These days it's more about PR.
While nerf guns have gotten ridiculous, and easy to ID, a shockwave sized toy gun could be mistaken as a regular gun due to size and lack of bright orange.
A lot of news stories about cops shooting kids with "toy" guns make people nervous.
They never look into how it's usually an airsoft gun, could actually do serious damage if shot in the face.
It's just an overall trend. Toy pistols that are actually sized like pistols are harder to come by these days. I went looking for a revolver toy for a Halloween thing and had to give up. Can't even find those cap guns anymore.

 

Got my Shockwave from the Amazon Prime Day lightning deal. I guess I got what I paid for, because the box it came in was smashed. The figure itself is fine (also goes to show that it really should've been a Voyager; there was a lot of air space in this box that allowed the crushing texture to take place).

The figure is fine for what it is, although the armor pegs/sockets are in varying degrees of not quite the right fit. I'm wondering what else I could get away with doing with them since as-is they're ONLY good for Shockwave's mad scientist armor mode, but I think they could be used for something better than that (mostly because I don't want my shelf master Shockwave to look like this; standing next to CW Megatron he looks like the kid brother that's trying too hard).

 

Anyone else having issues with their hose yet? Mine seems like it has already got stress marks around the end. I haven’t been forceful at all with it. Maybe my eyes are just getting old lol

 

Is there any official purpose in any mode to the mushroom swivels on the arm-like things that hang down from his back pack in armored-up mode?

 

No. I think they were used simply to make assembly as easy and tool-less as possible.

 

He's a nice voyager Shockwave, with an additional accessory bundle to get around restrictions on making him a toy gun. It's the only way they could, or would, do him, given the current design team's urge to be faithful to the source in all things. The accessories clearly got a decent amount of budget to assuage the customer's feelings about paying leader prices to get a voyager, and that's good- by itself, the big battleship mode is reasonably impressive, and not throwaway. But I wish some budget had been reallocated to the robot feet, just so they could fold up some in vehicle mode. Everything else is pretty perfect if you're after a voyager size shockwave.

I do wish that the powered up robot form was more personalised to Shockwave. The way it works, it seems like it wants to fit the standard shoulders/feet/backpack weaponiser distribution, but the backpack definitely doesn't work with other figures, while the shoulder enhancement seems pretty hit and miss. So I wish it was more like Magnus, where the backpack and arm enhancements were just deisgned with shockwave in mind, maybe bulking up his torso and perhaps making an Energon homage with the arm enhancements. It's fine, and the parts might stay out for the battleship mode, but there's nothing for me in the enhanced robot mode as is.

 

Maybe I haven’t looked it close enough in a while, but I could swear my Shockwave’s eye has gotten paler recently. It’s been out of the sun and it’s still relatively yellow, I just remember it being a lot warmer than it is now.

It might just be me getting paranoid about sun affecting plastic and all that, but has anyone else noticed a change?

 

analysis of previous photos in thread indicate you are just paranoid

 

right here.

You can get replica firearms in pretty much any color you like.
Safety laws are no joke.

 

Anyone else having trouble getting his head into his chest in alt mode?

 

Just don't worry about it. Plastic will age, and can yellow and deteriorate even without sunlight. I've had many figures and other accessories made of plastic begin to yellow even when they were stored in a dark closet, including an old white DS Lite that was stored in its nylon pouch for over a decade. There's probably no problem with yours, but even if it is, it's just a natural thing with anything plastic.

 

And dont force anything.....just take your time doing it lol

 

SHOCKWAVE will live forever.

Nah all lies!

I'm gonna bury all my Transformers underground for 100 years right now, and when I dig them up they will be in perfect mint condition I tell you!

I'm amazed how long plastic toys actually DO last.
I've seen loads of plastic waste outside factories sitting in the sun that has crumbled to dust (hard and soft plastics, but not all types) in a matter of weeks during summer.



I can't believe the toy sitting next to me is 32 years old, and all the parts and joints work perfectly and it shows no real signs of aging. No loose parts, nothing broken etc. Even the heat sticker still works.

On the downside the 100 plus year cycle of many plastics is a real downer for the environment and all that single use disposable shit is still killing sea life and fucking up the ocean and coast lines big time.


to avoid random delete:

SHOCKWAVE SHOCKWAVE SHOCKWAVE

Whole pile of them shelf warming now at several shops, but I still dont want one. Galactic man maybe.

 

I’ve wanted Shockwave, but wasn’t about to pay leader prices for a voyager figure and pieces I had no interest in.

Got him off Amazon for $30. Was happy about that.

Nit a bad figure... some serious dang leg ratchets. Like crazy stiff ratchets.

Not that big of a figure, tho- somewhere being a large deluxe and small voyager. While I am glad to finally have it, I’m not convinced it was worth $30.

 

I just got him, and it has the extremely loose peg holes and pegs for the shoulder parts that peg into the hover platform/stand. Like, they just fall out when I peg them in. It's ridiculous.

 

Still conflicted whether to get him or not...

On a scale from 1-10, how worth he is to get?

I like SW, but I'm conflicted if he can be THE SHOCKWAVE (I've passed Cyberverse one due to how he looks no more than yoga bot, and passed Dotm cause of gorilla arm syndrome).

 

at the current amazon price of 30, he's a must get. 50 was questionable. He is a great G1 representation especially with his "gun" mode.

 

I finally got one as amazon au had had him for $50 aud, which is our voyager price. I dont mind him at that price, the same way I dont mind a legion class toy at half price, but wont pay $20 for one.