TF-fan kev777 wrote:Here is the thing for me with Soundwave and any potential Blaster retool. I really don't need a tape deck alt mode anymore.
This feeling really started for me in Titans Return, where I would put the whole line out on my pool table for a battle. Then convert them all to alt modes so they could charge each other. Then realize that a boom box can't do crap in this scene, so I had to load Blaster onto Fort Max and Soundwave onto Trypticon. Then it hit me, a tape deck is a really dumb alt mode for the year 2020.
So as meh as Siege Soundwave's space barge might be, it is still more fun for me personally that a tape deck.
When it comes to alt modes, you have to take into consideration the function of the character in the fiction. Why was Soundwave a tape deck to begin with? It had to do with his function as the Cons' communications specialist. Sure, a tape deck itself might be outdated, but Soundwave shouldn't be turning into just some random vehicle in a fight. As the one responsible for short and long range communications, he shouldn't be fighting anyway, unless it's absolutely necessary. Ironically Soundwave was 1 of the best Con fighters in G1 when he wasn't sending messages.
Tl;Dr Soundwave needs a special alt mode that separates him from the others. Hence tape deck in G1, the satellite in Bayverse and the drone in Prime. But what else could he be?