Soundwave
(Legion; DotM)
Teeny Soundwave has the
same DotM vehicle mode as his larger, harder-to-find versions-- i.e., a
Mercedes SLS AMG sportscar. Given that it's a licensed sportscar, his vehicle
mode is pretty darned accurate in its proportions, with absolutely no robot
mode extras whatsoever (not even on the back end; a bit impressive for
a Legion-class figure). Unfortunately, despite its solid construction,
this mold LOOKS pretty boring in this mode. It's just a gray sportscar
without any sort of silver paint or anything, the gray really only broken
up by the dark silvery blue metallic paint used for the windows. And even
in that respect, they're both dark colors, so it's not that much of a contrast.
Heck, ALL of Soundwave's colors are dark here-- beyond his black wheels
and front grill, even his taillights are a dark shade of red. This lends
itself to a toy that will very much blend in with other TFs, particularly
at this small size on a movie shelf that already has an overabundance of
gray.
Soundwave's robot mode
transformation is-- for the most part-- pretty typical for Legion car-former,
with the arms forming from the sides of the car mode while the roof sticks
off his lower back/butt and the car hood becomes his chest. The car hood's
spaced a little lower than I'd like, though-- being right behind his hips,
they limit what little leg articulation Soundwave has. His arms are overly
long and two-dimensional, but this is par for the course on Legion-class
sportscar TFs, so I'm not docking as many points from him on this compared
to what I would on, say, a larger Transformer. The mold detailing on his
vehicle mode was already pretty decent-- with all the vents and whatnot--
but his robot mode mold detailing is great too, with his headsculpt particularly
spot-on and things like his speakers on his inner arms and waist detailed
quite well, too. Not much paint detailing is exclusive to his robot mode--
namely his visor is painted dark red, and two of his arm-speakers on each
arm are in a light electric blue that I wish was used more on the toy.
Thus, Soundwave still suffers from an almost entirely dull color scheme
in this mode too, aside from those light blue speaker semi-circles. At
least it's broken up a bit more here by his window and grill paint apps
and the couple of black pieces on his upper arms and legs. As for articulation,
Soundwave can move at two points at the shoulders, two points at the hips,
and-- oddly enough-- at the ankles, a true rarity for a Legion-class figure.
This is because of the odd way his legs transform, rotating outwards at
the hip and then rotating around at the knees. The plus to this is that,
because of this ankle movement, Soundwave is quite stable in this mode.
The downside of this is that he has no knee articulation because of this
set-up.
It's a shame that none
of the larger versions of the DotM Soundwave design made it to the States,
but even this little Legion-class version is still pretty decent. Sure,
it's got some definite downsides-- namely a really dull color scheme, although
obviously it's movie-accurate-- and oddly proportioned arms and limited
leg articulation, but other than that it's a pretty good design and one
of the better DotM figures in the size class. Recommended, particularly
if the larger versions of the guy aren't within your price range due to
their exclusive nature.
Review by Beastbot