Prowl (Transformers)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article contains an excessive number of copyrighted images.
Please review the use of non-free images according to policy and guidelines, especially taking note of WP:NFCC#3a, WP:NFCC#8 and WP:NFC#Images. Correct any violations, then remove this tag once compliant.

Prowl is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers universes. After Optimus Prime and Megatron, and along with Mirage, "Prowl" is one of the most re-used American names in the assorted Transformers series, and its use has become almost syonymous with Autobots who possess a police car alternate mode.

1 Transformers: Generation 1
2 Beast Wars
3 Transformers: Robots in Disguise
4 Transformers: Armada
- 4.1 Dreamwave Productions
- 4.2 Toys
5 Transformers: Energon
6 Transformers: Universe (Spy Changer)
- 6.1 3H Enterprises
- 6.2 Toys
7 Transformers Universe (Micromaster)
- 7.1 3H Enterprises
- 7.2 Toys
8 2007 Transformers film
- 8.1 IDW Publishing
- 8.2 Transformers 2
9 Transformers Animated
- 9.1 Animated series
- 9.2 Toys
10 External links
11 References

[edit] Transformers: Generation 1

Prowl
Transformers character
Prowl Box Art
Affiliation	Autobot, later Maximal
Sub-Group	Autobot Cars Action Masters Basic Vehicles Spy Changers Basic Beasts
Function	Military Strategist and Analyst Security (Machine Wars)
Partner	Ironhide & Silverbolt
Motto	"Logic is the ultimate weapon."
Alternate Modes	Cybertronian Car Nissan Fairlady Z (Datsun 280ZX) Police Car Formula 1 racer Acura RSX Cobra Firebat Lion Nissan 350Z Police Car
Series	Transformers: Generation 1 Machine Wars Beast Wars Transformers: Alternators Transformers: Universe
Voiced by	Michael Bell (English) Toshiro Ishii (Japanese)

Prowl (Cervo in Canada, Pantera in Italy) is an Autobot of many virtues - he is quiet, competent, loyal, and possessed of almost endless patience. When Optimus Prime appoints Prowl a task, he can be guaranteed that it will be completed to the best of Prowl's ability. Prowl is not given to speculation or estimation - the only realm in which he will work is that of the proven fact; if he can't explain it, he will not believe it. He hates doubt, and strives to make a situation as simple and logical as possible, purging excesses of concern from his mind by going to Optimus Prime for assurance. Prowl is friendly, but only as a listener; as a talker, he is not so sociable, entering a conversation usually only when someone makes an unreasonable remark, and demanding an explanation.

Prowl's logic center is unquestionably the most powerful of all the Autobots', giving him the ability to analyze any combat situation almost instantaneously and then advise on the optimal course of action - a skill that makes him eminently suited to his role as the Autobots' military strategist and analyst. For example, he can compute the paths of movement of 800 separate moving objects and determine the proper countermove in half a second. In robot mode, he is armed with a pair of shoulder-mounted cannons which fire wire-guided incendiary missiles, and a semi-automatic rifle that shoots pellets filled with a highly corrosive acid. He transforms into a police car version of a Datsun Fairlady 280ZX.

Prowl's straightforward mind means that non-linear thinking is one of his biggest weaknesses. Irrational situations and thought processes can sometimes scramble his circuits to the extent that his mind will briefly shut down.

[edit] Animated series

Strangely, although his toy tech specs placed him as second-in-command of the Autobots, in the animated series, both Jazz and Ironhide seem to share this duty with him in certain cases. Jazz was in charge of special operations, Ironhide security and Prowl tactics.

A regular member of the battle units assembled to combat the assorted threats the Decepticons posed to Earth, Prowl's primary solo adventure saw him pursue Starscream, Thundercracker and Soundwave alongside Bluestreak after a botched raid, only for injuries sustained in the ensuing battle to knock his battle computer offline. Unable to mobilize himself without its functions, Prowl reached out electronically and interfaced with the nearby computer of Chip Chase, who manipulated Prowl's body and fended off the Decepticons.

