San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review

Friday, August 26th, 2016 11:44pm CDT

Categories: Toy News, Event News
Posted by: D-Maximal_Primal Views: 30,168

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Thanks to fellow Seibertronian Cyrano we bring to you a bunch of new pictures and a little review on the San Diego Comic Con Exclusive Tablet Soundwave! Soundwave is a very complex piece of real life turned into a robot, and does a nice job of capturing the classic Soundwave look. Check out all the images below, and let us know what you think!

Cyrano wrote:Anyway, he's a very nice Transformer. It's a wonderful tablet, even if the screen does look a little shattered. Just like the real thing, his glossy screen is prone to picking up fingerprints.

He has nice, nonfunctional volume, power and lock buttons on the sides

And a headphone jack...

...That can snugly fit an actual pair of 'phones! It's very snug though, so I wouldn't do it often.

He has a pretty convincing camera in the back

But the rest of the back is pretty much just the best robot pancake you've ever seen.

For the transformation, the bottom part comes off

The back of it stores the two guns

...Which can combine stick together into a bigger gun.

The rest of the bottom part transforms into a little robot animal buddy. I've heard it called Laserbeak, but I think it looks a lot more like Ratbat. The tablet's dataport is a bit of a stretch as a face, but it's also kind of cute.

A chunk of the screen is also removed for transformation, which is then a shield for the robot. The inside has some nice sculpting, with bits that look like processors, etc.

The rest of the tablet transforms quite nicely. The robot is pretty thin, as expected, but adds extra bulk in pretty much all the right places to still feel like he has enough substance.

He's remarkably well articulated too, although a little quirkily. Lots of swivels and hinges, many of which are ratchety. His legs especially have a ton of range, including some of the most flexible ankles I've ever played with. He's well balanced too, thanks largely to his sizeable feet.

His biggest articulation limit is that his head doesn't move. In order to make it three dimensional enough, it's actually formed of three slabs. It's pretty fun and satisfying in the transformation, but definitely makes him less expressive.

Thanks to smart placement of the connection parts for the bottom part of the tablet, Ratbat can also connect to Soundwave's back as a pair of wings/fins/whatever. It looks nice and it's good to have the extra interaction.

Here he is alongside Device Label Soundwave and Vector Prime. Most of my robots are packed right now from a recent-ish move, so I didn't have any other Soundwaves handy.

That's all the pictures I took! If anyone has any questions or wants to see anything I didn't single out let me know!

Credit(s): Cyrano @ Seibertron

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Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1819095)
Posted by RAR on August 27th, 2016 @ 12:28am CDT

I'm pleased with my (regular retail) Gold version it's actually really hard to tell which one you are buying though as to many Chinese sellers actually try to fob off the gold one as the more silverish SDCC version .

If the two colours were more distinct it would have helped - but the Mi Pad comes in many colours so they might just repaint it again... Soundblaster Black would look amazing.

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1819111)
Posted by Cyrano on August 27th, 2016 @ 2:35am CDT

I do think it'd look better if they did something else for the orange on this version. A nice Soundwavey blue would've been great.

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1819477)
Posted by 1984forever on August 28th, 2016 @ 10:46am CDT

I hate to point out the obvious, but this does not capture any "Classic Soundwave" look. It wouldn't be Soundwave even if it were blue. Plus, the alt mode is a complete disaster.

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1819478)
Posted by Hellscream9999 on August 28th, 2016 @ 10:50am CDT

1984forever wrote:I hate to point out the obvious, but this does not capture any "Classic Soundwave" look. It wouldn't be Soundwave even if it were blue. Plus, the alt mode is a complete disaster.

It's not supposed to be 'classic soundwave', neither was movie soundwave or even prime soundwave which this obviously draws largely from

And, oh no, the alt mode has panel lines and a bad bottom, because no other tf has had that before

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1819500)
Posted by 1984forever on August 28th, 2016 @ 12:49pm CDT

Hellscream9999 wrote:
1984forever wrote:I hate to point out the obvious, but this does not capture any "Classic Soundwave" look. It wouldn't be Soundwave even if it were blue. Plus, the alt mode is a complete disaster.

It's not supposed to be 'classic soundwave', neither was movie soundwave or even prime soundwave which this obviously draws largely from

And, oh no, the alt mode has panel lines and a bad bottom, because no other tf has had that before

I don't think it's supposed to be Soundwave at all, but if Soundwave's name wasn't attached it probably wouldn't sell. They should have called it Reflector so completionists would be compelled to buy three.

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1819540)
Posted by Hellscream9999 on August 28th, 2016 @ 3:46pm CDT

1984forever wrote:
Hellscream9999 wrote:
1984forever wrote:I hate to point out the obvious, but this does not capture any "Classic Soundwave" look. It wouldn't be Soundwave even if it were blue. Plus, the alt mode is a complete disaster.

It's not supposed to be 'classic soundwave', neither was movie soundwave or even prime soundwave which this obviously draws largely from

And, oh no, the alt mode has panel lines and a bad bottom, because no other tf has had that before
I don't think it's supposed to be Soundwave at all, but if Soundwave's name wasn't attached it probably wouldn't sell. They should have called it Reflector so completionists would be compelled to buy three.

