Botcon 2012 Shattered Glass Soundwave

Time for me to venture into the boxset for Botcon 2012. And I’ll start with what had the potential to be the figure I most looked forward to when everything was initially announced. I’m a huge Soundwave fan. Despite missing some I try my best to get one of every Soundwave figure that gets released. So when I heard that a Soundwave was an included figure this year, the year I’m attending, of course I got excited. The artwork was released and I was still excited, the drawing looked slick! Then I saw the TFClub photo and my heart sank. Read on for the rest of the review.



Figure Design
Shattered Glass Soundwave utilizes the Universe Ironhide/Ratchet toy. The original toy is OK at best. The alt-mode is riddled with unsightly panel lines, and in this case, a bunch of boring white plastic. First thing you probably notice is a strange tampo-graph on the side of the car. What’s this? you may be asking. Well it’s of course a Cold Slither Logo; yes, a GI Joe reference is sitting here slapped onto a Transformers toy. Now I could go onto a rant as to how ridiculous (in the bad sense) that I think this is, but I like to keep these reviews short if possible so I will move on. The transformation of this toy is average with a bit of finiky panel movement in the feet/shins. The resulting robot is wide and squat. This is a look that works well enough for Ironhide or Ratchet, but for Soundwave it just looks wrong, and I hate it. What worse is that he’s still mostly white. I understand that this is probably suppose to be a homage to the white version of the Music Label toy, but that’s a reference that’s not even clever let alone fun in my opinion. Like I said in the SGPrime review, if you’re going to do Shattered Glass then have a bit more fun with the homage deco. Paint him up to look like Blaster (SG Cyclonus), or the G2 Go-Bot (SG Thundercracker) those are deco’s that I could get behind. And I haven’t even gotten to his headsculpt yet. The fourth FunPub headsculpt (yeah, I forgot too, I went back and changed it in my other review) is subpar at best. The Club went so far as to try to get rid of the dopey depressed look that has plagued this mold, but at a cost. The face is so elongated that it just doesn’t look like Soundwave and his eyes are so blank and expressionless that I end up feeling sorry for him anyway. And this is the Soundwave that is supposed to be the be-bopping, scit-scatting, funkasaurus with personality! It seems that with a bit of plastic shaving and paintwork that this headsculpt might be salvageable but I’m afraid to do that to what is essentially a $50 toy.



Accessories
Soundwave comes with the same Gun/Blade combo weapon that his predecessors have both come with, once again, nothing really new here. This IS where I’m gonna start talking headbands though! For a bargain steal of $5 at the show, you could pick yourself up a piece of plastic history. A Green Headband meant to make Soundwave rock the F out! This is easily the best part of the entire Botcon sho…OK, I can’t keep going with this (sorry Cooksux) This is a turd, plain and simple. It’s a piece of plastic that doesn’t even match the toy colors let alone any promo art, it looks like a piece of greenstuff sculpting material. It’s covered in mold flash (and I seemed to get one of the BETTER ones) and when placed on his head looks a bit too bulky. The only bright side I can give this accessory is that it does convey the illusion of making Soundwaves head look a bit wider. Instead I managed to acquire a sample of Transheadbands first ever release! This is where it’s at. Simply tie this piece on to your Soundwaves head and you’ve got yourself a hip cat!



Articulation
The articulation is what saves this toy. The arms do enough, but the bulk of the forearms makes me wish it did more. The legs and ball jointed ankles allow for really wide stances. And with the personality of this Soundwave behind the toy it’s very easy to lose yourself in the possibilities.



Overall
To be honest, I’m mixed. On the one hand I can’t stand the original toy or the deco chosen for this toy. But on the other as I was shooting the photographs for this review I had a lot of fun making him as expressive as possible. I’d still say it’s probably an easy pass, but it’s probably in the middle of the Botcon exclusives pack.

For more photos, check out the full review! Botcon 2012 Shattered Glass Soundwave « The Plastic Vault

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Thanks Trent. To me this is a POS of a figure, I didn't even transform him. I checked the QA on this guy and quickly put him back into the box. Shitty deco and they got peanut butter (JOE) in my jelly (TFormers)! I dunno, honestly if I didn't have the actual box to this set I'd ditch this figure and his tard-o headband. I should have opted for the loose set and sold this turd while I had the chance.

This is one of the worst head sculpts Botcon has done, but I think Metalhawk is the biggest offender.

You guys don't like that fruit snack head?

TheRabbitHaul * B/S/T * Feedback

Am I one of the few people that likes this figure? I would have liked to pick one up.

Originally Posted by Autobot Burnout But Laccus did not want Kira to die. Therefore, she convinced the exploding reactor to not kill him.

It's just not Soundwave without his minions. Instead of making a headband, FP probably would've made a killing had they produced a Ravage or Laserbeak for extra money.

Very nice review. What're the chances of a third party head for this guy? I feel like this one just doesn't really nail the energy of the character.

Third party heads for con toys are the funniest concept ever.

IMO this toy IS SG Soundwave, and I love SG Soundwave, So Yeah. He can't help his mold, and after the final paintjob I actually like the head. Shame that headband-o-calypse is the only thing anyone will remember.

I don't know squat about GIJoe but I don't know why anyone would have a tizzy about the logo. It's a fictitious Hasbro-owned band, and it fits an aspect of the character that was established years before this toy saw daylight.

This looks okay. I'd like it a lot more if the headsculpt was better. It just looks so derpy because the head looks like it's squished.

The lack of details and the awkward proportions doesn't really help at all.