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Zob's Thoughts on Walmart-Exclusive G1 Reissue Soundwave, Frenzy/Laserbeak, and Rumble/Ravage
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Zobovor
Aug 1, 2019, 10:50:12 PM8/1/19
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We're living in an age where what's old is new again. After years of hemming and hawing over how to properly modernize Soundwave for the current day and age (since kids would have no idea what cassettes or tape players are), suddenly cassette tapes have become surprisingly en vogue again, thanks to 1980's retrospective media like Guardians of the Galaxy and Stranger Things and, yes, that Bumblebee movie. Suddenly, there's no shame in Soundwave being a tape player again or his minions being cassettes, which is a nice break from trying to reinvent them as "data disks" or "spy tablets" or some other such nonsense.
In 1984, the Decepticons were severely outnumbered (at least as far as the Hasbro toy line was concerned). Megatron only had three Decepticon jets under his command plus Soundwave and his tapes. The cassettes were particularly small and collectible, being sold in two-packs and eventually expanding to include additions to the line-up including Autobot cassettes as well as cassettes that could combine together. Soundwave remained popular enough that he was included in the Japanese toy assortment from 1987, getting a sexy black redeco as Soundblaster. Soundblaster had a modified door that could hold not one, but two tapes; what most fans don't know is that this change was actually added by Takara to late-run Soundwave toys prior to Soundblaster's release.
Soundwave was one of the best toys from the G1 days for a number of different reasons. For one, he was the only original G1 toy designed specifically to interact with other toys (well, I guess you could make an argument for Mirage being designed to launch from Optimus Prime's trailer, even though this feature was never played up by Hasbro). He also had the coolest voice out of any characters on the show.
Soundwave's in-universe ability to hold multiple cassettes in his chest (as many as four or possibly more!) was a contention of the cartoon series, not a function of the G1 toy. It was part of the fantasy, like Skywarp's ability to teleport or Hound's ability to project holograms. Despite this, some cheeky Takara engineer apparently figured out that if they made Soundwave's cassette door a bit deeper so that it protruded from his chest a little, they could squeeze two cassettes in there. I guess it wasn't a completely terrible idea. It added some play value, and created some synergy between the toy and the cartoon show. Soundwave himself was sold like this for a while until the transition to the Soundblaster version was implemented. (Blaster was also given the ability to hold two tapes when he was retooled into Twincast.)
The problem, for me, was how they did it. To accommodate the new storage space, the door mechanism had to be completely redesigned, with a new, visible hinge protruding well below the chest, interfering with the cassette player buttons. Indeed, the tape player controls were raised and protruding as well, actually serving as part of the new hinge. It's not a great look. It did make the cassette window more durable, though, which was a plus (especially after the original Decepticon symbol was replaced with a rub symbol, encouraging kids to press down on the heat-sensitive sticker and applying unnecessary pressure to the already fragile window).
Most reissues of Soundwave have included the Soundblaster-era door modification, but the version from San Diego Comic-Con sold in 2009 was retooled again to something more closely approximating the original G1 styling. It's not identical to the G1 design, because it still includes the external, visible hinge that protrudes into the pelvis, and it still has the thick, raised cassette deck buttons that partially serve as the hinge. But, it does restore his profile to looking a bit more slim and svelte while retaining the strength of the modified door hinge, so I suppose I can accept this compromise.
Weirdly, Hasbro made a deco change to Soundwave this time. On the 2019 reissue, his forearms have been painted silver, the same paint used on his upper legs and parts of his lower legs. (All previous versions of the toy have had forearms that are bare plastic, a somewhat darker shade of grey.) It creates a more consistent and uniform look for the toy, so I guess I don't hate it. I just wasn't expecting it.
Another odd change is that all of Soundwave's metal parts have been coated with lacquer. On earlier versions, only the die-cast metal feet are colored black, with the metal pieces holding the arms and legs in place remaining bare silver metal. On this latest version, all these metal parts are coated with the same black lacquer. The extra thickness seems to make for slightly tighter joints, which I don't have a problem with.
