So exciting.
… it’s important that you all know that in Transformers: Prime, Cliffjumper is going to be voiced by The Rock and that this is incredibly awesome.
My next batch of Generations toys got in from BigBadToyStore today. And by “today” I mean “8 fucking pm.” Jesus, UPS. It’s not a terribly exciting wave, consisting of my fifth iteration of the Sideswipe/Sunstreaker mold (and my third this year) and War for Cybertron Soundwave. I’ve been kind of lukewarm on him since his design isn’t terribly interesting. And he transforms into a box. And he looks kind of awkward.
Laserbeak was busy that day.
He’s not the only transforming Soundwave toy who doesn’t come with a little dude, but it still feels like something is missing. When your schtick is transforming into a box, even a box with wheels, you kinda need that extra little Mini-Con-esque interaction to work up some interest. His chest does open and you can fit his two weapons inside. Since they’re cylinders and they both go in face-first, they do kind of look like cassette spools through the translucent chest window. That’s a consolation prize, I guess.
But seriously, that altmode is hella boring.
Tomorrow morning/afternoon/whenever I’m hitting the road for Intervention The Webcomics Convention in Rockville, Maryland. I’ll be at booth 53 and I’ll be doing a panel on Saturday at 7! Friday, the first day of the con, is the thirteenth anniversary of me webcomicking, so I guess it’s only appropriate that I spend it shilling my webcomic wares in foreign lands.
But I’m sure I can come up with even extra way to celebrate it.
In the meantime, enjoy this Hijinks Ensue comic spawned by a conversation Joel and I had at AnimeFest last weekend. There is a veritable sea of abs.
He also has an unofficial Cybertronic boombox mode
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=ec3iZHaoOYs
Check page 9 of the TFW2005 WFC Soundwave thread for an alternate boombox mode.
If I didn’t have my old G1 Soundwave I’d get this one for the Odieverse.
The rest of the WFC toys have been quite good, but soundwave is a bit of a letdown. No one part of him is in proportion with any other part. The lack of a cool minicon really hurts him as well. Heck, I bought titanium soundwave because laserbeak looked cool, and for all his faults this WFC toys is miles better than that soundwave.
Yeah, the weird proportions get me too. There’s especially little excuse for that when the alt-mode is “Cybertronic” and therefore easily modified to accommodate a nice robot mode. Maybe the designers were trying to go for xtreem with the shoulders and gut and whatever, but even then, that’s just very not-Soundwave. His old character-model was the squarest of the square, which fit his personality.
I’m glad that the WFC continuity seems to be part of Prime and not G1, so I don’t feel any extra compulsion to buy the toys. The only ones that appeal to me visually are Bumblebee and Megatron, but the former sounds like a pain in the ass to actually play with, and the latter really only appeals to me because the first Cybertronic Megatron toy was such a disappointment. Objectively, WFC Megs doesn’t spin my wheels enough to justify owning another hunk of plastic.
I dunno, I kinda like the altmode. Robot mode… passable.
I know none of the cassettes will fit into WFC Soundwave’s chest, but what about minicon Laserbeak from Transformers: Cybertron? You know, the one that turns into a bomb. Will he fit? It seems like he’d have the right shape, but I have no idea about… Well… Length and thickness, What about the Titanium one? Just considering alternatives.
I’m pretty sure Cybertron Laserbeak is way too big for something a minicassette can’t fit into.
I’ve got to be honest. I absolutely LOVE The Rock! I think he’s freakin’ hilarious and actually a half decent actor. My all time favorite Saturday Night Live skit is the one with The Rock as Superman, and Lois, Jimmy, and the Chief are all laughing at him behind his back because it’s obvious that he’s Superman. The Rock plays a perfectly clueless and deadpan Clark Kent.
Heck, I even saw The Tooth Fairy.
How many Soundwaves don’t turn into boxes?
Beast Wars and Cybertron?
And those two aren’t even the same guy. In a odd way, this is fitting for continuity.
G2 Soundwave, both the released and unreleased ones. And MW Soundwave (and his Universe redeco) turn into boxes with treads and giant missiles, which are much better than normal boxes.
I think both modes look rather cool. I can just imagine his alt-mode ramming some hastily prepared defences and then standing up (Without any of that spinning around mode Transformers have to do), arms unfolding to shoot the defenders as they flee in panic.
….did you just use “hella”?
I have to say that Soundwave here is as disappointing as Cybertron Prime and to some extent Bumblebee. Soundwave here looks like some sort of bootleg, or Hong Kong special that was stolen off an assembly line and put on Ebay sans stickers or any sort of paintwork. It’s pretty much how Optimus looks as well.
(just catching up on the archives)
I think I like WFC Soundwave’s altmode better than his bot mode. as a bot, he’s full of holes, but paint the alt mode black and throw some more armor on there, and it could become the Batman Begins Tumbler!
if the armor swung back as a cape, the head was replaced, and the chest had a Bat symbol…