Beyond that, however, Prowl's role as a strategist put him firmly in the background of the Transformers' ongoing adventures on Earth, participating in many battles but playing key roles in few; among some of his roles in conflict involving him orchestrating the plan to invade the Decepticons' underwater base, devising security measures to prevent Megatron from stealing super-fuel from an Autobot convoy and leading the attack against the Triple Changer Blitzwing's fortress when he separated from the Decepticons, only to wind up built into a throne by Scrapper, after being smashed and defeated by Blitzwing's tank mode.

In the year 2005, when the Autobots had been forced off of Cybertron and were based out of Autobot City on Earth and two orbiting moonbases, Prowl, Ironhide, Ratchet and Brawn were dispatched to Earth to collect a shipment of Energon Cubes that would power the Autobots' subsequent strike at the Decepticons. Getting wind of the plan, Megatron and his forces attacked their shuttle, and a single direct hit from Scavenger's weapon penetrated Prowl's armor, melting his internal workings and ending his life. His recovered body was laid to rest in the Autobots' deep-space mausoleum, which was later destroyed.

Optimus Prime leads Jazz, Over-Run, Prowl, Rad, Rollout and Wheeljack into becoming Action Masters.

Prowl continued to appear in the toy line, and even made the occasional appearance in the animated segments of the toy commercials.

[edit] Transformers: Headmasters

Despite his "death", he made a further appearances in the opening episodes of the Japanese-exclusive series, Transformers: Headmasters - this should be usually blamed on the fact that The Transformers: The Movie had not reached Japan at this stage, so the writers and animators did not know which characters had died during it, although Prowl's name is still listed among the deceased in the Japanese dub of the earlier episode, "Dark Awakening," where the mausoleum containing his body was destroyed.However, the recap at opening of the serial shows moments taken from The Transformers: The Movie. It's even possible that the robot identified as Prowl, never called by name, was in reality Silverstreak, that did not die in the motion picture (at least on panel) and was very similar to Prowl.

Prowl appeared in Episode 1 and 3 of the Japanese exclusive Headmasters series.

[edit] Marvel Comics

Contrary to his portrayal in the animated series, Prowl was most definitely second-in-command of the Autobots in Marvel Comics' ongoing Transformers comic book series. Following the Autobots' reactivation on Earth in 1984, Prowl led the first mission into nearby Portland. At first thinking that the Earthly vehicles were the planet's dominant lifeform, a battle with the Decepticons soon revealed to Prowl the existence of humans, and he ordered the Autobots to return to the Ark to report the new development to Optimus Prime. He participated in the battles that followed immediately, and was among the majority of injured Autobots who gave their energy to the most healthy group of five for the deciding clash against the Decepticons. Although the Autobots appeared to claim victory, their hopes were dashed by the arrival of Shockwave, who deactivated all the Autobots and strung them up in the Ark.

Thus did Prowl remain for a short period, until surviving medical officer Ratchet repaired and restored them - save for Optimus Prime, decapitated by Shockwave, who was draining the energy of the Creation Matrix from him to create new Decepticons. Prowl proceeded to head up the plan to save Prime, but Shockwave manipulated his headless body to attack the Autobots. Although many were badly damaged before Prime regained control of his form and defeated Shockwave, Prowl was not among them - although not an immediate contributor to any following conflicts, he was seen in several group shots in the Ark.

A little later, across the Atlantic, in the United Kingdom's exclusive Transformers title, Prowl's hawkish, warlike tendencies were explored in the Crisis of Command story arc. He proposed the use of the Creation Matrix to animate dedicated war machines, to tip the balance of the war in favour of the Autobots. Jazz's party disagreed, saying that such machines would be abominations. Prowl's ideas were popular for a time until Optimus Prime decisively re-asserted his authority and ruled against the use of the Creation Matrix 'to destroy'.

