The new deluxe Cyberverse toys are by far the toy which fans are most curious about. We all know more or less what to expect from more toys from the Studio Series or War for Cybertron Trilogy line but this is completely new.
I will start by saying this, while these deluxes are the same price point as a Studio Series and WFC deluxe they are as different from either of those as a Studio Series toy is from a WFC toy. It's a different feel and aesthetic. This review is for Shockwave. Now, right off the bat my first impression was that he was far less interesting than the other two, but there is a good reason for that: he already had a decent toy. Megatron and Optimus are both infinitely better than whatever else you can get in that scale in that line, but Shockwave had several good toys, in whatever scale you wanted. Unlike all other warrior class toys, his warrior figure did actually feel worthwhile. The fact that the spider tank needs him to have crucial articulation like knees and elbows made him leagues better than any other warrior figure.
So now we have this deluxe which costs a third more and the big question for me was, is he a third better? The short answer is objectively yes. As you will see in the images below, he is gorgeously painted on all sides, which really helps in the tank mode. He has way more articulation like ankles, head, waist and a wrist. He has lots of accessories, like a nicely painted gun (a way cooler gun than any other weapon to come with any deluxe this year), two clear effect parts that can combine and a removable clear plastic tube attached to a gun hand that you can insert above his hand. Meaning that unlike many other Shockwaves we got recently, you can give him either two hands or have one be a gun hand. So yeah, he has a lot more to offer. Oh yeah, he also comes with a leg to build Maccadam, but that's a bonus I will write about in another article.
In terms of complexity, objectively he has a lot of steps. He has more steps than the new Studio Series deluxe Soundwave (is also bigger and has more accessories) for instance, if anyone cares about value comparisons between two new toys that cost the same. But the conversion is nothing special. Not only because it's a very straightforward transformation due to how obvious the limb placement is, but also because it's the same transformation we got for the warrior Shockwave. It's more refined, of course, like now you completely replace robot hands with spider tank feet (adding 4 steps to the transformation per arm), but it's still the same brush strokes arriving at a similar alt mode.
Speaking of the alt mode, while the deco is way better than the previous toys we got for this designs (and I do like the front spider feet), I think the warrior looks better. The big cannon is more central while it's too far back on this deluxe. It makes the tank look more on the long side rather than being a more symmetrical X shape. Even though they go more out of their way to make the alt mode different than the robot mode, even so much as adding extra antenna for the tank face to differentiate it from the robot mode chest, the fact that the cannon is smaller makes it look more like the robot on all fours.
Speaking of the cannon, which also fits over the hand, the clear tube connected to it is rather rigid. So it isn't easy to pose. It will revert to whichever pose has it in a relaxed position. This really hurts poseability in robot mode since the gun arm will not keep a bent elbow due to the wire being rigid. Speaking of accessories, his effect parts are compatible with 3mm and 5 mm ports so you can use them for Siege figures too.
You can remove the tube and gun arm for robot mode and it still looks great. The deco helps a lot of course, and he has all the articulation you'd want, but my favourite part is the backpack. Not only can it serve as a place to post his cool gun when hes not using it, but the G1 callback is great. Especially the sculpted circle at the base of it.
In the end, he looks great, feels great and has some really nice accessories. Not a fan of the alt mode, but that is par for the course with Shockwave toys and I knew what I signed up for. He's worth a Siege deluxe price point, more so than I feel the Siege leader is worth his price point, so take that as you will. And now I will leave you with some size comparisons to other deluxe toys.