The stripes around the cassette door of my 2007 Hasbro reissue are shiny and vacuum metalized (which is how the G1 toy was decorated), where the ones on my 2019 reissue are metallic gold paint (not as shiny). This isn't a huge change, but it's notable.
One thing I want to add is that I opened up a minty-fresh case of six Soundwaves and got pick of the litter, but every one of them had some kind of production error. A couple of them didn't have enough spray paint on the upper legs, or possibly even the wrong color of paint, and were a distinctly darker shade of silver than the rest of the toy. Others had visible pock marks or paint splatter. The quality control is abysmal in the extreme if these were the examples of toys that made it to the packaging stage. If you want this toy, I would strongly advise you try to seek it out in person versus ordering blind online. This is one of those times when you need to inspect what you're buying, especially considering he's selling for $49.67. That's a big chunk of change to end up with a defective toy.
BUZZSAW
This is my first Buzzsaw reissue. I never got the "Big Mission" Vol. 1 set in which he appeared, so he's been absent from my reissue shelf until now. Weirdly, this is one of the few G1 reissues with no rub symbol to speak of. This is a very 1984 experience. It looks much better, though, when Buzzsaw is inside Soundwave's chest. The 1985 version of Soundwave had a rub symbol in place of his Decepticon badge, and then when Buzzsaw was inside you had another rub symbol right underneath it. It just looked terrible.
I kind of wish they'd do more reissues without rub symbols. I missed out on most of the original 1984 toys, so pretty much every character I own from year one is actually the 1985 reissue with the doofy-looking rub symbol. I don't really mind the rub symbols in addition to an Autobot or Decepticon insignia, but I hate when the insignia gets replaced altogether (as it did for Soundwave, Bumblebee, and countless others). It hurt the brand integrity instead of reinforcing it.
So, by far the biggest change to Buzzsaw is the modified guns. Where the original Buzzsaw had long, dangerous-looking mortar cannons, this most recent edition has shorter, nearly non-existent gun barrels. I've seen plenty of broken Laserbeak/Buzzsaw guns where the original, longer gun has snapped off, so I guess this is just Hasbro's way of leveling the playing field? The inferior guns are disappointing, but I know I've got some extra Laserbeak guns around here somewhere so I might have to rearm him.
FRENZY
If you already owned the Soundwave and Buzzsaw set, then in some ways the Frenzy/Laserbeak set was a bit redundant, since Laserbeak was just the same toy as Buzzsaw in slightly different colors. Of course, Laserbeak was far more prominent in the cartoon series, while Buzzsaw barely made any appearances at all, making Laserbeak the far more desirable of the two.
Frenzy, meanwhile, suffered from an accidental name-swap courtesy of the guys at Sunbow. It was actually the Frenzy toy whose color scheme served as the basis for Rumble's appearance on the show. Frenzy was, like Buzzsaw, a far less prominent character. (Incidentally, this mistake applied only to the American version of the cartoon; in Japan, the red-and-black robot was indeed named Rumble. This might be the reason Frenzy got a Decoy in 1987 but Rumble didn't; in Japan, where the Decoys originated, it was Frenzy who was the prominently-featured character, not Rumble.)
We've already gotten reissues of Frenzy a few times in various forms. In 1986, Laserbeak was replaced with the new movie character Ratbat in the 2-pack, and the color of the vac-metal weapons changed to gold. As a cost-cutting measure, Frenzy's metal toes were switched to plastic, and they stopped including the factory-applied stickers to his upper and lower legs. Ratbat was new enough that production continued in 1987, granting Frenzy alone the distinction of being the only G1 toy to sell consistently for four straight years!
Later in 2009, Takara offered the "Big Mission" Vol. 3 cassette reissue four-pack, which included Frenzy, Rumble, Ravage and Overkill. These versions of Frenzy and Rumble did away with the original metal foil stickers on the observe side of the cassette in favor of tampo-printed details. The details on the fronts of their lower legs were also tampographed. In theory this makes for a more durable toy, but it also failed to hide the seams and screws used during assembly, which was at least partly the original purpose of the stickers. Frenzy also lost the metal foil stickers on his upper and lower arms, originally meant to complete the stripe pattern on his observe side, so in some ways this reissue lost points for authenticity.
