- Name: Swindle
- Faction: Decepticon
- Species: Transformer
- Function: MUNITIONS EXPERT
- Division: Assault Infantry
- Sub-Group: Combaticon
- Type: FC
“ | Make deals, not war. | ” |
Don't let SWINDLE's big-eyed, easy-going, good-natured personality fool you; within him beats the fuel pump of the most greed-driven street hustler. Without blinking an optical sensor, he'd trade Decepticon leader Megatron's right arm for a toaster if he needed the toaster badly enough (and if he could get the arm off of Megatron!). He is an opportunist without peer. He thrives on wheeling and dealing and seemingly is capable of procuring anything to fulfill the design and equipment needs of his armaments work. Although the weapons he builds are much appreciated, his fellow Combaticons know that Swindle's efforts on behalf of the Decepticons are a mere sideline to his actual purpose: He is solely concerned with himself, and most of his entrepreneurial activities are for his own personal material advancement. If he thought it were in his interest to trade with the enemy, the Autobots, he probably would. He is truly a one-robot "black market."
Perhaps Swindle's greatest talent is his gift of gab. He could probably sell oil to an Arab sheik, if given the chance. In both FMC XR311 combat support vehicle and robot modes, he uses two weapons: a scatter blaster that shoots bursts of explosive buckshot-type pellets over a wide area, and a gyro-gun that disturbs the balance centers of Transformers, severely hampering their driving, flying, and/or walking. With his fellow Combaticons, Swindle combines to form the giant robot Bruticus.
In jeep mode, Swindle can't handle sharp turns at high speeds very well and is prone to overturning. Although his exterior is fairly well armored, a direct hit on his unprotected open dashboard can easily disable him.
History[]
Canonical/Pre-MUX/Theme History:
Swindle was originally a Decepticon criminal on Cybertron who apparently got caught and had his personality component locked in a detention center, where he was stuck for millions of years. He was eventually liberated along with five other prisoners by Starscream, who installed Swindle into an old military jeep found at Guadalcanal on Earth. Starscream dubbed the Decepticons "Combaticons" and ordered them to help him defeat Megatron. While Swindle and the others were not too happy with this, Starscream blackmailed them into it anyway. The plan eventually failed, and Swindle and the Combaticons were banished to an asteroid along with Starscream.
The Combaticons later escaped the asteroid and attacked Cybertron together as Bruticus. After being defeated again, Swindle and the Combaticons were reprogrammed to be loyal to Megatron. It's debatable how well that reprogramming took with Swindle.
Megatron next ordered the Combaticons to steal fighter planes by using Middle-Eastern criminals as go-betweens. Swindle was the personal ride of Ali, the thief leader, and led the caravans with parts to Megatron. He later merged with the others to form Bruticus, who was defeated by the Aerialbots as Superion.
Bruticus was next defeated by Defensor, and Swindle was the sole survivor of the team. He proceeded to sell the parts of his comrades to various people for a sweet finder's fee. Megatron was less than happy with this, however, as he had just constructed a giant death-ray for Bruticus to wield for him. No Combaticons, no Bruticus.
Swindle tried to plead off his greed as a programming flaw, but Megatron wasn't having any of it. He installed a bomb in Swindle's head and gave him 15 hours to rebuild his fellow Combaticons or suffer their fate. The most elusive piece was Brawl's personality component, which had been raided from a junkyard by some high school kids building a homemade robot. Swindle had to fight through a trio of Autobots in order to recover the personality component, but succeeded in time to have the bomb removed.
Swindle is plainly a team player.
MUX History:[]
Swindle is an active member of the Combaticons on Earth.
On the MUX, Brawl developed a game called "shake," where he'd pick up Swindle and hold him upside down, shaking him until something of value fell off or out of him. He occasionally got angry about something Swindle stole from him vorns ago, but felt sorry for Swindle when a "morality swap" virus rendered the munitions expert unable to lie.
In 2006, Swindle and Vortex attacked Fort Knox, but we driven off by the US forces there with the assistance of Weaver Delta.
In 2020, Swindle was freed from the Combaticon Loyalty Programming, but in the process lost his ability to hold silent his inner monologue.
