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Zob's Thoughts on Bumblebee Movie Voyager-Class Soundwave (and Core-Class Ravage)
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Zobovor
Mar 25, 2023, 5:22:54 PM3/25/23
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I've been done collecting toys from the live-action Transformers films for a while now, but I do have a special fondness for Soundwave in all his various iterations. I took advantage of the Hasbro Pulse warehouse sale and got these guys for cheap, something like $21 for Soundwave and $8 for Ravage.
One of the coolest scenes from the 2018 Bumblebee film was a flashback scene taking place on Cybertron, when we get to see a lot of the familiar G1 characters in their original Cybertronic forms. It's a brief scene, only emcompassing about 45 seconds of the finished film, but in that time we get to see Optimus Prime duking it out with some Decepticons, and a fun moment when Soundwave deploys a cassette with a synthesized "Ravage, eject!" just as we'd seen him do countless times during the G1 cartoon.
So, this version of Soundwave is based directly on his design from that scene, which differs considerably from the look he enjoyed during Revenge of the Fallen or whatever movie he was in, when he transformed into a space satellite. He stands at about 6.75" in height, and is recognizable as Soundwave more through color mapping than anything else—he's a deep, rich blue color with off-white forearms and upper legs, gold trim around his chest window, and red strips around his wrists and cannon and red eyes. He still enjoys a certain live-action aesthetic, with an odd geometry to his body parts with basically zero right angles. But, he's kinda cool-looking in a way that the normal G1-shaped boxy Soundwave toys don't always manage.
If you buy the Core-class Ravage toy, it can fold up into an approximately box-shaped transformation (it's arguably not a cassette due to how thick it is) and, while it's a bit of a tighty squeeze, can fit inside Soundwave's chest cavity. The door springs open aggressively with a press of the shoulder button, but after that it's up to you to coax Ravage out of there successfully. Typically, I have to untransform Soundwave's back and push Ravage through from behind.
The problem with Soundwave being designed for the screen, rather than being conceived first as a toy, is a problem largely endemic to many of the toys based on film characters. He was never conceived or engineered as a transformable toy, so there was only so much they could do. They introduced a few opening panels into the existing robot design, so his fists could tuck away and panels on his legs could open up and plug together, but at the end of the day it's still a completely nonsense transformation, because none of his body parts were designed to be able to turn into anything. He transforms because he's from a toy line called Transformers, but the actual transformed mode is just a folded-up robot. It's even more abstract than the G1 Pretenders, because at least those had wheels and cockpits and things. He's got nothing. He makes Siege Refraktor (or Siege Soundwave, for that matter!) look like brilliant conceptual engineering.
Soundwave comes with one long, blue rounded cannon as well as one rifle made of blue plastic but which is painted this weird brownish-black color. He arguably would have benefited from two identical cannons, since one could serve as his shoulder cannon and the other could be a handheld weapon. The Core-class Ravage toy comes with a piece that seems to be meant to serve as an extension of Soundwave's cannon, forming the equivalent to the chrome missile that came with the G1 toy.
So, he really is a cool-looking toy. Very Gundam-esque. The first round of warehouse sale orders, I had accidentally ordered the Legacy Soundwave toy, and I was so disappointed that I hadn't gotten this guy that I placed a second order (along with Holiday Optimus Prime) just to ensure I'd get him. So, I decided it was worth dipping my toes into the world of live-action toys long enough to get him, at least (and Ravage, who is an important accessory).
Zob (no idea what box to put him in, though)
One of the coolest scenes from the 2018 Bumblebee film was a flashback scene taking place on Cybertron, when we get to see a lot of the familiar G1 characters in their original Cybertronic forms. It's a brief scene, only emcompassing about 45 seconds of the finished film, but in that time we get to see Optimus Prime duking it out with some Decepticons, and a fun moment when Soundwave deploys a cassette with a synthesized "Ravage, eject!" just as we'd seen him do countless times during the G1 cartoon.
So, this version of Soundwave is based directly on his design from that scene, which differs considerably from the look he enjoyed during Revenge of the Fallen or whatever movie he was in, when he transformed into a space satellite. He stands at about 6.75" in height, and is recognizable as Soundwave more through color mapping than anything else—he's a deep, rich blue color with off-white forearms and upper legs, gold trim around his chest window, and red strips around his wrists and cannon and red eyes. He still enjoys a certain live-action aesthetic, with an odd geometry to his body parts with basically zero right angles. But, he's kinda cool-looking in a way that the normal G1-shaped boxy Soundwave toys don't always manage.