The 2019 reissue of Frenzy is much more authentic to the original G1 experience. He's had his foil stickers restored in all their glory, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's great to finally get a reissue with the metal foil stickers on his wrists and shoulders, even though these were the first stickers to fall off my G1 toys (the plastic surface meant to accommodate them isn't even flat). I'm thinking about super-gluing these stickers down now to prevent problems in the future. I haven't decided yet. I've already had one spontaneously pop off just in the process of writing this review.
There have been some minor changes, though. Frenzy originally had vac-metal chrome details on his chest, but on the Walmart version, they used a different metallic gold paint. The way the symbol on his chest is die-cut has changed (rather than following the contours of the points on the top of the symbol, they just cut it straight across the top and called it good). Also, the restored stickers for the fronts of his legs are now metal foil (they were paper stickers during the G1 days). Also, the direction the metal rivets are poking through his arms during assembly has changed (the heads of the rivets are now visible on the fronts of his arms intead of the backs of his arms).
Notably, there is an additional Frenzy reissue on Hasbro Pulse right now, available along with reissues of the Japanese cassettes Noise and Graphy (you can get all three for $34.99). The stock photos show him missing the foil sticker on his back, making his cassette mode look very plain. I have no idea if this is truly representative of the product as sold by Hasbro or not.
LASERBEAK
Laserbeak has also seen a handful of reissues already. Takara reissued him with Soundwave in 2003; Hasbro reissued him with Soundwave in 2007, the same year Takara offered an Encore exclusive; he was part of the aforementioned "Big Mission" Vol. 3 set in 2009 as well as another Hasbro reissue of Soundwave that came with four tapes. Laserbeak's not been hard to find. I think I have two or three of them around here somewhere.
The Laserbeak mold has been continually tinkered with and modified since the G1 days, with various, very-slightly-different iterations of his weapons popping up. He's also had the metal tabs reinforced that hold his legs in place. The most significant change to the Walmart version, as compared to previous reissues, is the reduction in size of his gun barrels. They're positively stubby now. I can't imagine that he's successfully passed drop-testing for the last 35 years only for somebody at Hasbro to suddenly decide his gun barrels were too long (especially considering that Mr. Opt. P. just barely got his original smokestacks back!). But, this is what we get now. It's kinda-sorta more cartoon accurate, but still. It's a shame they couldn't have made some positive changes to offset this, like maybe coloring his beak grey or redoing the beak altogether so it's not so weird and hook-shaped. I've never liked the hook-shaped beak. He looks like Buzz the Buzzard from the old Woody Woodpecker cartoons.
The last reissue of Laserbeak I got had painted die-cast metal with a sort of orangey quality to it, but this edition is a nice and deep, vibrant red color, which is more in line with the original G1 release. This version of Laserbeak has the new-style rub symbol, which will change to Decepticon purple rather than the old liquid crystal color pattern (brown to tan to green to deep blue). It's odd that Hasbro is selling 1984-style reissues of Soundwave and Buzzsaw, but 1985 versions of everybody else.
This is a very minor change, but the way the Decepticon symbol on his head was die-cut has also changed. On the last reissue I got, the notches were cut around the top of the points on the insignia to created a jagged look (which is how it was die-cut during the G1 days). On the 2019 version, it's just cut straight across the top.
We know that new fans are still rediscovering G1 for the first time. I've seen numerous folks on the message boards talking about how now that G1 reissues are widely available at Walmart, they'll finally be able to "start collecting the vintage toys." So, this version of Laserbeak will likely be the first a number of fans will have ever owned.
RUMBLE
Rumble has enjoyed a slightly less prosperous career than Rumble. He was originally sold in 1984 in a 2-pack with Ravage (although, interestingly, he shows up in Soundwave's chest window on Soundwave's box art). In 1985, when the rub symbols were introduced, he lost the metal foil symbol on his chest and got a heat-sensitive rub symbol on the observe side of his cassette mode. In 1986, there was a cost-cutting version in which his die-cast metal parts were swapped out for plastic pieces. We wouldn't see Rumble again until 2009, when he was offered in the "Big Mission" Vol. 3 cassette set by Takara. He got the same changes as Frenzy, namely replacing all the foil stickers with tampographed paint applications. This reissue also had retooled parts to give the toy a stronger, less floppy head and legs in robot mode.