However, Optimus Prime readily delegated the strategic authority for the Dinobot Hunt to Prowl. At the climax, Decepticon interference resulted in a dangerous battle between the rampaging Sludge and Grimlock; Prowl and Optimus Prime intervened personally and Prowl's use of his shuttlecraft to electrocute the combatants saved Optimus Prime from being caught between the two.

Around this time he even met Ronald Reagan in a story in the 1985 Marvel UK Transformers annual, during he was badly damaged by the weaponry of Shrapnel.

This served as explanation for Prowl's condition when he next appeared in the U.S. issue #26 "Funeral for a Friend" - stored within one of the Ark's stasis pods in a badly-damaged but surviving state (with no explanation offered). Under attack by the human known as the Mechanic, Ratchet played upon his fear of the police by successfully reactivating Prowl, who transformed and sent the human fleeing. Though seen sparingly, Prowl remained active for the remainder of Grimlock's leadership of the Autobots, and was deactivated by the Underbase-empowered Starscream (not shown on-panel in the U.S. series, but later revealed posthumously in the U.K. title).

However he came to suffer it, deactivation was Prowl's fate for the extended future, until, in 1990, the Dinobot commander Grimlock pumped the Ark's stasis pods full of the life-restoring fuel, Nucleon, reactivating Prowl, who participated in the epic battle with Unicron, and immediately fell into the trusted role of second-in-command again, only this time, his commanding officer was Grimlock himself, having been appointed leader by the dying Optimus Prime. Prowl's logical approach to things immediately clashed with Grimlock's gruff, unrestrained, unmoderated behavior, but Grimlock played it Prowl's way by agreeing to a truce with the Decepticons in order to evacuate a seeingly-doomed Cybertron. Prowl was left eating his words when the Decepticons sabotaged the Autobots' ships, leaving them to their fates, and almost had a breakdown in the face of his impending demise until Grimlock swooped in to the rescue with Decepticon shuttles he had previously commandeered. The Autobots subsequently tracked the Decepticons to Klo, where they routed them with the help of the reborn Optimus Prime, and they then returned to Cybertron; rather than destroying itself, Cybertron had been restoring itself to its former glory.

Although the effect did not seem to overtake Prowl before the end of the series, Nucleon's side-effect saw it rob Transformers' of their ability to transform into vehicle mode. Consequently, Prowl would have become an Action Master - no coincidence, since just such a figure of him was released in the 1990 toyline (right), equipped with a transforming Turbo-Cycle vehicle.

Prowl was also the leader of the few surviving Autobots in the alternate 2009 seen in the story "Rhythms of Darkness", where Unicron had destroyed Cybertron (seemingly in the equivalent of Transformers: The Movie) and Galvatron and the Deceptions had gone on to wipe out Rodimus Prime and most of the Autobots and effectively conquer Earth. (The survival of Prowl, whose death predated the creation of Galvatron in the regular timeline, was unexplained.) At the climax of the story, the Autobots are, for the moment at least, victorious but with Prowl, along with Jazz and Inferno, seemingly the only survivor.

Prowl proceeded to put in brief appearances in Marvel's Transformers: Generation 2 comic book, although no figure of him was released in the accompanying toyline.

[edit] Earthforce

In 1990, in the previously-mentioned UK-exclusive comics, a branching storyline began that was separate from the events of the regular US continuity, and broke away into its own ongoing series of stories. Prowl was among a small group of Transformers awakened from stasis, not by Nucleon, but by the mental probings of the time-travelling Galvatron - but the world that Prowl woke up to was distinctly different to the one he remembered. Transformers were no longer as simple as they were in his day - surrounded by Pretenders, Headmasters, Micromasters, Powermasters and more, Prowl and his fellow old-schoolers longed for the old days, and when Grimlock suggested the creation of a proactive Earth-based Autobot force, they were quick to volunteer to join, that they might recapture some of their glory days in a simpler conflict than what the larger war had become.

