Swindle

Capitalist first, Decepticon second, Swindle is a con-man, an opportunist, a hustler—or as he would put it, an entrepreneur. Unlike his fellow Combaticons, he considers the Autobot-Decepticon war to be merely an opportunity for networking, cutting deals, and making profit. He's an expert on all manner of weaponry and their market prices, and he prides himself on being able to sell anything to pretty much anybody.

Despite being a weaselly, opportunistic sneak, Swindle is one of the few Decepticons who could adapt to a post-war Cybertron. After all, there will always be demand for a black market, regardless of whoever wins. He knows all he has to do is keep his chin up, and he'll always have a customer. All he needs is a smile.

Swindle can combine with the other Combaticons to form Bruticus.

Appearance: Swindle’s armor is a vivid blend of dark golden yellow and deep violet, accented by metallic gray and black mechanical detailing throughout his frame. His upper body is broad and angular, with thick armor plating covering his chest and shoulders, segmented by narrow vents and panel lines that reveal traces of the inner machinery beneath. The chest plate is colored in a strong purple tone, framed by black sections and silver joints, with the Decepticon insignia emblazoned prominently at the center. His arms are bulky and reinforced, composed of overlapping panels that connect to his massive forearms and mechanical fists. The plating bears a mix of violet and steel gray, with visible joint pistons at the elbows. His forearms each house a large, heavy cannon that integrates seamlessly with his armor, the barrels emitting a faint glow from within. The metallic texture is matte with subtle wear marks, adding to the rugged appearance of his weaponized structure. His legs are heavily armored and squarely built, the thigh plating transitioning from purple to golden yellow as it moves down toward his massive lower legs. Each leg is reinforced with angular armor slabs, thick hydraulics, and visible mechanical seams. His feet are wide and tank-like, built with deep grooves and reinforced plates that resemble industrial machinery, hinting at immense strength and weight. His head is small compared to his massive body, with a smooth black helm featuring ridged contours and a faceplate of dark metal. His optics glow a bright purple.

Swindle transforms into a tan FMC XR311 combat support vehicle. He features a large, back-mounted cannon with a small pistol attached to its side. In robot mode, he is armed with both weapons, which are used as hand-held artillery.

The Autobots usually find themselves defending both their own race and other species against the Decepticons and upholding justice and freedom throughout the galaxy. A generally heroic, honorable group, they tend to be dedicated to peace, and feel a need to protect other races from the Decepticons. As a result, they are usually Transformers who change into non-combat oriented alternate modes such as domestic vehicles, cars, trucks, or rescue vehicles. This is not always the case, however, as their ranks certainly contain ne'er-do-wells, malcontents, and unsavory types, and the necessities of war have led many to adopt more combat-oriented alternate forms. While the Autobots have usually found themselves outnumbered by the Decepticons, the Autobots have always had home-field advantage, having not only the humans' military support, but also having more places on Earth to fall back on, while the Decepticons are entirely unwelcome on Earth. Key concepts that repeat throughout most continuities are the use of the name Prime (or a variation thereof) to denote Autobot leadership, and the existence of an artifact of great life-giving power, usually referred to as a "Matrix", traditionally held by their leader.

The Decepticons are a faction typically concerned with such things as conquering Cybertron, defeating the Autobots, amassing large quantities of energon, developing powerful weaponry, and beating people up. Not necessarily in that order. Unlike the Autobots, whose leader is a Prime bearing a Matrix, the Decepticons are led by the most powerful of their ranks. This tends to cause some conflict, given how generally every Decepticon thinks that they're the most powerful. Also, the Decepticons are not exactly the most compassionate beings in the universe, but not all fight for greed. More than a few have a sense of honor, while others believe that Cybertron would be better protected by aggressive expansion. Ultimately, the Decepticons desire to protect their homeworld, even if it is at the expense of others.

The spark is the core of Transformer life, an electrically charged mass of positrons formed from the supernatural substance known as Rarified Energon. Sparks come in a wide range of colors—while most are some shade of blue, green, yellow, orange, white, and red sparks have all been observed. While their appearances may vary, every spark functions as a combined heart and soul for an individual Cybertronian: like a heart, a Spark "pulses" at a certain frequency to animate a mechanical bodyframe; like a soul, a spark is generally accepted to contain some part of a Transformer's immaterial being, which persists after death by transcending into the afterlife. Indeed, most Cybertronian religions hold that each spark contains an infinitesimally small portion of Primus's divine essence. To protect their sparks, which usually can't survive outside of a compatible body for very long, most Cybertronians possess a specialized "spark chamber" somewhere in their body.

Most forms of Cybertronian reproduction involves the creation of a new spark—in many realities, supernatural artifacts such as the Vector Sigma supercomputer or the AllSpark can generate sparks at will, which can be implanted into a suitable receptacle to create a new Transformer. These newborn sparks contain the hard-coded design schematics that act as a Transformer's "genetic code", which dictates a Transformer's appearance and sometimes even their alternate modes. Sparks can be safely stored in stasis pods, "frozen" within photonic crystals, or even transplanted from one body to another with no ill effects, but they are susceptible to weapons fire and exotic forms of radiation. When a Transformer's body can no longer support its spark, it is "extinguished" and the Transformer is considered dead. As long as the spark is intact, however, it is possible to repair a Transformer, re-implant its spark, and effectively bring them back from the dead.