OOC Notes[]
Logs[]
1999[]
- September 30 - "An Exchange of Technology" - Typhoid travels to New York to witness an exchange of technology between Destro and the Decepticons.
- September 30 - "Metrofight" - Decepticons launch an attack on Metroplex.
2002[]
- 10-21 - "Skuld Gets Swindle"
2013[]
- October 12 - "Go Get Some Kaff" - Highly skilled intelligence analyst Floodlight is... sent to get Kaff
- October 21 - "The Plan" - With the Decepticons' energy reserves in Polyhex destroyed, they need a new way to supplement raids, and fast. Scrapper has worked out plans to build a super-reactor on Cybertron, but he needs energy, equipment, and fissionable materials. To that end, Decepticons are staging raids on nuclear power plants. The Autobots must stop them, not only to keep the Decepticons from getting a new source of energy, but also to keep them from causing an accidental nuclear meltdown.
2014[]
- February 14 - "Operation Petal Drop" - It's Valentine's Day! So what's a lovelorn mech to do? Why, impress the girl of his dreams.......with flowers.
- Apr. 29 - "An Oil Cake A Jug of Enerwine and Thee" - The crude and the hoity-toity find themselves at the same bar for a relaxing drink. Hilarity ensues.
- July 07 - "Attack of the Giant Galvatron!" - The Combaticons battle a Giant Galvatron!
2015[]
- March 26 - "Transport Heist" - The Combaticons attack a transport and then flee with the goods.
- March 28 - "Raid on Ghawar Field" - The Combaticons attack the Ghawar oil field.
- August 10 - "Autobots to the Rescue!" - Autobots, as well as neutrals from all over Praxus, have been captured and put to work in Internment Camp Pi. Springer has allowed himself to get captured to work from the inside, and before his inhibiter claw was affixed he was able to leak out information about the camp.
2019[]
- 5-29 - "Nucleosis: We Require More Vespene Gas" - The Decepticons go raiding for Nucleon.
- September 22 - "The Fallen Attacks Iacon- Dominicon Perspective" - The Fallen TP Finale -- the big bad himself shows up looking for his Blaster.
- October 27 - "You Found Me Beautiful Once" - Bad Mort and his Deadites are up to their old shenanigans, and they're bringing some new friends with them.
2020[]
- July 29 - "Ill Omen Crypt Keeping" - SCiEnCE! has determined that a trip to the crypts deep below Polyhex is needed to continue the effort to return Omen to capacity in her original or another full frame.
- August 28 - "Treachery among Friends" - Omen puts pieces together and realizes the depth of the treachery surrounding Starlock and the Combaticons situation.
- September 28 - "Thirsty on Main" - Swindle journeys to Valvolux to talk to Takedown about his 'issue'.
- Oct 14 - "Kai The Mystery Spark" - Kai Spark who are you! Or What.. Swindle lets himself into Arachnae's lab to check on the spark-in-a-box that had been left there. Arachnae works more to discover who or what the spark now called 'Kai' is.
- Nov 15 - "Of Drunk Shuttles" - Blast Off has a misadventure with Nightmare Fuel, leading him to Arachnae's lab. And a meeting with her floor, and a hose.
- Nov 20 - "Brotherly Conversation" - Swindle tracks down Brawl after the other Combaticon had his 'conversation' with Kup.
2021[]
- January 12 - "The Return of Bruticus" - After weeks of waiting, the Combaticons get their cure.
2023[]
- August 30 - "Decepticon Command Meeting" - A lot has happened, and Megatron is working to consolidate the fractious Decepticons under one rule (his, of course) to face the looming threat of Liege Maximo.
Players[]
- Dunmurderin was the definitive Swindle player for many years. Swindle became available in July of 2008 and was picked up as a temp character by Shebakoby in 2013.
- In 2019, Dunmurderin picked him back up.
Sources[]
- Bob Budiansky (Author), Ian Akin (Illustrator), Brian Garvey (Illustrator) (September 1987). Transformers Universe. Marvel Enterprises. ISBN 978-0871352965.
- Swindle (1986) - Decepticon Munitions Expert - www.tfu.info. Retrieved on 2009-02-03.
- Who's Who in the Transformers Universe. Retrieved on 2009-02-03.
This page uses content from Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki. The original article was at Swindle (G1).
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