SWOOP
"Bomb's away!"

Affiliation: Loosely associated with the Autobots, but his primarily loyalty lies with Grimlock and his band of merry Dinobots!

Function: Bombardier

Alternate mode:  Pterodactyl

Weapon: flame covered ball and chain weapon

First Cartoon Appearance: episode 3 Blast From the Past

First Comics Appearance: None (yet as of the date this page was first organized 11/2008)

We have not been provided with official character bio and description for Animated Swoop.  What we have been told by Animated story writer Marty Isenberg (at Botcon 2008) is that he welcomes fans to consider that Swoop (and fellow Dinobot Snarl/Slag) do speak, but they do so, "off camera!"  In truth, these two characters have not been given speaking parts for budgetary reasons.

These Dinobots provide the back-up for their leader, Grimlock if and when he bites off more than he can chew!  Like his G1 counterpart, we presume Swoop to be the most intelligent Dinobot, lacking the strength and physical endurance of his comrades. 

Other appearances: Among the more popular Dinobots, there have been very few Swoop characters portrayed throughout Transformers mythology. Below is a complete list: 
* 1985 was the first G1 Swoop
unlike some of his Dinobot bretheren, Swoop made no appearances as a Classic Pretender, Action Master, in G2 or Beast Wars, RID or Armada.
* 2003 Dinobots "Swoop" was actually named Terranotron.
* 2004 an Energon Combiner
* 2007 a Classics Minicon Swoop!
* 2008 Animated deluxe Swoop.

Bibliography of significant appearances: As mentioned, Swoop plays a relatively minor role, present but not speaking as of of Grimlock's Dinobots.  They are featured in the following episodes:
03  Blast From the Past
09 Survival of the Fittest
12 Megatron Rising, part 1
13 Lead writer, Marty Isenberg has revealed in the Transformers collector comic that the Dinobots were originally going to be a part of Megatron Rising, Part 2.  However, when they, "got the animation back" they realized they, "couldn't use it."  He went on to hint that fans should be glad of this as the premise was that the Dinobots were going to show up and try to help the Autobots, but Megatron, in his new form effortlessly annihilated them!  Good deal.  Let's pretend that didn't happen! 
14 The Elite Guard
23 Black Friday