Price: $20 (U.S.)

(Like all Universe toys, these two are redecos of earlier TFs; however, since I don't have the original molds, I'll be reviewing these toys completely.)
 

Space Case

Allegiance: Decepticon
Size: Basic
Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Gray, flat maroon, dull greenish yellow, and some chalky purple, transparent yellow, silver, and glossy purplish black
Rating: 8.9

    Space Case is a redeco of the Generation 2 toy of the same name, part of the Cyberjets subline. As with all the Cyberjets, Space Case has a very nice vehicle mode; the robot legs stick out a tad from the bottom, but it's not much at all, and hardly interrupts the streamlined look of the rest of the mode. And the top of the plane looks great; there's plenty of nifty purple and yellow paint details, including a silver "worn metal" pattern on the front of the wings, which is especially cool. The mold detailing isn't all that spectacular-- just some streamed lines here and there, no real mechanical detail-- though it is at least of an acceptable level. The color scheme is also pretty nice-- gray, purple, and maroon go well together, and the silver and dull yellow serve as nice accent colors. Space Case also has three retractable miniature landing gear, though at this scale, the wheels don't roll, they're just molded with the rest of the landing gear. Probably my only big problem with this mode is that the missiles don't really fit in their little alcoves on the underside of the wings very well; they almost always slooowly fall off. So that's rather annoying.
    Space Case's robot mode is also pretty darn good overall. His proportions can't be beat, and his articulation is incredibly good considering the mold's age; he can move at the head, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, and all of them are on ball joints. The joints are of reasonable tightness now, but over time, I can see them becoming looser. Still, you can get a ton of cool poses out of this guy. As you can probably tell he has a push-missile launcher on the underside of his right arm, but this is pretty much his only real gimmick; back in the day, his main drawing point WAS his articulation. He has to resort to holding his other missile in his hand as a kind of beat-down stick. I like all of the paint detailing he has in this mode, too, as it livens up the toy quite a bit. Space Case's head also looks pretty cool-- he's got kind of a triangular optic thing going, which is very unique. It also gives the face quite an emotionless quality-- a good trait for some Decepticons, I think. Again, though, a few noticeable complaints. His shoulder panels don't really lock into anything, but just kind of hang out the sides of his chest. So they can tend to wobble slightly without anything to hold onto. It also leaves a rather noticable gap inbetween his head and arms. Another downside is that the tabs that are supposed to hold his waist to his backside don't really hold them together all that well. So his body can get unhooked from his backside a little easier than I'd like.

Soundwave

Allegiance: Decepticon
Size: Mega
Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Greyish white, royal purple, gray, dull yellow, and some light glossy gray, yellow, black, transparent bluish green, glossy maroon, and metallic teal
Rating: 6.5

    Universe Soundwave bares very little resemblance to G1 Soundwave. I guess the name is just re-used from this mold's previous Machine Wars version, also named Soundwave. Universe Soundwave isn't a tape player, but a mobile missile launcher; and his color scheme bares no resemblance to his G1 version, either. It's quite a good scheme by itself, though-- purple and gray go very well together, and the greyish white used for the missile helps give at least one lighter color to the overall scheme in this mode. Soundwave's also got lots of little paint details all over the place- it really helps to liven this toy up. Some of the details I especially like, such as the paint detailing given to even the tiny windows on Soundwave's form, and the "nuclear" sign painted on a small yellow circle on his topside as well. There are also no robot extras to speak of whatsoever-- another plus. Soundwave's gimmick is also rather imaginative. If you look in the small scope on the back end of the missile, you'll just see green-- but if you flip up the transparent green switch on the right side of the missile, a targeting reticle with an Autobot symbol in the middle of it will slide up into the scope's vision! It's rather cool. (I can't figure out what the other maroon switch does, though-- it opens up a small window on the top side of the missile, but it doesn't do anything to the scope's sight...) The only real downside to this mode--and it's a rather annoying one-- is that the peg that holds the missile onto the main body of the carrier isn't all that right. So the missile tends to swirl back and forth even if you move Soundwave around a little.
    Soundwave's robot mode is starting to show its age, however. The proportions are a tad off-- the hands are far too small, the lower legs too long when compared to the upper legs-- and the articulation is pretty bad. He can move at the waist, shoulders, elbows, and knees, but most of this movement is pretty restricted-- his elbows can only move inwards towards his chest, his shoulders have an odd way of moving back and forth that requires you to move both the upper and lower arm pieces at the same time, and the knees can only move the lower feet backwards, and like many pre-balljoint figs, the knee joints get really floppy if the robot isn't in the "standing erect" position. A bit more yellow shows in the overall color scheme in this mode, but given that it isn't THE dominant color, it works well. The missile hanging off Soundwave's backside does look rather cumbersome, since he can't really do anything with it, but at least the peg hole for it isn't floppy in this mode. His actual weapon is rather weak- it's basically just his satellite dish from his vehicle mode. Yeah, you... illegally broadcast stuff, you... evil Decepticon, you... The mold detailing, both in this mode and the other one, is surprisingly good for a toy this old, with lots of little mechanical details, gears, and panels. His head is pretty much the only thing on this figure that resembles G1 Soundwave's-- it shares the same basic "faceplate with two side antennae" design, though many other Transformers besides Soundwave share this design, too.

    Soundwave & Space Case is a tossup 2-pack, basically because the two figures are so different. Space Case is an articulate, well-proportioned, small little figure, while Soundwave is a big blocky bricky brute. If you don't mind older molds, I'd mildly recommend it, since Soundwave certainly isn't the worst old mold out there. But if articulation and proportions matter to you, I'd only have to recommend Space Case out of the two, and since it's not possible to only buy one and Space Case is by far the smaller of the two figs, I'd pass on this set if I were you.

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Review by Beastbot

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