Zobovor
2024-09-28 01:57:11 UTC
Not really a new toy by any stretch of the imagination, but I wanted it
(mostly for Buzzsaw), and I pre-ordered it, so now it's here. Big Bad
Toy Store for the win!
The current open-box packaging (which Hasbro says is coming to an end
this year) really seems to encourage theft of the cassettes, which are
strapped to the inner cardboard tray with only a couple of stretchy
ties.
People are already predicting there are going to be a LOT of cassettes
stolen at retail once this set hits stores. The set comes with seven
accessories wrapped in tissue paper (Soundwave's two cannons, his
folding rifle thingy, Rumble's pile drivers, and Rumble's guns).
Comically, the front of the box includes an illustration of the
Core-class Soundwave, with his robot feet that are poking out in tape
deck mode. I understand the economy of recycling existing art assets,
but part of the purpose of the packaging art is to entice the consumer
into buying the product, and this artwork actually makes the
Leader-class toy look worse, because they might look at the illustration
and presume that his feet cannot fold away at all when he transforms.
Incidentally, these characters are being marketed on the box as "G1
Universe Soundwave" and "G1 Universe Decepticon Rumble" and "G1 Universe
Buzzsaw" and "G1 Universe Ravage." I'm not sure if it's a trademark
thing or not. It used to be that the unspoken understanding was that
the G1 universe was the default, so they didn't have to specify. It's
like how there's cheesecake and carrot cake but then there's just
regular cake. But you don't call it sugar cake, because the name "cake"
already implies there's sugar in it. I don't know. Maybe I'm just
hungry and want some cake.
The instructions show Soundwave going from robot to tape deck mode and
the transformations for the individual cassettes, but nothing about
Weaponizers or drone armor or any of that nonsense. Which technically
means that this release of Ravage and Buzzsaw have little undocumented
flip-out pegs that officially do nothing.
SOUNDWAVE
This is, of course, a rerelease of the Netflix Soundwave mold, which
enjoyed an exclusivity to Walmart when it was originally released near
the end of 2020. Availability was spotty, partly due to being a store
exclusive and partly due to the pandemic completely wrecking normal
shipping and distribution channels, so a lot of people have been waiting
for this toy to make its way back into circulation. Furthermore,
Netflix Soundwave was one of the toys that experienced spontaneous
yellowing, with the silver parts sometimes turning a sickening copper
color (it also happened to toys like Kingdom Cyclonus and Legacy
Motormaster). Presumably, Hasbro addressed and solve the issue with the
badly-yellowing plastics, so this version of Soundwave shouldn't succumb
to that specific malady. Fingers crossed!
The new version isn't a straight reissue of the Netflix toy. There are
some minor color and deco changes. The new version is a slightly darker
shade of blue plastic, for starters. It's subtle. If you swapped parts
around between the two toys, you would probably notice a slight
mismatch. Also, the silvery plastic used for his forearms and upper
legs and such is a distinctly lighter shade. It creates a higher
contrast between the blue parts and the light grey parts. The border
around the window of the Netflix toy was painted yellow, but on the new
toy it's gold, which better matches the gold "wings" on the sides of the
tape door. The bottom of the hinge is also now painted gold (it was
unpainted clear plastic on the Netflix version). The silver metallic
paint used for his mask, the details on his shoulders and knees, etc. is
now a more muted pearlescent grey. It's not quite as shiny. And
finally, the new toy has red stripes around the barrel for his handheld
concussion cannon and his shoulder launcher.
I would characterize the new colors as an improvement, though there's
nothing really inherently wrong with the colors for Netflix Soundwave.
This might have been an opportunity to do some "premium" style deco, and
finally paint the colored lights on his shoulders and knees to match the
stickers on the G1 toy, but they didn't go that route.
RAVAGE
The original release of Ravage was marketed as "drone armor" that could
attach to Soundwave or other toys, so there wasn't a strong emphasis on
making him look like an obsolete audio cassette tape. The new version
has stronger fidelity to his G1 release, with tampo markings that
identify him as being made in Japan, stamps identifying the painted side
of the cassette as side "A" and it being a 60-minute tape, and even an
"MC" logo which hearkens back to his origins in the Microchange toy
line. There is also new silver paint deco which creates the illusion of
cassette reels, even though the toy's sculpt didn't actually include
these elements.
Where Ravage's previous panther mode was black with grey legs, this new
version is entirely black. This includes the grey drone armor peg that
makes up part of his neck, which helps to make his neck look more
uniform, since the grey chunk isn't breaking up the lines of his neck.
They also remolded his head slightly, giving him an open mouth instead
of a closed one. You can see his tiny little sculpted incisors. But,
they painted the inside of his mouth silver, as if it were his teeth.
His eyes are also much smaller triangles now, and they're painted gold
(like the G1 toy) instead of red (which is more like the G1 cartoon).
I'm not really sure which Ravage I like better. The original release
has cleaner deco, and in some ways I like the two-tone look better than
the all-black look. Ravage needs a new toy, regardless, so I hope they
come up with a better design at some point, even if they can't or won't
sell him at the Core-class price point. This release seems a bit
redundant, and I wonder if I would have been happier if they'd done a
redeco as Nightstalker or Stripes or somebody.
