Oh, where have you been all my life, you?
It's been a while since I talked about toys that aren't Minimates here, mostly my own fault - I've been buying plenty of stuff but I've had other distractions that made it tricky to focus on writing anything about them. Why has that changed? Maybe a gap in my schedule. Or maybe that I've got my mitts on one of those rare toys that feels like something I've been waiting years for.
And Masterpiece Soundwave is exactly that sort of toy.
A little background first: the Masterpiece series started a good long while ago (before the first Bayformers flick) with the promise of taking beloved Generation 1 Transformers and creating new, larger, 'ultimate' versions that offered better detail, better articulation and - the holy grail - matching the looks of the cartoons and comics whilst still transforming the way they should. (previous attempts to create 'toon-accurate toys resulted in things like the non-changing Robot Masters which virtually no-one liked) That promise sort of waned over time, with the line falling into a rut of finding whatever excuses it could to rerelease the Optimus Prime and Starscream moulds in a thousand variations, but recently things seem to be getting a little better, with more drastically-different moulds like Grimlock, Sideswipe and, yes, everybody's favourite Decepticon when they were growing up, Soundwave.
Giving the knees a workout.
Soundwave comes in robot form out of the box (a box which is startlingly large compared to the actual toy - note that this was a Takara release from Japan, not Hasbro) and impresses right from the get-go. The original 80s toy was actually one of the ones that seemed closest to the animation model in the cartoon, but its one-piece torso, limited paint and backwards knees let it down. Here, Soundwave's body goes from a solid, boxy upper half to a narrow waist before flaring out again at his button-holding pelvis, just as it did in the 'toon, and both his limbs and head seem more proportionately correct without being overly huge. There's a lot of revisions to the sculpt, particularly around the joints, to add extra machine detailing and make the whole thing feel more 'real' or solid, which is nice, even on something as shamelessly nostalgic as this guy.
The paint really holds everything together, and I should make clear - it's f***ing faultless. The blue is deep and rich, the silver is shiny but discreet, the red and gold highlights are crisp as you like and none of it came chipped, blotched or faded. This is a gorgeous figure and there's nothing...well, one thing; it would be nice if the Decepticon insignia on his chest-door looked a bit less like a cheap sticker (it's printed on). But that's a minor quibble. The few vac-metallised parts work wonders, too. Articulation-wise, he's no GI Joe, but given the limitations that being a Transformer can put on things like this, Soundwave does pretty dang well. His knees can bend 90 degrees, his hips have great range of motion, he twists at the waist, there's about 6 joints per arm (not counting wrists!) and his head can both turn and look up and down. Plus, his shoulder-mounted missile launcher is now mounted on a little arm that lets it swivel and elevate - too cool! As a slight warning, my Soundwave has one joint that's been a bit of a problem - his right index finger, which has two separate hinges, tends to come loose at the mid-joint. His left finger is fine, and I imagine this isn't a common issue, but it's something to keep in mind if you're planning a purchase. Just be gentle with it and you'll be fine.
Scanner hand.
Cube projection.
"PREPARE FOR...OBLIVIONNNN"
As is the norm for the Masterpiece line, Soundwave is packed with new accessories based on specific scenes from the cartoon - in this case mostly from the 5-part 'More Than Meets The Eye' story that kicked off season 1 - to go with his classic concussion rifle. As seen in the above pics, he has a silvery scanner hand, which plugs into the stump left after one of his hands is flipped away inside the forearm; it's a snub-nosed double-barreled thing that could pass for a gun in most cases. Then there's an empty Energon cube (a plain plastic box, mostly), which can have one side removed to clip onto Soundwave's chest as shown - this was how the Decepticons produced said containers in the show...and no, I don't know what their back-up plan was if Soundwave was taken out. Megatron doesn't really think that far ahead. Speaking of the Big Meg, Soundwave also comes with him, as a to-scale replica of his gun form. The extra parts (scope, stock etc.) are removable and the grip can shift size to fit different MP Transformer hands as need be. It's fantastically detailed.
There is another accessory I haven't yet fiddled with; an alternate clip-on viewing screen for Soundwave's chest, with a grid pattern printed on it. You're supposed to cut out two optional 'slides' from the instruction sheet to sandwich under the screen and make it look like Soundwave is projecting either some alien writing or the plans for a 'Con spacecraft, but since I'm less than enthusiastic about mincing up my instructions and don't own a photocopier, I'm holstering the scissors for now.
W/ popped chest and cassette
Laserbeak, transformed
"Who's a pretty girl...?"
Needless to say, Soundwave released without something to go in his cavernous chest hole would be ridiculous, and though he only has one cassette included (the others are being released separately) it's a good 'un. Laserbeak (or Condor in Japan) turns, as ever, from a microcassette into a robotic bird of some kind. The cassette disguise is reasonably convincing from one side despite the join lines, but is quite a mess around the back. On the plus side, his transformation is pretty fantastic, and results in a 'Beak that's more posable and more show-accurate than before, AND doesn't have to have his engine/gun mounts split off as separate pieces - they now fold up out of the body with the rest of him, which is a terrific improvement. As an added bonus, Laserbeak's head contains a tiny flip-up camera lens for spying, another nod to the cartoon. His feet have grooves in them that match ridges placed discreetly on Soundwave's forearms and shoulders for multiple perching options.
Transforming Soundwave takes a lot of steps, but for the most part they're all fairly logical and the joints move easily enough without threatening to pop loose or snap altogether. It's one of the nicest transformations I've dealt with in a good long while. And what you get out of it is...a blue brick!
Ta-dahhh!
Okay, okay, it's a tape player, of course. It's...always been a pretty odd tape player - too boxy to work as the personal stereo a lot of people think it was - but there's nice details besides just the buttons that make it work, at least from some angles. And the colours really work wonders in this mode, with the silver legs now framing the blue and yellow of the centre.
One side.
Other side.
Back side.
As you can see, from the sides, the disguise holds up, helped by the pretend (but movable) volume dial and anonymous switch thing. From the back, sadly, it's mostly a mess of kibble; not enough to be blatantly a folded-up robot, but too busy to look like a convincing arse of a cassette recorder. The fact that both main weapons just clip on rather than being stowed away in the battery compartment holster of the original is disappointing. Even so, the mode is faithful enough when viewed normally to be fun.
I never had the original Soundwave as a kid. Had one or two cassettes, a friend had his lesser Autobot equivalent Blaster, and more recently I picked up the very similar MP3-player Soundwave, but nothing quite scratched that itch. Masterpiece Soundwave makes everything better. He's a fantastic tribute to the franchise's 80s heyday, is stuffed with action features, and is just an absolute pleasure to muck around with. Despite whatever niggles I may have mentioned, there's really nothing in the way of 'bad' here. 10 out of 10, no question.
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