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I got my POL delivered yesterday which included MP Soundwave. I really like him. He looks great and the accessories are awesome. He is a great piece for the shelf.

However, I was not blown away by him. Every MP I bought up to this point completely astounded me. The look, the size, the feel, everything about them screamed "this is awesome." Soundwave did not do that for me. I've been trying to figure out why.

I am underwhelmed with Lazerbeak. He looks fine but he feels cheap to me. I feel like I am going to break him by looking at him too sternly. I changed him into a bird and that is how he shall stay forever.

This "cheap feel" extends to Soundwave. Previous MP's had a certain heft to them when you held them in your hands. Soundwave doesn't have that.

His size just doesn't work for me. Standing him back to back with MP Starscream, they are about the same height. But not quite. He also looks very skinny to me.

I guess what really bugs me is that when I looked at or held previous Mp molds, I felt like I paid more money for a collectors item. Soundwave feels more like a toy.

I had previously decided that MP Soundwave would be the last MP I would buy. When I saw that they were scaling them down (Prime and Sideswipe) I knew I wouldn't like it. But, in the back of my head I thought "maybe Soundwave would change my mind" and I would pick up the new ones. That didn't happen. I'm kind of sad about it.

Anyone have some thoughts, feelings, or emotions?

think its pretty good considering the rising costs of, well, everything! Laserbeak may be a bit fragile but holy shit you gotta admit the transformation and detail of the thing makes it a damn fine tf, masterpiece or not. I mean he's a tape and his weapons are integrated and he's got a little spy camera in his teeny tiny head!

soundwave, i think, really shines with his "minion" feature. that is he can hold three of them and eject them without having a giant rod thing on his back like foc soundwave. We just haven't been able to fully enjoy this part of him because his minions aren't out yet cept laserbeak of course.

for me what made me get him is picturing him ejecting a minion (with his finger posed on the button like it should be) while being surrounded by the others and looking just like in the show or comic due to the masterpiece level of detail and accuracy

if he feels a little light or hollow thats cuz he is due to the very cool minion gimmick!

those be my thoughts....

SJ21, reading your post, I think I can sum it up with a 5 word question - "where is the die cast?"

The fact is that as economies have gone downhill, costs have needed to be reduced in some ways. I have yet to have my Soundwave turn up, but from what I've experienced with Red Alert and Soundwave, they tend to be a little more hollow and thanks to being all plastic, lighter.

Also I think the problem with Laserbeak is the size of some of the joints and the stresses they're placed under (specifically the connector struts for the turbines). I will say that with the exception of the Cassettes and maybe one or 2 of the Minicars, that shouldn't be a problem across the line.

I think there's a fallacy in your reasoning though. There are plastics and there are plastics. The fact is that some plastics these days are more durable than metals. Heck, when spidersilk becomes commonplace, it'll be much thinner yet so much more durable than kevlar.

The days of thinking "it it's not metal, it's more brittle" are coming to an end. The MPs might be all plastic, but honestly, I've noticed the plastic is generally of excellent quality and so I'm not convinced it's a trade down.

Overall, I love the new direction being taken and I can't wait to see more of the same .

Technically speaking Soundwave has die-cast feet and joints.

I can sort of understand what you are saying. While I am very happy with MP Soundwave standing on my shelf of MP, I didn't get that WOW factor I have had with a couple of other MP figures.

Laserbeak is impressive but fragile. I would even go so far to say that he is the star of that package. My only gripes is you cannot angle his wings up where they meet his body and one of his tail fins wont go vertical even with lots of force, so they will both stay at 45 degrees.

Soundwave looks awesome, stick Laserbeak on his arm you have G1 in a nutshell right there. Yes he is very light and he doesn't really push toy engineering like other MP figures did. He transforms into a rectangular block with no need to hide any tape deck parts in robot mode. So they didn't need to do anything really fancy other than give him decent articulation and make him look decent.

I'm not too keen on those bits hanging down on his legs, they could have maybe done something to hide those and one of his index fingers likes to pop off.

I suppose my biggest gripe would actually be the cost, £180 for something so small and simple probably dulls the excitement over the figure.

Its G1 Soundwave though and he is a fantastic addition to the line. I may get hold of the Hasbro release if it does come with all his little pals as I can probably save some money over buying the Takara versions.

fenrir72 wrote:Technically speaking Soundwave has die-cast feet and joints.

Not denying that at all. What I meant was that you're not going to get the same "blunt object I could hurt burglars with" effect that a friend once referred to her God Ginrai with, that you are with say, MP-01, where the bulk of the torso is die cast and it feels pretty weighty.

I think with TFs, particualry G1 TFs and G1 homages, there can sometimes be a tendency to equate light with flimsy.

It had to happen sometime, when you felt "this isn't quite as awesome as I'd hoped." It's an inevitability with collecting, and the Masterpiece line is aimed at us older fans with disposable income.

I didn't have the same feeling as you with Soundwave, but I do not care at all for the TRU release of MP Rodimus Prime. His lack of trailer and seemingly incomplete paint job meant he mostly stayed in box, while valuable shelf space was alotted to more important figures.

And of course, rising prices and less plastic... but to me Soundwave is the best recent MP release. Not only because I like the character better than Sideswipe and Red Alert, but because of his accessories. The Megatron gun, the energon cube, and especially Laserbeak all make this a worthy purchase.

You may be underwhelmed, but as long as you're still glad you bought him; that's all that matters. You may be more reluctant to buy MPs in the future, but being more discerning with these expensive toys is hardly a bad thing.

Bowspearer wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:Technically speaking Soundwave has die-cast feet and joints.

Not denying that at all. What I meant was that you're not going to get the same "blunt object I could hurt burglars with" effect that a friend once referred to her God Ginrai with, that you are with say, MP-01, where the bulk of the torso is die cast and it feels pretty weighty.

I think with TFs, particualry G1 TFs and G1 homages, there can sometimes be a tendency to equate light with flimsy.

Yeah. Them old toys literally could kill you or poke you in the eyes back then. MP-01 was frickin' heavy what with all the die-cast(and paint chipping )

Though that too was the impression of my friend(and TF importer/source)when I bought it from his store. He immediately told me to check the weight............bit on the light side but imho, you pay for:

1.the character
2.engineering (c'mon guys, throw Tomy's engineers a bone........they really worked their butts off for old SW.)

Back to the lack of die-cast metal.......I kind off prefer it that way. The use of die-cast should be well thought of and integrated into the design and not be just for the sake of it(like the Titanium series). G1 was sort of like that, the metal was there for a purpose(more like keeping the figure balanced). If you incorporated more painted metal parts on him, imagine all the paint scrapes. Even now, the metal painted feet are a problem already for some of us.

Dammit, you had to go and cause the repressed memory of the Titanium series to surface didn't you

Seriously though I agree, I love the direction they've taken. Yes they've gone with plastic but it feels really sturdy. All in all the only problem with this line is that it'll send us all broke .

Common theme among us when we go purchasing those d@mn Masterpieces......