I’m assuming Takara went this direction because they didn’t want his sharp pokey bits being too brittle. But unfortunately the plastic they used is a tad too soft, almost like a thick plastic cape you’d find on a DC Classics figure. This makes his forearms bend a little, just from the weight of his Minicon. It also makes transforming his legs more challenging because the soft pieces don’t move as freely. I don’t think the plastic will tear, but resistance they give sometimes feels that way.
The Takara Soundwave comes with Laserbeak and one other Minicon, a scorpion named Zori. Zori doesn’t really transform as much as he straightens out to become a trident like spear. But the reason I was so interested in Zori is because his tail resembles the tentacles Soundwave uses to interface with computers. Definitely a nice attention to detail that Takara showed while designing Zori, which almost makes him as much a part of Soundwave as Laserbeak is.
Going back to the sculpt, the Takara figure does have two new pieces. Both his shoulders have been remolded in hard plastic with Minicon ports that also resemble wing mounted weapons. This is actually my favorite feature of the figure itself. In jet mode these two attachments make him look a bit more dangerous than your average spy drone.
The last two pictures in my review show my current Soundwave. I liked these newly sculpted pieces so much that I decided to cobble the two Soundwave’s together into an Ultimate Soundwave. The shoulders are easily separated at the joints, which makes for perfect interchageability. Since both figures are the same, you don’t have to worry about color issues either. Plus there are no rubbery areas and he has his Micron ports. Ultimate Soundwave is definitely the best of both worlds.
-Vault
Great review as always, but one thing I’d like to note is that I got the Hasbro version of this guy and the tail fins, crown, forearms and Laserbeak’s wings are all made out of the soft plastic on mine. like almost Lion-O’s sword soft… the only parts out of the ones that you listed that are not soft plastic on mine are the nosecone pieces.
Same here, Joe. I just checked mine and he has the soft plastic in those places.
Huh, I wonder if Hasbro changed plastic during production?
Anyone else have hard or soft Soundwaves?
My (Hasbro) Soundwave’s “soft parts” are softer than the hard plastic, but not too soft.
Still not crazy about the design of this guy…but the Takara version looks more appealing to me..that scorpion minicon is sweet. Awesome pics
As usual, great review.
I really like Zori. These microns are really appealing to me (I guess it’s because of me growing up with Micromasters, targetmasters and other tiny partners) and may make me delve into the Takara versions of these molds!
Well, I normally think all the reviews on this site are excellent, but this one is out-filthyword-standing. I hadn’t thought about swapping out parts to make an “Ultimate Soundwave,” but now that you’ve said and shown that it’s possible, I’ll do exactly that! Thank you!
I mentioned in the Terrorcon Cliffjumper review that I thought the nosecone/leg pieces on this thing almost felt as if they would tear during transformation, and I’m glad I’m not alone in that assessment.
looks to me like hasbro wins this round —