I just got mine on my Official MP Megs and it looks like a good match to me. I can provide a pic next time I'm home.

 

Thanks man,that’ll be great!

 

Recently received this kit. Here are some thoughts.

The cassette, gun, and head all included batteries. They are not meant to be (easily) replaceable. The parts that contain the batteries are not designed to be accessed by the consumer.

The gun does not collapse or have an storage options for cassette player mode. It is an odd inclusion and does not seem to add much to the figure. A cheaper set without the gun might have been better.

The sound effects cassette tape uses a clever mechanism for playback. The cassette looks upside-down when in the proper position for playback. There is no option to switch between English and Chinese sounds. The Chinese sounds have a sing-song quality to them that is interesting, but there is also some high pitched reverb that makes those sound clips painful to listen to. The English clips seem to be ripped right from the cartoon and are poor quality - you can hear background music playing alongside Soundwave's voice. There are a few transformation sounds. Oddly, it also includes the intro theme from the cartoon. Ideally, they could have used the same playback mechanism to allow for different sets of audio clips based on which side of the cassette was being used. They could have also used clean sound clips. The audio effects cassette is a good idea, but poor execution.

The light-up head has a painted neck piece that doesn't quite match any colors on Soundwave - it's a creamy gray color, definitely not silver. The swappable yellow and red lens pieces are a nice touch, but requires they be inserted vertically from above. The tabs that hold the lenses in place are very small and look like they will be prone to wearing down if the lenses are changed often. There are three settings for the LED eyes - fade-on, blink, and on. The difference between the fade-on and on settings are minimal. There is a lot of light bleed. The batteries are not easily removed and a small piece of plastic that traps the top of the neck's hinge on the interior of the head broke when removing the battery/LED assembly. The head still stays in place, but the plastic didn't need to be that thin. It would have been cool if they also included a G1 toy style lens piece with a lip of blue that could sit over the top of the mouth-plate.

The Megatron back plate fits both the Takara and KOs that are based directly on the Takara. The colors are a little off from the Takara, but almost exactly the same as the THF. If your Megatron has a naked back, this is a good fix.

Overall, the lens-color swapping gimmick and Megatron back plate are the highlights of the set. The sound effects cassette is half-baked. The gun is a waste. Is it worth the $30? If you like light-up parts on your Transformers, definitely. If you want the head or back-plate, sure. Personally, I bought it because my Soundwave had a huge spruemark on the mouth-plate and this was the best way to deal with it. And MP Megatron feels more complete with the back-plate.

 

I would get this but honestly I'm not a fan of light up stuff due to batteries. I know I'm in the minority here, but I would pay extra to be able to plug this stuff into the wall and deal with a cord so it's always lit.

 

I think all the V1 Takara Soundwaves unfortunately came with the huge-ass sprue mark on his faceplate. I was only wanting this set to fix that, but the Megatron backplate is a nice extra. So is it worth it if I'm looking for it for those reasons? (Fixing the SW head is a priority.)

 

To be honest, that is why I got it. I do not normally like the light-up features and batteries tend to leak over time. This set was an easy way to get a replacement MP Soundwave head with a good mouth-plate. It definitely works for that purpose, and the lens swapping gimmick is good enough. The Megatron back-plate is good as well.

I do not know if it is possible to modify the sound chip on the cassette, but the cassette would be as much fun as Megatron's blaster sound effects if the sounds were of better quality. The sounds it has loaded on it are genuinely painful to listen to.

The light-up gun? It is useless.

 

How does the head with red eyes look when the lights are turned off? Does it appear like the Takara head or does he have “dead eyes” when the led is inactive?

 

I just got mine in today and I am fairly disappointed to be honest. Review below.

Pros:
-New head with led light up is nice, and both colors [Red & Yellow included]
-Back piece for MP Megatron included
-led light up gun for Soundwave included

Cons:
-I hear a lot of people saying that the new head can be a tight fit and can possibly break
-The new gun cannot transform, therefore it cannot be stored
-The back plate is nice yes, but if you are buying it just for that their are better 3p options that give you more bang for your buck for mp megatron
-Probably the most disappointing and the one I was most excited about, The included cassette with voice lines in it. 10 clips on it, 2 transformation sounds, 5 are Chinese voice lines, Only One English voice line and 1 is the opening theme song from G1 cartoon.

Final Thoughts:
If you are buying it for the light up gimmicks then this might be worth it, if you like the Chinese voice lines then yes that too. BUT for any other reason I do not recommend buying this set at all, there are better options for MP Megatron especially. I just hope another 3p company/4p company does this set again or something similar but with a bunch of English voice lines and some cool accessories for Soundwave, like maybe a mini Soundwave or a cassette minion or different scans for his chest.

 

Can you explain that one? Considering there's assembly required, you can just not over tighten it...

 

I've been hearing the neck piece that allows the head to turn left and right and look up and down, that the fit is tight and can almost feel like you are going to break it, Mine is not like this it might be a QC issue but I've heard it from about 3 people now so it just might be a tainted batch.

 

Great review! I am looking for a backplate option for my MP-36. Can you list some of the 3p options you mentioned?

 

Thanks for clarifying this. It was my biggest fear when I started seeing reviews of this. The Chinese voice sounds completely bloody ridiculous and the fact that you haven’t to cycle throug my the theme song, multiple transformation sounds, the weird warbling Chinese voices to get to one single English clip, which is a poor rip from the cartoon complete with background music. Just kills this for me. I like light up gimmicks with eyes etc but the voice clips are the cool part.
This sucks almost as much as the fact that V3 Prime will only have Japanese voices.
Hopefully Mod Fans do a proper English version of this and work out a way to do Prime justice as well.
Doesn’t really bode well for their Grimlock accessory either.

 

And as someone else pointed out, the gun cannot be shrunk down for storage like the official gun can. Since I have the official Takara version I don't really need another visor even if it does light up. Also I haven't even unsealed my official Takara MP-36 ever since my IT-01 KO MP36 arrived so I don't really have a use for the backplate. I may have to just pass on this.

 

Who's selling this? Or does anyone have good ebay search words? Thanks.

 

Its in stock at show-z, which is where I ordered it from. Tfsource has it up for pre-order. Not sure if any other NA retailers are eventually getting it- I asked toydojo, and it sounded like the retailers here in the states don't feel there's high enough demand to justify the shipping costs to get it in stock.

 

I was going to get this but with IT version I have the backplate, tape sucks, and not being able to transform the gun pretty much seals this set. If this had come with a plate to seal the back of Soundwave then I might have been won over but I am quite happy with the figure. Easily and definitely one of the best MPs. They nailed it.

 

Finally got this in today from ShowZ:



Got Soundwave kitted out with this and the KFC hands and reprolabels. Wonder if there are any mods left to add!

 

Argh, and I realized after posting it that I totally had him mistransformed! I had tucked his shoulder rocket pod away to get at the head better to switch it out, but forgot to put it back up. So now, here he is, proper:

 

Hmmmm. I wonder if the gun would work well with Titans Return Soundwave...?

 

Thanks! Sorry for the late reply, but that's what happens when you're busy all the time. I think you sold me on it, though! I've never disassembled Soundwave, but does the new head work on the factory neck? I saw in another post online (maybe here? I forget.) that the neck is a different color and looks cheaper, but I'm really just interested in fixing the sprue mark on the faceplate, regardless of swapping out the whole head.