Hi,
Finally I got the quite anticipated MP-13 Soundwave with cassette minion Laserbeak. There has been some mixed reviews and feeling related to this particular figure, but despite of that I have eagerly waited it. Sure, people are entitled to have different opinions and this is just my review of Soundwave. Hopefully it might help others to make decision about buying him or not.
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First I would like to talk about this perhaps most interesting accessory if you will. Well Laserbeak is not a accessory as such, but little well known companion/minion of Soundwave. Many suggest that one reason for rather high price is that there is actually two characters/bots in a one box, but to be fair; Laserbeak is really cool, but a small cassette. He is not any bigger than those original G1 cassettes.
The transformation of Laserbeak is actually really cool considering his size. The way they have done it is actually quite clever. Unlike the original, this one is not a ”parts former” because all those blasters and thrusters are part of the figure. There are also some really cool details, like those small decepticon symbols that can be seen on pic 3.
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And to the main guy himself. Again, I'm really happy to have him even though Hasbro version is confirmed with all the cassettes(?!) Then again that being TRU exclusive, it is not very likely to get those in Northern Europe, even if we have TRU stores here. But Soundwave is still awesome no matter what version you are going to get. One of the main things people have complained are his legs. It is true that due the transformation, you can't bend them backwards except from the knee. Ok, this might be a minor setback, but no one would pose these figures as running anyways. He would just topple without any custom made support stand. Another complaint have been the overall look of his legs. I find nothing wrong with those. Not exactly like in the original G1 cartoon? Well, if that is the big issue then you might not want to buy this one. Saves your money. But other than that, it just isn't an issue as such. Matter of taste perhaps.
At least most of us are happy with the upper part. It is really cool how he can store all the cassettes inside his chest and he can actually press the eject button himself (well, you have to help a bit). Also one of the really need little gimmick is, that you can attach Laserbeak to his hand and create one of those very iconic poses. Arms in general are very articulated and there is also waist movement. The head is obviously on a ball joint.
In the picture 3 we can see him transformed to his cassette Walkman mode. He is really simple to transform, but perhaps slightly more complex that Sideswipe. Then again, how complex would you like him to be. I think it is nice to be able to transform these without the fear of breaking something or loosing your nerve. And he is quite simple Walkman, so how difficult would it be to transform into a box
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As you already saw accessories in the pic 2, it would be proper to mention few thing about those as well. I think that many of us got the impression that some of that stuff was kind of Asia exclusive only. There is one energon(?) cube which Soundwave can ”create” from his multipurpose chest compartment. There is also one cassette for Laserbeak. Though I don't understand why that cube couldn't have been the same color as that cassette box. You can also notice this kind of extra frame that can be attached to his chest. In the back of the manual there are some schematics you can use with this frame to represent for example Soundwave showing Megatron some plans of a spaceship etc. You can cut off these schematics or better yet; take a photocopy of that page and then cut it if you like to use this gimmick. Last but not least there is this really nice looking Megatron gun, that can be used at least with Soundwave as well as 2. edition Starscream and MP-10.
Overall this figure is IMO worth buying if you are into MP-line at all. The price of the Takara version can be a bit salty, but like being said Hasbro version should be available at least in US, but if you are from elsewhere, you might want to consider buying Takara version.
At the moment I'm quite exited, but also tried to check some obvious flaws there might be. Some people have mentioned some issues with the yellow rim on his chest. That is painted and most likely these is going to be versions where this rim has some hopefully minor paint issues. Though knowing this, I might advise not to try too much attaching back and forth those chest pieces/cubes. As you probably notices, my version has not much any paint issues, so I don't really play with these extra accessories. Other than this, I didn't really find anything to complain.
9+/10
Keep the pics coming.
