Swerve (G1)

Swerve is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family. He is sometimes known as "Shut the Hell Up".

Comes with My First Blaster™ accessory!

Gregarious would be a good word to describe Swerve. So would outgoing, enthusiastic, upbeat, joyfully irreverent, flippant, sarcastic, wise ass, troll, or "total pain in the aft", depending on which side of his weapons-grade mouth you happen to fall on and how long you've been listening to him use it. Swerve has a sense of fun and even whimsy that stands out from your run of the mill Autobots fairly dramatically, but this constant running commentary stems at least partially from Swerve's low self-esteem, a coping mechanism that helps to cover up some of his own insecurities. The little fellow may get on their nerves... he'll probably get on their nerves... but it'll always be with a smile, a laugh, and an epic level quip, making him a good bartender.

He is, however, also a menace to everyone within range of a gun in his hand - including himself - given his legendarily bad aim, as well as to anyone driving nearby because he's so easily distracted by just about anything that catches his attention. Despite this, he's quite intelligent and skilled as a metallurgist, analysing the properties of a material with unique sensors in his hands. When he gets caught up in a problem, he becomes almost laser-like in focus and intensity, going on quest after quest, both major and minor. Unfortunately, this generally leaves him just as distracted from any other tasks at hand and just as accident-prone as ever. He's almost always in need of some repairs, major or minor, because of it.

Now if only Prime could get him to not get easily distracted when receiving his orders too...

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Voice actor: Minoru Inaba (Japanese)

Now we know why he refuses to play in the sand.

Swerve participated in the defense of the Ark in 2006, but was trod upon by Trypticon. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5 Later, after the Quintesson scientist Inquirata attempted to change history by removing the Autobot resistance leader known as A-3 from the past, a race Swerve was participating in repeated itself in an endless loop due to the ripples in the timestream. Forever Is a Long Time Coming

Japanese cartoon continuity

Legends comic

In 2015, Tailgate and Swerve fought Trypticon in a battle that went poorly, with Tailgate being easily kicked aside and Swerve stomped into the ground. As he was being dug up by Tailgate, the two Minibots were questioned by the Rattrap of another universe as to why they'd even taken on such a huge enemy. Swerve responded that size had nothing to do with it, claiming that as long as you've got guts and smarts, you can win against anyone. He and Tailgate then introduced Rattrap to their Mini-Con allies, Phaser and Groundshaker, explaining that even though they were tiny, they were still valuable allies. Bonus Edition Vol. 8

Rattrap then asked Swerve about why he barely appeared in the original cartoon and why his name wasn't Werve anymore, to which he grinned and responded that stuff like attention and names weren't important to him: as long as he got his work done, he didn't care about being noticed or what people called him. Rattrap swooned at how cool his answers were. When Swerve shrugged aside a similar question about his marksmanship, however, claiming it wasn't important if he hit or not, Phaser protested. The Mini-Con then displayed the usefulness of his My First Blaster mode by having Swerve attack Trypticon with it, but unfortunately his helpful advice on where to aim only served to let the Decepticon dodge their blasts anyway. 2015's Swerve Eventually, Swerve and Tailgate successfully defeated Trypticon LG-43 Trypticon Project Chapter by exploiting a weak spot they discovered on the sole of his foot.

Given Swerve's achievement, Alpha Trion brought him to the Legends World to help defeat a revived Trypticon. Swerve put on a bomb belt and let himself get trampled by Trypticon once more, at which point he detonated the explosives right on the weak spot, stunning Trypticon and allowing Metroplex to defeat him. He survived the explosion unscathed by again ending up stomped into the ground. Bonus Edition Vol. 43

Train Wars

Swerve was present on Cybertron after the various Trainbots and inter-dimensional warriors defeated The Fallen. Train Wars 2

Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers comic

Swerve appeared on Earth as a member of the Four-Wheel Drive Corps. Led by Hound, the Corps confronted the Insecticons out in the desert, only to be caught in an explosive mine trap and fall into a pit. Working together, Swerve and the others combined their Scramble Power and worked their way free of the pit. A concentrated Scrumbuster attack drove off the Decepticons, and the Autobots won the day. Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #3

Ladybird Books continuity

Swerve helped with the assembly of a special radio transmitter to interfere with Decepticon surveillance space stations. Galvatron's Air Attack

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

Swerve was on Cybertron observing the anti-Prime propaganda that Shockwave pumped through the data-net after retrieving the Ark's crew from Earth. Cold War Later, he was among the group of new recruits seen failing to take on the auto-combatant training drones on Cybertron after Shockwave's rule was toppled. Black Sunshine

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: Stormbringer #1

It's actually Joe Kyde's number.

Swerve of Helex^[1] was forged, This Calamitous Life and a practicing "Adaptican" who worshipped Adaptus of the Guiding Hand. Twenty Plus One While Swerve was a trained metallurgist, his real dream was to open his own bar; in the years before the Great War, he received an autograph from his favorite athlete Blurr, who mentioned that he'd wanted to run a bar as well after retiring from racing. Swerve thought Blurr might want to run it with him, but Blurr escaped by giving Swerve a fake phone number. Cybertronian Homesick Blues Forever after, Swerve insisted that he and Blurr had a plan to run a bar after the war. The Chaos of Warm Things

When war broke out, Swerve joined the Autobots. At the academy, he received the unflattering nickname "Shut the Hell Up."^[2] During one early battle, Swerve was in Iacon, and helped guard the civilian population. Primacy #4 Throughout the war, Swerve had multiple adventures, which he called "quests"—these included a "Titan Quest", a "Matrix Quest", a "Prime Quest", and a legendarily awful "Thumb Quest". Cybertronian Homesick Blues Swerve's last quest before the end of the war would be the "Moon Quest", in which he and Hot Rod unsuccessfully searched for Luna One. Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations Five hundred years ago, the Decepticon scientist Thunderwing contacted multiple scientists from both factions to discuss Cybertron's dwindling energy reserves. Swerve, like the rest, disregarded his warnings. Stormbringer #1

