Swoop's pterodactyl mode is surprisingly good for a Transformer, with most of the proportions fairly accurate. The wings are a tad small, though the big thing that's off proportionally about Swoop is that his legs are way too long, though to be fair this is a complaint one can make about most bird/pterosaur Transformers. Swoop follows the traditionally Dinobot colors of gray and gold, though with a bit of blue and red thrown in for good measure. It's not a hugely eye-catching color scheme, but it works fairly well at making Swoop "fit in" with his Dinobot pals while still having a unique color scheme of his own. His mold detailing is quite good given the Animated aesthetic, with some nice "circuitry" detailing on the wings and a jagged look to his beast mode face. (One thing in particular I like about Swoop's beast face is that his eyes are the same in this mode as in the robot mode-- this is accomplished by having his robot head hidden right behind the rear part of his beast head.) Swoop could use a bit more paint detailing-- particularly on the wings and legs-- though because of his skinniness, beyond the wings there's no really large areas of just one color, so it's not a huge deal. Swoop can move at the mouth, the base of the neck (though only up-and-down), at the hips, knees (at two points), ankles, at the base of one of his claws on each foot for grasping things, and surprisingly, even though his robot arms are connected to the front of his wings, he can flap his wings up and down! That's a really cool built-in-feature there, and doesn't detract from anything else, so HUGE props there. Also, unlike the other two Dinobots, Swoop can carry his robot weapon! His feet claws have a peg that can allow him to carry his ball-and-chain weapon in them. And it's a pretty sweet weapon to boot-- real little miniature chains connect the ball to the end, and nice little translucent orange and light orange jagged paint apps make it look all magma-y. Swoop has no robot extras per se, though his robot arms and legs are pretty obviously his beast arms and legs. Plus, his legs are just so long and awkward in this mode, there's not many poses you can put him in that look natural.
    Swoop's robot mode is clearly where the bulk of the design time went into-- in short, it's fantastic. It certainly has a very different aesthetic from the other two Dinobots, as he's very lithe and skinny, but it certainly works for him given his alt mode. Besides, his headsculpt is still very serious-looking, so it doesn't look like he has a sense of humor any more than his comrades do. Speaking of his headsculpt, like the rest of the toy it has a ton of personality, with it looking like his pterodactyl head has somehow shrunken backwards with his face coming out of the mouth. I particularly love the "cape" made out of Swoop's wings-- it's an excellent idea for using those beast mode parts and gives the toy more of a "mysterious" personality, as well. His fiery ball-and-chain looks just as awesome in this mode as it does in his beast mode, and he can hold it quite well, so no worries there. As far as articulation goes, Swoop can move at the neck (at two points), shoulders (at two points), elbows, wrists, hips, knees (at two points), and ankles. His waist can also move SLIGHTLY, but the beat of the pterodactyl head forming most of his main body prevents more than minimal movement in this area. Really, the hips are the only area where he's really restricted, so you can get quite a few cool poses out of him. Really, my only complaints about this mode are the rather small hollow gap in between his head and the top of his chest and the "sameness" between this mode and his beast mode-- compared to most of the other Animated toys, it's really not much of a transformation, more like he "stands up" and does a head flip. It's a bit more complicated than that in reality, but it still LOOKS like it's not.
    Swoop has an utterly fantastic robot mode full of character (as well as great articulation and proportions), and though his pterodactyl mode has overly long legs, it's fairly good as well. My personal favorite of the Animated Dinobots; beyond the aforementioned beast legs, the only major strike against him that keeps him from getting a "must-buy" rating of 9.0+ is how similar his two modes look to each other. Still, recommended.

Review by Beastbot

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