The Dinobot Swoop was not only a widely popular character in the US cartoon, but it was also one of the most popular toys from the original G1 line. It was especially sought after here in the UK seeing as it was never released here during the 80s, making it quite a find in the early days of adult TF collecting and even now it can still fetch a fair dollar with no reissue planned as yet. The season 2 episode “Desertion of the Dinobots” completely sold the character to me as a favourite. All the Dinobot toys were of course originally part of the Japanese Diaclone line, and the Diaclone Swoop was the Dinosaur Robo No.5 Pteranodon in the aforementioned Diaclone line. There were a number of changes made to the toy before it saw release as a Transformer which will be covered later. The Diaclone Swoop was released in Japan in 1984 and the TF Swoop was released in the US, Canada, Japan and some places in Europe in 1985.

In this article I’ll be concentrating on the US TF Swoop that I used to own. I used to own a Grimlock and a Snarl as well, but Swoop was easily my favourite and that’s saying something because I really did love that Snarl. Just looking at the picture of the front of Swoop’s US box, it’s already quite striking due to all the chrome on his wings and body. You might also already be able to notice some differences between the colour scheme of the boxart and the toy itself. I’ll come on to those in more detail a bit later as well.

Swoop should come with two rocket launchers, 3 red plastic missiles on sprue and a red plastic sword. As with most US TFs, the launchers were neutered and so don’t fire far, if at all. The toy itself has a nice albeit tremendously delicate feel to it. The chromed wings are a nice touch and the die-cast chest section has a nice heft to it. The chrome contrasts nicely with the clear plastic section on the beak.

In pteranodon mode, you can have Swoop looking as above where the chest section is separated and a landing gear extended. The chest section can then be closed again as there is a little rectangular-shaped hole for the gear to protrude through. The landing gear has a small diecast rolling wheel. I had no idea about this feature when I first got Swoop. Nice touch. The missile launchers go underneath the wings to give the appearance of a jet. His red plastic dinosaur feet at the back, however, do not have any rolling parts.

In this particular dino mode, Swoop can stand up on his dino feet and gives the appearance of a squawking bird! The chest section here is fully closed with no landing gear necessary. You might have noticed from the above pictures that the tips of his wings, his tail and both beak sections are rounded or have blobs on the end. These, like the neutered launchers, are aspects of safety measures which were taken by Hasbro to insure that no child came to harm while messing with Swoop. The previously released Diaclone Swoop not only had firing launchers, but also a pointed lower beak, tail and wings. The Diaclone Swoop’s upper beak section did have a blob on it, but nowhere near as pronounced as the TF Swoop’s.

Transforming Swoop from a dinosaur to a robot can be a very tricky procedure as you’ll always be very wary of the delicate easy-to-damage parts. Separating the diecast chest section is simple enough, but then when you come to fold down the beak into the middle of the chest, you have to be mindful of the fact that many Swoops turn up with the beak snapped at the joint. The clear plastic/red plastic join needs to be treated with respect and due care. Then you bend the robot head back a bit so that he’s looking forward, and my own Swoop’s robot head protested when I tried to pull it back so that his head was in the right position, therefore I never pushed my luck with it. That’s why in the above pic it appears as though Swoop is looking down.

Folding the wings back is no big deal but chrome wear can really affect this piece’s looks. The arms are very flimsy and great care needs to be taken when pulling them out and extending them. My own Swoop had very tight arms and I was always concentrating very hard not to cause irreparable damage when it came to the arms. The legs are cool though, just swing them down then click them up into place at the knees. Very satisfying, just as it is the other way around when they click into place on the dino’s back. And finally, the feet need to be swung out. In the above shots, I’ve got his rockets on his wings, but they can fit into the holes in his hands just as the sword does.

Now have a look again at the very first picture in this article; the boxart. The bottom section of the beak, the rockets and the dino feet are gold but the toy is red plastic. This is because the original Diaclone Pteranodon had a gold beak, gold dino feet, gold rockets and even a gold sword. It was plastic underneath of course, with gold chrome paint on top. Here are the weapons from the original Diaclone:

Now another thing you may or may not have noticed, in the US cartoon, Swoop’s colour scheme was actually very closely based on the Diaclone release with a blue chest instead of the TF’s red chest being the main difference. The Diaclone Swoop also had a blue face whereas the TF has a grey face. Have a look at the following launcher comparison:

I had originally thought that only Diaclone launchers came with that extra tab, but it seems some TF Swoops have that feature too. There are other small moulding differences within the TF Swoop releases but I won’t go into those.

Dinobots were popular; Swoop was extremely popular, especially as a toy. One of the reasons he commands a higher price than the other Dinobots is that it can be difficult to find a complete UNDAMAGED Swoop. Another reason is that he wasn’t released in the UK and that increases competition when it comes to securing a Swoop. A well-loved cartoon personality is also a factor in a TF's collectible value. Swoop is a striking and very displayable TF, it looks great and it’s satisfying to transform, a good toy by all accounts. Its major drawback is its delicate nature, however collectors usually treat their prizes carefully and so there shouldn’t be any difficulty keeping your Swoop pristine, but the slightest thing could cause noticeable damage. I owned 2 Swoops when I was collecting and to be honest, the one I had with slightly more wear (making it about a c7.5 to c8) was the more enjoyable as the parts were worn in a little. I’m not sure the stickers would add too much to the look of the toy and some of them have to be placed in locations where they would be susceptible to scratching and wear. Despite that, I thoroughly recommend this piece to any TF collector. How could anyone not like Swoop?!?!

To finish off, some interesting facts about the Swoop lineage:

• When released in Canada, the Swoop techspec on the back of its box had him labelled as “Tracks”, one of many Canadian TF misprints on the techspecs. See here

• In Italy, Swoop was released as a TF under the GiG TraSformer TF line and he was called “Reptilo”. Same toy though. (No credit for this pic, if the owner of the pic would come forward, I’ll happily either remove the pic or give credit, your call!)

• The Japanese Takara release of TF Swoop is a very rare piece. It was first offered in packaging with styro identical to the Diaclone inserts. See here:

• Swoop was again made available in Japan in the early 90s as a mail away, this time he came in a US box but with no rubsign! All Dinobots were offered this way in Japan.

• Apparently, and this is a BIG apparently, the Diaclone Swoop was also available as a GiG Italian pre-TF (Diaclone) and there were some wacky variations such as TF-colours but with gold chromed parts etc. No pictorial evidence has surfaced yet but there’s much about foreign Diaclones that remains undiscovered and new things continue to pop up. For Diaclone Swoop stuff see here

All the best
Maz