be clipped to his right arm and they look good there and do a nice job complementing the shield. However, you can also clip them to the spoiler on the shield and give him one giant double barreled super weapon. Both ways have their merits, I suppose.

As with his brothers, Prowl features a lot of ball joints, which makes him a fun figure to pose, at least in theory. In practice, I find his kibble interferes a lot with what he can do. Again, it’s mainly the fault of those damn door hips. CURSE YOU DOOR HIPS!!!

Obviously, hindsight in this case wasn’t 20-20. I was blinded by a lot of nostalgia and Prowl isn’t quite the amazing figure I remembered him to be. In fact, I don’t even think he’s my favorite of the three anymore. On the other hand, it’s hard to pick from this kibbletastic trio. I can’t hate on any one of them, but Prowl disappointed me the most and that’s probably because I remembered having such low opinions of Side Burn and X-Brawn. These figures each still have some charm for me nowadays, but I guess I’m glad this chapter in Transformers history was a short lived one.

I’m not done with Robots in Disguise yet… next week we’ll take a look at some Decepticons from the line.