Phil's Swindle,
Operation Combination Leland,
Generation 2 Swindle,
Car Robots Grejeber
and
Robots in Disguise, Wal-Mart & Universe Wal-Mart Rollbar Review

Swindle

Swindle is a jeep painted in a sandy colour on his body, a purple underside/robot chest and black head, combining peg and weapons. He comes with two guns that can be combined together and mounted on the back of his jeep mode. The windscreen for the jeep is solid plastic with a sticker on it but can fold down.

Like all the combiner limbs Swindle can be either used as an arm or a leg for any of the combiner bodies - see the Bruticus review for how to transform him for that purpose. However he can also combine with Metroplex: For leg armour just fold out the combining peg and plug into Metroplex's knee, for arm augmentation also fold down the back of the jeep and peg into the shoulder where he can be used to mount Metroplex's hand instead of Metroplex's actual arm. When attached to the shoulder the hole it's important to note that the extra attached limb will not move independently of Metroplex's own arm !

TF: Remove & separate weapons, fold the back of the jeep over, fold the windscreen down, fold the bonnet back, pull the sides of the vehicle out to form the arms. Insert weapons into the hands. Weren't TF's simpler back in 1986 ?

Although the robot will bend at the knees articulation is effectively limited to the shoulders here.

The combining weapon that can be used in both modes is the real star of the show here.

Swindle is only available carded by himself in the west. There's no G1 Bruticus giftset. However GIGI in Italy did issue one, as did Takara in Japan where Swindle was numbered toy D-68 or in the Bruticus giftset numbered D-69.

Swindle was re-released in the UK & Europe in the gold Transformers Classics packaging in the early 1990s.

Operation Combination Leland

Leland was only available in the Battle Gaea giftset ( see here for pictures ) labelled TF-10 - not all numbers were used in this brief transformer series.

Leland is another of those "Don't even bother trying to look for" toys. Battle Gaea giftsets don't come up too often.

Leland seems an odd name for a jeep. The only Leland/motor vehicle link I can think of is British Leland and they didn't make Jeeps. A search of the internet reveals nothing.....

Leland is bright red with a grey chest and keeps the black from Swindle. Not the greatest colour for a jeep but it could be worse I suppose....

Generation 2 Swindle

..... they could put Purple camo all over it, make the red brighter and make the chest purple again. Along with Onslaught, Swindle is the real looser in the G2 recolouring stakes !

Swindle was only available by himself - there's no G2 Bruticus giftset.

Car Robots Grejeber

Grejeber is a much more sensible dark green with US star on the front and upside down G2 Autobot symbol on the back - see Scourge for why it's there ! Weapons remain black and chest becomes orange.

Grejeber is Car Robots toy D-006 and is also available in the Baldigus giftset D-011.

Best of the lot so far.

Robots in Disguise Rollbar

Rollbar lightens the green, looses the star and swaps the G2 Autobot for a Decepticon symbol. Better than the other repaints, but not quite as good as Grejeber.

The basic case containing Rollbar was not available at the same time as Mega-Octane. Rollbar was only available on a basic card - there is no Robots In Disguise Ruination giftset.

Wal-Mart Rollbar

Rollbar gains a darker grey on grey camouflage pattern for this release - described widely as Artic Camouflage it's probably more appropriately termed Urban Camouflage. The robot chest is grey and the weapons and head remain black. The colours work quite well on Rollbar and aids the combined form by giving it a unified colour scheme.

Rollbar was available solely in the Ruination giftset only available at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Universe Rollbar

This time Rollbar comes in a Desert camouflage scheme - a sandy colour on which is a pattern in two shades of brown. He retains the orange and black from the previous Wal-Mart Rollbar. Of the set he probably suits the colours used here the best.

Rollbar was available solely in the Universe Ruination giftset only available at Wal-Mart.

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