I'm afraid Don's design here just looks really boring and generic, like a background character. Guido's on the other hand is just awesome.
I never understood peoples big complaint about mass shifting. While I agree it wouldn't work in a live action movie, for a cartoon or just a toy line in general I'm totally cool with it.
Animated Soundwave does it for me. I have no need for this classics design. I would rather see titanium cosmos and Shockwave before this soundwave.
I have to agree. If Hasbro had this design and actually said that at this year's Botcon, there is something wrong. That is a Classics Soundwave. It lets him have his classic mini-cassette gimmick, and is a device that is in use today (although probably not for much longer if you've seen how cheap micro-SD memory cards are these days). The only problem I see is how to fit the pelvis into the torso (which would be needed based on the directions in that design) and have room for a micro-casette in there at the same when he's in recorder mode. On the topic of Don's design, it reminds me of my own thoughts on a movie Soundwave design I posted back when the rumors were flying about all the insane ideas they were trying to use to get him into the movie. It's only vaguely reminiscent, though, as my idea had Soundwave as an older-style car pimped out as a low-rider with speakers everywhere except the front seat. The speakers would transform into Soundwave's minions (2 speakers in the trunk, 2-3 speakers in the place of the back seat, Rumble & Frenzy could sit in the front seat in bot mode). Honestly, though, I would rather not have Soundwave as a car. That would make this one of the few designs from Don that I do not like. Well, don't forget that that titanium Cosmos was originally designed for the Classics line, so that's something that is very likely to come out sooner or later. As to the titanium Shockwave, that's one of the other few designs from Don that I do not like. I remember pics of the robot mode of the prototype looked pretty good (it badly needing some tweaking even there, though). When we saw a pic of the alt-mode, I did an instant 180 on ever wanting to see that become an actual production piece. It was just plain terrible.
How bad could it have been? G1 shockwave was simplicity incarnate. The Titanium was pretty darn close. Now if they designed it for the plastics of classics opposed to the fat, clunky corpse-like titanium he would probably end up much better. I am just kinda bored with every vehicle that transforms with a windshield as the chest being an "OMG MAKE HIM SOUNDWAVE". Reinventing him into <random alt mode> because a tapedeck isn't relevant just bores me. I mean, people want him to be everything from a minivan, to a truck to a hummer, copter, stealth bomber and so on. Animated at least had a reasonable origin with an evolution into his new mode which makes me actually like the character opposed to "OMG SOUNDWAVE" that ended up being cyb and probably the new movie. Not saying it is bad, it just bores me. I am more excited about animated soundwave.
I didn't think it was completely terrible, but I do agree that the alt mode took some of the excitement out of it. I loved the updated arms being made self contained (ie: no more click-on gun tip) and thought the bot mode overall looked great (for a Titanium), but the alt mode's use of the legs was a downer. I understand *why* it was designed that way - to keep bulk in the legs when in bot mode so they're not skinny like G1 - but it just didn't translate too well to gun form imo. Hopefully a larger version will eventually make it into Universe and the leg issue is a little more refined. As for all the updated Soundwave discussion, I too am sick of hearing the Hummer idea constantly pitched, but I do think it's probably the best comprimise they could make when modifying a character who was a mass shifting outdated cassette player to a more "believable" vehicle. If they applied the same back-door-doubling-as-ejectable-chest gimmick that Don came up with for his roadster design, I think it could look pretty sweet and still retain the overall look of ol' Soundwave. That said, I'm just as happy with Music Label Soundwave taking the Classics spot considering his size is perfect. If Megatron was also reimagined into a tank or something, *then* I'd be more anxious to have a vehicle version of Soundwave. But as long as he's still some sort of ridiculous gun, Soundwave might as well also stay a cassette player, whether it's the old school design or Guido's updated version.
i never knew design concepts for titanium shockwave was seen...i love shockwave and would also love to see these pictures...anyone (please)?
What about Mass Shifting? Didn't the All spark in the movie did exactly that?? Bring it on with Sound Wave! As for G's Design I see where the head can go, it would flip up from his back while the arm rests on the top. As for the pelvis i can see your point. But the flip down from back may work but it would make him super thin.
The head can't flip from the back, because there's no space for it. If you look at the right arm and shoulder, it has either has to slide all the way from the upper left side. To do this it either has to ride a rail or have a double hinge joint that flip over unto each other. Either way, this would take up at least 50% to 75% of the overall width from front to back. It would also take up about 20 to 25% the height of the cassette deck. The head would have to be paper thin to fit in that same space and would way too retruded over the torso. It's hard to explain without 3-D pictures, but look at how much space the right armpit and shoulder joint takes up. I just can't see how all of that and the entire pelvis can fit underneath the same space of the cassette deck.
I wound think the head would be spring loaded ala the G-1 Cassetticons and would slide up when the right arm moves. The right arm would be mounted on a Pivit plate that would swing the arm over, Via a rail. Slide down and lock into place also covering the right side in the ab with the side details. For the waist/leg transformation Im thinking R.I.D. X-Brawn's waist transformation where it slid up on the side when transforming into vehicle mode. If you look at the figure you'll see what I mean. The actual hip part would swivel sideways and the legs slide down with the side parts of the legs locking in place. The guns would combine with the maingun would telliscope and lock into place (I think Telliscope wise).
The problem with the design is entire lower body. Both legs must come from the right 1/3 of the cassette player. That means at maximum, the lower legs are 1/2 the thickness of the of the forearm/ upper torso. The thighs would have to be even smaller because they would have to telescope out from the lower leg in that design. Add to this the hip and abdomen would have to be sideways in alternate mode which would make it very narrow. I'm holding X-Brawn and unlike Soundwave his thighs and legs don't come from 1 side in alternate mode. Also if you look at X-Brawn's waist and hip (from top to bottom), it is only 1/3 the height of the abdomen and torso. In Guido's design, the abdomen and waist is the same height as the torso and both must fit under the torso frame. That doesn't even account for the space that the head and rail must also occupy. I'm not saying that the transformation scheme can't be done. However, if it is done to match that transformation scheme, The proportions would look a lot different. He would have to a tiny waist, skinny/ shorter legs and big forearms. Just look at the forearm of Guido's design. In cassette mode, it is flush from front to back with the torso. Yet in robot mode, the torso is wider. Look at the penciled picture. When the legs are joined in alt mode. It would have that thin in robot mode, yet the robot picture is 2x thicker. Look at the length of the lower leg. In robot mode it is 2x the length of the torso, yet in alt mode is roughly 1.5x the length of the torso. I guess that why I'm so impress with the Hasbro design team for their work on the Classics/ Universe line. It's not easy IMO to design a toy with an accurate alt mode and still have good body proportions in robot mode.
look at the legs again. the whole sides pull out from the shins, doubling their thickness for the robot mode. Sure the picture is still slightly indulged, but that still addresses a lot of the issues of the thin legs. I don't see how the waist and abs would have to be sideways either, they seem to clearly slide straight up into the torso. The tape door sticks way out from the body, which is how it has room for a tape to fit inside.
But, isn't that Animated Soundwave? I guess they were going to use it for Classics then...but thought nah, we'll use it for Animated. Also, that Guido design is awesome.
