Bumper Battler Soundwave's vehicle mode proportions are slightly altered from that of his mainline toy's, though not in the more "chibi-ish" way that you'd expect-- after all, Soundwave's mainline toy is already squat enough. For the Bumper Battler, the bumper is significantly larger and the back end comes more to a "point" instead of being rounded off. Minor, to be sure, but still worth noting. The color scheme works quite well, though it's worth noting that Soundwave's blue is slightly lighter on the Bumper Battler than on the mainline toy. The electric greenish blue still works magnificently as an accent color, though, and like most Bumper Battlers, Soundwave has plenty of paint detailing to go around this time. He has all the details that his deluxe had, plus some extra stuff, like the "volume bar-like" detailing on the rear end is now painted black-and-electric-blue. The "play buttons" detailing on the front bumper is now an interesting shade of orange, which actually works very well with the overall color scheme. I also like the style of Soundwave's name emblazoned near the rear of his vehicle mode-- it has a volume bar-like detail behind it, and the haphazard style of the lettering makes it look like they're being "rocked" from music. Very cool. As you'd expect from an Animated toy, though-- particularly a Bumper Battler-- the mold detailing is fairly sparse. Like all Bumper Battlers, pressing down on the Decepticon symbol on his hood will activate anywhere from 1-4 sequential sound effects which are played out in a semi-randomized manner. It's pretty cool how many different ordered sound effects you can get out of the toy, and they're never played in a manner that doesn't make any sense-- and yes, the show voice actor does Soundwave's voice on the toy. Pressing in on the front bumper of his vehicle mode will automatically transform him to robot mode and also play some of these random sound effects. Here's a list of all the different sound effects I got out of Bumper Battler Soundwave after a couple dozen button presses (though again, with the vast number of different random ordering of sound effects he has, I may have missed a few):
- "Crashing" noise
- "Engine revving" noise
- "Tires screeching" noise
- "Transforming" noise
- "Broadcasting/weird sound manipulation" noise
- Mutated "transforming in reverse" noise
- "Ow."
- "I am Soundwave."
- "I am Decepticon."
- "Get out of my way." (Sometimes followed by "Autobot")
- "Transform." (Sometimes preceded by "Soundwave")
- "Broadcast attack signal."
- "Automatons..." (followed by "attack, attack." or "rise.")
- "Attack the Autobot."
- "Attack 'Bots."
    Like all Bumper Battlers, Soundwave's "robot mode" is just his upper body poking out of his vehicle mode, but the robot mode is more of a gimmick than an actual focus of these toys anyways. Regardless, the mold and paint detailing on his robot parts is very well-done with pretty much everything painted that needs to be-- his face, shoulder-speakers, the backside of his hands, and his chest, waist, and even the upper legs are all painted. I'm not fond of the odd ugly dull goldish green color used for his faceplate and part of his chest, though, as opposed to the more metallic gold color that was used on the mainline toy. Unlike some of the other Bumper Battlers, due to the boxy shape of the top half of the vehicle mode that Soundwave's robot mode detailing fits in and Soundwave's boxy robot parts, it doesn't look his robot mode is "squeezed in there", which is certainly a good thing. What's NOT a good thing is that his robot parts can't move at all-- the norm for Bumper Battlers, but still a bit disappointing. Also like all Bumper Battlers, Soundwave has a rather unsightly gap below his robot mode parts that is bereft of paint and you're honestly supposed to ignore. However, the mold detailing used in this area is quite good, with things like volume bars and guitar strings molded into that area. Part of it even looks like Laserbeak molded flat into his car mode. Odd...
    Bumper Battler Soundwave is one of the best of the sub-line, with a great color scheme and great paint detailing. His robot mode detailing is also quite good, and his sound effects are great. If you know a kid who's too young to get the mainline toy, this is a nice substitute.

Review by Beastbot

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