Swindle (Animated)


 * Swindle is a Decepticon from the Transformers Animated continuity family.



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.

"Scruples? You'd sell your own motherboard to the highest bidder."

- Megatron scoffs at Swindle's spiel

Fiction

 * Voice actor: Fred Willard (English), Dieter Memel (German)



''While everybody else was enjoying The Thrill of the Hunt, Swindle was taking a business opportunity earlier than we knew. After Blitzwing made a deal with Lockdown for Optimus Prime, he fought with Lugnut, but Blitzwing came off worst.''

''Swindle promptly approached the very angry Blitzwing and sold him an Andellorian Gravity Cannon. Lugnut was crushed by a huge rock, and Swindle sold him a Talosian Triple Crusher Cannon, Lugnut fires on Blitzwing, crushing him in on himself.''

''Fortunately for Blitzwing, Swindle had with him a Torkulonian Decompression Pump, then for no extra charge, sells him a few (unnamed) items he picked up on Dahros. The gas has the effect of turning Lugnut into glass, and Blitzwing then shatters him with a mace he bought off Swindle too.''

''Fortunately, Swindle shows up to patch Lugnut up with Menonian Super Glue. He then sells him an Omega Bomb, which can destroy an entire planet. Lugnut buys it, but then Blitzwing shows up with another, much larger and very similar bomb. The two of them both explode their bombs at once, destroying much nearby space-debris.''

''Fortunately for them both, Swindle sold them both a Nemesis Shield, which defends even against Doomsday weapons. When they inform each other of the shields, they both suddenly realise that he's been playing them against each other for credits. ''

''One severe beating later, a number of Swindle's parts have been exchanged with other parts of his, and he's feeling a little mixed up... literally. And apparently, his cyber-cpleen is missing. Still, the customer is always right... or is that left?''

Swindle found out about the situation on Earth after a little business transaction with a certain bounty hunter. Upon his arrival, he made a deal with the newly formed Society of Ultimate Villainy ; they steal components he needs, and he will 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 time piece. She refused, and he let them in on his little secret; he was the getaway vehicle.

He dispatched most of the SUV and used his forcefield (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 (or the so-called "platitudes" by Megatron), 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 he had stationed himself on. 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. (The irony probably wasn't lost on him.)

Because he is in stasis, Swindle was easily captured by Sentinal Prime who apparently paid a fine for him.



However, the Elite Guard ship's exposure to a space storm enabled Swindle to regain mobility as he frees the other cons and gives back their weapons so they can take over the ship, giving the two Starscream clones helmets so he could tell them apart.

After Optimus used his transwarp hammerspace to get on the ship, Swindle took a seat in the actual fight to make his way into the ship's armory and acquire most of the weapons there before stealing an escape vessel to make his getaway.

Animated



 * Swindle (Deluxe, 2008)
 * Accessories: Large "Scatter blaster" gun
 * Swindle transforms into an armored Humvee-styled vehicle with roof-mounted cannon, endowed with a LOT of translucent purple plastic. Unlike most Animated toys, Swindle is not ambidextrous - his cannon only pegs into his right arm in robot mode. It features a purple spring-loaded missile. This cannon can also peg into his back in robot mode, should he not feel like holding it.

He also has his 2 smaller guns, which fold over his shoulders, a stomach-mounted Gatling gun which can fold in or out of his stomach (Sound familiar?), and the stylish bolo tie he wore in the series.

Trivia

 * 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 and currently only Decepticon to not have red eyes in Animated franchise (but then again he isn't really a Decepticon in some way).


 * He keeps his various weapons in a Transwarp-based hammerspace under his chestplate.


 * Swindle makes mention of alien races like the Vok, the Nebulans and the Quintesson when mentioning planets he's visited or things he's bought.




 * One of the many weapons he bought/traded from an alien race is a capture devise similar to Pokeballs from Pokemon.


 * 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 forcefield 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.


 * Derrick J. Wyatt has noted that Swindle's mannerisms are based on Ron Popeil. (Coincidentally enough, "Weird Al" Yankovic has done a song about Popeil...)


 * It is quite possible that Swindle is physically the weakest of all the Decepticons shown on the show thus far, being knocked down by Bumblebee no less.


 * Swindle is often dwarfed by most other Decpticons in height. Compared to Lugnut, he's only half as height and a third in general size.


 * He's had many customers over the years, but according to him, Megatron is his best by far.


 * If one listens closely, it is possible to actually hear the sounds of cash registers going off in Swindle's head (or a faint ding).


 * Swindle is also known to carry large amounts of gadgets, such as the "Sonic Jammer 3,000" used to jam alarms, or an unnamed remote shapped device used to disable stasis cuffs.


 * In the episode "Five Servos of Doom", Optimus says that they captured several of Megatron's top lieutenants. Blitzwing, Lugnut, Swindle and two Starscreams were all captured, so this could possibly mean that Swindle is one of Megatron's top lieutenants... or simply just the Autobots got wrong. Seeing as the squadron is lead by That one jerk, this concept isn't too hard to believe.