{"id":25247,"date":"2013-10-16T00:09:27","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T05:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=25247"},"modified":"2013-10-16T00:09:27","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T05:09:27","slug":"fans-toys-ft-03-quake-wave-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=25247","title":{"rendered":"Fans Toys FT-03
Quake Wave Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> With the Transforming Expectations<\/em> Kickstarter<\/a> about to wrap-up (and being just a few dollars shy of being funded), I figured it was as good a time as any to toss a Third Party Transformers review out there. Assisting me today will be one of the very best third party products to come out\u2026 like, ever (so far?)\u2026 Fans Toys: Quake Wave. <\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t jump on Quake Wave at first. That\u2019s mostly because of the character he\u2019s homaging. While Shockwave is a fairly important character in the Transformers mythos, he\u2019s never been one of my favorites. I hardly even remember the original toy back in the day (my parents bought me Autobots like 5 to 1, which I think is what I wanted) and nothing in the cartoon about him really sticks out to me. <\/p>\n

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Which is silly, because he did cool stuff. As I\u2019ve gotten older, I\u2019ve come to appreciate Shockwave quite a bit \u2013 his cold logic, the seeming ease he would have in taking over everything, defeating Autobots & Deceptions alike. And he has one of my favorite G.I. Joe\u2019s name \u2013 in fact, both he and that fave Joe even suffered the indignity of \u201cShockblast\u201d together too. Oh, and I\u2019ve accepted the purple. Geez. <\/p>\n

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But this isn\u2019t Shockwave right? This is Quake Wave. Yep. And why would I buy this Quake Wave? Well, I\u2019ll be honest. He was just too well made to pass up. Most Third Party toys are done in scales I \u201cshouldn\u2019t\u201d be collecting. I told myself when I made a deal with myself to embrace the second coming of the Masterpiece line that I wouldn\u2019t buy smaller Transformers. The idea being that skipping on 5-10 of those would easily net me the funds for one MP. That almost worked, but the Third Parties got me good. I have more 3rd party offerings best sized to go with the Classics line than I care to admit. And then Quake Wave comes along \u2013 he\u2019s basically a Third Party Masterpiece offering. But even better, he lives up to the name Masterpiece. <\/p>\n

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Scale is a bit of a joke in TF collecting, so I\u2019m not sure how big Shockwave should be compared to Optimus, but this toy is basically the same size as the new MP Optimus, and slightly taller than the MP Soundwave. That\u2019s perfectly for me. The sculpting is top notch, with some detail added to keep things interesting at this scale, but it\u2019s thankfully not overcrowded. The plastic quality feels fantastic and the use of die-cast metal on the feet and sides of the legs (the handle\u2019s grip) is a nice touch. I think the nicest thing I can say about this figure is that if I let some play with my MPs, they wouldn\u2019t suspect that Quake Wave was produced any differently than the others. <\/p>\n

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Unlike most early Transformers, the original Shockwave wasn\u2019t from a larger line, but rather a unique toy, a transforming laser gun called Astro Magnum. When he was included in Transformers, Shockwave stood out as one of the most articulated figures in the line. Quake Wave lives up to that ideal with a ton of great articulation that serves him well as a MP fill-in. He has a ball-jointed neck, two hinges & a swivel in the shoulders to simulate a ball-joint, double-hinged elbows, waist swivel, ball-jointed hips, thigh swivel, swivel\/hinge knees, two hinges in the ankle to simulate a ball-joint, and hinged toes. His one good hand features a (limited) ball-jointed wrist and individually articulated fingers. He gets into just about any pose I\u2019d like except for deep crouches. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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There is very little paint on the figure. Some grey areas are painted in a shiny silver, but most everything is molded, either in that bright purple, a dull gray, or the clear pieces for various effects. On that note, the clear hand & gun hand are also available in a pearlized pink. I picked up my Quake Wave at Captured Prey<\/a> and those pieces were included, along with an alternate left forearm piece that lets the \u201chose\u201d swivel around if you\u2019d rather have it plug in on the underside of the arm instead of the top. Not all stores include those extra pieces, but those are in stock for super cheap at that link to Captured Prey and Quake Wave san the extra parts are in in stock at BBTS<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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And, before I forget, Quake Wave does have light-up features, his eye and his gun arm. I haven\u2019t run out to buy the batteries (CR1020 & CR1025 I believe), but I did include a picture of them lighting up on the packaging. Definitely a neat feature and I should get those batteries in there sooner rather than later. <\/p>\n

Quake Wave transforms similarly to the vintage figure, but with an ingenious twist! On the old figure, the stock\/butt of the pistol folded up on the figure\u2019s back \u2013 kinda of like & backpack and the barrel just had to go\u2026 somewhere. On Quakewave, the barrel folds inside out and takes the place of the backpack. It works very well and the figure looks good from the back as a result. But where does the stock of Quakewave\u2019s alt mode go? That\u2019s even better. <\/p>\n

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One of the problems on the original, similar to vintage Megatron, was the weak, thin legs. Fans Toys did a great job to have the rear part of the gun merge with the handle to give the toy the legs it needed. It looks great both ways and it\u2019s extremely functional. I love it. <\/p>\n

In gun mode, Quake Wave is still pretty cool. He\u2019s pretty faithful to the original. The light-up feature would carry over if I had batteries in him. The metal grip gives him a nice feel. Lots of good things here, but, he is a bit hard to display that way, so I\u2019ve kept him in bot mode almost the entire time I\u2019ve had him. If you’re looking for a sharp laser\/gun\/pistol mode though, this guy is for you. He just happens to fold out into a great robot figure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \t

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