The Energon Pub

Soundwave, Blaster, and their plethora of minions. Who doesn't love them? When I was younger, I never had one of them. I think I got a used Ravage in my early teens, but I didn't experience any more of them until the reissues started rolling out. I quickly grabbed the Transformers Collection Blaster and Soundwave, but only recently started going after more.

In the past six months, I bought the 4 Encore Cassette sets, Encore Twincast and Soundblaster, E-Hobby Flipsides, and the Kissplayers set. I just can't stop myself from buying more and more! I currently have the SG set really high on my priority list, cause it's a friggin treasure trove if this is the kinda thing you're into.

But that's not where I want this thread to end! I titled it "Old and New" so we can venture beyond the G1's. Have any of you experience the Device Label series? What do you think of the United/Adventure Rumble/Frenzy or TFCC Rewind/Eject? How about the upcoming Leader Class Blaster/Soundwave and cassette inspired minions? Or the MP's?

Anyways, here's my latest acquisitions. Like Diaclone MP's, I tend to fall in love with the odd ones. My favorite cassette might be the orange Laserbeak, Sunder

I never had either of the cassette players as a kid, but I had a handful of the later G1 cassettes, like Slamdance, Sleeljaw, Rewind, Slugfest, and Overkill. I got a G1 Soundwave much later, but I just realized as I write this that I've never placed a cassette into him. Huh.

I'm pretty stoked about TR Soundwave, because I haven't been able to decide on which "CHUG" version of the character I feel is the best. Likewise, I'm already planning on buying all his minions (already have Buzzsaw ). I've never been too big on Blaster, possibly because he seemed like two very different characters between the cartoon and Marvel stories. The Autobot cassettes were cool, though.

Still holding out hope for a Slamdance somewhere down the road. He was one of my favorites, probably because I never had my own combiner team as a kid. He was sort of a combiner and a "Duobot" at the same time (plus a before-his-time Powerlinx robot).

Glarryg

I think I got Soundwave before Blaster ... can't remember. I know I had Rewind and Steeljaw to go with Blaster (Steeljaw was, and still is, a damn good cassette).

Soundwave, I had Frenzy, Rumble, Laserbeak, Ravage and Buzzsaw. At the time Frenzy was with Laserbeak and Rumble with Ravage (or other way around, I can't quite remember).

Then Ratbat came out ... with Frenzy. So here was my dilemma. To get Ratbat, I had to get a second Frenzy.

Or did I? Nope. There was another option.

Open the packet in store and steal him.

Which I did. I was young.

Fast forward a few years, and Device Label Soundwave comes out. Damn good looking figure, pretty useless as an MP3 player though as you required a less popular sized SD card and he wouldn't read cards over 1gb. Functionality may be crap, but yeah, damn good looking figure.

But functional and good looking? That goes to Device Label Ravage. 2gb's back then was a LOT of storage space, and while he may not be easy to plug in (more so if you have other USB slots in use) he still functioned well as a UBS stick AND looked fantastic in his beast mode.

Glarryg wrote:I never had either of the cassette players as a kid, but I had a handful of the later G1 cassettes, like Slamdance, Sleeljaw, Rewind, Slugfest, and Overkill. I got a G1 Soundwave much later, but I just realized as I write this that I've never placed a cassette into him. Huh.

And I just remembered I had Blaster as a kid! But I don't think I had him for long, I recall him being stolen by a classmate when I was a wee fella

Glarryg wrote:I'm pretty stoked about TR Soundwave, because I haven't been able to decide on which "CHUG" version of the character I feel is the best. Likewise, I'm already planning on buying all his minions (already have Buzzsaw ). I've never been too big on Blaster, possibly because he seemed like two very different characters between the cartoon and Marvel stories. The Autobot cassettes were cool, though.

Finding the perfect C/G Soundwave is a tough endeavor. But I simply can't have a Leader Class SW dwarfing the rest of my display that's been years in the making. Ultimately I think my C/G SW will end up being KFC's Mugen Vox.

But, I do think I'll be replacing my TFCC Rewind/Eject with the TR/Legends offerings. They're just more representative.

Glarryg wrote:Still holding out hope for a Slamdance somewhere down the road. He was one of my favorites, probably because I never had my own combiner team as a kid. He was sort of a combiner and a "Duobot" at the same time (plus a before-his-time Powerlinx robot).

Yeah, they're on my list. Just a shame they weren't reissued like the rest.

Burn wrote:But functional and good looking? That goes to Device Label Ravage. 2gb's back then was a LOT of storage space, and while he may not be easy to plug in (more so if you have other USB slots in use) he still functioned well as a UBS stick AND looked fantastic in his beast mode.

And he is still, among the likes of MP's and 3P's, my quintessential Ravage and perfect C/G addition.