The new Rumble is equivalent to the new Frenzy in terms of authenticity. The restoration of his foil stickers makes him much closer to the original G1 experience, even if it means excessive handling of the toy will result in these same stickers eventually peeling and falling off. Of course, anybody who collected the Titans Return or Power of the Primes toy lines already knows about metal foil stickers that peel off, amirite? I don't have a G1 Rumble with intact foil stickers (I painted my toy some years ago) but I remember the stickers being die-cut differently. The stickers were used to partly help close the gaps where the plastic parts met each other. Here, the stickers cover only plastic, rather than being bigger than the plastic parts they're applied to.
Instead of the shiny, vacuum metalized gold paint on his chest details, Rumble now has metallic gold paint that has a sparkly quality, but not shiny. I know the vacuum metalization process is somewhat expensive, so I guess Hasbro ran the numbers and decided that metallic paint was good 'nuff.
The stickers on the fronts of his lower legs are now metallic foil (they were paper stickers during the G1 days). Also, he's got a few new tampograph stamps with internal Hasbro identification codes (including his date stamp, 91341, signifying he was manufactured on May 14th of 2019).
RAVAGE
Ravage has enjoyed a number of reissues as well. Takara offered him in 2005 with their Soundblaster reissue, and Hasbro followed suit in 2007 with a Toys "R" Us exclusive version of Soundwave; both editions of Ravage used the sticker from the Headmasters era that replaces the cassette spool sticker with a line drawing of the mighty Fortress Maximus, detailing his secret weakness (visible when you peer through the red-tinted Soundblaster cassette door window). We got the same Ravage again in 2009 as part of the Comic-Con exclusive version of Soundwave. Basically, every Ravage reissue has a serious hate-on for Fortress Maximus. The only one that got the original tape spool sticker is the version that came in the "Big Mission" Vol.1 set with Eject, Rewind, and Buzzsaw.
Ravage is one of the only cassettes who never had foil stickers to begin with, so the tampographed details on his obverse side are perfectly authentic. He gets the tape spool sticker back, making him more authentic to early G1 than the previous reissue. The printing on the tampographs has actually been improved; on my 2007 reissue, the letter "J" in the word "JAPAN" printed on the tape is partly overlapping a seam between his body and his paws, but on the 2019 reissue, the word was made smaller so that it could fit completely on the plastic real estate available.
His eyes have changed, though. The original toy had four-sided trapezoidal eyes, but the deco on the new version of the toy gives him triangular-shaped eyes instead. It's not a huge change, but it's a departure from his normal appearance. It's arguably akin to the difference between the eyes in the insignia of the Decepticon symbol during G1 and the different eyes in the symbol from the Michael Bay movie series. It's subtle, but once you see it, you cannot unsee it. (If they were going to change his eyes, why not make them red, like the cartoon?)
At $19.87 per two-pack, these are probably the most affordable reissue versions of the cassettes on the market. There were unlicensed Zhong Jin versions of these two-packs available as recently as last year, though the supply seems to have largely dried up (and I'm sure one of the reasons Hasbro issued them a cease-and-desist was so that the unlicensed Chinese reissues wouldn't compete with Hasbro's authentic reissues). I seem to recall the pricing being roughly comparable, but feel free to challenge this statement if you know better. Meanwhile, the "Big Mission" sets have been out of print for about ten years, and each four-pack tends to go for at least $100-$120 (with Vol. 3 seemingly a bit more common and a little less in demand than the others).
I would love to see Hasbro expand into additional cassette two-packs, including the Autobot characters (which would of course help facilitate a Blaster reissue eventually). I'd be especially interested in the Rewind/Steeljaw set and the Eject/Ramhorn set, since I've never been able to pick up Takara reissues for any of these characters (though I did eventually get Steeljaw when I got my Blaster reissue). We know that Hasbro is currently offering Noise and Graphy on Hasbro Pulse, so they haven't forgotten the obscure Japanese characters, either. I think that's pretty phenomenal.