After the fall of Cybertron, Swerve was stationed at the Kimia Facility. He was a fan of the Wreckers: Declassified datalogs, although he thought Fisitron was a bit of a hagiographer Bullets, and was unaware that "Fisitron" was really a pseudonym for his colleague Ironfist. The One Where They Go to Earth While away from Kimia, Swerve encountered the Decepticon Justice Division members Tarn and Vos force-feeding a Genericon his own innards. The Not Knowing While trying to get away, Vos shot him in the shoulder; unbeknownst to Swerve, "Vos" was in reality the undercover Autobot Dominus Ambus, who communicated with his handlers by firing data slugs in the right eye of the Autobot insignia. The One Where They Go to Earth The experience left him speechless for six months. Life After the Big Bang Unaware that he'd been shot with a solid bullet, Swerve didn't get his injury properly treated, and the hastily patched wound bothered him for centuries. The One Where They Go to Earth

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Swerve was present when Cyclonus and the Sweeps invaded Kimia. Lamentations He survived the massacre by piling into an escape pod with Chromedome and Brainstorm. When Arcee came to rescue them, everyone reminded the motor-mouthed Swerve not to say something tactless that might set her off. Kings Swerve listened with the others to Hardhead and Arcee's explanation of the situation with Galvatron, the Heart of Darkness and D-Void, although his immediate understanding of the complex scenario clashed with his naïve optimism at the prospect of saving the universe. However, once they arrived in Cybertron's atmosphere, Arcee ordered the shuttle to fly directly at the planet's surface and Swerve was among the first to bail. Genesis

Following the end of the war and the revitalization of Cybertron, Swerve chose to accompany Rodimus on his search for the Knights of Cybertron—an adventure he immediately dubbed the "Knight Quest". Red Alert reluctantly allowed Swerve to board the Lost Light if he'd stop talking. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It He was in the medibay when Tailgate recovered consciousness, and got to be the one who broke the news that Tailgate had been trapped underground for six million years and missed the entire war. He and Tailgate went out for some fresh air and, along with Chromedome and Rewind, encountered Skids and watched him fight the Legislators. Skids wasn't keen on Swerve's suggestion they should team up. Hangers On

Sometimes you've got to go where everybody knows your name.

During the incident with the Sparkeater, Swerve and Skids stumbled on an abandoned canteen, which reminded Swerve of his earlier plans to run a bar. The Chaos of Warm Things To celebrate the Sparkeater's demise, Swerve refurbished the facility and dubbed it "Swerve's"—although he hid its existence from the uptight Ultra Magnus. As a subscriber to Fisitron's Wreckers: Declassified, he received a strange new datalog and discussed it with Ratchet, prompting the latter's trip to Delphi. Life After the Big Bang Shortly after that, Swerve saw Ambulon talking with First Aid, and curious about his alternate mode, threw a ball at his neural cluster and triggered an involuntary transformation. Ever the understanding sort, Swerve proceeded to make bad puns about his leg mode. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases

Swerve attended a celebration following the Lost Light's collision with a discarded thumb from Metroplex and its subsequent repair. There, he cheered when Highbrow, Chromedome, and Brainstorm were awarded a Rodimus Star for their part in saving the ship. He was at some point put on "sponsored silence," in return for a coveted Rodimus Star of his own if he followed through with it. Swerve found that remaining silent was exceedingly difficult for him, and so contacted Trailcutter, asking him to project a forcefield into his mouth to seal off his vocal synthesizer. Trailcutter refused. Swerve was then frozen in place, along with nearly everyone else aboard the Lost Light, when one of Brainstorm's experimental weapons accidentally went off. When he eventually recovered, he was awarded a Rodimus Star after all, though it was "for exceptional endurance in the face of adversity." The Reluctant Specialist

Swerve accompanied Hoist and Perceptor on a mission to scrounge energon from a deserted Decepticon outpost but their pilot, Sunstreaker, was distracted by his own reflection in the radar screen and crashed their shuttle into a planet. With the ship upside down and Perceptor half-melted into the ceiling Swerve kept up his usual banter as they found themselves under attack by Tarn, which happened to be one of his worst fears. With the shuttle cloaked, Swerve passed the time by teasing Sunstreaker and talking about his other worst fears—Megatron, Overlord, Sixshot, Shockwave, and some nightmare combination of all four. However, it was soon revealed that this bluster was merely an attempt to disguise the fact that his spark casing had cracked during the crash; without immediate medical attention, he would die. Hoist and Sunstreaker left him to take the fight to Tarn but the D.J.D. leader quickly took down Sunstreaker and Hoist found himself under attack by Megatron, Overlord, Sixshot, and Shockwave—who then combined before disappearing at the same time Swerve fell unconscious. After Perceptor deduced that the planet was protected by a phobia shield, Hoist managed to defeat it by rendering Perceptor and Bob unconscious and facing his own worst fear—being alone. The Waiting Game

Swerve recovered from the experience and eventually returned to waiting tables. However, when Ultra Magnus finally found out about his bar, he led Swerve away in handcuffs and assigned him to punishment detail with Rewind, replacing rivets on the Lost Light's hull. However, their vantage point gave them an advantage when Fortress Maximus instigated a hostage crisis. While Rewind distracted Maximus with a recording of Garrus-9, Swerve fired his rivet gun through the window, but his poor aim blew Rung's head off instead of merely wounding Maximus as he'd hoped. Interiors Though Rung survived, Swerve was horrified to learn that his actions had left the psychiatrist in a coma. He visited Rung with Skids, and left one of Rung's model ships at his bedside. Rules of Disengagement At one point, he sat and talked to Rung for 147 hours straight, until the patient finally moved for the first time since the shooting... to make a "shush" gesture. Signal to Noise

Swerve intended to attend Tailgate's Act of Affiliation ceremony but got sidetracked when he discovered Ore, who'd been involved in a quantum generator accident, had been recently revived. He was assigned by Rodimus to distract the blinded Ore from realizing what had happened to him, which would cause the engine he was stuck on to activate and quantum jump the whole ship. Swerve began a conversation with Ore under the false identity of Pipes, since the Duobot had been chatting with Pipes before the incident.

