The Energon Pub

[El Duque]

Courtesy of Amazon.jp we have official images of Takara Tomy's upcoming Masterpiece figures MP-13 Soundwave with Laserbeak and MP-14 Red Alert. Enjoy the images mirrored below, both are scheduled toward the end of the year.

[SKYWARPED_128]

What's that mini vacuum cleaner thing attached to Soundwave's hand? An Amazon.jp exclusive again?

[frogbat]

Ah these look good but I might skip.... The thing that kinda bothers me is that I'd rather see characters that were never given a good toy form.... Prime I understand (maybe not the 2 versions) and well grimlock is grimlock.. The other masterpieces... Rodimus, megs, starscream and co all had poopy toys and sorely needed decent homages.

The original sound wave toy was IMHO one of the best g1 toys as It was close to the cartoon.. This version doesn't bring much more to the table.. For the price I'd liked to have seen some mp3 playing gimmick or some proper mass shifting lol. Sideswipe though was a blockformer looked like his cartoon self in both molds, besides which the classics versions are very good.

Ultra Magnus and Galvatron... Now those would be masterpieces worth selling a kidney for..

[Mindmaster]

Hope to God Soundwave gets a domestic release. I would rather have this than the Voyager Soundwave that uses his FOC design.

[hattknall]

Very nice pic. Can´t wait until they are released.

[kirbenvost]

Freakin' badass! I cannot wait for Soundwave!

[alexison]

Damn, these look good. Soundwave has a little more silver in him than I expected. I absolutely love the energon cube gimmick! I'm genuinely impressed by laserbeak too. I wish he was standing next to Prime in the last picture for a good size comparison.

MP-Red Alert is a solid repaint/remold. I think I may like him even more than Sideswipe.

[RhA]

Why no pictures of the crazysparks?

[Mindmaster]

I wish he was standing next to Prime in the last picture for a good size comparison.

If memory serves right, I believe he's about the same height as Optimus, maybe half an inch shorter.

[robotmel]

I have to admit I wasnt fully convinced from the beginning when we first started seeing proto shots and discussions about sizing etc, but now I am starting to feel the love..!



I thought Red Alert would have been the cooler of the the two but seeing those fake wheels stuck on his shoulders, what was the thinking behind all that then?
I mean, theres none attached to Sideswipes shoulders as they are shown in the transformation as being tucked in under bonnet (hood)sooooo...?


I know these are not quite out yet but when they are those shoulder wheels will no doubt be an unsightly annoyance for some. I wonder if there removal would leave a hole or gap? Perhaps a 3rd Party will 'fix' it?

[alldarker]

Soundwave is just gorgeous, as is Laserbeak.

And all those new pictures of Sideswipe finally forced me to put in a pre-order for one with Robotkingdom.

Still not at all keen on the fake shoulder wheels of Red Alert.

I thought Red Alert would have been the cooler of the the two but seeing those fake wheels stuck on his shoulders, what was the thinking behind all that then?
I mean, theres none attached to Sideswipes shoulders as they are shown in the transformation as being tucked in under bonnet (hood)sooooo...?

Red Alert in the cartoon had wheels on his shoulders in robot mode, while Sideswipe didn't in his animation model.



Masterpieces seem to be focussed on this animation similarity for the robot modes: hence the shoulder wheels on Red Alert and the lack of those wheels on Sideswipe. Logically, Sideswipe was the main inspiration, while Red Alert was the 'afterthought'. Of course, for true cartoon accuracy, those wheels on Red Alert should be much bigger, but design constraints made that impossible.

[Ravage XK]

Is it only me that thinks the finish quality on Soundwave is terrible?

[alldarker]

Is it only me that thinks the finish quality on Soundwave is terrible?

I notioced that myself.
I might be mistaken, but these pictures of Soundwave look to me to be handpainted. It's even more visible on Laserbeak. In that case, the production version of both will be a lot neater.

[CrimsonPrime]

Absolutely awesome !!! Cant wait to have Soundwave in my collection . In fact I plan on making him my 100th transformers. The best part is that he will be release near my birthday so I can just ask my mom to buy it for me as a present xP. Kidney saved xD~

[ento]

That sure looks like an SD card slot on the left side of Soundwave in the first pic.

[OmicronZero]

That sure looks like an SD card slot on the left side of Soundwave in the first pic.

There do appear to be slots/plugs on that side of the figure's alt mode. Looks like... a USB maybe, a pair of audio (most likely 'out' and 'in'), and a card slot. That's some impressive detail. I assume it is just detail, despite the fact that a tape deck with a USB plug and an SD Card slot seems kind of strange. It would be insanely awesome if it turned out that TakaraTomy did put some kind of MP3 player or some-such in the figure though.

[alldarker]

Those slots... Are strange. It's not detail that's obvious in robot mode, and the location in alt mode isn't very visible either. As plain details, they might just as well been left out. Actually, I can't even really see where that part with the slots moves to in robot mode: it seems like those parts fold into the rear of his legs? The legs are the parts with the most available bulk to them to contain something like electronics: his main torso needs to contain a maximum of three casettes, so that will not have much available space.

Adding an MP3 player isn't very expensive, and the (pretty hefty) retail price for this item would definitely allow for something extra. The attachment below is the relevant detail, taken from the Amazon.jp site.

MP Soundwave slots.JPG

[grayj74]

Way over a thousand now in my collection. These minus the Red Alert will be a nice addition to my collection. I have to wonder how much these will be selling for and how soon after a masterpiece ravage will be available.

[Cyber Bishop]

Sold.... Takara just take all my money.. Thanks..

[Black Bumblebee]

If Soundwave has MP3 support of some type, then this figure just went from "yeah, he's cool..." to "OMG WANT."

I would LOVE to be able to use a MP sized Soundwave as a music player in my office.

Here comes the "panic" moment though... IF it does have electronics... will they be removed for the eventual US release?

[starwarrior1227]

SOUNDWAVE SUPERIOR, inferior mp-14's can suck it for all i care.

[Segor]

So, I think those guys (Sideswipe and Red Alert) are like taller delux figures?? I've seen some MP 10 with alternators pictures and they look taller compared to him than them...

[Mindmaster]

So, I think those guys (Sideswipe and Red Alert) are like taller delux figures?? I've seen some MP 10 with alternators pictures and they look taller compared to him than them...

Their shared mold is roughly Voyager-ish.

[Deruji]

Those slots... Are strange. It's not detail that's obvious in robot mode, and the location in alt mode isn't very visible either. As plain details, they might just as well been left out. Actually, I can't even really see where that part with the slots moves to in robot mode: it seems like those parts fold into the rear of his legs? The legs are the parts with the most available bulk to them to contain something like electronics: his main torso needs to contain a maximum of three casettes, so that will not have much available space.

Adding an MP3 player isn't very expensive, and the (pretty hefty) retail price for this item would definitely allow for something extra. The attachment below is the relevant detail, taken from the Amazon.jp site.

MP Soundwave slots.JPG

The top part down to the blue is actually the bottom of Soundwave's foot. The rest flips to form the kibble on the side of his leg. I made an animation that shows that, check old post for that.

Soundwave's feet are still kind of a mystery to me, because when you look at them from the front, they look like they could either split apart or rotate the toes in some way. If you look at the second pic, you'll see that his feet have a black crack along the inner sides.

[kirbenvost]

Pretty sure the tech detail on the side is just that... detail to make it look like a real tape player. While they COULD fit an mp3 player in there if they wanted to, I doubt they would due to price.