Festive December - Soundwave

Soundwave

"It is said Soundwave can hear a fly sneeze. Uses anything he hears for blackmail to advance his status. Opportunist. Despised by all other Decepticons. Sensors can detect even lowest energy radio transmissions. Able to read minds by monitoring electrical brain impulses. Acts as radio link for others. Locates and identifies Autobots, then informs Decepticons. Carries a concussion blaster gun. Often target of retaliation by his comrades."

Generation: Generation One

Toyline: Classics 2007 Reissue Figure

Faction: Decepticon

Function: Communications

Quote: "Cries and screams are music to my ears."

Strength: 8

Intelligence: 9

Speed: 2

Endurance: 6

Rank: 8

Courage: 5

Fireblast: 6

Skill: 10

Robot Mode

Soundwave's robot mode is mainly blue and silver but also features several decals on various parts of his body, such as his shoulders and knees so as to add colour to the figure. Soundwave's chest is a clear window that can hold up to two of his cassette minions by opening it with the silver button on his left soldier. One of Soundwave's batteries from his alternate can be reused in this mode as a shoulder cannon for his right shoulder, it doesn't do anything, but you can open it up to hold his spare missiles if wanted. Soundwave's head is connected on a hinge and pivot joint combination that allows it to rotate at 360 degrees and further, plus also bending backwards as well so he can look upwards and see the sky falling if he wants to. His head is blue with a silver painted mouth plate and lowest segment of his sculpted forehead chevron, his visor-style optics are also painted yellow. Soundwave's head is also the basis for the Decepticon insignia in the toyline.

Soundwave's arms are connected to his upper torso by a metal connector on a hinge and pivot joint basis that allows them to be folded backwards as far as possible (about 90 degrees) and be rotated in a windmill fashion fully. His lower arms are able to bend forwards by about 90 degrees enabling him to create an elbow at the connection point. His hands are sculpted with non-moving fingers and both feature a peg hole designed to hold his blaster gun.

His legs are connected to his lower torso by two separate metal connectors that allow them to rotate sideways-outwards by about 90 degrees and to fold forwards by 90 degrees as well. Soundwave's knees are created by a standard pin joint that allows them to bend forwards (unlike human knees). His feet are metal and are folded outwards from his lower legs, which means they can be repositioned slightly as needed. Due to his feet being metal it makes his feet heavier than the upper body, thus meaning that he wont topple over from being top heavy when you reposition him.

Soundwave's two batteries are able to convert into two weapons for him, one of them turns into a shoulder cannon (as I mentioned before) and the other turns into his handheld weapon by just sliding out the middle section to give it a new shape and some more details and then inserting one of his three missiles into the hole at the barrel end. This blaster can be held in either hand by Soundwave.

Alternate Mode

Soundwave's alternate mode is a life-sized blue and silver micro-cassette player with a clear tape holder and several non working buttons. On his sides he also features a switch and a dial which, whilst able to move don't actually do anything. He also features several written words as labels for the tape player mode.

Soundwave's two weapons in robot mode are able to turn into a pair of batteries, which can be slotted into the rear section of the alternate mode and then hidden away with a battery cover. Soundwave's tape holder is able to open up by pushing the silver button on top and hold up to two cassettes (Laserbeak and Ravage in this set's case).

Ravage

Ravage is a mostly black jaguar in robot mode with silver details on his right hand side and chromed silver side rockets slotted into a hole near the back.

Ravage's legs aren't very good for balance, you need to have them perfectly even for him to stand upwards, otherwise he needs some form of support.

Ravage turns into a micro-cassette with detailings on one side that show a track system in the holes and other small details on the same side, and a small diagram of Fortress Maximus on that side, which if you place a red decoder strip on top of it it will reveal his weaknesses for Soundwave. (It's his right leg). On the other side he features a rub sign insignia.

Laserbeak

Laserbeak's robot mode is in the form of a red and black condor with silver rocket boosters on his back. His wings are able to move back and forth as far as possible whilst on a pivot joint system, as does his head when attached to his neck and torso by a pair of pivots again.

Unlike Ravage Laserbeak is fully capable of standing freely due to him having struts rather than normal legs.

Unlike Ravage, Laserbeak's alternate mode features details on both sides, although the only really noteworthy part is the ribbon image in between the two holes and a rub sign insignia located under that image.

My Thoughts

These figures, despite being from the very basic Generation One lines are actually quite fun, their alternate modes are very realistic (and mostly life size too) and even have some added features such as the opening tape holder or battery slots.

I like this particular version of Soundwave because he is actually a repaint of the Soundblaster version of the mold, meaning that he has a double sized chest cavity and he can hold two cassettes in it at a time.

My only real issues with this set are very common complaints for G1 figures, he has limited pose-ability, he requires a lot of parts removal for transformation (all three do) and other minor details, but overall this is a good set and would make a good present for anyone at Christmas time in my opinion.