Toy Review - TFPrime Deluxe Soundwave

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Yeh, me too. I unscrewed his head and discovered that his eyes are connected to the back of his skull, so with some different plastic in there it is definitely a possibility. But I ALSO discovered his face is glued in to the blue section. Ooo Errr.

Vehicle mode is ok. Seems to have less plane hanging off the bottom than starscream, but noticeable bits of robot abound. Nevertheless, this is a very nice little figure. Great robot mode, despite the insect backwards knees. Would have like a fore arm joint to allow for some twisting up on his hands so Laserbeak could be held straight and low. Sparse paint, but it seems to work ok.

I LOVE how Laserbeak just disappears when you plug him into the chest! this is awesome! Without Laserbeak, he looks, OK I guess...

No faction Insignias anywhere on any of my Prime figs so far. Wheeljack, no, Cliffjumper, no (still in vehicle mode though) and Soundwave, no. This is bugging me a little.

Oh and I have just discovered he has practically no movement in his legs due to kipple and insect knees. Hope is is fine with looking badass in the backgorund...

Would have loved to have seen this toy with a bit more mass to him, buy that I mean, before they decided to shrink the deluxe size. A bit more body to him and the opportunity for some extra joints would have pushed him from "ok" to "wow!"

[GoktimusPrime]

I LOVE how Laserbeak just disappears when you plug him into the chest! this is awesome! Without Laserbeak, he looks, OK I guess...

Breast On!

"Okay" is exactly how I'd describe how Soundwave looks without Laserbeak; the Breast Forcers covered their holes with pop up panels (similar to the panels that cover the weapon holes on DotM toys) - but I think some factors may make it somewhat impractical on Soundwave; the cavity inside the torso for the head (when it folds away in jet mode) as well as shape and size of the hole. But otherwise he does look alright without Laserbeak - not as bad as I initially thought.

But I do like how this toy acts as homage to G1 Breast Force.

[Hursticon]

Well, I've obtained this awesome figure courtesy of the aid of LordCyrusOmega and I've got to say that I'm really rather impressed with Soundwave - Fanboy bias aside!

His Alt mode is immediately recognisable as an Unmanned Military Surveillance Aircraft and looks really damn cool , but sure he does suffer from the usual Bot mode under-kibble but extremely few deluxes at this mass level have achieved better IMO ; so this is a null issue to me but I will say that I'm not overly happy with the placement options of his Drone (Dubbed Laserbeak but it is in no way him at all) , as you can either plug it in just forward of the Tail-plane or within Soundwave's Bot mode chest which just bulks out the rear of the aircraft too much IMO and that's it.

Transformation is quite engaging and really enjoyable I found , once you figure out that you start with the wings it all comes quite progressively from there ; My only real gripe about the transformation is the 'Revealer' gimmick shared throughout the TF: Prime Deluxe line of figures in that the 'auto-morph-esque' head transformation is really more annoying than anything , and I think that had this not have been incorporated the lower parts count could've yielded some additional paint apps.

Paint apps-wise like the rest of the TF: Prime line figures and DOTM additionally, there is a distinct lack of them but what is there is used with absolute intent and effectiveness ; I certainly wouldn't call him bland as that description is better fitting of Deluxe Ratchet from what I've seen , it is rather odd though that they all seem to be devoid of faction logos and although it could be explained away in Soundwave's case (Being he is supposed to be an Unmarked Surveillance Aircraft ) it still feels rather odd and lacking in this respect as we do see them on the Cartoon model - located on his shoulder panel.

Bot mode is where this figure really shines as he just exudes the same personality that is visually portrayed on-screen in the cartoon - silent, highly intelligent and incredibly creepy with his emotionless face, of which is greatly detailed and could've only benefited from more paint apps; his head is able to achieve a good range of positions considering it is mounted in the centre of his cranial unit, so do be mindful of this as any 'extreme' angles will pop it off the ball joint.

His arms I think could've really benefited from an upper forearm swivel IMO but given that his arms are attempting to achieve a similar if not a more daring accomplishment than that of Reveal The Shield - Lugnut, I can easily forgive this as the sheer lack of mass in the arms really don't allow for it anyway but he can still pull of a good range of poses with what he's got ; Comprised of a pair of diagonally opposed swivel joints attached to a hinge, his shoulders lead to an odd mating of an inward-faced ball and socket joint connecting a horizontally opposed swivel section that also comprises a vertically opposed swivel joint and this entire section forms his elbow! - his forearm also has a hinge midway along it but this is simply a carry-over from transformation and terminates in Soundwave's amply dexterous fingers but with a hole right through his hands so to allow for the mounting of his Drone.