Zob (glad to have a Buzzsaw I can put on the reissue shelf finally)
In 1984, the Decepticons were severely outnumbered (at least as far as the Hasbro toy line was concerned). Megatron only had three Decepticon jets under his command plus Soundwave and his tapes. The cassettes were particularly small and collectible, being sold in two-packs and eventually expanding to include additions to the line-up including Autobot cassettes as well as cassettes that could combine together. Soundwave remained popular enough that he was included in the Japanese toy assortment from 1987, getting a sexy black redeco as Soundblaster. Soundblaster had a modified door that could hold not one, but two tapes; what most fans don't know is that this change was actually added by Takara to late-run Soundwave toys prior to Soundblaster's release.
Soundwave was one of the best toys from the G1 days for a number of different reasons. For one, he was the only original G1 toy designed specifically to interact with other toys (well, I guess you could make an argument for Mirage being designed to launch from Optimus Prime's trailer, even though this feature was never played up by Hasbro). He also had the coolest voice out of any characters on the show.
Soundwave's in-universe ability to hold multiple cassettes in his chest (as many as four or possibly more!) was a contention of the cartoon series, not a function of the G1 toy. It was part of the fantasy, like Skywarp's ability to teleport or Hound's ability to project holograms. Despite this, some cheeky Takara engineer apparently figured out that if they made Soundwave's cassette door a bit deeper so that it protruded from his chest a little, they could squeeze two cassettes in there. I guess it wasn't a completely terrible idea. It added some play value, and created some synergy between the toy and the cartoon show. Soundwave himself was sold like this for a while until the transition to the Soundblaster version was implemented. (Blaster was also given the ability to hold two tapes when he was retooled into Twincast.)
The problem, for me, was how they did it. To accommodate the new storage space, the door mechanism had to be completely redesigned, with a new, visible hinge protruding well below the chest, interfering with the cassette player buttons. Indeed, the tape player controls were raised and protruding as well, actually serving as part of the new hinge. It's not a great look. It did make the cassette window more durable, though, which was a plus (especially after the original Decepticon symbol was replaced with a rub symbol, encouraging kids to press down on the heat-sensitive sticker and applying unnecessary pressure to the already fragile window).
Most reissues of Soundwave have included the Soundblaster-era door modification, but the version from San Diego Comic-Con sold in 2009 was retooled again to something more closely approximating the original G1 styling. It's not identical to the G1 design, because it still includes the external, visible hinge that protrudes into the pelvis, and it still has the thick, raised cassette deck buttons that partially serve as the hinge. But, it does restore his profile to looking a bit more slim and svelte while retaining the strength of the modified door hinge, so I suppose I can accept this compromise.
Weirdly, Hasbro made a deco change to Soundwave this time. On the 2019 reissue, his forearms have been painted silver, the same paint used on his upper legs and parts of his lower legs. (All previous versions of the toy have had forearms that are bare plastic, a somewhat darker shade of grey.) It creates a more consistent and uniform look for the toy, so I guess I don't hate it. I just wasn't expecting it.
Another odd change is that all of Soundwave's metal parts have been coated with lacquer. On earlier versions, only the die-cast metal feet are colored black, with the metal pieces holding the arms and legs in place remaining bare silver metal. On this latest version, all these metal parts are coated with the same black lacquer. The extra thickness seems to make for slightly tighter joints, which I don't have a problem with.
The stripes around the cassette door of my 2007 Hasbro reissue are shiny and vacuum metalized (which is how the G1 toy was decorated), where the ones on my 2019 reissue are metallic gold paint (not as shiny). This isn't a huge change, but it's notable.
One thing I want to add is that I opened up a minty-fresh case of six Soundwaves and got pick of the litter, but every one of them had some kind of production error. A couple of them didn't have enough spray paint on the upper legs, or possibly even the wrong color of paint, and were a distinctly darker shade of silver than the rest of the toy. Others had visible pock marks or paint splatter. The quality control is abysmal in the extreme if these were the examples of toys that made it to the packaging stage. If you want this toy, I would strongly advise you try to seek it out in person versus ordering blind online. This is one of those times when you need to inspect what you're buying, especially considering he's selling for $49.67. That's a big chunk of change to end up with a defective toy.
