Allegiances: Decepticon
Price: Varies by store-- around $125 (U.S.)
Difficulty of Sticker Application: N/A

(NOTE: Because this set is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the molds and the color schemes, and merely compares it to the original G1 Soundwave w/ Laserbeak & Ravage. For a review on the molds themselves-- with the exception of Ratbat, as this is the first review I've done with his G1 toy-- read the review of G1 Reissue Soundwave w/ Laserbeak & Ravage here.)
 

Buzzsaw

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Milky pale yellowish brown and chrome gold
Individual Rating: 6.9

See Soundwave's review for details.
 

Laserbeak

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Milky pale yellowish brown and chrome gold
Individual Rating: 6.9

See Soundwave's review for details.
 

Ratbat

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Milky pale yellowish brown and chrome gold
Individual Rating: 7.1

    Ratbat's alternate mode is, like the rest of his fellow compatriots in this set, a cassette tape. Some of the G1 cassettes tend to have alt modes where it's quite obvious where their robot/animal mode parts are and don't have entirely rectangular shapes on both sides in this mode, but not Ratbat. There's a couple of telltale hinges molded in the backside, but generally this makes for one solid-looking cassette tape (minus the minor lines in between plastic parts, which are completely unavoidable, of course). As much as I dislike this set being so one-tone in color, it does work well in making the cassette modes look even more solid, as there's no differentiating plastic colors to make some parts stand out more than others.
    In bat mode, Ratbat also makes for a fairly convincing mechanical bat-- his wings are definitely his main feature in this mode, folding out from the sides of the cassette mode like they do. They're a bit overly angular, but otherwise quite decent-looking. His body, though a bit TOO two-dimensional, is otherwise pretty good from a frontal, diagonal, or back view. He also has a tiny head, ears, and feet which fold out-- the ears in particular are quite small, intricate pieces even for a modern toy, much less a G1 mold. Unfortunately, this can also be their downfall-- said ears are a bit loose and can flop around quite easily. The little feet help to keep him stable, but aren't really good for much else, seeing how short they are. For overall articulation in this mode, Ratbat can move side-to-side at the ears, at two points near the "base" of each wing, back-and-forth at each leg and at a mid-point on each wing, and his head can rotate up and down a bit-- all told, pretty good movement for a little cassette tape. He has two boosters which claw-like fronts which can peg into his cassette mode holes in this mode to form decent back weapons. Like most G1 weapons, though, they can't be stored effectively in cassette mode. Oh, and in case you're wondering, Ratbat's diecast metal is his chest piece in this mode.
    While keeping in mind the limiations of G1 toys and cassette tapes, Ratbat manages to look pretty darn good overall. Yes, he's rather two-dimensional like almost every other G1 cassette toy, but his cassette mode looks pretty solid and his bat mode doesn't have any glaring flaws (though his floppy ears can be a tad annoying), and he's got some pretty cool wings to boot. My favorite mold out of Soundwave's cassette tapes, personally.
 

Ravage

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Milky pale yellowish brown and chrome gold
Individual Rating: 5.0

See Soundwave's review for details.
 

Soundwave

Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Milky pale yellowish brown and some tinted clear plastic, black, and chrome gold
Individual Rating: 8.0

    The "Linkin Park" edition of Soundwave is limited to 2,000 pieces worldwide, and features the band's signature on the left side of Soundwave's cassette mode, as well as their logo in the top center of Soundwave's chest. It appears that the band doesn't have much imagination when it comes to color schemes, though-- almost the sole color on Soundwave is a milky pale yellowish brown. Promo pics like those above make it look like he's painted completely gold, but that's not the case at all-- it's a tannish, maybe gold-tinted plastic, but that's it. And that's considerably uglier than a metallic gold, as well as Soundwave's original more varied color scheme. The parts that are chromed gold look pretty nice, but they aren't different enough from the plastic to serve as contrast colors. Soundwave does have a few-- VERY few-- paint apps in black, namely his faceplate, signature, and feet, but that's it. A shame, as using that color more liberally would have improved his overall look a bit. His cassette minions don't even have that-- they're completely either milky yellowish brown or chrome gold, and as such are pretty boring themselves, sadly. This lack of differentiating colors is especially weird given that both Buzzsaw AND Laserbeak are in the set-- given that there's only one plastic color, that means they're both completely identical for this release.
    No mold changes have been made to this release of Soundwave and his cassettes.

    Linkin Park Soundwave is pretty much the definition of superfluous merchandise. Both Soundwave and his cassettes are completely one color, and not a metallic gold one at that (like is apparently promised in the Hasbro promo pics). Given that and the high price tag attached to this set because of its limited run, I could only recommend this set to people who just can NOT find a G1 Soundwave toy for cheaper and want one or those who are rather obsessive Linkin Park & Soundwave fans. Ohterwise this is an easy pass.
 

Review by Beastbot

(Images from Hasbro.)

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