It also needs mentioning that this guy also has a swivelling waist joint coupled with a hinged lower back joint , which goes a very long way in conveying the sort of hinted hunched posture he has in the cartoon ; both of which I think add miles to this figures range of poseability , as if these 2 areas had been neglected (Which could've easily happened) I think the the overall figure would've suffered greatly for it.

Soundwave's hips are constructed of a ball and socket joint which allows for a good range of natural movement in the forward direction however the same cannot be said for levering his legs backwards as the backs of his upper thighs hinder this due to tiny (but intruding) pieces of Alt mode kibble , this has been attempted to be mitigated by the engineers by utilising mid-thigh horizontally opposed hinges that move said kibble just out of the way of Soundwave's skid-plate enough to allow for *some* clearance and hence movement but when coupled with the upper-thigh swivels it allows for quite a bit of movement surprisingly ; His knees also suffer for the show's design aesthetic by having a 'Dog-bone' type of assembly which can be mis-transformed to avoid this look but it appears to me that this sort of design choice was employed to allow for enough clearance of some further (And the most obtrusive) Alt mode kibble on the backs of his upper-calves , said joint is masked by an adjustable 'knee-pad' which rests against his shin ending in a pair of typical vertically opposed ankle joints that have a good range of movement but sadly not in a sideways 'tilt' manner.

The only real piece of glaring kibble in Bot mode comes from the forward halved sections of the fuselage that would constitute the cockpit, if this craft had one , which ends up unceremoniously on the backs of his upper calves ; but IMO they really don't compromise the figure anything more than visually because physically they really don't get in the way of posing Soundwave just so long as you're not expecting him to pull off stuff he'd never likely do in 'Real-life'.

All in all an extremely cool and enjoyable figure that will really please fans of the Transformers: Prime cartoon and amply satiate Soundwave fanboys whole heartedly , I highly recommend this figure to anyone and would say that if you end up liking it enough (Like myself) you'll very likely want to end up grabbing the Takara version of him that is couple with a Targetmaster-esque Micron figure - available in April.

The absolute largest tragedy of this figure though is that he is only packed 1x to a case of 8x figures , termed Short-Packed, leading to a situation where this figure is extremely hard to come by and looks to remain that way well into the Transformers: Prime - Revealers (Deluxe) line ; So do not waste time thinking over this figure if you see him in stores as he will not last long at all.

Now, go and get this absurdly awesome character and toy now whilst stocks last!!!

[griffin]

Nice sculpting... tiny size for a Deluxe though.



An AU$30 toy in the middle of AU$15-20 toys.

[Shirokaze]

So I picked up this guy the other day and to say I'm disappointed would be a little harsh, because Soundwave is a really fun figure, but there are a few things they should've done better.

1. The black piece that connects Soundwave's arm to his shoulder always pops off during transformation.

2. He has as much leg articulation as a kitchen table, and the kibble on the back of his calves always feels like a knee-bending obstruction.

3. For $28, boy does the plastic feel flimsy!

4. The spring loaded head is an annoyance when trying to pose it, more than it is a cool feature.

That said, I wouldn't NOT buy him, but I didn't get that same "Phoar! I'm really impressed with this figure for the money" feeling that I got with Wheeljack.

[Sky Shadow]

It'd be cool if they called that Targetmaster "Bludgeon" (instead of the more blasé "Scorponok") IMHO

I think the coolest homage name for it would be Stinger. Since Takaratomy have just released Stripes (one of Blaster's cassettes from the original script to Transformers the movie) it would be great if Prime Soundwave came with Laserbeak and Stinger.

[Hursticon]

I think the coolest homage name for it would be Stinger. Since Takaratomy have just released Stripes (one of Blaster's cassettes from the original script to Transformers the movie) it would be great if Prime Soundwave came with Laserbeak and Stinger.

Who's Stinger dude?

*Have updated my review with some additional pics of Soundwave in Alt mode.

[Sky Shadow]

Who's Stinger dude?

An obscure cassettebot from the first draft of TFTM:



But they've just released Stripes, so it seems the right time to homage the others. Plus it wouldn't be the first time a Transformer's weapon was described as a 'stinger'.

[Hursticon]

An obscure cassettebot from the first draft of TFTM:

*snip*

But they've just released Stripes, so it seems the right time to homage the others. Plus it wouldn't be the first time a Transformer's weapon was described as a 'stinger'.

Ah ok, cheers for that dude and you'd be right, it sure wouldn't be the 1st time.

[Doubledealer]

Snagged mine today but I'm saving my thoughts/review for the Takara release (keeping my Hasbro one MISB). One thing I will say though is this...Courage a 4?? Pfffft!!