BUZZSAW
This is my first Buzzsaw reissue. I never got the "Big Mission" Vol. 1 set in which he appeared, so he's been absent from my reissue shelf until now. Weirdly, this is one of the few G1 reissues with no rub symbol to speak of. This is a very 1984 experience. It looks much better, though, when Buzzsaw is inside Soundwave's chest. The 1985 version of Soundwave had a rub symbol in place of his Decepticon badge, and then when Buzzsaw was inside you had another rub symbol right underneath it. It just looked terrible.
I kind of wish they'd do more reissues without rub symbols. I missed out on most of the original 1984 toys, so pretty much every character I own from year one is actually the 1985 reissue with the doofy-looking rub symbol. I don't really mind the rub symbols in addition to an Autobot or Decepticon insignia, but I hate when the insignia gets replaced altogether (as it did for Soundwave, Bumblebee, and countless others). It hurt the brand integrity instead of reinforcing it.
So, by far the biggest change to Buzzsaw is the modified guns. Where the original Buzzsaw had long, dangerous-looking mortar cannons, this most recent edition has shorter, nearly non-existent gun barrels. I've seen plenty of broken Laserbeak/Buzzsaw guns where the original, longer gun has snapped off, so I guess this is just Hasbro's way of leveling the playing field? The inferior guns are disappointing, but I know I've got some extra Laserbeak guns around here somewhere so I might have to rearm him.
FRENZY
If you already owned the Soundwave and Buzzsaw set, then in some ways the Frenzy/Laserbeak set was a bit redundant, since Laserbeak was just the same toy as Buzzsaw in slightly different colors. Of course, Laserbeak was far more prominent in the cartoon series, while Buzzsaw barely made any appearances at all, making Laserbeak the far more desirable of the two.
Frenzy, meanwhile, suffered from an accidental name-swap courtesy of the guys at Sunbow. It was actually the Frenzy toy whose color scheme served as the basis for Rumble's appearance on the show. Frenzy was, like Buzzsaw, a far less prominent character. (Incidentally, this mistake applied only to the American version of the cartoon; in Japan, the red-and-black robot was indeed named Rumble. This might be the reason Frenzy got a Decoy in 1987 but Rumble didn't; in Japan, where the Decoys originated, it was Frenzy who was the prominently-featured character, not Rumble.)
We've already gotten reissues of Frenzy a few times in various forms. In 1986, Laserbeak was replaced with the new movie character Ratbat in the 2-pack, and the color of the vac-metal weapons changed to gold. As a cost-cutting measure, Frenzy's metal toes were switched to plastic, and they stopped including the factory-applied stickers to his upper and lower legs. Ratbat was new enough that production continued in 1987, granting Frenzy alone the distinction of being the only G1 toy to sell consistently for four straight years!
Later in 2009, Takara offered the "Big Mission" Vol. 3 cassette reissue four-pack, which included Frenzy, Rumble, Ravage and Overkill. These versions of Frenzy and Rumble did away with the original metal foil stickers on the observe side of the cassette in favor of tampo-printed details. The details on the fronts of their lower legs were also tampographed. In theory this makes for a more durable toy, but it also failed to hide the seams and screws used during assembly, which was at least partly the original purpose of the stickers. Frenzy also lost the metal foil stickers on his upper and lower arms, originally meant to complete the stripe pattern on his observe side, so in some ways this reissue lost points for authenticity.
The 2019 reissue of Frenzy is much more authentic to the original G1 experience. He's had his foil stickers restored in all their glory, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's great to finally get a reissue with the metal foil stickers on his wrists and shoulders, even though these were the first stickers to fall off my G1 toys (the plastic surface meant to accommodate them isn't even flat). I'm thinking about super-gluing these stickers down now to prevent problems in the future. I haven't decided yet. I've already had one spontaneously pop off just in the process of writing this review.