Swerve vs. Swindle in a fingergun fight to the death!

Swerve used the conversation as an excuse to (surreptitiously) discuss the guilt he was experiencing after shooting Rung, his inability to disobey Rodimus for fear of losing his bar, as well as the confusion he was undergoing about the difference between peace and happiness. Ore allowed Swerve to realize that his ability to regret his actions made him a decent person, and Swerve considered whether or not he really wanted the reputation he'd earned. Moments later, Swerve was contacted by Rodimus to tell Ore the truth about what happened, as his death or mental breakdown would jump them away from the aggressive Galactic Council. Swerve responded by saying he would rather save Ore than hurt him, orders or no. Fortunately, the nearby Metrotitan quantum-jumped the ship and teleported Ore away as an extra convenience. You, Me, and Other Revelations

Voice actor: Rich Evans (English)

A few days later, Swerve joined a few other Autobots to watch "Proteus's Promise" in Rewind's hab-suite. Who's Afraid of the DJD? Swerve and Rewind arranged a series of storytelling sessions in the bar to try and help Rung's mental recovery. An Intimate Beheading They made little progress and eventually had a third session with Chromedome, Drift, Ratchet, Whirl, and others. Post Hoc Swerve was unable to stop himself occasionally interjecting into the story. Patternism Unable to get into his own quarters to fetch refreshments, Swerve raided Trailbreaker's stash of Nightmare Fuel. Following the story, the shipwide alarm sounded and Swerve speculated that someone had trodden dirt into Ultra Magnus's office. An Intimate Beheading

The alarm turned out to be a call to take part in a mission to Temptoria to find the Circle of Light. Swerve kept himself calm during the trip in the Leading Light by using Rungian re-experience therapy, and took part in the battle against a Decepticon holdout on Temptoria until his gun ran out of ammunition. Whirl threw him the enormous "Shoomer", and as he struggled to lift the weapon he wound up accidentally shooting himself in the face. Despite the damage, he survived and was taken back to the Lost Light. Before & After

While on shore leave on the planet Hedonia, Rodimus told Swerve to bring Ultra Magnus along and help him relax. However, when Magnus began hitting the nucleon and passed out, Swerve was left to provide a shoulder for the drunken Magnus to cry on. He tried to buck the enforcer up, reassuring him that people did like him; when Magnus fell unconscious again, Swerve quietly admitted that people didn't like him either, just his jokes. After an intense effort, Swerve and the gang got Ultra Magnus back to the Lost Light—after deciding that this particular "quest" was in his top three, he used a prototype broadcast system to call Blurr and tell him all about it, and refused to admit that the number was a fake. Sensing a new relationship with Magnus, Swerve asked him (next in a long line) if he'd like to share his room: Magnus, like everyone else, turned it down. Cybertronian Homesick Blues

Swerve and Tailgate bet 100 shanix that each would be the first to discover what Rung transformed into without asking him directly. Swerve's initial attempts involved striking the psychiatrist in the neural cluster to induce an involuntary transformation, but he was unsuccessful. He then tried to bribe Rung by getting him Thunderclash's autograph, but soon found themselves in the middle of a hostage situation as the Autobot Paddox revealed he was actually a deep-cover group of Ammonites and demanded the Lost Light's quantum engines in exchange for Thunderclash's life. Swerve bemoaned the fact that they were unarmed, but Rung responded that wasn't necessarily the case—Swerve ultimately wound up using Rung's unusual alternate mode as a weapon and knocked "Paddox" back into his component robots. Little Victories

Swerve accompanied Rewind to Brainstorm's laboratory in the hopes of finding Chromedome. While the other two Autobots talked, Swerve began playing with one of Brainstorm's inventions and accidentally triggered a "metafictional bomb" that caused Swerve to act like a character in a comic book. Just then, a ship wide alarm sounded—the notorious Decepticon psychopath Overlord had appeared on the ship and begun a rampage! Swerve wound up sitting by an injured Drift; still under the influence of the meta bomb, he began a detached monologue about their dire situation. Under Cold Blue Stars After Rewind sacrificed himself to kill Overlord, Swerve and Tailgate visited the ship's medbay as Ratchet tried to save the mortally wounded Ultra Magnus. Swerve played The Empyrean Suite, one of Magnus's favorite tunes, but Ratchet reminded him that his comatose patient couldn't hear the music.Shortly afterwards, at the memorial service for those killed during Overlord's rampage, Swerve decided to begin a "quest" to learn the contents of Brainstorm's briefcase to take his mind off the recent tragedies. The Gloaming Swerve succeeded in opening the briefcase; unbeknownst to Swerve, however, the reiterative nature of Brainstorm's time machine had a unique effect on his systems that allowed him to perpetually loop holomatter energy through his systems again and again. The One Where They Go to Earth

"Da-da-da-da dum-dum da-da-da!

After the service, Ultra Magnus spontaneously revived and fled the ship aboard a shuttlecraft. A they pursued the ship, the Lost Light arrived at a vast portal hanging in space—Swerve enthused wildly about this latest development to Tailgate, ignorant that the Autobot-in-training had just been diagnosed with a fatal case of cybercrosis. Through the portal, the ship found the long lost Luna 1; despite his enthusiasm, Rodimus forbade Swerve from joining the landing party, as he'd done nothing useful with his metallurgical skills the past few months beside running his bar. A forlorn Swerve decided to shut down the bar for good... moments before the first Legislator attacked his bar. The Fecund Moon

The mechanoid promptly shredded the room to bits, but Swerve was able to get behind the bar and trigger Brainstorm's automated security protocol. Despite taking fire from scores of automated turrets, the Legislator remained standing, so the bartender went for another gift from Brainstorm, My First Blaster™. Despite his infamously poor marksmanship, the chunky weapon allowed Swerve to put a hole through his assailant and kill it. Swerve rushed to the oil reservoir just in time to find his friend Skids, before Star Saber teleported in behind him and ran Skids through. Swerve frantically opened fire, but missed every shot and was knocked unconscious. House of Ambus

