Thanks fellas. I couldn't help myself and had to do a mockup of what I wish this Shockwave figure looked like alongside Starscream and Soundwave.
Takara-Tomy just got way too cartoon literal with this figure, in terms of fitting in with the other characters. The cartoon characters were more often than not based on the toys, so Takara needs to recognize that some colors or looks in the cartoon were a compromise for what's possible for hand-drawn animation. For example, Optimus Prime's smokestacks in the cartoon are white, but that's obviously because they can't draw chrome. Likewise, Shockwave's fist and hand canon were a pinkish hue because they couldn't draw translucent purple plastic. The fact that Takara-Tomy threw in a pair of solid pinkish fists, and used zero silver or chrome paint anywhere on the figure, shows they're getting way too literal with the cartoon.
Darker colors in the cartoon were often cheated lighter so that they would show up. Shockwave shouldn't be lavender anymore than Ramjet's black parts should be 25% grey. And his grey matte bits should be metal/chrome just as much as Soundwave's cassette buttons.
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