[Toy Review] Transformers: Platinum Edition Soundwave (Year of the Goat) pays many homages

Soundwave (Year of the Goat)
Soundwave, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Ravage, Frenzy, Rumble
Platinum Edition
Transformers: Masterpiece (originally)
MSRP: $219.90

Should you buy him? If you’re into Masterpieces (and don’t want the hassle of hunting down the individual cassettes), yes! 

So to usher in the Year of the Goat, we’ve got Platinum Edition Soundwave, which itself is a redeco of Masterpiece Soundwave (which got sold out last year pretty quickly, remember?) and Optimus Prime (G2 Laser Prime!) to welcome us.

No goat puns, I promise. Anyway, it’s not just Soundwave in here – there’s all his cassette buddies too. You even get Megatron’s gun (which originally came with Masterpiece Starscream IIRC).

So here’s where my pictures begin. They commissioned two pieces of artwork for the packaging! Here’s the one at the back, Nice.

And then you’ve got the front box art. It’s a tri-language packaging, the one for our markets. It used to be slanted towards the China markets (remember we had Chinese text on them?) but it looks like other countries want them too! Or maybe the Chinese diaspora has been clamouring for an international release.

Whoops, four languages. My bad. If you angle it correctly, you really can shoot the tape out like in the pictures (but no guarantees on where it lands).

It’s not a cargo manifest but I like to call it that. When did they start putting the contents on the box in bullet point format? You get Frenzy & Rumble’s guns too (hidden in their Quake Hammers).

Here, a closer look. Rumble is red and Frenzy is blue.

I’m not even sure if Soundwave is born in the Year of the Goat. But I suppose since the Chinese Zodiac (or any Zodiac, for that matter) is dependent on star signs, it stands to reason this would apply to the rest of the universe, including Cybertron.

Does that mean Omega Supreme was born in the Year of the Snake?

The new Goat Decepticon symbol. I think they only did this combined/integrated symbol for the Autobots last year. Maybe they’ll retroactively apply it to the Year of the Snake and Year of the Dragon toys (if we see a rerelease of them… which would be 12 years later).

So this is what Soundwave looks like inside the box. All brown and clear.

The instructions are tucked into the box, so don’t worry that you’ve dropped it out somehow. It’s packed a little differently than the usual way for instructions.

There you go. No twisty ties (HOORAY) so you just need to gently pull everything out of the plastic tray.

Soundwave and all his bits and pieces. Of note the fact that he comes with his sensor, Energon cubes, and the display panel bit that he generates Energon cubes from.

First things first – alternate mode! I can’t remember my cassette tape player and I don’t think I would be an accurate judge of its size since I was pretty small when I owned one.

I played with this knob for an inordinately long time while speaking into the fan. You know how you sound like Soundwave when you stand in front of the fan and speak into it? Yeah so I was pretending to be Soundwave and speaking louder and softer according to whether I turned the knob up or down.

You also get an on-off button but I didn’t play with this as much. You can’t really “switch off” Soundwave.

Here’s the back of Soundwave. Yes, you should display him from the front.

If you’re wondering why his colour scheme looks familiar, it’s because it’s similar to the previous Linkin Park G1 Soundwave released a year or two ago. It’s also cast in a solid gold colour, with transparent bits. So it’s homaging Linkin Park Soundwave too!

He’s twice as tall in bot mode but not twice as large in alt mode though.

Notice anything wrong? Yeah, I didn’t realise it until I tried to take it out. I also got my real cassette tapes stuck in my cassette tape player when I was young. Some things never change. It’s really an authentically designed Walkman.

I spent a long time getting it out. Moral of the story? Don’t insert the cassette tape in the wrong way. It slides in and out smoothly when you insert it correctly.

So here’s my new Walkman and some tunes! Although the kind of music I listened to never came on cassette tapes… because I listen to video game soundtracks.

If you can tell who’s who – you own the toy too. OK I’m not that sure which is Laserbeak or Buzzsaw offhand, I usually have to check it. The others are pretty self-explanatory though – RIRFIB and Ravage is grey (and different from the rest).

Soundwave in all his robotic glory. I like the translucent parts (though I don’t have the lighting set up to really maximise the effect), though I’m iffy that the screws are visible as a result.

How much can he hold and how well can he hold it? You be the judge. He can hold all the weapons he comes with fairly well though. It’s not that necessary to have all fingers articulated – just the trigger finger and thumb are really essential. And honestly, the only thing you’ll do with a fully articulated hand is to give someone the middle finger. I haven’t seen any other creative use of fully articulated hands before.

Also it makes the toy less expensive la.

Here’s his face and chest. That’s what you really want to look at, right? Would be nice if his face was painted, but then you’d need to paint certain details on, and that would defeat the entire purpose of a translucent deco – so nah. Red eyes are cool.

Did Soundwave ever wield Megatron? I don’t actually remember that. But another Megatron is always welcome.

It’s a Browning homage! The recent gold Masterpiece Megatron is also kind of a Browning homage too.

With his Concussion Blaster. His Action Master toy calls it a Concussion Cannon though, which I much prefer.

Two guns. If you play Dungeons & Dragons, dual wielding gives you an additional attack at a cost of -2 to your attack bonus (though that’s changed for 5th Edition now).

You know how Hong Kong movie stars tend to hold their guns sideways? Yeah. Something like that.

This is what I call the chick pose. Chicks with guns always pose like this. Not that Soundwave is a chick though. Maybe we’ll see a Masterpiece Arcee one day!

And here’s a load of comparison shots to show you how he stacks up compared to his predecessors. It’s a unique colour scheme that works from most angles.

Yeah OK I have many Soundwaves. I bought Soundblaster for Ratbat. Didn’t we all?

So what about the cassettes? Here they are. Five of them.

So we have Ravage. I was watching Beast Wars the other day, and was reminded of how Covert Agent Ravage came, beat up everyone, then got blown up in his own cutting edge space cruiser.

Maybe this will be Ghost Ravage. Notice how his G1 version is bigger than the current Masterpiece one?

Here’s Rumble! Always sounded like a Brooklyner, IMHO, though I’ve only been there once.

If only they had those cannons last time.

Frenzy gets to wield his guns and wear his Quake Hammers on his back. Remember that his guns are located in his Quake Hammers!

Frenzy with his other Masterpiece and G1 pals.

Laserbeak. Because Laserbeak comes first.

Buzzsaw comes second. Squawk squawk.

A veritable birdpark, I tell you.

So anyway, just as a reminder – this is a great set if you’re lazy, because all the cassettes come with it. It’s priced at about the same range as last year’s Masterpiece Soundwave (Hasbro’s version).

Given that you’re going to have to shell out a lot more for either the whole set of Takara toys, or even for last year’s Masterpiece Soundwave (since it’s really only going to be on the secondary market now), this is probably the most convenient set to get everything.

Also, it’s not going to be reissued for at least 12 years (unless some planetary alignment goes wrong and we get the Year of the Goat again a bit too soon) unlike the other Soundwaves.

Soundwave and his cassettes (called Deployers now, right) are ready for action!