Soundwave (Beast Hunters; Cyberverse)
Robot Mode
Allegiance: Decepticon
Size: Legion
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Moderately dark milky silvery blue and some charcoal black, dark metallic aquamarine, silver, light purple, and dark milky bluish gray
Rating: 8.8

    Since the initial release of Cyberverse Soundwave for the Prime toyline was a "Dark of the Moon" holdover, the "Beast Hunters" version of Soundwave is actually of his original Prime form. As such his alternate mode is a aerial drone, with no extra Beast Hunters-like stylizations or anything. Given how similar in engineering Soundwave is to his Prime deluxe toy in both forms, he shares mostly the same structure and proportions on this toy that he does on his original deluxe. The front nose of this mode is a bit "off", though-- the neck angling up a bit too high, perhaps? The robot leg detailing is also a bit obvious from the sides of the nosecone. The wings are also noticeably longer than on his original deluxe, due to there not being as much to their transformation this time around because of the much smaller size. Soundwave's head does stick out EVER-so-slightly on the bottom of the back end due to it not folding into the rear in this mode, but it's very minor at best and easily overlooked. The silver blue and aqumarine plastic & paint colors on this mode look quite good, but unfortunately this mode is almost entirely one of those two colors-- adding in some more light purple accents and a bit of black, like he has in his robot mode, really would've helped to make this mode pop visually. Soundwave has three Cyberverse weapon-compatible ports in this mode-- one in the middle of this mode, and one near the middle of each wing. His Cyberverse weapon is the chainsaw-gun that comes with several other Beast Hunters-era Legion figures, and the dark milky bluish gray look to it is a nice shade-- though again, it blends in with Soundwave's predominant color in this mode too much.
    Given that deluxe Soundwave's transformation was quite simple, legion Soundwave's transformation is nearly identical, with only a few minor steps skipped (such as a few flips with the wings to the arms, the more simple folding out of the feet, and the folding back of the engine onto his back instead of flipping out his robot head from it). Other than looking a bit too 2-D in the arms even for Soundwave, proportionally the toy looks mighty good in this mode-- the mold detailing shows forth more in this mode, with the curved & sharp "metal bits" on the chest looking particularly nice. The light purple and black accents also make this mode pop a bit more, though a bit more light purple on the arms and/or legs would've helped him look better, since he's still so overwhelmingly various shades of dark blue. The rear part of the vehicle mode on Soundwave's back is rather blatantly sticking out here, whereas it blended in with the back pretty well on his deluxe toy-- oh well, at this smaller scale you're going to have to make some sacrifices (including a little partner figure, which is absent on this little toy-- for good reason, given how incredibly tiny it would be at this scale). Soundwave can move at the shoulders, elbows, hips, and a bit at the ankles in this mode. His skinny toes make his stance surprisingly stable-- this is the one part of the toy I like even better than deluxe Soundwave's design, since you don't have these chunks of his nosecone hanging behind his lower legs this time around because of the simpler transformation. As you'd expect, Soundwave has a hole in each of his hands to hold a Cyberverse-compatible weapon in this mode.
    Cyberverse "Beast Hunters" Soundwave is a great mini-scale version of his original Prime form, replicating his deluxe transformation quite well in nearly every respect. He is a little inferior because of some cuts that had to made due to the scale, but overall (other than perhaps a few more paint apps and knee articulation) I couldn't reasonably expect a better toy of him at this scale. If you're a Cyberverse collector, this is a recommended addition to your collection.



Soundwave Bio:
FUNCTION: Sabotage Specialist
His Sonic Saw delivers an audio blast powerful enough to blow apart the toughest circuits!
Strength: 4.0
Intelligence: 9.0
Speed: 8.0
Endurance: 5.0
Rank: 8.0
Courage: 7.0
Fireblast: 9.0
Skill: 9.0

Review by Beastbot

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