The Energon Pub

Hey im new to these borads and this is my first post as you can see haha,
soo i bought a G1 soundwave recently and the man told me it was from his personal collection as a child and stored away for 25 years and brought it out to sell. It seemed to check out since the box was bilingual (these are the type of boxes we have in canada) and it all seemed original. But like an idiot i trusted someone and didnt check to the whole toy through. I opened up the battery compartment when i returned home and to my surprise the markings were simply Takara Japan, no dates no hasrbo markings nothing. Man did my heart sink, please for the love of God tell me this is not a fake or reissue, can anyone explain if this is real or not or why my markings dont have a date or say hasbro? :/

Well, Takara made the original ones before they were called Transformes and had a partnership with Hasbro. It might be genuine, but someone on here probably can go into more detail about it.

Thanks that gives me a little hope, if anyone else can shed some light on this im biting at the chain to see if i wasted 125 dollars on a fake or reissue :s

Pictures would be helpfull. Snap one of the box and it's contents. Make sure you get the company info on both in detail.

Well here is what I found about a fake Soundwave:
http://www.toyarchive.com/Transformers/Knockoffs/Soundwave2.html

Now this is CasetteMan:
http://www.microforever.com/MC10cassetteman.htm

If you see Takara markings it could be the first release of Soundwave. The fakes for SW are very easy to spot, so you got a real one by your description but further pics would help.

Hes definatley not cassette man since he deosnt have it written across his door, i cant post pictures since im on vaction with the fam till the 7th. It it literally Takara Japan
in his back compartment, but pictures would help you guys out. Also, could this be a japanese version the seller figured hed put in an original box to make a quick buck? or could it be an american/canadian release just with the takara japan marking, meaning it could be an earlier release? it doesnt have a rub symbol

I'd point you to Fred's Variations page, but it's been eaten by scraplets. Here's the IWBM capture of the Soundwave section, but some of the pics don't work. Still I think I can answer...

Does he look like this?


If so, it's probably real. You'll have to double check the page, there's some other subtle differences to look at.

Thats exactly what it looks like! Minus all the scuffs :p unfortunatley the link seems out of date or isnt working so i couldnt reach the site, if you have another link or can shed some light on this variation? Thanks for the clear up skyfire its good to know i didnt waste 125 $

I can assure you my friend, what you got ain't a fake. It's original.

This version is more likely the Hasbro China release (around 1990 to 1991). It has has the Hasbro brand stamped on but not the country of manufacture.

In fact, if you'll see, that version of Soundwave retained the original "button" set up.

reference: http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg11 ... C06337.jpg

im happy to hear everyone telling me its not a fake, what a relief from leaving the convention. Again i cant get pictures up to show until i return home, but my soundwave fenrir did not have a hasbro marking just takara and japan written beneath of it, and what is the original button set up? i believe mine was a whole piece not broken up

I misunderstood. I thought yours didn't have the marking of country of origin.

Is the "cassette" buttons like my pics? Anyway,your's might be the early TF releases of 1984. Some of those figs didn't have Hasbro markings.

Oh i see you painted the middle of the buttons to match his colour, its one solid piece am i right? If so mine is one single piece as well. Lol naw i knew it wouldnt say canada inside the battery compartment im worried about the lack of hasbro markings as well as dates, it simply says TAKARA and Japan underneath

Yeah, sounds like you have an early run Soundwave.

(pre-tf Cassetteman): takara-only(inside), solid fists
Type 1: Takara-only (inside), solid fists
Type 1a: Takara-only (on battery cover), solid fists
Type 2: Takara-only with dates(inside), hollow fists
Type 3: Hasbro-Tak with dates(inside), hollow fists
(jap Soundblaster): tak stamp(inside), hollow fists
(jap reissue Soundwave): Has/tak-china stamp(inside), hollow fists
Type 4:(reissue US Soundwave)Has/tak-china stamp(inside), hollow fists, but jap SoundBlaster dual-door!

Also, this:


(Click for full-size)

@DBF

I added a blue labeled decal to give the buttons a more detailed look. And yes, it's a solid chromed plastic piece.