As a member of the Earthforce, Prowl performed such feats as travelling back in time to prevent Megatron from removing troops from the past to use in the present, and having to actually break into the Autobots' own base when Wheeljack activated the defenses with everyone outside.

Issue #279 of the Marvel U.K. Transformers comic featured a story called "Divide and Conquor!" where Soundwave lead the bulk of the Decepticon forces on Earth against the Autobot Earthforce headquarters while Starscream attacked an oil tanker. Sent into battle by Prowl, the Dinobots routed the main Decepticon forces while Springer lead the Autobot Survivors, Broadside, Inferno, Skids, and Carnivac to defeat Starscream.

[edit] Audio books

Prowl was featured in the 1985 audio and book adventure Satellite of Doom.

[edit] 3H Enterprises

The first Beast Wars Prowl made appearance in Transformers: Universe #3 as part of Magnaboss. In this comic Optimus Primal pleads with Magnaboss and the Maximal High council (which oddly includes Bantor, Air Hammer, Corahda, Torca and Battle Unicorn) to take the threat of Unicron seriously, but they doubt his claims. Optimus Primal is detained, but Snarl breaks him out of the detention center.

[edit] Dreamwave Productions

In Dreamwave Productions' 21st Century reimagining of the original universe, Prowl was also portrayed in a position of command. Before The Great War on Cybertron, Prowl lived in the city of Praxus, but when the war broke out, he soon joined the Autobots and quickly rose in rank. After Autobot leader Sentinel Prime was killed by Decepticon leader Megatron, Prowl was appointed advisor to the new leader, Optimus Prime, and aided in the defence of Iacon's capitol against an attack by a Decepticon force under the command of Shockwave.

When Prime and Megatron vanished in an early space bridge experiment and were believed dead, the Autobot and Decepticon forces splintered into several smaller factions. Prowl remained with the faction that chose to continue calling itself the Autobots, acting as commander, and leading Cliffjumper, Gears, Jazz, Skids and Sideswipe on a mission to investigate a new Decepticon mobile fortress at Praetorus Wharf, which turned out to be Trypticon.

Prime and Megatron eventually returned, and four million years ago, Prowl was second-in-command aboard the Ark when it crashed on Earth, entombing all aboard in stasis until they were reawakened in 1984.

Subsequently, after nearly twenty years of war on Earth, the Autobots defeated the Decepticons and headed back to Cybertron aboard the new spaceship, the Ark II, only for it to explode as it left Earth's atmosphere in 2001.

Prowl was among the deactivated Transformers recovered by the terrorist known as Lazarus, who put them under his control, intending to sell them on the black market. To display their power during an auction, Lazarus had a group of Transformers including Prowl attack the Smitco oil refinery, killing the human workers there. Also among the controlled, however, was Megatron, who soon broke free in the midst of the auction and initiated his own plan, part of which involved the creation of a virus that would reformat the Earth into a new Cybertron; Lazarus's other Autobot captives, including Prowl, were used as a source of power to generate the virus, but were later rescued and restored.

The following year, Shockwave and his forces arrived from Cybertron, intending to capture Prime, Megatron and their forces as war criminals, as Shockwave had succeeded in unifying the warring factions on their home planet. Staying behind with a small group to monitor Shockwave's movements while Prime returned to base, Prowl was shocked to be confronted by Ultra Magnus, and willingly entered his custody to learn more about the situation. Returned to Cybertron, Prowl and several other Autobots fell in with an underground rebel group opposing Shockwave's rule, who were then mobilized by Optimus Prime into striking back. Prime was seriously wounded in his ensuing confrontation with Shockwave, and while he recuperated from his injuries, Prowl assumed the mantle of leadership again.

