You know...your pictures are so sinister....they compel people to make irrational purchases!!!  

 

They are beautiful as always TC...actually thanks to you and the OP, I got a better looking angles for Laserbeak, whom I really didn't care for at first, but now I'm loving.

Another for the list.   Luckily since Hasbro doesn't seem to want to to sell Transformers anymore...it's a short list.  

 

Like spending $265 on him?  

 

Be warned, Soundwave is deceptively (get it?) light. Makes sense consider the chest has enough room for 3 tapes.

Mine had a bit of Silver overpaint on the head near his left...ear? Not an issue since that angle is usually shadowed by his shoulder cannon. A touch of dark blue (not purple) and it covers just fine. My default chest piece has some black spots where the gold should be. Again not a problem. A slight touch of GW Dwarven Gold or P3 Rhulic Gold and it looks fine. Not a 100% colour match but it blends well.

Problem is this, there are a lot of nice fine details under his feet which are diecast. And as everyone knows, diecast has a tendency to chip and if you have it on a less than smooth surface, those chips are going to show up in Alt.Mode.

My arms are also a little more floppy than I would like, elbows to be more precise. Anyone have a way to tighten those up? I tried messing with the screw but doesn't seem like it makes a difference.

Overall not a bad toy but I think he needs to be fully loaded with cassettes to feel like a Masterpiece in terms of heft.

 

Yeah, I saw it on mine too. Call it battle damage and you'll be at ease. How are your elbows though? The double joint seems fine up till you have him hold a weapon. It flops a little bit there.

 

Heft? You can use the current G1 Cassettes to fill up the chest tho.  

As for the clip on the face mask, I am not too bothered about it. Not there if you are not looking hard enough.

 

To be fair, most of us in the South East Asian region got a major shaft when nearly every seller told us the stock from the supplier was cut by 50%. My fellow Singaporeans can attest. Basically the price jumped a good 30% from the original deal.

If you look at the Coin and envelop it comes with Hasbro insignia is clearly present. I have a rough idea where the other 50% went I suppose.

 

Which probably cost as much as the Masterpiece by now... 

 

You guys need to chillax. Theres been maybe 5 or 6 actual reviews and were at page 7 already. Less discussion/speculating (thats what toy discussion forums for), and more, y'know, actual feedback.

Btw, the hip joints arent fragile or anything, but the ratchets are very tight and needs a bit manhandling is all. Jeez guys, buncha worry warts. I just let my 6 yr old play barbie with soundwave (she even dropped laserbeak even. DAD WHATS A CASSETTE?) n u guys are like OH NOES HIS HIP JOINTS ARE BRITTLE TWIGS

 

Fair enough.

Here is a pic of what seems to be common QC gripe. It looks like Soundwave nicked himself shaving is all. Nothing toy-breaking. You can probably spot some of the black spots where the gold trim should be again, no sweat. Just use burnished gold color to paint over with one pass. Vallejo, GW, P3, Gunze Sangyo...you have a plethora to choose from.



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And here he is along with my other Soundwaves. Yes, I don't have the G1. Yes I hate myself for it.



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ugh that spot on the face will drive me nuts if mine has it.

 

Honestly, you really won't see it from any normal angles. The shape of his head hides it rather well and since it is...painted over, you almost forget its there.

And the Transformation is clean. Every keeps harping about the legs? Its not the legs or hips that scare me, its the flaps that fold out from his thighs to cover the hip joints that are scary. On mine those things were ****ing tight.

 

The poster is in Chicago.

Asian distributors, such as RobotKingdom, are still much cheaper regardless.

 

You're talking about where it was cut from the sprue, I'm guessing??

 

I wouldn't have expected otherwise, but kudos to Soundwave for trying to keep up with modern Earth tech, anachronistic as it may appear.  

 

Thanks for letting me off the hook with regards to the joints! LOL!

Yeah, I recall the Rodimus issue (first production run) and I was probably the most vocal with regards to slamming it. That was certainly an experience because a minority were defending it. I guess I felt justified in the end, especially when TakaraTomy fixed most of the issues in the reissue.

Yeah and kudos to those shops who honored the pre-order prices. Glad I stuck with them all these years. Now I hope my orders of 5 Fort Max don't get cut!  

Got to agree with you again. Due to angle of the head, I didn't even noticed the mis-cut!

I hope Megatron version 2 is released soon...he will look so good standing with Soundwave and Starscream!

 

You and me both. I can imagine it will look AWESOME with all of them standing together.

 

this toy looks so awesome, glad they finally released a MP of Soundwave.

 

I'm going to leave my complete utter 3 cents here. Agree or disagree with me if you'd like.

First up, this is a good toy. As far as playability and poseability are concerned if hits high if not full marks. Robot mode is a tad bit flimsy but I think that probably will vary from figure to figure. It is spot on character model to the G1 animation design which is the point of this figure.

Depending on your idea of what Masterpiece-level quality is, this toy/figure may come as a culture shock. The plastic is sturdy but the "cheap" feeling one might get is more than likely due to the fact that it has a hollow chest for the cassette storage mechanism. I've been out of touch from the MP line for awhile now, my only other foray being the MP-01 so this toy surprised me mainly due to its weight and the overall...feel. Its hard to put into words. Maybe because I'm mentally comparing MP-13 to a chogokin figure or something mainly because of its price point.

To me, personally, this falls short of feeling like a Masterpiece level toy, paint issues nonwithstanding. I think if they had used a denser plastic material and tighter QC, this might have changed it.

As a toy that homages and invokes G1 Soundwave I give it a high 9 going on 10 out of 10.

As a Masterpiece, mind you, coming from a person who only had Mp-01 Convoy and nothing else from the line even after the reboot post MP-10...I give it a 6 going on 7 out of 10. The build quality and materials could have been better. I will most likely pick up Soundblaster just to see if any improvements are made.

 

My ones elbows are fine - nice and tight. Right now I have him holding his weapon and megatron in the other . No sign of looseness - yet !

 

Maybe you can pretend that he's not so much a Cassette recorder anymore, but instead a universal audio receiver.

Except that he doesn't take CDs...