There have been some minor changes, though. Frenzy originally had vac-metal chrome details on his chest, but on the Walmart version, they used a different metallic gold paint. The way the symbol on his chest is die-cut has changed (rather than following the contours of the points on the top of the symbol, they just cut it straight across the top and called it good). Also, the restored stickers for the fronts of his legs are now metal foil (they were paper stickers during the G1 days). Also, the direction the metal rivets are poking through his arms during assembly has changed (the heads of the rivets are now visible on the fronts of his arms intead of the backs of his arms).
Notably, there is an additional Frenzy reissue on Hasbro Pulse right now, available along with reissues of the Japanese cassettes Noise and Graphy (you can get all three for $34.99). The stock photos show him missing the foil sticker on his back, making his cassette mode look very plain. I have no idea if this is truly representative of the product as sold by Hasbro or not.
LASERBEAK
Laserbeak has also seen a handful of reissues already. Takara reissued him with Soundwave in 2003; Hasbro reissued him with Soundwave in 2007, the same year Takara offered an Encore exclusive; he was part of the aforementioned "Big Mission" Vol. 3 set in 2009 as well as another Hasbro reissue of Soundwave that came with four tapes. Laserbeak's not been hard to find. I think I have two or three of them around here somewhere.
The Laserbeak mold has been continually tinkered with and modified since the G1 days, with various, very-slightly-different iterations of his weapons popping up. He's also had the metal tabs reinforced that hold his legs in place. The most significant change to the Walmart version, as compared to previous reissues, is the reduction in size of his gun barrels. They're positively stubby now. I can't imagine that he's successfully passed drop-testing for the last 35 years only for somebody at Hasbro to suddenly decide his gun barrels were too long (especially considering that Mr. Opt. P. just barely got his original smokestacks back!). But, this is what we get now. It's kinda-sorta more cartoon accurate, but still. It's a shame they couldn't have made some positive changes to offset this, like maybe coloring his beak grey or redoing the beak altogether so it's not so weird and hook-shaped. I've never liked the hook-shaped beak. He looks like Buzz the Buzzard from the old Woody Woodpecker cartoons.
The last reissue of Laserbeak I got had painted die-cast metal with a sort of orangey quality to it, but this edition is a nice and deep, vibrant red color, which is more in line with the original G1 release. This version of Laserbeak has the new-style rub symbol, which will change to Decepticon purple rather than the old liquid crystal color pattern (brown to tan to green to deep blue). It's odd that Hasbro is selling 1984-style reissues of Soundwave and Buzzsaw, but 1985 versions of everybody else.
This is a very minor change, but the way the Decepticon symbol on his head was die-cut has also changed. On the last reissue I got, the notches were cut around the top of the points on the insignia to created a jagged look (which is how it was die-cut during the G1 days). On the 2019 version, it's just cut straight across the top.
We know that new fans are still rediscovering G1 for the first time. I've seen numerous folks on the message boards talking about how now that G1 reissues are widely available at Walmart, they'll finally be able to "start collecting the vintage toys." So, this version of Laserbeak will likely be the first a number of fans will have ever owned.
RUMBLE
Rumble has enjoyed a slightly less prosperous career than Rumble. He was originally sold in 1984 in a 2-pack with Ravage (although, interestingly, he shows up in Soundwave's chest window on Soundwave's box art). In 1985, when the rub symbols were introduced, he lost the metal foil symbol on his chest and got a heat-sensitive rub symbol on the observe side of his cassette mode. In 1986, there was a cost-cutting version in which his die-cast metal parts were swapped out for plastic pieces. We wouldn't see Rumble again until 2009, when he was offered in the "Big Mission" Vol. 3 cassette set by Takara. He got the same changes as Frenzy, namely replacing all the foil stickers with tampographed paint applications. This reissue also had retooled parts to give the toy a stronger, less floppy head and legs in robot mode.
The new Rumble is equivalent to the new Frenzy in terms of authenticity. The restoration of his foil stickers makes him much closer to the original G1 experience, even if it means excessive handling of the toy will result in these same stickers eventually peeling and falling off. Of course, anybody who collected the Titans Return or Power of the Primes toy lines already knows about metal foil stickers that peel off, amirite? I don't have a G1 Rumble with intact foil stickers (I painted my toy some years ago) but I remember the stickers being die-cut differently. The stickers were used to partly help close the gaps where the plastic parts met each other. Here, the stickers cover only plastic, rather than being bigger than the plastic parts they're applied to.
