I see you Takara Soundblaster, with your Mercenary badge, gorgeous black and red paint job, and your ability to store two Micromasters in your chest thanks to a window that sticks out awkwardly. I've got it on order, but I've wanted to do a review of Siege Soundwave for a while. I kept putting it off because new minions were announced, then obtained, then the Netflix one was announced while I was in an awkward "no real reason" hiatus. So know what? No. We're doing this! This review is long overdue!
We'll start by looking at the original version of the mould, a figure that suffers from the G1 toy being a Micro Change toy. How do you make a Soundwave toy that collectors will like while still having it be an exciting toy for kids? You try and turn Soundwave into an awkward Spaceship, with an Easter Egg lamp post mode. I think it goes without saying at this point that the original Siege Soundwave, and the Soundblaster as mentioned above in the intro of this review, do not have nice looking alternate modes. What's frustrating is that they're almost cool looking, with the only real issue I have with the modes themselves being the vents and thrusters' positions. They look like they're supposed to fold down and rest on the sides of the ship, instead than sticking out not doing anything. There's even a tab on the body doing nothing, and a slot in the thrusters that look like they line up perfectly. But with the way the hinge pieces were designed, they physically can't get to that point, there's an intentional stopper, why? What's the point? Was the storage for that one grey gun that looked like it was meant to go to Siege Megatron anyway (to the fact that most people gave their Siege Megatron that gun) that important? As for the lampost mode? It's neat that they include it as a nod to G1, Season 1, Episode 1, Scene 1, but it looks even dumber than the space ship. I usually groan when I see people try and force Megatron toys into having a gun mode, or Soundwaves into a cassette player mode. But when you've got two bad modes already, is it any wonder why people were making parts specifically to turn it into the cassette player?
So it should come as no surprise that Hasbro eventually made one that turned into the Cassette player. Released for the Netflix Siege line, Netflix Soundwave (a heavy retool of the Siege Soundwave) does look like an excellent Mini Cassette player, but only from the front. Due to it being a retooling, the mode does not look good from the sides or back. I don't find this to be that big of a problem though, mostly because it is a retool. It wasn't going to have Masterpiece levels of panel management to hide the arms better. It looks great from the front, and it does look a lot better than the Siege one being twisted and contorted into a cassette player. For what we got, I think it's great.
Why was the alt mode vital? Because it doesn't make sense for a spaceship to drop rectangles out the back. Through the power of Micromasters, This version of Soundwave has minions! Between the two years of toylines, Soundwave has eight rectangle minions that he can store in his chest, have out deployed in their robot/ animal modes, or wear as shields because Micromasters had to have weapon modes for War for Cybertron. So to quickly give them mini-reviews:
- Siege Laserbeak: Siege Laserbeak is probably the best of the lot because it looks good in all its modes. It doesn't feel like anything was compromised when designing the toy to pull off everything it needed. I love the detail on the wings, and I especially love the fact that the blast effects ports on the back mean you can pull off a hilarious rocket bird mode. You can also have Laserbeak perched on Soundwave's arm. While it does make the feet look big, it's a minor complaint and adds stability—a great companion piece for Soundwave.
- Siege Ravage: It's a shame though that his packmate is terrible. Siege Ravage does not look good in cat mode. The cat legs look awkward. Paint is excellent, I like the purple along the back, and the red eyes look cool, but due to the size, the legs look too bulky for something that's supposed to be a sleek, stealthy predator. There's a reason mine usually live inside Soundwave's chest.
- Netflix Laserbeak and Ravage: Packed in with Netflix Soundwave, they're both the same, with the only noticeable differences being the paint applications (in an attempt at being more G1 toy accurate) and both having new heads. Pretty much everything I could say about these two has been covered when looking at their general retail release predecessors. The only reason I bring them up separately though is because I wish these two were Buzzsaw and Howlback. Out of the regular minions for Soundwave (trust me, he gets some weird ones in the toys), Buzzsaw is the only one missing, which is odd because the original partner he came with back in 1984 was Buzzsaw. Considering how hard the Laserbeak and Ravage shelf warmed, I'm surprised they didn't take the chance to repaint them and fill in those minion gaps, as anyone who wanted the Netflix Soundwave likely already had Laserbeak and Ravage. Were people that desperate for G1 heads for them?
- Siege Ratbat and Generations Selects Wingthing: Though the rectangle mode for these two does look bad, the bat modes look great, like Micromaster Batterangs (and thus concludes obligatory Batman reference). The only real complaints I have are Wingthing's missing paint applications (not sure why), and the fact that the post for plugging them into bigger bots isn't in an excellent position to have them be flying on display. You could probably pull something off, but the back-mounted port does look awkward to work around. Above image was sourced from https://thelastgherkin.tumblr.com/post/628351249459331072/generations-selects-soundwave-spy-patrol-3rd-unit (it was the only image of that half of the Generations Selects pack I could find)
- Siege Rumble and Generations Selects Frenzy: No, I'm not going into which one is which, these are what they're called on the box, regardless of if I agree with them or not, that's what I'm calling them for this review. For a pair of mini humanoid robots, they're alright. I think the hips are a bit too wide, and the thighs too short, but I wasn't expecting much out of these two, especially when it comes to articulation, as none of the Micromasters has had strong articulation. No pile drivers for either of them, but with blast effects ports on their hands, they can pull off some hilarious overkill pyrotechnics. Paint on their chests though is very weak, as both of mine have been chipping off over time. It sucks, but at least with Siege, you can pass that off as battle damage.
Soundwave's robot mode is extremely basic when compared to other Transformers. A good G1 Soundwave doesn't have kibble, and credit where it's due for both versions, they're very clean transformations, with the only notable instances of kibble being the landing skids on both versions arms. Moving these two around is an absolute delight, thanks to the sturdy joints (a little too sturdy in the case of my Netflix Soundwave's shoulders). You can even fudge your way into them pressing their eject buttons to deploy the minions inside. Head sculpt is frustrating on both of them, because while I love the detailing on the Siege Soundwave, they went for the toy accurate yellow yes, which I'm not a fan of. While on the Netflix one, it has the red eyes and a simpler, more cartoon accurate head sculpt. Why did that need to get remoulded? Thanks to the C.O.M.B.A.T port gimmick of Siege, both versions can store all the minions on them. I've got all the minions with Netflix Soundwave, and what I tend to do with the pointless pipe gun that looks awful as a gun, and even worse when combining his actual firearms. What I do is that I use it as a makeshift flight stand for Laserbeak, plugging it onto Soundwave's back so that it looks like the bird is flying over him.
If you can't find a Netflix Soundwave on the shelf, I still think the toy's original Siege version is an excellent representation of Soundwave. The reason to get the Netflix one is if you absolutely must have a G1 faithful version of Soundwave that scales with your other Generations Figures. It's like trying to decide which War for Cybertron Optimus Prime you should get. Both are excellent toys, and there's no definitive answer to which one is objectively better or worse. I hope that we get a Blaster in the future. While I don't think the Ravage mould would work for Steeljaw, I could see them getting a great Ramhorn out of it, and all they'd need to do for Rewind and Eject is change the deco on Frenzy and Rumble. It would also be an excuse to get the missing Buzzsaw and Howlback (Spy Patrol 4th unit anyone?). Blaster did play a decent role in the 86 movie, after all. Just saying, it could happen. This toy is a significant improvement over the Titans Return one, a great figure to add to your Decepticon army.