The two Autobots were teleported into a cell on Luna 1 where they found the other captured members of the Lost Light's landing party and Getaway, The Divided Self who explained that the insane Chief Justice Tyrest was behind their imprisonment. After escaping, the group rushed to confront Tyrest, only for the mad lawman to incapacitate the Autobots and activate his universal killswitch. Arm the Lonely Swerve finally got to put his metallurgy skills to good use when he and his team raided Pharma's medbay, where he helped discover a cure for cybercrosis and save Tailgate's life. This Calamitous Life Swerve was still congratulating himself when he was approached by Brainstorm, who suspected that someone had opened his briefcase. The Sound of Breaking Glass

After returning to the Lost Light, Swerve began cleaning up his bar, only to find several crewmembers promising to help clean up if he'd re-open it. At Swerve's suggestion, Jackpot found a damaged Legislator; Swerve rebuilt it, hacked its "bruised brain", and put the newly christened "Ten" to work as a doorman. Words Hang in the Air After the Lost Light left Luna 1, Swerve held a grand reopening of his bar. This Calamitous Life

While on their way to make contact with Thunderclash, the Lost Light received a dire warning from Orion Pax regarding the destruction of Gorlam Prime. Demonstrating a keen awareness of the severity of the situation, Swerve turned the warning into the ringtone for his comm unit. Dark Dawn After they rescued Pax and his crew, Swerve held a welcoming celebration at his bar. As Rodimus, Ultra Magnus, and "Optimus Prime" shared a drink together at his bar, Swerve couldn't contain himself and started taking pictures for the wall until they shooed him away. Black Metal

The Lost Light quantum jumped to the planet Hydrophena in search of Metroplex, but were attacked by thousands of Ammonites. Swerve joined the crew in taking the fight to the Stentarian army hand-to-hand while Ultra Magnus, Ratchet, and several others went for Metroplex himself. Into the Abyss During the battle, Swerve saved famous Crosscut, and protested that he was one of the "main cast" when Crosscut admitted he didn't know who he was. Inside Metroplex, Swerve's comrades located traces of admium in the water running through the Titan, and contacted him for his metallurgic expertise. Swerve warned that Metroplex might have contracted an alchemical virus and told them to retreat as the Ammonite horde swarmed into Metroplex's cranium. The Dead Are Not Enough Swerve and the crew got back aboard the Lost Light before Metroplex linked with the ship and triggered his internal spacebridge, bringing them back to Cybertron in time for Metroplex to defeat the Necrotitan. Finis Temporis

After the dark Titan fell, Swerve opened up Swerve's for Autobot and Decepticon alike to relax in. His innermost energon nearly boiled over, though, when a dream came true: Blurr. In his bar. Swerve played it as cool as he could, meaning he left Blurr feeling unnerved and very annoyed at "that three-fingered guy". The Becoming As the Ammonites returned to invade Cybertron by the billions, Swerve held the ground with the other Cybertronians. Black Planet They kept the planet from falling until the leadership of the Autobots and Decepticons succeeded in stopping Shockwave's mad schemes. ...And the Damage Done

As the Lost Light prepared to leave Cybertron for the second time, Swerve, Crosscut, and Riptide hosted a series of "crewditions", during which he rejected Groove, Bluestreak, and Nautica for spurious reasons before Nightbeat revealed the whole exercise to be one of Swerve's elaborate pranks. Towards Peace While showing the some of the new crew around, he and Bluestreak had a chat about Earth culture. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases Once the mission was once again underway, Swerve chafed under its new co-captain, Megatron. Words Hang in the Air

"Hey folks, did you know if you act all wacky and tell jokes, it doesn't make the pain inside go away but does mean everyone assumes you're happy? It's true!"

When things aboard the Lost Light—and ultimately the ship itself—started to disappear, Swerve abandoned the ship along with the rest of the crew. Predestination: A Beginner's Guide While trying to make sense of the situation aboard the Rodpod along with Megatron and a collection of other Autobots, Swerve himself then vanished. Twenty Plus One The remaining Autobots discovered a quantum duplicate Lost Light on which all aboard had been slaughtered by the Decepticon Justice Division. The duplicate Swerve had his skull crushed by Tarn himself. slaughterhouse When the duplicate ship's quantum engines were shut down, it disappeared and the other ship and crew reappeared, Swerve included. The Road Not Taken

During the second leg of their voyage, Swerve—feeling increasingly out of place now that the "cast" had changed—fell into a deep depression. He stopped coming out of his room entirely, and used a holomatter avatar of himself to run the bar. The One Where They Go to Earth Swerve spent weeks consuming every piece of Earth media he could find, to the point where Bluestreak came to regret ever installing intergalactic wi-fi. The Sensuous Frame He developed a penchant for Earth sitcoms: wacky stories with happy endings, starring "losers and screwups" who became friends. The lingering effects of Brainstorm's meta bomb caused Swerve to act increasingly erratically, to the point where he'd begin recapping events on the Lost Light to an imaginary group of "readers". His old bullet wound gave him a creeping, untreated rust infection which, unnoticed by anyone nor himself, gradually shut his systems down. However, because Swerve maintained his wisecracking persona, nobody ever realized that Swerve was putting himself through severe neglect. The One Where They Go to Earth

Swerve was serving drinks at his bar during a movie screening and joined in a singalong of "The Power of Love". Predestination: An Expert's Guide The "bad batch of engex" hurt Swerve's reputation as a bartender, as such most people frequented Mirage's new bar "Visages". His only customers were Ratchet and Tailgate. Needing an outlet, he took his anger out on Ten. Swerve later found himself called in for a bogus medical inspection regarding "Super Scraplets". The real reason was so that Ratchet could talk to him. The CMO suggested that Swerve invite Megatron to do a poetry reading, hoping it would revive the bar and help the former Decepticon out of his brooding. Swerve, however, invited Megatron to "Visages", and put the bar out of business before he even finished his second verse. Minimus Ambus later came into Swerve's with Ten as his guest and overruled Swerve's abuse of the Legislator. Our Steps Will Always Rhyme