Instead of the shiny, vacuum metalized gold paint on his chest details, Rumble now has metallic gold paint that has a sparkly quality, but not shiny. I know the vacuum metalization process is somewhat expensive, so I guess Hasbro ran the numbers and decided that metallic paint was good 'nuff.
The stickers on the fronts of his lower legs are now metallic foil (they were paper stickers during the G1 days). Also, he's got a few new tampograph stamps with internal Hasbro identification codes (including his date stamp, 91341, signifying he was manufactured on May 14th of 2019).
RAVAGE
Ravage has enjoyed a number of reissues as well. Takara offered him in 2005 with their Soundblaster reissue, and Hasbro followed suit in 2007 with a Toys "R" Us exclusive version of Soundwave; both editions of Ravage used the sticker from the Headmasters era that replaces the cassette spool sticker with a line drawing of the mighty Fortress Maximus, detailing his secret weakness (visible when you peer through the red-tinted Soundblaster cassette door window). We got the same Ravage again in 2009 as part of the Comic-Con exclusive version of Soundwave. Basically, every Ravage reissue has a serious hate-on for Fortress Maximus. The only one that got the original tape spool sticker is the version that came in the "Big Mission" Vol.1 set with Eject, Rewind, and Buzzsaw.
Ravage is one of the only cassettes who never had foil stickers to begin with, so the tampographed details on his obverse side are perfectly authentic. He gets the tape spool sticker back, making him more authentic to early G1 than the previous reissue. The printing on the tampographs has actually been improved; on my 2007 reissue, the letter "J" in the word "JAPAN" printed on the tape is partly overlapping a seam between his body and his paws, but on the 2019 reissue, the word was made smaller so that it could fit completely on the plastic real estate available.
His eyes have changed, though. The original toy had four-sided trapezoidal eyes, but the deco on the new version of the toy gives him triangular-shaped eyes instead. It's not a huge change, but it's a departure from his normal appearance. It's arguably akin to the difference between the eyes in the insignia of the Decepticon symbol during G1 and the different eyes in the symbol from the Michael Bay movie series. It's subtle, but once you see it, you cannot unsee it. (If they were going to change his eyes, why not make them red, like the cartoon?)
At $19.87 per two-pack, these are probably the most affordable reissue versions of the cassettes on the market. There were unlicensed Zhong Jin versions of these two-packs available as recently as last year, though the supply seems to have largely dried up (and I'm sure one of the reasons Hasbro issued them a cease-and-desist was so that the unlicensed Chinese reissues wouldn't compete with Hasbro's authentic reissues). I seem to recall the pricing being roughly comparable, but feel free to challenge this statement if you know better. Meanwhile, the "Big Mission" sets have been out of print for about ten years, and each four-pack tends to go for at least $100-$120 (with Vol. 3 seemingly a bit more common and a little less in demand than the others).
I would love to see Hasbro expand into additional cassette two-packs, including the Autobot characters (which would of course help facilitate a Blaster reissue eventually). I'd be especially interested in the Rewind/Steeljaw set and the Eject/Ramhorn set, since I've never been able to pick up Takara reissues for any of these characters (though I did eventually get Steeljaw when I got my Blaster reissue). We know that Hasbro is currently offering Noise and Graphy on Hasbro Pulse, so they haven't forgotten the obscure Japanese characters, either. I think that's pretty phenomenal.
Zob (glad to have a Buzzsaw I can put on the reissue shelf finally)
Zobovor
Aug 2, 2019, 8:13:25 PM8/2/19
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On Thursday, August 1, 2019 at 8:50:12 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> So, by far the biggest change to Buzzsaw is the modified guns.
Upon closer inspection, it seems Buzzsaw's entire head is covered in glossy black paint. This is a little weird, especially since Laserbeak isn't being manufactured this way.
> So, by far the biggest change to Buzzsaw is the modified guns.
Zob (took home some new boxes today to reorganize, since the kittens keep chewing up my toy boxes)
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