The general concensus behind the Cybrverse line is that while this gimmick heavy line is far more for kids, there could be one figure that transcends it all: Shockwave (both the Warrior and the Ultra figure).
These are appearing across the world right now so I took the time to take some pictures of Cyberverse Shockwave paired with various figures to give you both a sense of the aesthetic, thematic look and scale.
As is usually the case with Shockwave, his purple is very hard to correctly photograph. Even in the natual light setting I use, it completely changed hue on the images depending on the time of day. The alt mode images make him look closer to fushia, but the ones in bot mode are far closer to the actual colour. I find it important for the correct colour to come across because his deco is probably the best part.
The colour, is a nice full grape colour. Not too dark ala G1 toy but still very full, similar to my idea of the colour when watching the G1 show. Also, this may be the mainline Transformer with the most panel lining so far. There are some neatly ainted pink highlights across the arms and cannon turret, as if to give a sense of the energy coursing through him. He also has silver paint on his legs to convey the gun barrel element from the G1 design.
The sculpt is nice too, a simpler version of the evergreen designs that are currently found everywhere. They were even i the latest IDW rendition of Shockwave so you could technically use this toy for that purpose.
But would the scale work? Well, let's find out.
Maybe not the generations (though we are getting a voyager size version fo the figure later), but here he is next to two rendition of his frenemy Soudwave:
I personally think he works better with the RID Soundwave. In fact, he works great with other RID toys as if he was meant to be part of that line.
His action feature is not great but it does not get in the way in robot mode. And the blast effects are fine. Plus he has 5 mm holes on both his arms so that you can equip him with other weapons (other weapons not included).
What bugs me the most about the robot mode is that his head does not move. That really hinders toy since while his body can be posed well, you are limited in the poses where the head looks straight out. Or else the pose wont make sense.
As for vehicle mode, you can take it or leave it. It is not the best, but frankly compared to previous shockwaves, it is not bad. I actually preffer it to the Prime alt mode which didn't even hide his hands properly. And to be fair, a spider tank
can work as an alt mode and there has been a long history of spider tanks in
sci fi related pop culture.
I see him more like one of those European action masters that had a nice action figure like bot mode and yet still had some sort of an alt mode. And there are specific transformation steps and parts for this tank mode. It has front feet and the robot feet must convert for spider tank feet. That foot transformation is a simple flip but i find it quite elegant in changing the look.
In the end, I wont be collecting this line but I will be adding this particular figure to my RID/TAV collection, where I think he feels right at home.
)
[ Click to attempt signal recovery... ]
