Ugh! I was thrilled with how quickly my Quakeblast made it from China to the isc in la but he's freakin still there after a week. This is driving me crazy! I really really want my Shockwave.

 

I had to go through 2 different disappearing ebay sellers before I found a legit one. Even after checking recent feedback (for the exact item they're selling) I still had 2 sellers disappear and require a claim. But the 3rd one paid off and I finally got a QB.

I will admit up front that I am something of an FT fanboy. I've tried not to be and I've tried to remain objective, but so far every time I have had the chance to compare an FT figure against its Takara or other 3rd party competition, I liked the FT figure more. The other disclaimer I'll put up is that I really don't give a damn about cartoon accuracy. I grew up being annoyed with animation errors and inconsistencies, and I spent more time with the comic books than the tv show anyway, so making MP-29 slavishly cartoon-accurate was probably anticlimactic to me.

Cartoon Shockwave was a boring useless babysitter who hung out on Cybertron, couldn't manage to vaporize Spike and his girlfriend, and his only claim to fame was getting owned by Bruticus. Comic Shockwave's first appearance was to blast both factions into unconsciousness, string up Prime, beat the shit out of Megatron, invent Jetfire, and all this after beating the 5 Dinobots single-handed (hah! punny!). DW and IDW continued the trend of making comic Shockwave much more interesting, and even Prime managed to give us a somewhat more interesting Shockwave.

So in my initial experience, having Quakewave for a few years and getting MP-29, I found the official to be pretty underwhelming. Yes, it looked exactly like a cartoon character I don't really care for. Build wise it had neither the heft nor presence that Quakewave did. I found lots of unfinished-looking areas on the gun mode that could have been done a lot better. For a higher cost than Quakewave it just didn't match up.

Quakeblast definitely does what MP-29 fails to do. He has a presence that just looks and feels better than MP-29. I like the semi-sparkly dark purple that evokes the beloved G1 toy. I love love love the polished die cast parts of the gun handle and the feet - I really wish all diecast parts looked like that, it looks so much better than the grainy unfinished diecast we get on Quakewave and a lot of other toys. The fit and finish on Quakeblast are great, overall he looks and feels great, he certainly fits together better than MP-29. It's hard not to notice the larger feet, and without QW's shin tabs the feet/ankles look a bit better than Quakewave's feet. Combined with his larger chest and shoulders, it all adds up to a great silhouette that looks very imposing, as comic book Shockwave should be. The armpit tabs that hold the chest cavity closed blend in a bit better. I was happy to see the leg flaps use a different, tougher plastic for the T-hinges and moving parts that would be prone to breakage with the normal plastic.

On the negative side, there are a few things I didn't like about Quakeblast. The larger chest that gives him a more bulked-out look in robot mode winds up giving the gun mode this silly bulbous bit in the middle of the gun, I must admit that both competitors managed to make the gun mode look a little better, even though QB is the only one with a decent trigger. I think the head should have a bit more of a sunken face a la Quakewave, I don't care for the flat-faced look as much. That's an entirely personal criticism, so ignore it if you wish. Like I did with Quakewave, I will need to paint the area around the LED eye black. The back flap that holds the hose does not lock into the backpack securely - this was a neat feature on Quakewave and it seems like it would almost tab in, but alas it doesn't. Like MP-29, design compromises with the backpack leave Quakeblast unable to utilize his waist swivel when the backpack is attached, something Quakewave does not suffer from. My biggest negative is the joints and overall build - another entirely subjective criticism that you can ignore entirely if you don't have QW and are perfectly happy with Quakeblast. One of the things I love about Quakewave are the metal ratchets; he feels and sounds glorious, and the ratchets have enough detents to let him pose any way you wish. Quakeblast doesn't quite have the same feel and sound, and the ratchets clearly have fewer detents that make posing his legs a bit more like Combiner Wars rather than Masterpiece.

Still, I went 3-deep into Masterpiece Shockwaves because I didn't want to miss out. After spending a month with MP-29 and letting the hype die down, it just didn't dethrone Quakewave for me. While I like Quakeblast more than MP-29, he also hasn't dethroned Quakewave for me, but there's a lot to like about him and this is a decision that may take longer to make. I might just end up keeping all the Shockwaves. I'm headed out to buy batteries for Quakeblast's LEDs, I really want to give him that and see how it looks before I move further toward a decision. If Quakeblast is your only Shockwave then you've done well. If you're torn between MP-29 and Quakeblast, it would come down to what you like the look of better, because you can't really go wrong either way. If you're wondering whether to replace Quakewave with Quakeblast, or have neither and want to pick one up, I don't really know. I don't think you can go wrong with either one, and I'd support you if you had reason to like one over the other.

