copswipe and Yellowswipe

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vintage Copswipe: essentially, Sideswipe with sirens. However, you could also think of him as RedAlert :-) If only the molding would cooperate....

An interesting thing to note about the sirens on this unit. I had a close look at the Japanese Diaclone and compared it to the Red Alert. Not only does it share the variation with Red Alert, but also with the GiG version of the Diaclone Police Countach.

In the scans below you can see the sirens for the Japanese Diaclone Police Sideswipe. On the central silver chrome section between the red lights, there are four indented vertical slits in a row. Red Alert and the GiG Police Swipe have those slits too, but on the Italian Diaclone and the later TFs, those slits are shorter and don't stretch up to the top of the chrome section, they are much more vertically central(Japanese Diaclone left, Italian Diaclone right.)

Slits 1(Dia Jap and Dia GiG)

Slits 2(Dia Jap and Dia GiG) Dia copystamp(waist)

And speaking of differences, if you haven't read the autobot section on the diecast molding variants, you should check it out, because it applies to variants here as well(the 1, 2, and 3-line foot info is a must, as is the weapons-changes).

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- Japanese Diaclone Sideswipe: 1 verical line for each foot
- Italian Diaclone Sideswipe (red): 1 vertical line for each foot
- Italian Diaclone POLICE Sideswipe: 3 vertical lines for each foot
- US Sideswipe: 1, 2, or 3 vertical lines for each foot
- US Red Alert: 2, and 3 vertical lines for each foot
- Reissue Clampdown and Deepcover: 3 vertical lines for each foot.
- All Reissues have 3 vertical lines for each foot
All the best- Maz

vintage Yellowswipe:

As you can see, concurrent with pre-tf copswipe was a release of a yellowswipe in both countries. Essentially, a one-line mold, colored yellow instead of Red(note that the reissue is a 3-line mold version called Tigertrack, listed below)

(see also: Maz's article on Yellowswipe)

vintage BlackSwipe:

The vintage Blackswipe was available only in the PCDX giftset.

Reissues:

In a homage to these pieces, we have reissue exclusives of the Police Sideswipe, and the yellow Sideswipe(called Clampdown and Tigertrack, respectively)(see: List One). Issued with Clampdown was Deepcover, a black lambo available only in the PCDX Giftset.

Some notes from Maz: "From Maz: "Some interesting things I noticed about the Black Sideswipe. Aside from the sticker differences, the two chest clips that go underneath the windshield in car mode have been remolded and are a slightly different shape, also the launcher is the prerub mold which is funny because strangely, the original Black Diaclone Sideswipe had a second- mold launcher like Red Alert. I'm sure someone's noticed all this already, these have been out a while now right?" One difference that seems apparent on all these reissue Swipes, the silver bit on the head extends back more than on the originals, where the silver paint was only a small bit. Also note the tampo-stamped(painted) portions of swipe, in-place of where some of the stickers used to go :-) Also note that the diecast was changed, and is defective in some cases."

Clampdown/DeepCover TigerTrack

(see also: Maz' article on reissue Yellowswipe)

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