Soundwave's design in the Bumblebee was so ridiculous. It took the already boxy AF design and made it twice as boxy. So much so that it made him look kind of obese, though not as bad as Energon Optimus. I think some poses rectified his husky proportions, but there's no denying that he was even less refined than the G1 toy. Amusingly, despite taking a design with a pre-established robot mode, he looked like he couldn't have a proper alternate mode due to the ILM designers forgetting what kind of altmode and transformation would go well with him! Hasbro had to rectify this shit because their designers know how to make Transformers more than the people who worked on Bumblebee and claimed to be G1 fans. So this will be interesting to see who's alt modes work and who's down (especially when they didn't transform on Cybertron compared to Bumblebee and the Seekers). With all that said, let's take a look and see how this figure turned out.
I normally start in vehicle mode, but much like how I decided to start off the Dragonstorm review with the robot modes of Dragonicus and Stormreign, I decided to start the review of all Bumblebee movie characters who DIDN'T transform on-screen in their robot modes just to see how successful their vehicle modes would be. As expected, the robot mode looks rather nicely done to the CGI model, I'm sure some people will say that the deco is lacking, but it's perfectly fine when the sculpted details do enough to keep me happy. The white plastic looks nice and crisp while the gray plastic is appropriately fitting for bare metal. The proportions weirdly look less fat on this toy than on the CGI model, which might be good; his arms are still stubby, though. The figure's paint apps are properly applied with no obvious misalignments, including the cassette door and the red lines around the cuffs of the wrists.
Head sculpt is very amusing. Sometimes, you get that weird illusion where the visor looks sad when viewed from a downward angle, but here, it almost looks like the visor was made to look sad instead of threatening, and that's part of the character design! At least it has a good amount of paint apps that are applied throughout to make it more complete, especially with the size of it. His articulation is generally the same as one would expect with the average Voyager: ball-jointed head, shoulders that move front and back on a swivel and in and out on a hinge, bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows if you move the kibble around, a waist swivel with a crotch piece that flaps up for better range, hips that move front and back, in and out, thigh swivels, double-jointed knees, and feet that swivel and pivot. Apart from his signature shoulder cannon, which has a hole for a specific reason, we'll revisit, Soundwave also comes with a generic rifle that is cast in blue plastic and painted a brownish-gray to go with the gray plastic of the toy. Not very character-specific, is it?
For a robot mode size comparison, here he is in-between Optimus Prime and Starscream. Obviously, Optimus Prime was done up rather well, and I do look forward to seeing how he'll turn out if we see this figure retooled for Rise of the Beasts, but it is quite clear that Optimus and Starscream did have some sacrifices to go with the transformation compromises. Optimus has some kibble and does look rather fat from the front, while Starscream has some thicker than usual wings for this design in addition to feeling rather unusually proportioned. Soundwave basically matches the CGI model very well, and I'm sure it's his strongest point for those that don't care about his alt mode or transformation...
...because the latter seems rather fan-modey as far as how it works all around. Soundwave sort of transforms vaguely like his G1 self with the legs bending while moving to the sides, his chest being the centerpiece, the arms tucking away, but without ANY of the refined altmode specifics that would make the G1 toy good. Sure, there are tabs that keep everything together, but it's still not a good transformation all around. And as for the former, by which I mean the vehicle mode, by which I actually mean the crab pancake cruiser mode, this is one of the WORST excuses for an alternate mode I have ever seen in god knows how long. Just as terrible as the alternate modes that Cybertron Metroplex and Animated Megatron's Cybertronian modes had before this toy. Literally doesn't try to pass itself as a proper vehicle mode, even when compared to MV1 Megatron and The Fallen; okay, The Fallen didn't properly transform, but at least Megatron's alternate mode had new pieces that convinced people it was a new mode, like the nosecone and the wings. Not even the inclusion of weapons can save this thing! Like, holy cow what an embarrassment all around. I know a 3P toy did a Soundwave that turned into a battering-ram type of vehicle but that kind of works since it at least changes its shape even more drastically than this thing! And then you look at this guy from the underside and it's just as lousy as opening up the windshield on the AOE First Edition Optimus Prime and seeing a lousily hidden bust driving the truck. All around, this figure of Soundwave may have an accurate robot mode, but his transformation and vehicle mode leaves a lot to be desired, and I do mean A LOT. This guy is the weakest of the Bumblebee movie characters that did not transform on Cybertron; I know Optimus didn't either because they rushed out a vague addition of a truck mode that doesn't match up with his robot mode (the same reason why Bumblebee has a half-assed Camaro bot mode that is just him with a new shirt), so it's no surprise that not even Hasbro can salvage this lousy character design.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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