If you buy the Core-class Ravage toy, it can fold up into an approximately box-shaped transformation (it's arguably not a cassette due to how thick it is) and, while it's a bit of a tighty squeeze, can fit inside Soundwave's chest cavity. The door springs open aggressively with a press of the shoulder button, but after that it's up to you to coax Ravage out of there successfully. Typically, I have to untransform Soundwave's back and push Ravage through from behind.
The problem with Soundwave being designed for the screen, rather than being conceived first as a toy, is a problem largely endemic to many of the toys based on film characters. He was never conceived or engineered as a transformable toy, so there was only so much they could do. They introduced a few opening panels into the existing robot design, so his fists could tuck away and panels on his legs could open up and plug together, but at the end of the day it's still a completely nonsense transformation, because none of his body parts were designed to be able to turn into anything. He transforms because he's from a toy line called Transformers, but the actual transformed mode is just a folded-up robot. It's even more abstract than the G1 Pretenders, because at least those had wheels and cockpits and things. He's got nothing. He makes Siege Refraktor (or Siege Soundwave, for that matter!) look like brilliant conceptual engineering.
Soundwave comes with one long, blue rounded cannon as well as one rifle made of blue plastic but which is painted this weird brownish-black color. He arguably would have benefited from two identical cannons, since one could serve as his shoulder cannon and the other could be a handheld weapon. The Core-class Ravage toy comes with a piece that seems to be meant to serve as an extension of Soundwave's cannon, forming the equivalent to the chrome missile that came with the G1 toy.
So, he really is a cool-looking toy. Very Gundam-esque. The first round of warehouse sale orders, I had accidentally ordered the Legacy Soundwave toy, and I was so disappointed that I hadn't gotten this guy that I placed a second order (along with Holiday Optimus Prime) just to ensure I'd get him. So, I decided it was worth dipping my toes into the world of live-action toys long enough to get him, at least (and Ravage, who is an important accessory).
Zob (no idea what box to put him in, though)
Codigo Postal
Mar 28, 2023, 1:36:56 PM3/28/23
to
Fortunately, there have been fan and 3p mods to turn the alt-mode into something more coherent than the squint-and-you’ll-see-it homage to Tom Scioli’s Transformers vs GI Joe version of Soundwave, which is to say, a very low effort jumble of parts bearing no resemblance to an actual vehicle.
This fan upgrade turns Soundwave into the Tumbler/Batmobile: https://imgur.com/u5CGaeK
This BDT upgrade adds a hatch and propellers to underscore the spaceship look of the alt-mode: https://www.tfsafari.com/products/bdt-studio-bdt-29c-bdt29c-upgrade-kit-propellers-for-studio-series-ss83-bumblebee-movie-soundwave-upgrade-kit?variant=39781882331249
Irrellius Spamticon
Mar 28, 2023, 4:49:20 PM3/28/23
to
On Saturday, March 25, 2023 at 4:22:54 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> I've been done collecting toys from the live-action Transformers films for a while now, but I do have a special fondness for Soundwave in all his various iterations. I took advantage of the Hasbro Pulse warehouse sale and got these guys for cheap, something like $21 for Soundwave and $8 for Ravage.
>
> One of the coolest scenes from the 2018 Bumblebee film was a flashback scene taking place on Cybertron, when we get to see a lot of the familiar G1 characters in their original Cybertronic forms. It's a brief scene, only emcompassing about 45 seconds of the finished film, but in that time we get to see Optimus Prime duking it out with some Decepticons, and a fun moment when Soundwave deploys a cassette with a synthesized "Ravage, eject!" just as we'd seen him do countless times during the G1 cartoon.
>
> So, this version of Soundwave is based directly on his design from that scene, which differs considerably from the look he enjoyed during Revenge of the Fallen or whatever movie he was in, when he transformed into a space satellite. He stands at about 6.75" in height, and is recognizable as Soundwave more through color mapping than anything else—he's a deep, rich blue color with off-white forearms and upper legs, gold trim around his chest window, and red strips around his wrists and cannon and red eyes. He still enjoys a certain live-action aesthetic, with an odd geometry to his body parts with basically zero right angles. But, he's kinda cool-looking in a way that the normal G1-shaped boxy Soundwave toys don't always manage.
