Titans Return Leader Class Soundwave

Looks good (IMO). Nice work on the retool HTT, even despite the gun.

Shame I already have the MP version, which is great. Maybe if I had a TF fan kid who wanted a big chunky Soundwave of their own then I'd pick it up, but as it is I don't and MP Soundwave is pretty great.

I don't think that anyone needs to feel bad about not wanting or wanting to get this toy. This mould was clearly initially designed to be Blaster, which I fully intend to get. However they're retooling it as Soundwave to milk more money out of the mould, and we all understand the necessity of redecos. And it's a thoughtful redeco. It's not like when we had 100 different variants of Bumblebee that pegwarmed for ages. Night Attack Bumblebee, Stealth Mission Bumblebee, Command Strike Bumblebee, Going-to-the-Shops Bumblebee, Gathering Pollen to make Honey Bumblebee etc.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psc18fac77.jpghttp://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ps6eba1e8e.jpg

And yes, many of us already have Music Label and MP Soundwave, making getting this particular version of Soundwave rather superfluous. But not everyone has these toys. ML Soundwave was never released here, and MP Soundwave sold like hotcakes and wasn't the easiest toy to find. You have your new and casual collectors, as well as kids who appreciate good toys, who will be attracted by this Soundwave. It will sell.

It's similar to say the CW figures who form Optimus Maximus. I have zero interest in these figures because I already have other Classicsverse versions of these toys, not to mention that they're all redecos of other CW moulds that I already own (i.e. Stunticons). But these toys do seem to be selling well. A lot better than say AoE and RiD figures which continue to pegwarm in many stores that I frequent. And I suspect that Soundwave will perform similarly (although bear in mind that larger/dearer figures naturally sell slower than smaller/cheaper toys).

So while this toy personally doesn't hold a great deal of interest for me, I don't begrudge Hasbro for doing it. I think that it makes sense. What other redeco potential does Blaster have besides Twincast? And let's face it, Twincast is an obscure character by Western standards. Soundwave on the other hand is a much more widely recognised character with a broad market appeal. I'd much rather see Blaster redecoed as Soundwave than say Don't-Call-Me-Billy Blaster. :p

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

The yellow visor is technically even more G1 accurate (since the toy existed before the cartoon). I'm sure TakaraTOMY will make it red.

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The visor is part of the headmaster too, which would make it much easier for people to swap it out, even give him a marvel comics face from say TR Galvatron if they so desired.

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Originally Posted by Bidoofdude

The visor is part of the headmaster too, which would make it much easier for people to swap it out, even give him a marvel comics face from say TR Galvatron if they so desired.

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Errrmm... I assume you're talking about that period where José Delbo decided to draw Soundwave with a mouth. Firstly, not all Marvel artists did this, it was only Delbo. Secondly, Delbo didn't always do this. :o And current day comics are susceptible to weird artistic phases too. Remember when Don Figueroa was drawing Transformers like this? Yeeesh! :rolleyes:

I love Soundwave but there is something a little off about this guy I can't put my finger on in alt-mode.

Having said that my son has been after a G1-esque Soundwave toy for aaages, so this will make a great option for him (as opposed to forking out for the MP version) and will probably end up in our household at some point if he isn't too hard to buy.

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Errrmm... I assume you're talking about that period where José Delbo decided to draw Soundwave with a mouth. Firstly, not all Marvel artists did this, it was only Delbo. Secondly, Delbo didn't always do this. :o And current day comics are susceptible to weird artistic phases too. Remember when Don Figueroa was drawing Transformers like this? Yeeesh! :rolleyes:

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I was referring the period of pink Soundwave with a mouth. :p

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Secondly, Delbo didn't always do this. :o

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Um, you seem to be under the impression that if it's not a UK comic it was drawn by Jose Delbo... Your examples of Delbo drawing Soundwave with a faceplate are actually drawings by William Johnson (issue 7) and Ricardo Villamonte (issue 10). And Senior and Wildman brought the faceplate back when they came over to the US book.

I'm still waiting for the special comic version of the MP toy (to match the Comic book version of MP Grimlock).

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Originally Posted by Paulbot

Um, you seem to be under the impression that if it's not a UK comic it was drawn by Jose Delbo... Your examples of Delbo drawing Soundwave with a faceplate are actually drawings by William Johnson (issue 7) and Ricardo Villamonte (issue 10). And Senior and Wildman brought the faceplate back when they came over to the US book.

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I sit corrected. That's what I get for staying up at such ungodly hours of the morn. :o

Easy pass, sticking to ML Soundwave. There's no need for every Blaster/Soundwave mould to be retooled into Soundwave/Blaster.

I can see some value to Tsunderewave

http://i.imgur.com/nnyJ81s.png

"it-it's not like I like you Autobums or anything, b-baka..."