While conversing with Ravage, Swerve remarked that he learned three great things from Earth TV, but was cut off by Rodimus's gong. The Sensuous Frame Afterwards, Swerve held an "Indie Disco" featuring Earth music, shortly before his holomatter avatar abruptly cut out as his body began to die. The Frail Gaze It was only then that Skids, to his shame, actually visited his friend's room and found his comatose form. However, Swerve's consciousness survived—peeking into Brainstorm's briefcase had given him the ability to re-route energy indefinitely through his holomatter generator; combined with the lingering effects of meta-bomb radiation, Swerve's mind took refuge on a life-sized holomatter replica of Earth, a "happy place", constructed from his good memories of watching Earth sitcoms. However, the strain of maintaining "Swearth" began killing his body that much faster. With no time to waste, the Lost Light crew began searching the 'planet' for him, even at the risk to their own selves.

Three little holomatters, one, two, three
Without a home or a Spotlight story
Once they were lost but now they're found
And now we're all just
Swerving Around

After a bewildering trek through background laughter and impractical rooms, a team of Autobots found three bickering roommates in a simulated New York City: "Ted" the priest, "Sheldon" the dermatologist, and "Jerry" the stand-up comedian—each a fragment of Swerve's mind, fractured along different aspects of his personality. The crew realised what was going on when Tailgate found the recap pages in a comic, where "Swerve" explained everything. This allowed everyone to realise the three :humans" were Swerve; after merging them back into a single avatar, Cyclonus revealed that everyone on the Lost Light cared enough to search for him. A touched Swerve dissolved the illusion, and Velocity was able to identify and fix his shoulder wound. The One Where They Go to Earth

Swerve quickly got over the experience; when he learned his wound had been a data slug by Autobot spy Agent 113, he created a 'Shot in the Shoulder' drink costing 1.13 shanix. After his recovery, he joined Team Rodimus in journeying to the Necrobot's home. As a memory of the experience, he took a photo of himself with the 'bot. The Not Knowing Several days later, a moodier-than-usual Cyclonus came into Swerve's, Swerve determining he was looking for Tailgate, and told him where he was, though not before giving Cyclonus a drink as repayment for what he did on "Swearth". The Lopsided Triangle

At some point, Swerve compiled a range of music for Ultra Magnus, which contained a large amount of crooning. In late December that year, the ship began to pass into Mauler territory, and in order to protect the crew from the vicious robophobes, the entire crew was told to hide their spark signatures by entering Biometric Envelopment Devices. However, Swerve, Whirl, and Nautica decided to hang out and get plastered on subspace-filtered engex, utterly unafraid of any potential trouble this would get him into, until they discovered what appeared to be a newborn protoform inside a crate of engex. Realizing they couldn't keep "her", the three went looking for the subspace hatch, which had been moved to Ultra Magnus's office. Ignoring Swerve's attempts at distraction, Magnus entered his office and found that his armor had apparently come to life. A panicked Nautica knocked Magnus out with her wrench, and the supposed protoform made off with the armor. Taking action, Swerve told Nautica and Whirl to find the armor while he put Minimus in a B.E.D., before presumably putting himself in one too. Silent Light

Swerve was one of several crew-members who took advantage of the "time fissures" present in his bar to look back on past events, before joining everyone else in a toast to "surprises". No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases During another movie night, Swerve was one of the Autobots who watched a documentary regarding Sentinel Prime's death. Swerve explained that Sentinel had faked Matrix affinity and was never a true Prime before trying to placate an annoyed Megatron with energon nibbles. The Last Autobot

Swerve was one of several Autobots who took part in a battle against some Rust Giants on Millarium, and in the aftermath was swarmed by the grateful locals. Once back aboard the ship, Swerve was one of several members of the crew who were subjected to a strange psychic attack How Bright Their Frail Deeds —in his case, an auditory hallucination of Ten berating Swerve for his poor treatment. The Sun in Flight which left a bad enough effect on Swerve he was still recovering even when he joined the team going to find it.The Rodpod wound up first inside, then on the Necrobot's planet, but before they could wonder about that, they came under attack.

Swerve helpfully made a list of who it was that could've wanted them dead ("everyone"). As they tried fleeing to the Necrobot's fortress, their only ship was blown to pieces; inside, they found the Necrobot dead. Getting in contact with the ship revealed that Getaway had been set free by the rest of the crew, who were past fed up with Megatron and his entourage. Swerve was quick to call Getaway out on saying he supported Megatron, only for the 'bot to reveal he'd been going through the crew, determining who would support a mutiny and who wouldn't, then shooting them with a nudge gun afterwards to cover his tracks. Worse yet, the Decepticon Justice Division was on their way to kill Megatron and the rest of them, and Swerve took the news about as well as could be expected. How Bright Their Frail Deeds

Fortunately, the D.J.D. kept to their own script, retreating after their initial attack to give everyone time to sweat. As Rodimus told everyone to use the eight-hour window to find an out, Velocity asked Swerve to check Censere's corpse, which had dissolved into sentio metallico and left only a key behind. As they searched for a lock, Swerve explained to Velocity that he'd brought Ten along because of the nature of the psychic attack, before finally finding what the key opened: a room filled with at least sixty bodies inside strange pods. As the Autobots debated whether or to flee or defend the people inside, Swerve suggested stealing the D.J.D.'s starship, smuggling the pods aboard, and legging it. Despite Whirl pointing out the plan was fairly terrible, Ravage said he could probably track it down. Ten left to follow him, though not before leaving a general outline for his own plan of using the residual spark energy in the flowers surrounding the fortress to power up some storm shields. The Sun in Flight