DL Soundwave however lacks detail. Wonderful otherwise, but that's what's keeping out of my C/G display

Sadly I don't have any of the Cassette players or the cassettes themselves. Hoping to get some soon with Titans Return coming, Rewind and Buzzsaw are first on my list.

Alas, the only Soundwave I own is Prime Soundwave, who is an awesome toy but not great for Cassetticon fun.

I really want to get Cybertron Soundwave though and I really, really wish some enterprising 3P company or Shapeways kit manufacturer would make some more cassettes for him.

The first cassette player that I got was YOTG Soundwave. He is pretty awesome for what he is. It gets the job done in both modes. Then I found the titanium Soundwave for a $1. He is okay just not as good as mp Soundwave. The cassette player that I will get next will be TR Blaster

Delta Magnus wrote:Alas, the only Soundwave I own is Prime Soundwave, who is an awesome toy but not great for Cassetticon fun.

But doesn't he have a Laserbeak of his own?

Delta Magnus wrote:I really want to get Cybertron Soundwave though and I really, really wish some enterprising 3P company or Shapeways kit manufacturer would make some more cassettes for him.

That was a truly awesome Soundwave, and probably my favorite Laserbeak. The fact that they didn't make any more minions for him was such a wasted opportunity. and the only reason that SW isn't in my C/G display is cause he's too tall.

Bumblebee21 wrote:The first cassette player that I got was YOTG Soundwave. He is pretty awesome for what he is. It gets the job done in both modes. Then I found the titanium Soundwave for a $1. He is okay just not as good as mp Soundwave. The cassette player that I will get next will be TR Blaster

Odd place to start but you can't go wrong with MP. That diaper wearing Titanium however...

Odd place to start but you can't go wrong with MP. That diaper wearing Titanium however...

yeah but it was $100. I hope to get the g1 soundwave sometime. the titanium also had bad leg problems

Bumblebee21 wrote:

Odd place to start but you can't go wrong with MP. That diaper wearing Titanium however...

yeah but it was $100. I hope to get the g1 soundwave sometime. the titanium also had bad leg problems

I thought: which Soundwave set is the best bang for the buck? I did a quick search, and with just a little patience I'm confident you can find this 5 piece SDCC set for less than 140 USD shipped!



For Blaster, hunt down the recent Platinum Intel Ops set. It can be obtained currently for ridiculously low prices, likely under 90 USD shipped

shajaki wrote:

Bumblebee21 wrote:

Odd place to start but you can't go wrong with MP. That diaper wearing Titanium however...

yeah but it was $100. I hope to get the g1 soundwave sometime. the titanium also had bad leg problems

I thought: which Soundwave set is the best bang for the buck? I did a quick search, and with just a little patience I'm confident you can find this 5 piece SDCC set for [url=http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=soundwave%20sdcc&LH_PrefLoc=2&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2045573.m1684][b]less than 140 USD shipped

That made me get off the fence and buy the loose sample of that set that (new site sponsor) Transformerland had up for $45 plus shipping.

Thanks I'll look into it

Now my radar is fixed on something else...



Anyone else buy this set? Being a TF fan and an LP fan, its kinda odd I don't already have it

You know what I love about the cassettes? There is so much variety to them. I mean it's a micro-cassette... that changes into bipedal robots, birds, jaguars, dinosaurs, vehicles, dinosaurs and vehicles that combine! All in this fairly small form. And you can have them interact with Soundwave and Blaster. You've basically got two armies there.

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:You know what I love about the cassettes? There is so much variety to them. I mean it's a micro-cassette... that changes into bipedal robots, birds, jaguars, dinosaurs, vehicles, dinosaurs and vehicles that combine! All in this fairly small form. And you can have them interact with Soundwave and Blaster. You've basically got two armies there.

Variety in the figures themselves, but I also see now that I'm in the thick of it, tons of variations amongst them as well. What with E-Hobby, and reissues alike!

Is everyone aware of the W-Cassettebots? They are incredibly rare Japanese G1 Cassettes that turn into dinosaurs AND combine:

Graphy - Pteranodon


Noise - Allosaurus


Dile - Iguanodon


Saur - Apatosaurus


Originals are damn near impossible to find. But apparently they were expertly KO'd a few years back. Guess what? Now THEY'RE near impossible to find, and will run you about this much a piece:



I'd have a hard time choking down that price if they were legit. BUT KO's??

shajaki wrote:

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:You know what I love about the cassettes? There is so much variety to them. I mean it's a micro-cassette... that changes into bipedal robots, birds, jaguars, dinosaurs, vehicles, dinosaurs and vehicles that combine! All in this fairly small form. And you can have them interact with Soundwave and Blaster. You've basically got two armies there.

Variety in the figures themselves, but I also see now that I'm in the thick of it, tons of variations amongst them as well. What with E-Hobby, and reissues alike!

