Toy Review - SOUNDWAVE (Trilogy)
SOUNDWAVE
Series - Generations
Sub-line - War For Cybertron
Sub-sub-line - Trilogy (Netflix)
Size/class - Voyager
New/remould/redeco - heavy retool of Siege Soundwave
Micromaster Components - Ravage (repaint of Siege Ravage) & Laserbeak (retool/repaint of Siege Laserbeak)
Wave - 2
Released here - October 2020
Approximate Retail Price - $50
Approximate Size - 15.5cm
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - portable radio cassette player
Main Features/Gimmicks - holds "cassette" Transformers
Main Colours - blue, grey
Main Accessories - x3 guns
In box:
ROBOT MODE
Light piped eyes.
IMO the red doesn't look as nice as the yellow eyes on Siege Soundwave. The yellow eyes is also more like the Netflix cartoon model too, so I'm not sure why they opted to give this Soundwave red eyes given that it's meant to be part of the Netflix series.
Obligatory action pose.
WALKMAN MODE - with Laserbeak inserted
Laserbeak is faithfully coloured like the G1 toy's robot side but unfortunately it doesn't look like a cassette tape, just a folded up robot condor. I know that the G1 toy is the same, but this is the side that you don't show - it's the non-cassette side. I would have liked to see the other side painted with some cassette detailing; I know that it won't be convincing as the other side isn't flat, but at least it would've been something. But as far as this non-cassette side is concerned, it is quite G1-accurate, I'll give it that.
With Ravage inserted.
Ravage is the superior looking cassette with his cassette side looking very G1 accurate - a lot like a cassette tape.Unfortunately no mould variation seems to be made to the robot mode, and I was never a fan of Siege Ravage's robot mode (which to me just doesn't look like a jaguar). But TBH, it's the cassette mode that interests me with this toy. I'll still keep my Henkei Jaguar to display in robot mode.
COMPARISON WITH G1
Robot
WalkMan, front
WalkMan, back
This feels a lot like a "Poor Man's MP Soundwave" (which I always mean as a compliment). But one trait that it shares with the MP toy is that the cassette door (and thus cassettes) are disproportionate to the player. Unless this is one helluva big WalkMan!Proportionately it looks more like a boombox than a WalkMan, and this is due to the Siege Cassettes being so small. MP has the same issue because the MP Cassettes are the same scale as the G1 Cassettes, but at least the trade off is that G1 and MP Cassettes are cross compatible with G1 and MP Soundwaves. Aside from Netflix Soundwave's Cassettes being cross-compatible with Siege Soundwave, I don't really see the trade-off. And the cross-compatibility is due to the fact that Netflix Soundwave is a heavy retool of Siege Soundwave (whereas MP Soundwave and the MP Cassettes were explicitly designed with G1 cross-compatibility in mind). Universe/Henkei Ravage is also scaled with G1, so had this Soundwave's chest been able to house G1-sized Cassettes, it could also hold Universe/Henkei Ravage plus the G1 Cassettes plus the MP Cassettes! But then you could argue that a G1-sized Cassette door would've made this Soundwave's chest oversized for a Voyager, which is totally true. Might be neat if HasTak made a Leader Class Soundwave with G1/MP sized Cassette door and clean up the back of the WalkMan mode (maybe even give us fake battery compartments for the guns), although I'm not sure how likely this is being so soon after Titans Return. Still, as a Voyager Class Soundwave and contained exclusively within the WFC Trilogy series, this Soundwave is pretty nice.
COMPARISON WITH SIEGE
The yellow eyes look better, but I think that Netflix Soundwave is superior to Siege Soundwave in every other way. None of that ridiculous looking try-hard "battle damage" for me to have to remove or conceal.
OVERALL
Best CHUG Soundwave toy to date. Highly recommended.
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Originally Posted by dirge
