Transformers: Robots in Disguise Warrior-class Soundwave

SOUNDWAVE
Allegiance: Decepticon

Robot Mode

Soundwave comes packaged in robot mode.

Ditching his previous alien-looking Prime body, RiD Soundwave takes on a body reminiscent of his WfC / FoC form, with brawler-like proportions in contrast to the sleek and pointy body he's had previously. As a part of the 10th wave of Warrior-class toys from the RiD2015 toyline, Soundwave's overall look is a mash-up of styles from the Aligned-continuity aesthetics.

The toy translates this well, using deep blue colored plastic, with translucent red plastic for highlights. Most of the color detail is accomplished by paint, with gray and red on the arms, yellow striping on the chest to bring out the homage to G1 Soundwave's color layout, as well as some metallic blue paint to color match the plastic.


Robot mode, front view...


Robot mode, back view...

The robot mode is quite solid, with most of the limbs composed of folded-in chunks of the vehicle mode. The only bothersome bit is how the lower arms are done. They connect to the shoulder / bicep assembly via a swing joint used for transformation and there's no solid locking point on the arm, relying instead on joint friction and some vague tabs to form the upper arm. While it holds together fine for the most part, an errant pull is sometimes enough to bend the arm at the bicep.

Points of Articulation:

• Neck: Ball-jointed neck, severely obstructed by facial details.
• Arms: Shoulders on ball and socket joints, attached to torso by hinged struts. Lower arm assembly attached by swing joint to bicep; no swivel. Ball-jointed elbows; no wrist or hand articulation.
• Torso: Swivel joint in torso, unrestricted movement. No waist articulation.
• Legs: Ball-jointed hips, thigh swivels, 90° hinged knees and hinged transformation joints on the ankles.

Robot mode, with the rest of my RiD Warrior-class figs...

Transformation

For an RiD2015 toy, it's quite complex, with some tricky bits. Soundwave unfolds and refolds himself into a box with wheels. The leg transformation is pretty straightforward, with wheels folding out from the shins while the leg assemblies fold in to form the rear. The robot chest unfolds to form the vehicle front easily, but getting the arms in place to form the sides of the vehicle can be quite tricky.The hands end up visible in alt mode.

Alternate Mode


Vehicle mode, view 1...


Vehicle mode, view 2...


Vehicle mode, view 3...


Vehicle mode, view 4...


Vehicle mode, underside...

Verdict

All in all, this new RiD Soundwave is a pretty decent toy.

The mold is relatively solid, with no particularly glaring flaws other than the swing joint assembly used in the arms. The transformation scheme is more complex than your average RiD2015 figure, with certain parts being quite tricky to line up going to and from modes. The vehicle mode, though somewhat hollow and shellformer-y, is chunky and serviceable. The robot mode is quite good, with good colors and proportions, and decent articulation. The cool lightpiping is worthy of a separate mention as it really adds character to the toy. I do wish he came with more weapons than just his shoulder gun though...

Recommended on the strength of the character homage.

stars out of

Jya na!

 

Interesting blend of aesthetics. I like it!

 

got WFC Soundwave to compare him to?

 

Looks kinda like WFC Soundwave. But with more robot bits exposed in vehicle mode.

 

Yes I have them. I just didn't have the opportunity to dig them out of storage. I'll try to take comparison pics over the weekend.

jya na!

 

Would have been nice to have given the hands hinges or made the forearms slide down, but doesn't kill it for me. I can see how that could be a dealbreaker for some.

 

Other than the obvious hands in alt mode I quite like this guy.

 

3mm clip-points.

I approve

 

Got this guy over the weekend from HasbroToyShop.

His vehicle mode transformation is fiddly as all heck just to get him into car mode, and other than the fact there's hands hanging out in back it's a pretty good one-- one that, with maybe some extensive chest modifications, you could mod this guy into a decent looking Combiner Foot. Counting the hands, it's kind of begging to be armed to the teeth with how many ports he has.