Is everyone aware of the W-Cassettebots? They are incredibly rare Japanese G1 Cassettes that turn into dinosaurs AND combine:

Graphy - Pteranodon


Noise - Allosaurus


Dile - Iguanodon


Saur - Apatosaurus


Originals are damn near impossible to find. But apparently they were expertly KO'd a few years back. Guess what? Now THEY'RE near impossible to find, and will run you about this much a piece:



I'd have a hard time choking down that price if they were legit. BUT KO's??

No but I want them

It'd be kinda cool if Takara did a massive boxset of every single G1 cassette ever made (so every mold and every variant of said mold- so for example, Rewind, Eject, Rosanna, Flip Sides etc). I'd buy it.

Delta Magnus wrote:It'd be kinda cool if Takara did a massive boxset of every single G1 cassette ever made (so every mold and every variant of said mold- so for example, Rewind, Eject, Rosanna, Flip Sides etc). I'd buy it.

Dear lord would that ever be bank breaking

How odd that This week I've been hardcore researching the cassettes and this popped up! Blackcat and Toaster!



Just last night I was reading up and saw Blackcat. Then I saw "no toy" and was all "huh, ok". And as of today, there is one! They're both from the comics, and Toaster is Blasters brother... but is supposed to transform into a toaster. Oh well

Sort of looks like a toaster if you squint a bit.
But not really.

My only experience with '''cassettes''' thus far is a Takara FOC Voyager Soundblaster with a Buzzsaw I have unfortunately lost. I find him to be the best take for a current 'classics' Soundwave/Soundblaster without going for Device Label or out of scale. He's quite the fun guy... buuuut I must share the sentiment many have that his gimmick doesn't work well at all. Buzzsaw always kept getting stuck in there and when he fired out it wasn't that impressive.

Oh I also bought an obvious KO Device Label USB Ravage. I'll never use him for a USB ever because I'm not that stupid, but I only intended to have him as a Classics Ravage.
His Decepticon symbol is blue and his eyes are painted on so erroneously it looks hilariously derpy.

I love cassettes. There's just something about a bunch of guys who turn into the same exact thing that's just endlessly cool. And, canonically speaking, they're army builders! I have a whole army of them. I really liked that the reissues came with new characters likes Stripes. The Kiss Player cassettes are, oddly, my favourite new cassette characters. They look really cool. Glit is pretty awesome!

Of course, things really go nuts when you go 3rd par - *is shot*

But they did make a new version of the only cassette I had as a kid: Slam - *is shot again*

One BIG missed opportunity the Club had was making Shattered Glass cassettes. Yeah, I know that they made that one set. But I mean ALL of them! With the club gone Shattered Glass is a thing of the past, but I would have liked toy versions of those guys.

shajaki wrote:They are incredibly rare Japanese G1 Cassettes that turn into dinosaurs AND combine

I really think their rarity is overblown, especially compared to Black Shadow, Blue Bacchus, some of the Operation Combination sets, and stuff like that. Tougher to find than your run of the mill G1 toy? Yep. Tougher to find than your typical Japanese G1 toy? Yep. On some tier that justifies their price? I think that's up for debate.

shajaki wrote:Originals are damn near impossible to find. But apparently they were expertly KO'd a few years back. Guess what? Now THEY'RE near impossible to find, and will run you about this much a piece:



I'd have a hard time choking down that price if they were legit. BUT KO's??

Those were not super duper high quality KOs. Nice substitutes, but not one of those KOs where you have trouble distinguishing it from an original, and there are plenty of those for other toys. I think only one out of the four was really, truly faithful to the originals? Most of the rest were missing etched panel lining, or had something weird going on. It's been about 6 years since those KOs hit the market iirc, and they sold pretty quick and didn't get any sort of restock so their price has inflated slowly over time. I didn't realize they were $200 a piece now though, that's dumb.

@Gauntlet
Troop builders indeed! And yeah.... I can't believe I didn't realize it but they really do have a clone vibe what with them all having the same alt mode

And that SG set is totally dope. And sure I'd like more too, but it is both players and 5 cassettes. That's a pretty impressive set!

@Scotty
A fellow collector from back home told me they were rare, that's my only basis (and very recent ebay searches)

Thanks for all that info! I wasn't going to buy right away, but knowing that the quality isn't great, I certainly won't be buying them for that price.

^ $150 for the set of four KOs isn't bad if you come across it. The quality on them isn't necessarily bad so much as they just aren't dead-on faithful like some stuff manages to be.

Also, I missed your comment on LP Soundwave earlier. It's one of those oddities that I can't actually recommend to anyone, but if you really want it, you'll enjoy it. The biggest thing that bugged me about it was including "Laserbeak" and "Buzzsaw" but it's literally the same toy twice.