Review for GI Joe Transformers Soundwave Dreadnok Thunder Machine

That Soundwave is pretty damn awesome but 150$can plus taxes is a bit ruff. Paying for it would be a bitch. So I'll just sit like a good boy for a sale.

Overcracker wrote:Gotta laugh at the fact the font tend is an officially licensed GM Pontiac front end.

Logo and all on the Box.

You laugh.... I, on the other end, cry instead. Hasbro's tricking us by paying like $.25 per figure for the license so it can charge us $20 more.

Thanks for the heads up! Ordered!

ScottyP wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:That Soundwave is pretty damn awesome but 150$can plus taxes is a bit ruff. Paying for it would be a bitch. So I'll just sit like a good boy for a sale.

The last couple of these say this is sagely advice.

My dumbass just went and grabbed one on Amazon anyway

My plan was also to wait for a sale. Then it sold out for pre-orders on Amazon. Once it came back in stock FOMO took over and mine will be here today. Of the 3 released so far and the upcoming Triple T, this is the one I wanted the most, so oh well, full price it is. I'll hate myself later if it does stay in stock long enought to get a discount.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

ScottyP wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:That Soundwave is pretty damn awesome but 150$can plus taxes is a bit ruff. Paying for it would be a bitch. So I'll just sit like a good boy for a sale.

The last couple of these say this is sagely advice.

My dumbass just went and grabbed one on Amazon anyway

My plan was also to wait for a sale. Then it sold out for pre-orders on Amazon. Once it came back in stock FOMO took over and mine will be here today. Of the 3 released so far and the upcoming Triple T, this is the one I wanted the most, so oh well, full price it is. I'll hate myself later if it does stay in stock long enought to get a discount.

You did the right thing, my gut tells me that this has a lower production run than the other sets and won't be around. Plus this is by far the best set in terms of playability and you get a Masterpiece figure included as well.

AcademyofDrX wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

ScottyP wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:That Soundwave is pretty damn awesome but 150$can plus taxes is a bit ruff. Paying for it would be a bitch. So I'll just sit like a good boy for a sale.

The last couple of these say this is sagely advice.

My dumbass just went and grabbed one on Amazon anyway

My plan was also to wait for a sale. Then it sold out for pre-orders on Amazon. Once it came back in stock FOMO took over and mine will be here today. Of the 3 released so far and the upcoming Triple T, this is the one I wanted the most, so oh well, full price it is. I'll hate myself later if it does stay in stock long enought to get a discount.

You did the right thing, my gut tells me that this has a lower production run than the other sets and won't be around. Plus this is by far the best set in terms of playability and you get a Masterpiece figure included as well.

I'm not trying to talk anyone out of getting it, but Pulse, EE, and BBTS are all still taking preorders. Both of the previous sets received steep discounts. I would be surprised if this sells out anytime particularly soon.

I'm waiting for my pre-order from Pulse to ship. While I'm waiting, I ordered 25th anniversary figures for other Dreadnoks so I can have a whole squad in place when it comes in.

I hate to say but I don't think the 25th figures will be in scale with the Thunder Machine and the Retro figures.

AcademyofDrX wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

AcademyofDrX wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

ScottyP wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:That Soundwave is pretty damn awesome but 150$can plus taxes is a bit ruff. Paying for it would be a bitch. So I'll just sit like a good boy for a sale.

The last couple of these say this is sagely advice.

My dumbass just went and grabbed one on Amazon anyway

My plan was also to wait for a sale. Then it sold out for pre-orders on Amazon. Once it came back in stock FOMO took over and mine will be here today. Of the 3 released so far and the upcoming Triple T, this is the one I wanted the most, so oh well, full price it is. I'll hate myself later if it does stay in stock long enought to get a discount.

You did the right thing, my gut tells me that this has a lower production run than the other sets and won't be around. Plus this is by far the best set in terms of playability and you get a Masterpiece figure included as well.

I'm not trying to talk anyone out of getting it, but Pulse, EE, and BBTS are all still taking preorders. Both of the previous sets received steep discounts. I would be surprised if this sells out anytime particularly soon.

I'm waiting for my pre-order from Pulse to ship. While I'm waiting, I ordered 25th anniversary figures for other Dreadnoks so I can have a whole squad in place when it comes in.

I hate to say but I don't think the 25th figures will be in scale with the Thunder Machine and the Retro figures.

They're a little taller in the cockpits, but they still fit, at least based on my experience with the other two. I hate the articulation and sculpts of the O-ring figures, so I'm mixing and matching.

As for scale, 5mm at 1/18 isn't going to make me lose any sleep at night.

Good to know they fit. My experience back during the era was mixed, some fit with the vehicles available at the time, some didn't.