 

Cax6ton, the hose thing is pretty well documented by now. There are several ways to get it to work, easiest being just pinch the ends with a pliers or something to get it to deform slightly, insert it all the way into the hole, and let it just reform inside the hole. When it's reformed it will be locked in place.

Other thing you may want to do is mod the chest and gun lights to a pink led, he looks fantastic with those installed. Other than that he's a great figure and I think you will enjoy him a lot for the price. I have both QB and QW and decided to not go official on MP29, cause I really didn't need to. I think I prefer the look of QB but the build quality of QW still. I really still love them both.

Also completely besides the point but if anyone has one of the newer waves with the extra clear hand and wouldn't mind parting with it, I'd toss some cash your way. My clear one broke quite a ways back and I wouldn't mind getting a replacement.

 

It's not the hose I have a problem with, it's the folding flap that opens to cover the top of the backpack - on QW it locks in securely to the folded up barrel that becomes the backpack. On QB it sort of sits on the top of the backpack and doesn't snap in. It's just a quibble with the fit and finish, an area that isn't bad on QB, it's just that QW is really a lot better than 99% of the figures out there in that regard.

If it comes to modding the LEDs, I would happily gut MP-29 for them, that's the one thing MP-29 did better than QW (and maybe QB, I haven't seen it yet); MP-29's pulsing purple LEDs are pretty cool.

 

oh I misunderstood then. and yeah I don't believe there are any tabs there to lock it in so it does just kinda sit on top of the pack.

mine fits there fairly securely though, nothing pops out or anything and it stays flush/flat on the backpack, so no real issue for me there.

the led's (if you feel like you do want to mod QB) are available on amazon for like $3-4 for a pack of $100. I think they are 3mm ones but I will have to check. there are a few people who went different colors here, blue, purple, pink, etc. all look pretty awesome. the mod is a little tricky but not too hard if you've had prior soldering experience.

 

Buy these.. you won't be disappointed
http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/items-sale-trade/1057656-quakewave-figures-extras-mod-shop.html

 

the socket around mine's index finger has started to stressed, resulting in the finger popping off sometimes. sucks because then popping it back in causes more stress lol

 

I like most of what you said. I don't have Takara's or Quakewave but I researched all three and decided QB was the one for me. Takara's is nice and if he were the same price as QB, I would've probably gotten him instead, but I would not have known what I had missed out on. I never really looked into QB until the KO Shockwave was announced for $120. I'd seen a few of the early pics but didn't give them more than a glance, figuring they were basically just QW again but after deciding I wasn't willing to pay the ridiculous asking price for Shockwave (and I never considered paying the price for QW), I checked out some comparisons to see if QB was something I'd be willing to settle on. I found myself surprised at just how good he was. Like Cax6ton, I preferred Shockwave from the Marvel comic (and DW as well). This was a guy who just straight up stole the Decepticons from Megatron and practically made Megs thank him for it, and later after a failed assassination attempt for which Megatron was going to execute him, he just talked Megatron into killing himself! (Granted, he didn't really die because it was a comic book).

My only complaints are that there is very little contrast in his color scheme, especially after swapping out the silly looking clear hand for the painted one, but that's accurate to the original toy and his comic appearance, and that his dark purple (again, accurate) makes him little more than a silhouette in less than ideal lighting. I don't think I'd change either of those as they are correct to the character; it's just a limitation of his design. I'll just need to install lights in my detolf. Since he came with a spare clear fist (which I thought was strange: two clear fists for the same hand?), maybe I'll try painting one a lighter shade of purple as a nod to his cartoon appearance while still mostly maintaining the more imposing comic appearance.

 

Not the best picture as I didn't get him out of the case so there is a lot of light reflection, but on the chest looks fine to me.

 

This is my 5th 3P purchase. Love it.

Funny thing is, since I'm new to the forums, I had no idea of the build up to his release. So I read the thread before I opened him and was still super impressed.

LIfe is good for long time G1 TF fans these days. (And Star Wars fans too.)

 

Quakeblast has got a message for the haters...   What a freaking deal on this guy.

 

I would love to see this released in metallic gray.

 

How original.

 

anyone have contact info for cloud9? I got quakeblast from ebay and it didn't come with a solid color hand...

 

I would be all over a Shackwave Deco.  

 

I'm not sure how this and an anime color deco hasn't been announced. Even if they bump the price a tad, people would be all over it.

 

anyone? please...

 

Has there been any talk of replacement shoulder joints for this? I love the figure but the rub irks me.

 

I don't believe they have an English site, you may be sol. Check with an etailer to see if they have contact info. Part of the risk you take on eBay, right?