>
> If you buy the Core-class Ravage toy, it can fold up into an approximately box-shaped transformation (it's arguably not a cassette due to how thick it is) and, while it's a bit of a tighty squeeze, can fit inside Soundwave's chest cavity. The door springs open aggressively with a press of the shoulder button, but after that it's up to you to coax Ravage out of there successfully. Typically, I have to untransform Soundwave's back and push Ravage through from behind.
>
> The problem with Soundwave being designed for the screen, rather than being conceived first as a toy, is a problem largely endemic to many of the toys based on film characters. He was never conceived or engineered as a transformable toy, so there was only so much they could do. They introduced a few opening panels into the existing robot design, so his fists could tuck away and panels on his legs could open up and plug together, but at the end of the day it's still a completely nonsense transformation, because none of his body parts were designed to be able to turn into anything. He transforms because he's from a toy line called Transformers, but the actual transformed mode is just a folded-up robot. It's even more abstract than the G1 Pretenders, because at least those had wheels and cockpits and things. He's got nothing. He makes Siege Refraktor (or Siege Soundwave, for that matter!) look like brilliant conceptual engineering.
>
Cmon, have a little imagination! He's clearly a metal sandwich.
> I've been done collecting toys from the live-action Transformers films for a while now, but I do have a special fondness for Soundwave in all his various iterations. I took advantage of the Hasbro Pulse warehouse sale and got these guys for cheap, something like $21 for Soundwave and $8 for Ravage.
>
> One of the coolest scenes from the 2018 Bumblebee film was a flashback scene taking place on Cybertron, when we get to see a lot of the familiar G1 characters in their original Cybertronic forms. It's a brief scene, only emcompassing about 45 seconds of the finished film, but in that time we get to see Optimus Prime duking it out with some Decepticons, and a fun moment when Soundwave deploys a cassette with a synthesized "Ravage, eject!" just as we'd seen him do countless times during the G1 cartoon.
>
> So, this version of Soundwave is based directly on his design from that scene, which differs considerably from the look he enjoyed during Revenge of the Fallen or whatever movie he was in, when he transformed into a space satellite. He stands at about 6.75" in height, and is recognizable as Soundwave more through color mapping than anything else—he's a deep, rich blue color with off-white forearms and upper legs, gold trim around his chest window, and red strips around his wrists and cannon and red eyes. He still enjoys a certain live-action aesthetic, with an odd geometry to his body parts with basically zero right angles. But, he's kinda cool-looking in a way that the normal G1-shaped boxy Soundwave toys don't always manage.
>
> If you buy the Core-class Ravage toy, it can fold up into an approximately box-shaped transformation (it's arguably not a cassette due to how thick it is) and, while it's a bit of a tighty squeeze, can fit inside Soundwave's chest cavity. The door springs open aggressively with a press of the shoulder button, but after that it's up to you to coax Ravage out of there successfully. Typically, I have to untransform Soundwave's back and push Ravage through from behind.
>
> The problem with Soundwave being designed for the screen, rather than being conceived first as a toy, is a problem largely endemic to many of the toys based on film characters. He was never conceived or engineered as a transformable toy, so there was only so much they could do. They introduced a few opening panels into the existing robot design, so his fists could tuck away and panels on his legs could open up and plug together, but at the end of the day it's still a completely nonsense transformation, because none of his body parts were designed to be able to turn into anything. He transforms because he's from a toy line called Transformers, but the actual transformed mode is just a folded-up robot. It's even more abstract than the G1 Pretenders, because at least those had wheels and cockpits and things. He's got nothing. He makes Siege Refraktor (or Siege Soundwave, for that matter!) look like brilliant conceptual engineering.
>
Almost all movie Megatrons turn into nothing to the point that the 3rd movie Megatron was so good because he finally had an alt mode that wasn't a fork sculpture
> Soundwave comes with one long, blue rounded cannon as well as one rifle made of blue plastic but which is painted this weird brownish-black color. He arguably would have benefited from two identical cannons, since one could serve as his shoulder cannon and the other could be a handheld weapon. The Core-class Ravage toy comes with a piece that seems to be meant to serve as an extension of Soundwave's cannon, forming the equivalent to the chrome missile that came with the G1 toy.
>
> So, he really is a cool-looking toy. Very Gundam-esque. The first round of warehouse sale orders, I had accidentally ordered the Legacy Soundwave toy, and I was so disappointed that I hadn't gotten this guy that I placed a second order (along with Holiday Optimus Prime) just to ensure I'd get him. So, I decided it was worth dipping my toes into the world of live-action toys long enough to get him, at least (and Ravage, who is an important accessory).
>
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