In issue #2 of the third Generation One series, titled "Black Sunshine", the Protectobots were ordered by Prowl to inventigate the energy anomaly created by Sunstorm excaping Shockwave's abandoned secret lab. When they arrived they discovered the hole left in the roof by Sunstorm and the deactivated Battlechargers Runabout and Runamuck. Streetwise reported back to Prowl as First Aid repaired the Decepticons.

The balance of peace on Cybertron fell into disorder once again, and Prowl began an attempt to train new warriors to bolster the Autobots' forces, without much success. Trying his hand at public speaking, Prowl found himself unable to handle the deluge of questions from the crowd before him, and it fell to Ultra Magnus to step in. After investigating Vector Sigma and Sunstorm with Perceptor, Prowl, feeling that Cybertronians would not accept change easily, elected to go somewhere that the Autobots were needed more - back to Earth, where he oversaw the beginning of construction on Autobot City.

Although Dreamwave clearly had more stories to tell of Prowl, their bankruptcy and closure means that for now, those tales will go untold.

[edit] Devil's Due Publishing

In this reimagining of the original series story, The Ark was discovered by the terrorist Cobra Organization, and all the Transformers inside were reformatted into Cobra vehicles remotely controlled by the Televipers. In this storyline Prowl turned into a Cobra Firebat jet.

He reappeared in the third crossover series as part of the combined Autobot/G.I. Joe force trying to rescue Optimus Prime. His body resembles that of the traditional Generation 1 look, indicating his alternate mode is once again a police car.

In the fourth series Prowl was in command of a unit (consisting of Sideswipe, Eject, Skids and Cosmos) working with former G.I Joe leader Hawk to stop the spread of Cybertronian technology on Earth. After almost catching the arms dealer Destro, the unit relaxed on their ship - unaware the whole thing had been a set-up by the Unicron aligned snake cult Cobra-La, leading the Monster Pretenders right to them. Prowl was badly damaged, but was later seen being repaired.

[edit] IDW Publishing

In IDW Publishing's new The Transformers: Infiltration mini-series, Prowl is in command of an infiltration unit consisting of Ratchet, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Jazz, Bumblebee and Sunstreaker. His vehicle form is that of a Nissan Z-car police variant (like his original G1 form) - this time the latest 350Z.

He first appears saving Ratchet from Thundercracker. Although he is furious with Ratchet for breaking cover, he is at least willing to allow Rachet to get the data from the humans. Once notified of Megatron's presence on Earth, he leads the entire unit to the Decepticon base and saves Bumblebee from Runabout. This version of Prowl is a much stricter leader, incensed with Ratchet for blowing his cover and unwilling to tolerate the presence of the humans, albeit for reasons of their own safety.

In the sequel series The Transformers: Escalation Prowl, acting on orders from the newly arrived Optimus Prime, sends the humans home - only to lose Sunstreaker in a Machination ambush. Later, Prowl discovered the whereabouts of Megatron in the breakaway Soviet state of Brasnya and alerted Prime - over the objections of Ironhide, who wanted to locate Sunstreaker, prompting a confrontation between him and Prowl. Prowl then accompanied Prime to Brasnya to confront Megatron. With the facsimile escaping due to the intervention of Skywarp and Astrotrain, Prowl attempted a suicide run to capture it, being saved from Astrotrain by the newly arrived Hardhead in the process, only to nearly collide with Hot Rod, who had been attempting the same thing. Despite some bickering the two managed to capture the facsimile, forcing the Russian troops to stand down. However, realizing his troops were confronting Megatron, Prowl raced to join them. On Prime's orders, he and his unit focused fire on Megatron long enough for Prime to recover and drive off the Decepticon leader. Prowl then communicated with Nightbeat, and was told the facsimile had been killed.