Transformation takes advantage of all the hollow spaces as per usual.

Robot mode is a lot better, with one glaring flaw. Since his chest is so huge and his head is so far back Soundwave looks a little off in the upper body area, as it makes it seem that his head is much smaller than it actually is. Otherwise, his bulkyness kind of reminds me of Strika from Beast Machines a whole lot; if you stuck her head on it and scaled it to about a half head larger it would look pretty good (once you saddled it with guns, of course). OTOH Prime Breakdown fits the silhouette as well.

No idea if Soundwave is going to change any on the show, but he's pretty much traded ninja for armored samurai. His helmet somewhat evokes the kabuto like Drift's more blatant depiction.

RID Soundwave makes an interesting match next to his Animated counterpart, and I imagine he'd look like FoC Soundwave's unrefined tough cousin.

 

Man, I hate the red visor face. If it were gray like the Prime version, I'd probably get this. Though I might get it and use a silver Sharpie paint pen on the bottom of the visor to make his faceplate.

 

Damn, he looks pretty good. Soundwave, Blurr, and Bisk are the only (currently released) RID figures I'm looking to get. Hopefully I can get this guy soon

 

The arms in bot mode are a giant pain in the arse. But apart from that love him. He's my chug Soundwave.

 

This is what is keeping me on the fence about buying the figure. The figure has other great qualities but the huge chest keeps nagging at me. Is the chest part of one piece for the torso or is it a section that can be taken off?

 

Finding it very odd this guy has a fiddly transformation too turn into something that basically looks like not much more then a folded-up robot with wheels ~ I can barely consider that an alt mode with the arms and chest just hanging out there.

Pretty cool robot mode though.

 

Does he not have a mouthplate like the box art suggests?

 

That's his entire chest. You can't remove it without destructively doing so (as in, sawing it off)

Nope. That of course... doesn't stop you from giving him one....

...

which is exactly what I did. He looks really good with one, too. It's just getting it on him was a little on the difficult side because his face-visor is more on the glossy side.

 

Gonna need pics of that, if you get the chance. I'm considering getting it and doing the same.

 

Here's my interpretation of it. I've already done this to CW Blast Off, but Soundwave turned out to be much harder to do since I was basing it off the artwork on the card.

 

Picked this guy and Blurr up today.

What a weird. Damn. Toy.

This feels like an Aaron Archer-era figure produced on a modern miniscule budget. There's parts shifting by 1/4" offsets, with flaps to fill gaps, there's elaborate mechanisms on multi swingarms, and its all very fiddly and complex in service of an alt mode that doesn't seem like it needed so much fanfare to get there. And the hands are visible in alt more. In fact, the entire forearms are visible, just hanging there off the sides of the truck.

And yet they blew budget on a hinge in the gun, and tons of paint apps for same. The barrel is painted, the inside of the muzzle is painted, there's a tiny paint app on the front of the hinge. Why? It seems like such a poor use of money when they could have pinned the wheels or given him fold-in hands, or just added more paint to the figure itself.

All that being said, the transformation itself is a lot of fun. I didn't have any trouble with it and there's some nice ideas packed into this guy. About the only other RiD figures I've found as satisfying to transform were Thunderhoof and Bisk.

Overall, I do like him. Or at least I find myself contemplating him and the engineering therein. (Unlike Blurr, who's so boring he's not worth talking about.)

Worth buying, pick him up if you can to see what the fuss is about.

 

I'm... on the fence with this guy.

On one hand, he looks good in robot mode and even looks pretty decent in vehicle mode.
I would go find some silver paint to paint his mouthplate, if any change at all.

However, his arms in robot mode just swing around and don't seem to be locked in place (they are not loose though).
Transforming to vehicle mode is not great either, and I feel that the high point in RID transformation belonged to Scorponok and other Decepticons. You don't get the feeling that you have successfully locked parts in place.