When Ten returned, much worse for wear, alongside Ratchet and Drift, Swerve tried talking to him, only for Magnus to tell him to give Ten some space. Your Fierce Tears After that, the gravity of the situation caught up to Swerve, and he felt the need to take a time out with Skids. Six hours later, just before the D.J.D. were about to strike, Swerve summed up the situation and declared it couldn't get worse. Swerve then took part in the group hug before going out to fight. At Close of Day Temporarily empowered into Outliers through Skids' self-sacrifice, Swerve and Rewind fought alongside Ultra Magnus using the turrets built into his new "Maximum Ambus" upgrade. Rage, Rage By the time that their temporary spark surge had worn off, the three had retreated back to the Necrobot's fortress with the other stranded Autobots. There, Swerve came up with the idea of weaponizing the Necrobot's psychic beacon, forcing Deathsaurus and his Decepticons into a retreat and leaving Megatron to face the DJD alone. Do Not Go Gentle

In the immediate aftermath, Swerve adopted a black Autobrand to mark Skids' death, and turned to multiple hits of numbing mood suppressant. When the "organics" turned out to be shielded Transformers that the Necrobot had rescued from past deaths, Swerve got up to his old tricks fast and started "background checks" on them for a laugh. When new arrival Anode said Swerve didn't seem too upset about his friend's death, he snapped at her and stormed off. Some Other Cybertron Later, he volunteered to check the pods for any others waking up like Anode. Anomie Down below, Swerve and Ten discovered a massive unopened pod. He wanted Cyclonus and Whirl around in case the occupant was dodgy, but Whirl popped the pod before Cyclonus arrived. Inside was his ultimate nemesis, the bio-locational weapons engineer and Warriors Elite member known as Killmaster. The nemeses locked into combat with each other, but Whirl's laser fire only seemed to make him stronger! Swerve was distraught when Ten was blasted by Killmaster's wand and seemingly atomized, only for the next blast to zap him as well. A World Misplaced

Fortunately, Cyclonus and Whirl defeated Killmaster and Brainstorm worked out how to use the wand to recover Swerve and Ten from their extra-dimensional displacement. Modes of Production Having realized that the Galactic Council had previously shunted the entire Necroworld into an alternate timeline, Brainstorm used the wand-tech to restore them to their original reality. This Machine Kills Fascists By mass-displacing the body of Skip, a small Decepticon who turned into a spaceship, Swerve and the crew, sans Megatron, made ready to continue their quest aboard their jury-rigged vessel. After Megatron

Boredom and frustration from being in a confined space for an extended period of time led to a prank war breaking out between Swerve and Anode. When Anode painted up Lug in Swerve's colors and had her proclaim to be his biggest fan, Swerve retaliated by having Velocity call Anode in for a medical exam and inform her that she had a "second head" in her rear armature. Anode got back at him by having Whirl plant a fake bomb in Swerve's head before waking him up to make it seem like she was using magnetizing spray to fuse him to his recharge slab. Unaware of the fake bomb, Swerve used Skip's sprinkler system to coat Anode with magnetizing spray before going to see Ratchet, where he discovered that the "bomb" was counting down each word he spoke. To make matters worse, Ratchet suddenly lost his colors, making him appear dead. Swerve then used what he believed to be his "last words" to trick Anode into getting fused to Ultra Magnus. When this resulted in chaos breaking out among the crew, Swerve uses his final words to warn Anode of a furious Cyclonus as he was about to slice her with his Great Sword, only to wound Rewind instead. As chaos continued to unfold around them, Anode revealed to Swerve that the "bomb" in his head had been her doing and declared herself victor of the prank war. Suddenly, as Skip's mass displacement wore off, the shrinking ship threatened to crush them all, until Ten unexpectedly spoke up and ordered everyone to listen to him. Sardines

Acting on Ten's instructions, Swerve and the others modified Skip to travel through compressed space and make it to the nearest Mederi facility. However, when Skip began to shrink in on the crew, they were forced to abandon ship and were seemingly killed by the ravages of compressed space. Upon awakening, the crew converged on Rodimus's position, where he was standing over Ten's deactivated body. After mourning over his departed friend, Swerve professed that they had ended up in the Afterspark. When Ratchet met this idea with skepticism, Swerve was seemingly proved correct when the deceased Trailcutter and Pipes suddenly appeared before them. Metastasis

Overjoyed by being reunited with their departed friends, The God War Swerve and the others eventually gathered under the giant Matrix that loomed over the Afterspark and prepared to ascend. However, when the Matrix, along with Trailcutter and Pipes, suddenly faded away, the crew realized that the "Afterspark" had in fact been an illusion generated by the Mederi program intended to euthanize them. Moreover, Mederi was in fact "Cyberutopia" itself, therefore bringing the Knight Quest to a conclusion. Before Swerve and the others could enjoy their happy ending, they were attacked by the mutineers of the Lost Light, whom Getaway had mutated into ravenous sparkeaters. You Are Here

Forced to team up with the misfit Decepticon Scavengers, Swerve and Misfire quickly bonded over their love of wordplay as they barricaded themselves in Mederi's medical center. A Dance Before Dying Inside the med center, First Aid discovered a concussive treatment that would return the afflicted Autobots to their old selves. Lūstrāre As everyone regrouped on the recovered Lost Light, the Grand Architect opened a rift in space and drew the ship back into the Benzene Cluster. Swerve and Anode confirmed that the Grand Architect had used a mold to forge five duplicate Cybertrons relatively recently. Once the Grand Architect himself brought Rodimus and the others aboard his ship, the God Gun blasted open a hole in reality... allowing the inhabitants of another dimension to invade their own. Farsickness

Help arrived in the form of Megatron, who'd returned from the Functionist Universe in the Last Light, but he was pursued by that reality's Functionist Council, who'd reformatted their own Cybertron into an enormous transforming robot. On the Last Light, Swerve caught up with Megatron and criticized his taste in decor. The Return of the King Once everyone reunited aboard the original Lost Light, Swerve was present as everyone as Rung—now revealed as Primus himself, the original Transformer—announced a plan to incapacitate the false Primus by creating twelve Matrices and firing them at different hot spots, moments before the false Primus robot annihilated the last of the five Cybertrons. The Unremembering