AcademyofDrX wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

AcademyofDrX wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

AcademyofDrX wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

ScottyP wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:That Soundwave is pretty damn awesome but 150$can plus taxes is a bit ruff. Paying for it would be a bitch. So I'll just sit like a good boy for a sale.

The last couple of these say this is sagely advice.

My dumbass just went and grabbed one on Amazon anyway

My plan was also to wait for a sale. Then it sold out for pre-orders on Amazon. Once it came back in stock FOMO took over and mine will be here today. Of the 3 released so far and the upcoming Triple T, this is the one I wanted the most, so oh well, full price it is. I'll hate myself later if it does stay in stock long enought to get a discount.

You did the right thing, my gut tells me that this has a lower production run than the other sets and won't be around. Plus this is by far the best set in terms of playability and you get a Masterpiece figure included as well.

I'm not trying to talk anyone out of getting it, but Pulse, EE, and BBTS are all still taking preorders. Both of the previous sets received steep discounts. I would be surprised if this sells out anytime particularly soon.

I'm waiting for my pre-order from Pulse to ship. While I'm waiting, I ordered 25th anniversary figures for other Dreadnoks so I can have a whole squad in place when it comes in.

I hate to say but I don't think the 25th figures will be in scale with the Thunder Machine and the Retro figures.

They're a little taller in the cockpits, but they still fit, at least based on my experience with the other two. I hate the articulation and sculpts of the O-ring figures, so I'm mixing and matching.

As for scale, 5mm at 1/18 isn't going to make me lose any sleep at night.

Good to know they fit. My experience back during the era was mixed, some fit with the vehicles available at the time, some didn't.

This is the Walmart exclusive retro Cobra Commander in the Megatron HISS tank. Based on what I've read, this is the same scale as the 25th anniversary line. There isn't any extra clearance, but he fits.

PXL_20231130_191108787.jpg

I thought I'd posed Joes in the Striker, but maybe not. There's plenty of headroom but not much legroom, and Cobra Commander was just not fitting in there. I'll have to try some other figures to see if that is going to be a problem with the larger scale. I'm not particularly worried; I may just want to hang on to the retro O-ring figures as drivers while I was planning to unload them. Like the Striker, the Thunder Machine should have plenty of headroom, but the legroom might be the bigger issue.

Legroom is an issue, might have been that way on the original.

-Kanrabat- wrote:The Super7 Re-Action Joes are good alternatives to fill in Megs's and Bee's extra seat.

Late next year Super7 is going to start releasing O-ring figures in the vintage Hasbro style at around the ReAction price point. They're promising characters from the cartoon and comics so there's bound to be some figures that will look good with these Collaborative figures. I'm personally hoping for an Old Snake (I know we got one from Fun Pub, but not in the vintage style).

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:The Super7 Re-Action Joes are good alternatives to fill in Megs's and Bee's extra seat.

Late next year Super7 is going to start releasing O-ring figures in the vintage Hasbro style at around the ReAction price point. They're promising characters from the cartoon and comics so there's bound to be some figures that will look good with these Collaborative figures. I'm personally hoping for an Old Snake (I know we got one from Fun Pub, but not in the vintage style).

Emerje

For that matter, Hiya Toys is doing a line of 4" Joes for anyone like me that prefers a more modern look. Scale/fit may still be an issue, and those designs are more like Classified than the vintage toys or the cartoon.

I know they were marketing the collab figures as "the toys you wish you had when you were a kid," but the TF engineering is way too complex to meet that standard, even if it's still well short of Generations. I'm not sure how I would describe my own collecting philosophy here, but it's best satisfied with the modern Hasbro 25th anniversary figures rather than the more contemporary retro or advanced figures. If they hadn't done the retro modern wave at Walmart just a few years ago, I might not have bothered with any 4" Joes at all and just relied on the O-ring pack-ins, but I always liked the 25th anniversary style, even though I sold my small collection years ago.

This is also a good example of how complicated toy collecting is now. There are at least two or three broad categories of Joe, split across multiple product lines in multiple companies, with almost all of those styles being decades old. I don't want a modern vintage-style figure or a contemporary modern-style figure, I want a retro modern-style figure. (And don't confuse that with a modern retro-style figure.)

To be less of a jerk and to maybe help anyone else thinking of getting involved with this mess, here are broad categories that I'm aware of. Dates may not be 100% accurate.

Vintage style 3.75" O-ring:
Hasbro 1982-2007
Hasbro retro O-ring 2020-2023
Super7 O-ring 2024-

Retro 3.75" 5 POA:
Super7 ReAction 2021-present

Modern 4":
Hasbro 2007-2021
Hiya Toys 2023-present