Prowl also made a brief appearance in the Spotlight issue on Kup, where he argued with Springer over bringing Kup back despite the fact he had killed several of his fellow Autobots already. Prowl agreed to keep Optimus Prime off Springer's back, but criticized Springer for the loss of life it could cause. His earlier career was also touched upon in The Transformers: Megatron Origin, where it was revealed he served directly under Sentinel Prime. Head of the Rapid Response unit, Prowl was seemingly Prime's second-in-command, overseeing the capture of Megatron's gladiators, but when Prime was killed he took the decision to abandon Kaon.

[edit] Beast Wars

According to an early post on the message board at IDW Publishing, the writers of their Beast Wars comics plan to make a profile of this Prowl in their comics which will give the character a background. This was later changed to make this Prowl and same as the original. He was shown in the second volume of the "Beast Wars: The Ascending" miniseries to be part of the Maximal Imperium along with Silverbolt and Ironhide, with profile book writer Ben Yee later confirming that it is indeed a later incarnate of the Generation 1 era character.

[edit] New Avengers/Transformers

Bumblebee, Jazz, Optimus Prime, Prowl and Ratchet are slated to appear in the upcoming New Avengers/Transformers crossover by Marvel Comics and IDW Publishing in 2007.

[edit] Evolutions: Hearts of Steel

An alternate version of Prowl would appear in IDW's Hearts of Steel. Here he likewise seems to be in nominal command of the Autobots, recommending to Bumblebee and Ratchet that they not reactivate Optimus Prime. However, when Starscream's plan is discovered Prowl followed Bumblebee's lead in following the Decepticon train convoy, and was present at their defeat. Following this, he and the other Autobots went back into stasis.

[edit] Toys

Generation 1 Autobot Car Prowl (1984)

The original Prowl toy, formerly released as part of the Japanese Diaclone series by Takara, was released in the first year of the Transformers toy line in 1984, and shares the same mold with Bluestreak, which was later slightly modified into Smokescreen. The face of the toy was the direct inspiration for the design of the Autobot symbol. The livery and cherry lights are that of the National Police Agency of Japan but without the kanji side letterings of the various forces and is replaced by Americanized lettering all around the car.

Shares a mold with Bluestreak and Smokescreen. This toy is done at a scale of about 1:37 to the actual car. Although portrayed a one of the larger Autobot cars, the Datsun that Prowl is based on is very tiny, and he would only stand just over 13 feet tall in robot mode if he was made to scale.

Decoy Prowl (1986)

Action Master Prowl toy

Generation 1 Action Master Prowl (1990)

Included a Turbo Cycle which turns into a battle station.

Beast Wars Prowl

Beast Wars Lion Prowl (1997)

Packaged together with Beast Wars Ironhide and Beast Wars eagle Silverbolt.

Machine Wars Prowl (1997)

Alongside Prowl's "return" in Beast Wars, the small toy line called Machine Wars was released exclusively in KB Toys stores in 1997, and featured a new Prowl figure with a spring-loaded transformation and a racing car alternate mode. The toy used for Prowl was an unused Generation 2 mold, and was shared by Machine Wars Mirage. He was later re-decoed into Robots in Disguise Skid-Z.

Machine Wars Prowl was recolored into Mirage (or Rijie) for the Japanese-exclusive Robot Masters toyline.

Spy Changer Prowl.

Transformers: Universe Spy Changer Prowl (2004)

A re-deco of Robots in Disguise Spy Changer Prowl II, in the color scheme of the original Prowl (right). Two packaging versions of this toy existed — a K•B Toys version which did not attribute the toy to Universe packaged in vehicle form, and a Universe version for discount stores packaged in robot mode. Turns into a 1/64 scale Impala.

Smallest Prowl

Smallest Prowl (2004)

Attacktix Prowl (2007)

Series 2 of the Transformers Attacktix figures included a Generation 1 Prowl figure.

Transformers 3D Battle-Card Game Prowl (2007)

Produced by Wizards of the Coast, wave 2 of their Transformers 3D Battle-Card Game included a Prowl card, who was a redeco of Barricade from wave 1.