As reinforcements from Luna One arrived and forced Primus back into his planet mode by striking his neural cluster, Swerve, Misfire, and Grimlock travelled to Warrior's Gate—however, Swerve couldn't bypass the Matrix's morality lock alone, but after losing an arm to the onrushing Functionaries, an encouraging transmission from Rodimus allowed him and Misfire to successfully open the artifact together. Despite having saved the universe, after they regrouped on the Lost Light, Swerve pointed out that they weren't quite done yet. A Spark Among Embers

After bargaining with Prowl, Rodimus reached a deal: after one last cruise around the neighboring system, the Lost Light would be decommissioned and its engines removed to provide for a fresh wave of sparks birthed by the Matrix pulse. On the way, Rodimus hit upon the idea of recreating the quantum jump that had originally duplicated their ship when they first set out; against all odds, they created a copy of themselves in some new universe, who set out to continue their quest indefinitely. Although they'd never know if their experiment had been successful, the crew held one last party in Swerve's bar... but, even as a despairing Swerve swore that their quest couldn't end like this, automated cranes began stripping the ship down to its components. As the Scavengers left, Swerve lamented that he'd forgotten to get Misfire's number.

In the years that followed, Swerve reopened his bar on New Cybertron and eventually tried to turn his business into a franchise. Although at one point he owned 113 locations across the planet, the chain went bust; by the time that Ratchet had passed away, Swerve had been reduced back to just one bar. How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2

Velocitron Speedia 500

How does Swerve keep finding Blurr when Blurr keeps giving him wrong phone numbers?

Swerve was one of the spectators for the Speedia 500, Velocitron Speedia 500 Part 1 and cheered as the race neared its end. Velocitron Speedia 500 Part 2

Games

Transformers Legends

Swerve was assigned to Pipes's team, guarding some researchers at a coastal town when they were attacked by Overbite and Nautilator. The B-Team Part Deux

Transformers: Battle Tactics

If we can't equip him with a "My First Blaster", we can just move on.

He's smiling because...

Swerve participated in battles against a variety of opponents, both Autobots and Decepticons. Sometimes there were many of him! He appeared in two different bodies:

• Swerve—This Common character could be recruited by collecting 20 units of Cybermetal.
• Swerve (Gen)—This Epic character first appeared in the "Transform and Roll Out!" event, and could be recruited by collecting 650 units of Cybermetal, 350 Units of Transmetal, 150 exclusive cores, and 50 cores of this character.

Transformers: Battle Tactics

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Swerve was a fun-loving, irreverent ‘bot; in his role as a public relations specialist, he helped keep battlefield morale high wherever he went. Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook

Toys

The Transformers

Elbows. I no has them!

• Swerve (Mini-Vehicle, 1986)

• Takara name: Werve
• Takara ID number: C-58
• Known designers: Hideaki Yoke (TakaraTomy)

Part of the third year of Hasbro's The Transformers Mini Vehicle assortment, Swerve is a retool of the Micro Change toy originally used to make Gears, transforming into a pickup truck of indeterminable model with robot kludge in the cargo bed. He is largely maroon and white, with squarer legs and a more elaborate face than Gears.

The initial releases of all Mini Vehicles and Special Teams in 1986 were part of a promotional campaign that featured reflective iron-on patches as part of a contest. Later in the year, packages without bonus patches were released.

In Japan, "Werve" was sold in the second year of Takara's Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers line, packaged in a small box with a collector's card rather than the Hasbro version's bubble-card.

• Patent info, price guide, and further reading on Swerve at Transformerland.com
• More information on Swerve at TFU.info

Soy demasiado sexy para mi cabeza.

• Swerve (Mini Vehicle, 1987)

In the Mexican Transformers line produced by IGA, Swerve was released as a straight redeco of Gears, sold on Swerve cards. He was cast in metallic-maroon with white robot parts, which is pretty close to the Hasbro/Takara Swerve colors. Unlike most of the second-series IGA Mini Vehicles, he does not appear to have been sold in a second color scheme (at least, that we know of so far).

IGA appears to have done this old-mold-new-colors move with the other third-year retools (Hubcap, Outback, Pipes, and Tailgate), though so far Tailgate and Swerve are the only ones that have been confirmed with carded samples.

IGA Transformers also eventually made their way to a variety of European markets, slightly decreasing their rarity.

• More information on IGA Swerve at TFU.info

Alternators

A new head. We were so spoiled...

• Swerve (Alternator, 2004)

• ID number: 15
• Accessories: Engine/blaster

Released in the thirteenth wave of Hasbro's Alternators line (and the only new item in said wave), Swerve is a new-head retooling of Tracks, and transforms into a red Corvette Z06 featuring opening doors and hood, as well as a realistic interior. Swerve is armed with a double-barreled engine gun formed from his engine, two pairs of double-barreled slide-out wrist blasters, and two shoulder-mounted (non-firing) rocket launchers, making him one of the most heavily armed Alternators toys.

Even though the head sculpt is directly based on his Generation 1 version, the deco designer apparently only knew about the original toy (which had sported an entirely red head and face) and wasn't aware of the more diverse colors for the head from Swerve's appearance in the cartoon episode "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5", so the Alternators toy was given a completely original color scheme for the head.

He also came with an optional customer-applied flame hood decal reminiscent of the flames on the original Tracks toy, which was originally available with the Takara Binaltech Tracks release (and obviously intended by Hasbro for that toy). Applying this to Swerve really makes him resemble Road Rage in vehicle mode.

Swerve is also a victim of the Gold Plastic Syndrome: any one of the golden-colored joints had the tendency to snap off.

• More information on Alternators Swerve at TFU.info

Encore

Weird—I crashed into a paint-sprayer, and for some reason, I can see better.

