Shockwave's had some pretty iffy alt modes in the past, aaaand it looks like the Cyber Battalion line continues that trend. Shockwave's alternate mode this time around is a flying gun-shaped ship, and honestly it looks pretty good-- in the front. It's a long, square ship in the front with an "eye" in the center that of course brings to mind Shockwave's face, and the front portion of his G1 blaster alt mode. There's a little fold-out landing gear piece, and although on the sides you can see his upper robot legs a little, they're mostly covered up in this mode on the top with fold-out panels, and they fit in with the overall silhouette of the front portion anyways. The back portion of this mode, though, is where things fall apart. There are two wings with little exhaust portions on the ends, but they're too low on the toy overall, being lower than everything else-- it looks a bit off. What REALLY looks off, though, are the robot arms just kinda hanging out back there above the wings, with the arm/gun folded in (the latter not convincingly). I guess they're supposed to be two more thrusters or something, but they really just look like two arms with the hands chopped off. The main body of Shockwave is also curved up to point forward in this mode, behind the long barrel-- and it doesn't really match with what's on the sides of it. The arms and wings are too much lower than the body to really look like they're connected, and although the body DOES come up just a bit above the front "barrel" of the ship to peek out like a cockpit or something, it doesn't lock into place in this mode and there's a definite noticeable gap if you look at the toy from the side-- you can see right through a section in front of this chest piece. There also isn't any real back to this section of the toy-- just a large hollow cavity with Shockwave's robot head in it. What's weird is that although Shockwave's head is nice and tucked away back there, what replaces it when you flip it down is a piece that looks a LOT like his head, minus the antennae... and paint. There's a rectangular piece near the back there with a little circle in the middle, and although there's some other subtle differences like a slight angle to the head and a little "chin" piece at the bottom, it still looks quite a lot like a little Shockwave's face back there, unpainted. It's also really unnecessary, since the very front of this mode looks like a big "squat" version of Shockwave's rectangular face-eye, too. We get, it Hasbro, he has one creepy eye. You're kind of belaboring the point a bit too much here. For colors in this mode, of course Shockwave is mostly purple-- a dark shade of purple for the most part, with a fairly lighter shade of the plastic used on the ends of the wings, the panels that cover up the back end of the front barrel section, the landing gear, the faux head near the back, and painted on the robot chest, a small portion of the top of the front portion of the barrel, and the ends of the arms. They both contrast and complement each other decently enough, though I wish the light purple was a bit lighter still for more contrast. There's also some gray plastic on the bits of the upper robot legs and upper robot arms visible in this mode, as well as on the very front, and some silver paint on the sides of the front barrel section, on the front of his folded-back arms, and around the Decepticon symbol emblazoned on the top of his robot chest. It helps break up the colors a little, but another color or two added in there as an accent to break up all the purple wouldn't have hurt. The mold detailing is decent, having some small things like vents, bolded plating, simple shapes, and the like here and there, but it's nothing particularly intricate-- which is par for the course for the "simplified" Cyber Battalion line.
    Transformation to Shockwave's robot mode is rather obvious-- split the front sections part, fold out the feet, and fold in the little extra panels to form the legs; fold in the wings onto the upper back; rotate the chest back and the head up; and then rotate the arms forward and the hands out, and you're done. The end result is a considerably more solid mode, and one that looks pretty close to Shockwave's original G1 form-- minus the little folded-up wings on the back, which other than restricting his backwards shoulder articulation don't bother me, as they stay back there and out of the way of messing with his silhouette pretty nicely. Shockwave's proportions are pretty accurate overall, with his arms, chest, head, and legs generally proportioned pretty well to each other-- maybe the legs are just a TITCH long, but only just. All the things are here that make Shockwave Shockwave; his left gun-hand mozzle; angular shoulders; a long purple angular piece on the front of his chest; and fairly square-ish legs (though they're hollow looking at them from the back). His feet aren't quite as large as they usually are since they don't form anything substantial, just the backside of the front of the ship mode. The head is particularly well-done, having just the right proportions, silver on his antennae, yellow on his eye, and black around the rest of his "face". The back of the head piece also locks the whole central section in place in this mode, unlike in vehicle mode. There's some dark metallic pale purple paint apps on the front of his lower legs and on the sides of his lower arms, which are kinda neat in the way they catch the light, looking black from some angles and purple from others. There's some silver and yellow on the abs, though since so much is shared between his two modes visually, there isn't much other than those few spots (and the head) that isn't seen somewhere in vehicle mode. The gray is more obvious with the upper arms, upper legs, and feet, though, so his purple is broken up a bit more in this mode color-wise. For articulation, Shockwave can move at the head, shoulders (at two points), elbows, inwards at the wrists, and movement at the hips (at two points), side rotation at the knees, and slight movement at the ankles. I really wish he had waist rotation or knees that could bend-- the transformation doesn't inhibit either of those points-- but it's still better than on many other Cyber Battalion toys.
    Cyber Battalion Shockwave has one of the best robot modes in the line, with some great proportions and a very "modernized G1" look to him. However, he really pays for it with his vehicle mode, which-- though decent-looking from the front-- has a horrible back end, with oddly positioned wings and a main body and very obvious arms. If you want a simple Shockwave that's still a bit on the large size for the price, this'll do in a pinch, but he'll probably be spending a lot of time in robot mode.

Review by Beastbot

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