Toy Review: Beast Hunters VOY Shockwave

[Bumbleb33]

The ratchet in the hips is disappointing as a lot of reviews have pointed out and his alt mode is pretty meh, but with that all being said he is still a great looking Shockwave. Do not pay over retail for him as it is not worth it, but pick him up if you find him at a fair price point, after all its Shockwave and it is only logical to have him in your collection.

[5FDP]

...after all its Shockwave and it is only logical to have him in your collection.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Booo. What a crap toy.

To me this is one of those figures I was really looking forward to but when I get him he's just not that good and gets old pretty quickly.

I agree here. I picked up the takaratomy Go version, mainly because of the colours.

The only saving grace for this guy is the robot mode. In that it looks good. One shonky ratchet in his hip allows him a floppy leg. Solid feet but no ankles, however this doesn't really detract from his balance all that much. Effective light piping. Clever use of the tank tread as the cannon cable. He has a Sumo challenge mode though

Horrible horrible vehicle mode. I find it shocking that they manage to include 20 steps for transformation on the instructions and its still ridiculously hard to see what is going on in some of the pictures. then once he's in vehicle mode it just looks horrid. Unbalanced with one shoulder under and another over. Hand at the front. head turned backwards. Oh My God. I HATE the vehicle mode. It is awful. really really awful.

I have macdonalds toys that have better vehicles than this rubbish. He'll be staying in robot mode for the rest of his life. It hurts my eyes to look at him.

[Sinnertwin]

Anybody buy Shockwave on the strength of his alt-mode?

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Anybody buy Shockwave on the strength of his alt-mode?

There is no strength in the vehicle mode It is THAT bad. They might have well made him not Transform. That's how I feel about it. It is just super super lazy.

[5FDP]

You've just convinced me to stick with my FOC Shockwave Tets. Thanks for saving me some money

[GoktimusPrime]

The robot mode is nice enough. The cannon-arm is a bit too big and ungainly. The rear treads section really needs something to lock it into place, because when the left tread is attached to the cannon-arm, it makes the whole backpack move when you move the cannon-arm. It's almost as if it was only designed to just look nice with little consideration as to how it should play well.

The alt mode is incredibly underwhelming. This toy just takes too much of a cue from DotM Shockwave; it would've been nicer if it'd taken more of a cue from G1 Shockwave (like FoC Shockwave; sure he's a jet, but it's a jet inspired by G1 Shockwave's gun mode (so much so that people can make an unofficial gun mode out of it!)). It would've been nicer as say a G1 Shockwave's gun mode inspired tank instead of being a... whatever that thing is that the alt mode is.

I find this toy to be comparable with TFPRiD Megatron. Both toys have those "WTH?!" alt modes, but at least Shockwave doesn't come with the lame TFPRiD gimmick that Megatron has (the sword that can never stay deployed ), nor is he predominantly covered in Hasbro Grey (even the images of the Hasbro version doesn't look as bad as Megatron). And as annoying as the non-locking backpack is, it's not as bad as Megatron's shoulders that poorly lock into place (the easy solution is to just disconnect the tread and play with the robot without it connecting to the cannon-arm). The main advantages that Megatron has over Shockwave is better head articulation and no oversized cannon arm that gets in its own way.