• Bumble & Minibots (Multi-pack, 2008)

• ID number: 10

In 2008, "Werve" was reissued in Takara's Encore line, bundled with Bumblebee, Pipes, Tailgate, and Outback. As with his pack-mates, his face paint was given more detailing to better resemble his cartoon model.

Generations

GDO

He's scowling because he still doesn't have his own mold.

• Swerve (Deluxe Class, 2012)

• Accessories: Rifle

Generations Swerve is a pretool and redeco of Sergeant Kup, using the planned-in alternate head for the mold.^[3] He transforms into a pseudo-retro-styled pickup truck of indeterminate, probably-made-up model, and is covered in 3 mm rungs that are compatible with C joint clip-on weapons. There are two rungs on his backpack, plus two rungs each on his forearm kibble, and two on his lower back. The blaster can either be hand-held, plug into the underside of the truck to form a second exhaust pipe, or clip onto the roof of the truck via C joint. Interestingly, due to his transformation, Swerve's truck mode features a working tailgate.

Swerve was originally only to be released as part of a big block of toys developed exclusively for release in China and other Hasbro Asia markets. However, Toys"R"Us picked up Swerve as part of a massive group of Transformers exclusives for US market release, just in time for the 2012 holiday shopping season.

This mold was retooled into Timelines Hoist and Autobot Electrons.

• More information on Generations Swerve at TFU.info

Thrilling 30

Sound chip not included. World breathes sigh of relief.

• Swerve & Flanker (Legends Class, 2014)

• Series / Number: 2 / 005
• Known designers: Joe Kyde (Hasbro)

Part of the fifth wave of 2012-onwards Generations Legends Class toys, Thrilling 30 Swerve is roughly the size of a Cyberverse Commander Class toy. His robot mode is styled after his appearance in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, but transforms into a mostly red, modernized four-wheel drive pickup truck of made-up model. He comes with a tray of drinks a My First Blaster™ Flanker, a small bot who transforms into either a blue jet or a weapon for Swerve to wield via its 5mm handle.

The package art for Swerve mistakenly depicts him with five fingers on each hand instead of the usual four.

Swerve was retooled into Generations Gears and redecoed and given a shell as BotCon 2015 Oilmaster. In turn, that was retooled into Double Pretender Optimus Prime.

This tooling also served as the basis of the non-toy Shattered Glass incarnation of Swerve.

• More information on Thrilling 30 Swerve at TFU.info

Legends

Why is the bartender packed with the baby, again?

• Swerve & Tailgate (Multi-pack, 2015)

• ID number: LG08
• Release date: January 24 2015

Released in the fourth wave of TakaraTomy's Legends line, Swerve is a redeco of the above Generations Legends Class Swerve, made to closer resemble his original toy. Changes including a darker shade of red plastic, additional white paint on his legs/truck bed and a black square on his hood.

He now comes with Phaser, a redeco of Flanker who is colored to resemble Swerve's My First Blaster in gun mode.

Swerve and Phaser were only available in a multi-pack with Tailgate and Groundshaker.

Vintage G1

Suave.

• Swerve ("Legion Class" reissue, 2018)

Part of the first wave of the Vintage G1 line, Swerve's first US re-release is very similar to his Encore "Werve" release, complete with a multicolored face, but there are a few small but significant differences. His chest sticker has been applied upside-down, his rubsign is an all-new type with a mirror-level reflective silver border and a symbol that only turns red rather than the mood-ring multicolor of older rubsigns, plus he has production information tampographed onto his inner right foot.

Like all Vintage G1 figures, Swerve was exclusive to Walmart in the United States and Canada; he debuted on the Walmart website in the US months before hitting retail in December of 2018. He was also available at general retail in Hong Kong, and exclusive to the website of Australian fashion chain Cotton On. Oddly, the Australian release came in multilingual packaging intended for the European market, a rare but not entirely unheard of occurrence. Due to the limited space on the back, this, unfortunately, means the Tech Spec card is omitted, replaced by parental warnings in twenty-four languages about the possibility of breakage due to excessive force, and that parts are not designed to reattach.

Although originating from the 1986 range of Mini-Vehicles, Vintage G1 Swerve's back-of-card artwork features the original 1984 mural, rather than the 1986 "Metroplex" mural present on Vintage G1 Hot Rod's box.

Notes

Left: Poorly drawn Swerve from the cartoon.
Center: Made up character model found in The Ark.
Right: Actual finalized model found among original cartoon production material.

• Swerve's robot mode character model used in The Ark series books is actually not a model at all, rather it is a poorly traced episode screencap of the character from the episode "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5"—which itself, was a poorly drawn attempt at a model sheet pose insert in a fictional setting. His vehicle mode on the other hand, is a photoshopped tracing of Gears's final vehicle mode model flipped 180° degrees. Gears's finalized vehicle mode model is more of a rough sketch, with not many solid lines, so what this photoshop job did was make the lines somewhat crisper for Swerve, and also adds additional details that didn't exist on the original model, like the Micro Change "M" on the hood, which is present on the real Swerve model, but not on Gears's. Needless to say, Swerve's actual models look pretty different in comparison.
• Swerve and Hubcap are curiously absent from 1986's The Transformers Universe profile book. The only other missing characters were the two Deluxe Vehicles and the four Deluxe Insecticons, whose absence might be explained by their toys' origins with companies in competition with Takara. Swerve and Hubcap's omissions, however, appear to be errors; all the other toys in their wave and subgroup were included. The extended, unused TFU entry was eventually revealed by Jim Sorenson on his blog "Disciples of Boltax".
• Given the lack of appearance in any Marvel fiction, including the profile books, it appears that the comic department at Marvel never received the model sheets for Swerve at all.
• According to James Roberts's notes in his MTMTE Notebooks, IDW Swerve's personality is based on Guy Gardner, but 'less of an ass'.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Werve (ウェーブ Wēbu, ウエーブ Uēbu), Swerve (スワーブ Suwābu)
• French: Embardo (Canada)
• Mandarin: Bèi Lí (China, 背离, "Swerve")

References