Toy Review - Hasbro MP Soundwave

[Sinnertwin]

Hmmm... That's tough with so much on offer these days. Do i pay $150 for an iconic figure with a great representation and 5 of his minions, or $179 for a two foot tall city former who achieves said mode by sitting down, spread eagle, doing pilates? Decisions...

[AJ_Prime]

Hmmm... That's tough with so much on offer these days. Do i pay $150 for an iconic figure with a great representation and 5 of his minions, or $179 for a two foot tall city former who achieves said mode by sitting down, spread eagle, doing pilates? Decisions...

There's a choice? Choose option 3, get them both! They can do yoga together!

[GoktimusPrime]

If I had to choose one, I'd go for Soundwave. Massively better value for money there. Plus Soundwave is more likely to sell out faster than Metroplex. Get Soundwave first, then if you want to still get Metroplex, do it later. Or maybe you could lay by one of them?

[BigTransformerTrev]

Well, I was going to write a full and comprehensive review of this figure, replete with a million tiny details about every square micron of this figure and his minions so that you the reader could make an informed decision in regards to purchasing him in the future.

Then I realized there are about 8 billion other written, pictorial and video reviews of him already and the chances of me telling you something new is nill So just gonna list some highlights .


Packaging:
Beautiful! Even lots of detail on the purple box itself when you remove the cardboard bit that has all the details on it. Definetely a box you will want to keep.




Soundwave
*Great Transformation - not mega difficult like MP Megatron but not too simplistic like MP Grimlock
*Alt Mode: A bit bulkier in cassette player mode than the original which is to be expected. A shame the batteries/weapons are on the outside and dont store away like G1. Has the little connector on the side he used in the movie to plug into the screen. Except from the back a beautiful piece.
*Robot Mode: Fricken brilliant! Just... just brilliant. Everything from the paint to the tiny red missiles to being able to make him press his own shoulder button just helps make this toy. The notches on his arms and shoulders so you can put Laserbeak and Buzzsaw on securely just add to poseability of this already greatly poseable character. Cant recommend enough!
*Accessories: Nice touches indeed. You get one energon cube, one chest grid and a hand sensor. Very good for reenacting those classic G1 episodes!
*Eyes - G1 toy accurate yellow - sweet!




Sidekicks
*Ravage: Not as bulky as one would like but still very good.
*Laserbeak/Buzzsaw; Brilliant! Only thing is their head cameras don't come out very far. But the 3 animals all come with their weapons built in which shows great design and engineering. The fact that all the tapes are the same size as the originals and can be used in G1 SW and vice versa also attests to this.
*Rumble/Frenzy: Very nice, but here is the thing - according to the packaging Rumble is the red/black one like the toy. Frenzy is the purple that Rumble was in the cartoon Bloody weird! Personally I just cheat and have Rumble as the purple and Frenzy as the red/black to recreate the cartoon, otherwise it doesn't make a lot of sense. Weird that Soundwaves eyes are yellow that is accurate in the G1 toy and nowhere else, and the tapes colours are G1 cartoon accurate but nowhere else. An odd choice. But their arm drums are grand and can be put on the original tapes as well.
*Megatron Gun: Very cool! Anyone know if it is to the same scale as the one that came with 20th Anniversary Prime? Ive still got him MISB so not sure.


OVERALL - BLOODY AWESOME!!!! OH FRAG YES!

[GoktimusPrime]

*Rumble/Frenzy: Very nice, but here is the thing - according to the packaging Rumble is the red/black one like the toy. Frenzy is the purple that Rumble was in the cartoon Bloody weird! Personally I just cheat and have Rumble as the purple and Frenzy as the red/black to recreate the cartoon, otherwise it doesn't make a lot of sense.

I totally agree; while it makes sense for TakaraTOMY's Japanese market where the FIRRIB mix up never happened, it doesn't make sense for Hasbro's Anglophone market where indeed the purple robot was Rumble. Frenzy was NEVER purple in any original G1 medium. (cos blue =/= purple)

It really feels like Hasbro got lazy/inattentive with this important detail and missed a golden opportunity to finally have a cartoon-like Rumble and Frenzy toy set with the correct names.

Weird that Soundwaves eyes are yellow that is accurate in the G1 toy and nowhere else, and the tapes colours are G1 cartoon accurate but nowhere else. An odd choice.

Soundwave's eyes were yellow in ALL G1 media except the cartoon. They were yellow in the toy, US Marvel Comics, UK Marvel Comics, Ladybird story books, Big Looker story books etc etc etc. The cartoon was the sole G1 medium in the 1980s that gave Soundwave a red visor, so in actuality Soundwave had a red visor and it was FIRRIB in the G1 cartoon and nowhere else. Everywhere else saw Soundwave with a yellow visor and RIRFIB. That's why I prefer original toy accurate colours, because the toys came first, and the majority of G1 canonical sources stuck with the toy colours. The cartoon was exceptionally unusual in deviating away from the toy colours in certain regards. This is also why I personally refuse to use the term "show accuracy" or "cartoon accuracy" with most Transformers toys, especially G1, because the term implies that the cartoon was more correct than other media, whereas in reality it was the other way around. (JMHO)

So I really like how Hasbro's gone and given their MP Soundwave a truly G1 accurate yellow visor; the way Soundwave's visor is meant to be. I would've personally liked to see Frenzy repainted blue like the G1 toy (instead of being left purple) and keep Rumble as Rumble, thus making the entire set really G1 accurate. But if they are going to keep Frenzy purple as they clearly have, then I completely agree that it would've made a helluva lot more sense to call the purple robot Rumble and the red robot Frenzy.

*Megatron Gun: Very cool! Anyone know if it is to the same scale as the one that came with 20th Anniversary Prime? Ive still got him MISB so not sure.

It's the exact same gun! Hurry up and open your 20th Anniv. OP!

[Nevac]

It's the exact same gun! Hurry up and open your 20th Anniv. OP!

Well almost the same it has an extra joint on the stock which I think is so the MP10 Prime can hold it.

[UltraMarginal]

I am pretty happy with my Soundwave, he seems to have a slight backwards lean but I can live with that, his eyes are what's bugging me, they aren't smooth, they have a slight circle shape in their surface:
As you can see it makes them look a bit rough. is this a common problem or have I picked a dud?

I've shifted this to the Questions thread as it's probably more applicable there.

[MayzaPrime]

I'm pleased for everyone that has the Hasbro Soundwave.

Congrats guys! He is awesome

For me, I am really happy with my Takara version and I am not upset that I missed out on the Hasbro version and for me to miss out on a Transformer I am usually not happy and given that I have 1600+ figures I usually don't miss out on much

Plus I have also pre-ordered Soundblaster and Ratbat