Transformers Titanium Prowl (unreleased)

A recent catalog of the Titanium line shows Prowl listed as a figure. Later photos on the Internet showed this Prowl to be a 6-inch transforming War Within figure. In December 2006 Hasbro announced this figure would not be released. At Botcon 2008 Hasbro announced this figure would be packaged with War Within Grimlock as a Toys R Us store exclusive.

Transformers: Universe Prowl (2008/unreleased)

At BotCon 2007, Hasbro mentioned there is a possibility that Prowl would be released in the Transformers: Universe/Classics 2.0 line in the form of a police car. This toy was mentioned in an article Toyfair magazine in December of 7. It has since been confirmed that he will appear in the Classics 2.0 line being released in Fall of 2008.

[edit] Other Media

Prowl appears in the Robot Chicken episode "Junk in the Trunk" voiced by Dan Milano. When Ironhide asks him about Optimus Prime's urinating problem, he makes a bad version of the European joke since Prowl isn't peeing.

Quotes from the show:
Ironhide: Hey, Prowl! You notice how often Prime has to drain the lizard nowadays?
Prowl: Yeah! He must be French, cuz he's-a-peein'! Ha ha ha!
Ironhide: Uhh, I think that joke goes "You're a-peein'."
Prowl: He he... but... I'm not.
Ironhide: Ugh, such a Retardicon.^[1]

[edit] Beast Wars

Prowl
Transformers character
Prowl Box Art
Affiliation	Maximal
Sub-Group	Transmetal II
Function	Military Strategist
Motto	"Logic is the ultimate weapon." "Logic provides the structure to be filled by the soul of creativity."
Alternate Modes	Transmetal II Great Horned Owl
Series	Beast Wars

This Prowl's biography is distinctly familiar, being almost identical to that of the original Prowl, including his function as a military strategist, and even his motto. He strives to find logic and reasoning in everything. A listener, not a talker, he has the most sophisticated logic center of all the Maximals, which enables him to analyze and advise on complex combat situations almost instantaneously. He fires highly corrosive acid pellets, and is equipped with a cybernetic eye and frontal lobe, which interact with his wing-mounted ion orbs to supply him limited telekinetic power. He is afflicted with ironic, dry sense of humor. believes himself to have been a great military strategist in a former life. The reason for the similarity to original Prowl's biography is made immediately apparent, however his belief that he was a great military strategist in a former life indicates that this character actually is the original Prowl, reincarnated after his death.

Although neither of these two Beast Wars Prowls puts in an appearance on the CGI-animated Beast Wars series, the original Prowl does: showing up briefly in flashbacks to the previous era and among the deactivated bodies littering The Ark.

According to the biography given for this Prowl in the IDW Beast Wars Sourcebook, this character seem to actually be the Binaltech Prowl, who is actually the human soul of Chip Chase in a robotic body!

[edit] Alternators

Although the Alternators toys have no supporting fiction, the Binaltech series tells a new storyline that branches out of the Generation One animated series in the early 21st Century. In it, much of the Autobots' earth-based force had been rendered inactive due to a biological warfare attack by the Decepticons, using Cosmic Rust, necessitating the construction of new bodies in joint partnership with human car companies. Prowl was not one of the injured, based as he was on Moonbase One at the time, but thanks to manipulations of the timeline by Ravage, Prowl became aware of his own impending death in 2005. An attempt was made to alter the course of time by transferring Prowl's laser core into a new body built by Honda, but rather than wait for him to come to Earth, a subspace transfer was arranged, only for a Decepticon attack on the shuttle to disrupt the process, causing Prowl's laser core to be lost in subspace. This loss caused Chip Chase to make a great sacrifice - having already interfaced with Prowl's body and controlled it before, he chose to upload his own mind into the body, fusing it with Prowl's own knowledge and personality, already uploaded into the body, giving it life.