Your argument holds no water. It looks like an amalgamation of several previous incarnations of soundwave - even carrying over color choices from movie soundwave (all of whom were very well received), it also has his 'minion' gimmick, as well as turning into a 'data/communication' device (only updated now for the era of social media). Also, it was very well received when it was first revealed - probably because it was a cool and intriguing design - and was lamented when it was also revealed to be a China exclusive (or something similar). It was hotly anticipated when it was announced that hasbro would be selling it at SDCC, and it was the only one of the three tf exclusives that has sold out, and did so quite quickly. Considering the fact that it is not part of any line (classics, gen, univ) and therefore has no other figures to go with it, there was never anything 'compelling' fans to buy it other than being a cool figure - which it is.

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1819674)
Posted by cacarpenter89 on August 29th, 2016 @ 8:43am CDT

If you look at the top of the thigh, there are two pegs sticking up; fold the one to the outside inwards and snap the two pieces of each leg together. There's a panel that will pop out when you do.

Did the same thing when I first transformed it; couldn't figure out why it'd be designed with just friction to keep it together until I went back through the directions.

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1819899)
Posted by Agamemnon on August 29th, 2016 @ 9:05pm CDT

cacarpenter89 wrote:If you look at the top of the thigh, there are two pegs sticking up; fold the one to the outside inwards and snap the two pieces of each leg together. There's a panel that will pop out when you do.

Did the same thing when I first transformed it; couldn't figure out why it'd be designed with just friction to keep it together until I went back through the directions.

Sorry, this appears to be a bit out of context. Which figure are you speaking to?

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1819901)
Posted by Decepticon Stryker on August 29th, 2016 @ 9:16pm CDT

I really like this Soundwave. Shame he's sold out. Actually, if this design was used in the movies or if Soundblaster is added to the movies then I would semi-forgive Michael Bay. I would only fully forgive him if he revived Starscream.

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1820275)
Posted by RAR on August 31st, 2016 @ 4:18am CDT

Decepticon Stryker wrote:I really like this Soundwave. Shame he's sold out. Actually, if this design was used in the movies or if Soundblaster is added to the movies then I would semi-forgive Michael Bay. I would only fully forgive him if he revived Starscream.

The Gold one is still available there is a ton of them on Ebay... so much so it's actually hard to find someone selling the silver one at all (they are often selling the gold one and lying about it being the SDCC version).

Agamemnon wrote:
cacarpenter89 wrote:If you look at the top of the thigh, there are two pegs sticking up; fold the one to the outside inwards and snap the two pieces of each leg together. There's a panel that will pop out when you do.

Did the same thing when I first transformed it; couldn't figure out why it'd be designed with just friction to keep it together until I went back through the directions.

Sorry, this appears to be a bit out of context. Which figure are you speaking to?

They are talking about Soundwave's legs and how they have a flip out piece of automorph type stuff that secures the legs properly using a rectangular tab.

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1820936)
Posted by shauyaun on September 1st, 2016 @ 7:17pm CDT

Ever look at this EPICE scene and wonder where it's going down?

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1820939)
Posted by shauyaun on September 1st, 2016 @ 7:25pm CDT

Well I was looking through my stuff and found my formax poster that came with the SDCC fortmax which I had put away since I got him

I toke a good long look at it and saw them!

Yeah I have seen them before but never thought about it too much but I'm confident that this two pictures have been taken at the same time and from obviously deferent perspective here's what made it clear for me
I was always wondering what the green bit that windblade is scratching and trying to hold on was

Well this windblade is doing the same

So I looked for more...
I also found fortmax's sword in the background

For me this gives a whole new meaning to the big picture!(not sure what I just said)

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1820942)
Posted by shauyaun on September 1st, 2016 @ 7:31pm CDT

Oh does anyone know how to decipher this?

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1820958)
Posted by shauyaun on September 1st, 2016 @ 8:09pm CDT

Ok so this is what it says
"UHEY VOYAGED LAR WITH WOREDS TO SEED ON THEIR RETURN THE SMALLEST VOICE DO HEED."
I think
Any ideas?

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1824403)
Posted by Decepticon Stryker on September 13th, 2016 @ 12:08pm CDT

Shauyaun wrote:Ok so this is what it says
"UHEY VOYAGED LAR WITH WOREDS TO SEED ON THEIR RETURN THE SMALLEST VOICE DO HEED."
I think
Any ideas?

Might want to double check that translation. Because that makes no sense whatsoever.

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1824772)
Posted by Jelze Bunnycat on September 14th, 2016 @ 1:30am CDT

Shauyaun wrote:Oh does anyone know how to decipher this?

Let me take a whack at it:

"They voyaged far with worlds to seed on, their return the smallest voice do heed"

That's an obvious reference to the ancient Titans, used for "seeding" or colonizing other worlds, and controlled by a Titan Master, the "smallest voice".

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1824874)
Posted by shauyaun on September 14th, 2016 @ 2:01pm CDT

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
Shauyaun wrote:Oh does anyone know how to decipher this?

Let me take a whack at it:

"They voyaged far with worlds to seed on, their return the smallest voice do heed"

That's an obvious reference to the ancient Titans, used for "seeding" or colonizing other worlds, and controlled by a Titan Master, the "smallest voice".

Nice!
Also the text on the Titan force instructions just says "Titan force"

Re: San Diego Comic Con 2016 Exclusive Soundwave Images and Review (1824876)
Posted by Jelze Bunnycat on September 14th, 2016 @ 2:07pm CDT

And I goofed on the punctuation: the comma goes after "heed" to make it rhyme.