Soundwave looks okay. But IMO he works better with an aerial mode (satellite, UAV).

I do like Laserbeak's new design though. He looks badass.

 

That's John Warden for you. Dude loves his G1. Even the non-Generations stuff's more G1 like now.

 

I guess he REALLY does, then again, who doesn't in this day and age. Though i find it odd that he's trying to make it as G1-Esque as possible and realized he UN-intentionally made a rather Machine Wars SW/ G1 Stalker-esque design as well. Maybe that might be a potential redeco perhaps?

 

Yeah and sadly from the looks of it at the expense of us not seeing any updates of non G1 characters often anytime soon. Still annoyed at Warden's comment about BW being a dark age to him when in realty it's the exact opposite which makes the 20th anniversary of BW not being celebrated at all from Hasbro's end even more bitter.

Honestly I wouldn't count on it because if it's not G1 then it doesn't have much chance of at least and exclusive redeco nowadays. If anything RID15 Soundwave getting a SoundBlaster redeco is far more likely. I'd love to be wrong though.

 

Eh, i guess, though as much as Soundblaster would be neat (Even though i'm starting to get bored of the obvious black redecoes these days.) It be nice to at least pull some unexpected or clever obscure color-scheme homages every once in a while. That and it's kinda ironic that how it tries to homage G1 the best it can, it still gets flaked from the lack of "Closeness to the Original." I mean, the comments on the facebook post mostly consist of "This looks nothing like Soundwave" or "This is terrible!" or the obligatory "G1 is better." crud. Also there was a comment that "Soundwave should never be a vehicle" Which i found vague as fudge, Considering that Soundwave was a vehicle many times before. At least this version of Soundwave looks more G1 than his Prime design. Then again, i shouldn't question those people's logic.

 

i think its better they had like a communications van in mind for an alt mode instead of just another car because everyone is on wheels. walkmans are pretty outdated so putting that as a toy might be a little much, unless its an exclusive.

 

Don't get me wrong I'd love to see this mold be in the MW colors since seeing non G1 homages is a treat in it's own right especially ones not a lot of people know. I'm just not expecting it to happen anytime soon. Then again we're seeing Twinferno show up in RID15 when no one expected him to so who knows? Like I said I could be wrong and we may have a Me Soundwave repaint.

As for the facebook Tf fans well it goes to show that even if they try to do something very G1 it's still going to have it's share of detractors.

 

Laserbeak looks so much like a Minicon Weaponiser it's almost like this line was one designed for release in 2016 that go pushed back into 2017 so they could advertise it with the Combiner segment. The toys even share the same long posts Minicon Weaponisers have, suggesting they can also operate the deployment functions too.

I wonder if they'd be generous enough to sell Laserbeak repainted as Buzzsaw too as a Minicon release or will they simply push out a last second Soundblaster repaint at some time. Though I guess Takara could do one as a Campaign toy too.

There is some even more obscure colours than that including yellow and blue like the G2 car version.
When I saw it my first thought wasn't of G1 it was of War For Cybertron.

Which is odd as despite what some sources may like to spread the actual Transformers Prime Cartoon isn't in continuity with WFC in any convincing way - especially when it shows Flash Backs to the past and Megatron and Soundwave both have the same body and Arcee certainly is not a Pink car... it's even implied she's always been a two wheeler. Heck that likely even where IDW got their ideas about Transformers Racism from in the 1st place with regard to Starscream dismissing her as a 2 wheeler and belittling Knockout for his car mode too.

It would be nice if they did remember that RID was a sequel to Prime a bit more often - if only as it might encourage them to remember the things they have clearly forgotten in terms of plot & characters left over from Beast Hunters.

What is the Foot Traffic like on the Transformers Facebook ( I wouldn't know as the only time I even look at it is when someone on Twitter like Ben's Collectables links to it) ?
Hasbro is pretty much invisible on their Twitter site aside from the odd mom-shill advatorial.