Review: #723
Name: Soundwave
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Decepticon
Line: Generations - Studio Series
Year of Release: 2022
Size Class: Voyager (Wave 15)
Mold Status: new
Mold Status: new
VEHICLE MODE:
Soundwave transforms into a Cybertronian hovercraft. This is basically an excuse for an alternate mode, made easier since the he never appeared in alternate mode in the Bumblebee movie.
It's a poor form from the front thanks to the exposed knees and obvious leg pieces. The back is better, and at least this mode doesn't have any big gaps.
Looking from the underside, you can see that this is literally the robot mode with the limbs tucked around the torso. Interestingly, the chest compartment that opens, opens directly downwards so you can "drop" Ravage off in vehicle mode, which is pretty neat.
The two robot weapons peg onto either side, and doesn't look very good. It would have been better if there were ports on top for them instead, at least it can pass off as a Cybertronian tank as well.
A poor alternate mode that's obvious here just to sell him as a Transformer. It's not that very little effort was here, but more so that the designer prioritised the robot mode and tried to incorporate an alternate mode from that instead.
TRANSFORMATIONS:
For such a poor vehicle mode, the transformation is a little bit more involved that one was expect. While basically it is the limbs folding around the torso, there are some neat elements such as the two separate panel pieces on each shoulder that had covered up the head. The legs are also quite compact thanks to numerous panels and gaps for the pieces to fold and peg into. The panels at the back of the robot mode also has a few rotations so that the detailing can be seen on the inside of his chest when you open it in robot mode.
ROBOT MODE:
Soundwave's robot is where you see all the effort was placed in, and with great effect, as he looks absolutely amazing.
Thanks to the non-descript alternate mode, it means that no sacrifices were made in robot mode and he has no kibble whatsoever. To be honest, you would be forgiven to think he couldn't transform at all.
The head sculpt is so so, since due to the way the visor is angled and the huge face plate, it seems a bit off. The head is also quite large, when proportionally compared to the rest of the body.
In terms of size, he's bang on compared to an average Voyager figure. He still has various hollow limbs but it doesn't feel too bad here.
As part of the Studio Series, he comes with a cardboard stand that shows off the war-torn Cybertron that was shown at the start of the Bumblebee movie.
For poseability, he's quite good with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.
The interesting part is how his crotch panel hides the waist rotation and can lift up to give it space to move.
As is usual for Soundwave figures, his chest opens up to reveal a space for his minions to store. He doesn't come with one so you'll need to buy them separately. The chest is springloaded with the button on the top left of his chest.
He comes with two weapons, the familiar shoulder cannon and a generic gun.
The shoulder cannon attaches weirdly, since there are no ports on top of his torso, the cannon has a piece that folds down so that it can peg onto a port on his back.
While the gun can be held in either hand. It's a shame that they went for the generic looking gun rather than the other half of his iconic weapons, his blue missile launcher.
When not in use, both weapons can peg onto his back.
The white and blue are unpainted plastic, all the paint budget actually went to the grey, gold and red detailing which actually looks really nice.
A fantastic and near perfect robot mode.
OVERALL:
Soundwave is one of those figures where one mode is brilliant, while the other mode suffers or at least, not very good. The hovercraft mode is a pathetic excuse for a vehicle mode, but the robot mode pretty much makes up for it. The robot mode looks great and plays great, it's just missing his more iconic weaponry but that's a minor complaint.
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