The Energon Pub

by **Wrath of khan** » Thu Sep 27, 2018 7:04 am

Hi, on a recent trip to Mexico I picked up this guy; a black soundwave with no markings of any kind.

I suppose it to be a Chinese or Mexican bootleg and most likely vintage. Does anyone know of any modern black soundwave bootlegs?

The casette door is grey, not transparent like the official black destron figure. Anyone seen this guy before?
I have more minibots to research for any rarities too.

by **DREWCIFER** » Mon Oct 08, 2018 4:46 pm

Yes, SW has been bootlegged quite frequently within the past 15yrs or so.

The first KO's were over-sized and made of really brittle plastic.

Once Hasbro/Takara re-tooled the G1 SW mould, to make the SoundBlaster (Tak) and Soundwave (Has) reissues, almost all of the re-issue/re-make/re-mould/KO's have featured the 'double cassette' doors.

Since yours features only a single cassette door and has a decent dust pateina, it is either a Mexican KO of the G1 Soundwave, done in black for some reason. Or, a KO of the G1 SoundBlaster.

ASAIK, the original Micro Man toy of 'Cassette Man' was only in blue, like SW.

With all of that said, great find. Finding things like that in random places is great fun.

by **DREWCIFER** » Mon Oct 08, 2018 4:50 pm

Sorry, I take it all back. After re-examing it. I can read all of lettering, and the stickers show little wear.

Definitely recent.

Is it to scale?

by **Wrath of khan** » Fri Oct 19, 2018 9:05 am

I believe its to scale yes. I know more recent chinese bootlegs even have the takara/ Hasbro mark etc. No markings on this one. Could be a few years old, dunno.