Here we have Soundwave in his vehicle mode. A stylized Scion XB with music elements, this alt mode further solidifies my belief that it was always meant to be a jukebox on wheels. I mean, if you remember the first Cars movie where one of the prankster cars, DJ, was a tuned out Scion with a jukebox in the trunk as well as tons of equalizers to make the altmode all about music. It has a Hot Wheels vibe with the angular profile, stylized rims, and thinner windows than normally possible on the real car, and the Allspark Blue accents actually compliment the toy rather than make it gaudy like in many Allspark Power figures (mainly the Target exclusive versions of Bee, Barry, Brawl, and Jazz). I also like the gold for the logo and the custom bumper made to resemble the tape deck buttons. I hope whoever came up with these design elements got a raise because they know how to make kickass cars I want to see in real life.
Laserbeak can tab on the top, which adds for some funky storage considering how much he comes off like a promotional tour car more than anything this time.
One thing that does suck is that the equalizer on the back is not painted, which was probably neglected because of the bot mode deco, but I would like to see some extra details on the back.
For an alt mode size comparison, here he is next to Earthrise Trailbreaker (the Legacy United Autobots Stand United version, specifically). While the scale has changed between figures from 2008 to 2020, these two seem fairly reasonable if we consider Trailbreaker is a pretty small pickup truck only bulked up with a camper on the back. Thankfully, Animated Soundwave feels nicer to hold and mess around with than Trailbreaker when it comes to plastic quality.
Before we go further in the robot mode, I need to point out a minor yet glaring design flaw: the knees are misassembled in a way that makes him bowlegged. It seems that only my copy was affected, yet this never happened for other people compared to the widespread issue that plagued many Electrostatic Soundwaves. The transformation isn't affected, but he's stuck in that cowboy stance.
First, you need to unscrew the shins from the inside of the lower legs. Be sure not to lose the screws and have them organized properly so they don't get assembled all wrong!
Then you must slide the joints from the swivel pegs before swapping them at the ball joints used for the knees. That way, the sides that are going inwards face each other while the flatter sides are flush with the thighs.
Once completed, you now have this look for the knees. Properly straightened and healthy for fighting against the humans oppressing the machines. On a side note, his beef with organic lifeforms could make him and Beast Era Megatron buddies while they teach the average Japanese Tokusatsu villain how to better hate the human race than just "erm they're heckin' bad ☝️🤓". That being said, that serial number on the shin looks rough...
Anyways, the transformation is pretty fun to go back and forth, mostly with the legs just doing all this twisting and turning to go from the front of the car to the lower legs, not to mention the way the tires face forward on the shoulders or the chest and head snapping in place feeling more satisfying than on other toys. It's this mix of nice plastic quality and addictive engineering that makes you want to pick up an Animated Transformer and play with it. The resulting robot mode is a great reimagining of the classic design Soundwave had in G1, but heavily creating an identity of its own unlike most past versions of Soundwave we had since 2018 that used the evergreen design. He's got shoulder speakers to amplify his audio, dynamic proportions rather than generic blocky ones, and an even stronger music influence than the G1 version's tape deck altmode. This dude could easily infiltrate a DJ booth and blend in fine enough if he doesn't want to attack the humans partying! You'd think the purists would be on board with this look, though I bet even a stylized remaining of the G1 design would be seen as an unholy insult that would trigger them as much as whenever Soundwave has a drastically different design like in the films or Prime.
His head sculpt is meant to be based on the way some characters from 2000 AD's ABC Warriors had their eyes shaped, but it's kind of vague in terms of how the homage turned out. Still, I love the badass shape of the visor contrasted by the bigger cheek guards and mouthplate, making him still look awesome in spite of being cartoony. He looks like he could play Fat Joe's album in the series and get away with licensing fees! How articulation consists of swivels at the neck and waist, ball joints at the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, as well as hinges at the ankles. Using the knobs on the guitar as pegs for the screw holes means he can be posed rocking it out with Laserbeak!
As for Laserbeak's bird mode, spite it in half to form the wings, slide the top part down to form a more feather-like tail, and shorten the guitar neck to complete the look. I wish the eyes were painted but this is still one of the best ways to integrate Laserbeak without making him a tape.
As far as reuses are concerned, the Takara version of Soundwave has a metallic coat of paint while the Decepticon insignias are fully colored. I may add some Reprolabels to complete the purple look on the logos for the Hasbro copy...
We later got Electrostatic Shockwave that casts him in grey with red and lavender accents. Instead of Laserbeak, he comes with Ratbat the keytar. I almost want to get this just for Ratbat, but the deco looks cool on Soundwave.
The Takara version manages to be even better, replacing the grey with black, lavender with silver, and adding some gold on Ratbat. If there was ever a Takara Animated repaint to get, make this one of them!
For anyone wondering how well he would look with a modern Animated toy, or at least one set ing as a retool, here he is next to the recent Age of the Primes version of Animated Wreck-Gar. Though clearly a retool of a spiky Junkion and not really matching the source material anywhere near as well as the other Animated characters we got in the series (other than the Autotrooper), these two Allspark Key creations (Allsparkeyrations?) don't look too different from each other when it comes to the overall aesthetics. Overall, Animated Soundwave is a great figure to have from the Deluxe Class cast of characters, especially with that rockstar vibe that makes him want to rock the face off any unsuspecting Autobot. Even if he wasn't part of the main group of Animated Decepticons, I recommend you get him ASAP.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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