Prowl 2

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Revision as of 00:48, 13 January 2012 by 24.58.224.22 (talk) (Not to step into it too much, but "Controversy" implies something more severe and isn't as specific, this seems better, given that that's what the section is actually about.)
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The name or term "Prowl" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Prowl (disambiguation).
Prowl 2 is an Autobot from the Robots in Disguise series.
File:Prowl2 RID TinyTinArt.jpg
You don't know me.

Not much is known about Prowl 2, besides that he's a Spy Changer. He might be Prowl, he might be another Prowl, or he might be his own damn Prowl. You don't know. NOBODY knows.

Identity

Prowl 2 only exists as a toy in the Robots in Disguise line with no bio or story appearances to explain who he is. A handful of other characters received Spy Changer toys, though most of them looked more like their larger versions and they lacked the anomalous "2" suffix. The "Super" redecoes of the Deluxe RID Car Brothers were listed in store computers with the numeral "2" following their names. The "Prowl 2" Spy Changer's deco is not dissimilar to the redeco of Deluxe Prowl, and it is entirely reasonable to assume that it was intended as a Spy Changer version of that toy. This might have remained simply an odd footnote in Transformers lore, but then the Binaltech fiction used the name "Prowl 2" for its own incarnation of Prowl (who would, in a later retcon, be rolled into a Beast Wars character as "Prowl II").

Some fans pass the Binaltech reference off as merely a nod, since Binaltech takes place in a branch of the Generation 1 cartoon timeline. However, the Generation 1 cartoon and Car Robots (the original Japanese version of Robots in Disguise) are actually in the same universe according to Japanese continuity. On the other hand, Prowl 2 wasn't in Car Robots; he was an American addition. On the other other hand, Binaltech's writer, Hirofumi Ichikawa, is famously knowledgeable of non-Japanese Transformers, and he even worked another anomalous Robots in Disguise suffix into Binaltech terminology. Moreover, even if the series are viewed as separate, Robots in Disguise is no stranger to dimension-hoppers.

The upshot of it all is that no one can say who Prowl 2 "really" is. The evidence is simply too scant and inconclusive. Any definitive answers lie only in the realm of fanon.

Toys

Robots in Disguise

File:Prowl2 RID toy.jpg
I am no one. And everyone.
  • Side Swipe & Prowl 2 (Basic 2-pack, 2001)
Originally an unreleased Generation 2 Go-Bots mold, Prowl transforms into a police car. He has through-axle construction to allow for super-fast rolling in car mode. Like his fellow "new"-mold teammates, his rifle stores under his car mode. He was available in a two-pack with Side Swipe.
This mold was used to make Universe Prowl and a different Universe Prowl.
  • Prowl 2 (Tiny Tins, 2001)
Prowl 2 was one of several Robots in Disguise toys to be sold as an individual in a Tiny Tins release, with a pocket-sized carrying case. The actual toy is unchanged from the two-pack version.