RUMBLE
We've already gotten Rumble and Frenzy twice, once for Siege as tiny
little midget cassettes and a second time as Core-class toys with longer
legs and more goodies. I suppose Hasbro wanted the name recognition of
a character like Rumble, but they didn't want to just sell the same
exact Core-class toy over again. So, this time they produced him in
"Hasbro toy colors" instead of Sunbow cartoon colors.
And, yes, this toy is being marketed as Rumble despite the fact that
this is actually the color scheme for the Frenzy toy as he was sold in
1984-87 (yes, he was available for four solid years). In the past, they
have occasionally assigned new names to different versions of the same
character (like calling G2 Jazz "Laser Cycle") so I'm a little surprised
they didn't give this toy a different name, like Covert Narcissist Clone
Rumbler or something.
So, Rumble has a very dark blue body, head, forearms, and lower legs.
It's the color of ink that comes out of some supposedly black pens,
slightly purplish and distinctly different from Soundwave. His upper
legs and upper arms are a lighter, cornflower blue. These are the
colors that served as the basis for Rumble's cartoon color scheme, but
both shades of blue were reinterpreted as shades of purple, leading to
the creation of the cartoon color scheme that we know and love today.
The toy look is very different from the cartoon look, though.
Despite the change in color scheme, they used the same deco for his
cassette mode, with the silver and teal colors. He does still have a
painted Decepticon symbol, but it's a fairly dark purple paint over dark
purplish plastic, so you can hardly see it. He comes with his pile
drivers in the same vintage toy-themed colors, despite these never
existing as Hasbro toy accessories during G1. It's trippy.
If they were determined to sell us this toy again, I think I would have
liked it if he'd been a new character. One of the generic orange or
yellow cassette troops from "More Than Meets the Eye" perhaps, or maybe
a redeco as Enemy (I guess he would have been all red). The toy colors
are an interesting novelty, but in a collection of toys with (normally)
such a strong fidelity to the cartoon, it makes my brain short-circuit a
little bit.
BUZZSAW
Buzzsaw was honestly the biggest draw for me out of this entire set,
since we haven't gotten the character at all since the days of the
Titans Return "spy tablets," which means he's never gotten a Siege-era
cassette. His release effectively completes the 1984 Decepticons cast
in neo-G1, and it's been a long time coming!
So he's a redeco of Laserbeak, of course, using a brownish-gold plastic
for the body in place of Laserbeak's red, and black everywhere else. He
even uses black for the parts where Laserbeak had grey, like the little
birdy feet or his neck (it's likely that Laserbeak and Ravage are
gang-molded together). Buzzsaw also got a new paint hit for the beak,
which is painted gold. Laserbeak didn't get a painted beak at all.
Buzzsaw has the same painted deco on his wings that Laserbeak got,
except that the border around the details is in gold this time instead
of silver. He fits into Soundwave's chest snugly.
I have joked that I paid $55 for Buzzsaw, but that I also got duplicates
of Soundwave and Ravage and Rumble for free. Maybe that's not quite
right, but Buzzsaw was absolutely the main reason I wanted this set, and
now that I have him it pleases me immensely. I still think the cassette
choices could have been different, but I recognize the need to drive
sales, and at the end of the day, recognizable characters will certainly
do that.
Zob (my 12-year-old daughter got a phone today, as well, so... watch
out, world)
(mostly for Buzzsaw), and I pre-ordered it, so now it's here. Big Bad
Toy Store for the win!
The current open-box packaging (which Hasbro says is coming to an end
this year) really seems to encourage theft of the cassettes, which are
strapped to the inner cardboard tray with only a couple of stretchy
ties.
People are already predicting there are going to be a LOT of cassettes
stolen at retail once this set hits stores. The set comes with seven
accessories wrapped in tissue paper (Soundwave's two cannons, his
folding rifle thingy, Rumble's pile drivers, and Rumble's guns).
Comically, the front of the box includes an illustration of the
Core-class Soundwave, with his robot feet that are poking out in tape
deck mode. I understand the economy of recycling existing art assets,
but part of the purpose of the packaging art is to entice the consumer
into buying the product, and this artwork actually makes the
Leader-class toy look worse, because they might look at the illustration
and presume that his feet cannot fold away at all when he transforms.
Incidentally, these characters are being marketed on the box as "G1
Universe Soundwave" and "G1 Universe Decepticon Rumble" and "G1 Universe
Buzzsaw" and "G1 Universe Ravage." I'm not sure if it's a trademark
thing or not. It used to be that the unspoken understanding was that
the G1 universe was the default, so they didn't have to specify. It's
like how there's cheesecake and carrot cake but then there's just
regular cake. But you don't call it sugar cake, because the name "cake"
already implies there's sugar in it. I don't know. Maybe I'm just
hungry and want some cake.
The instructions show Soundwave going from robot to tape deck mode and
the transformations for the individual cassettes, but nothing about
Weaponizers or drone armor or any of that nonsense. Which technically
means that this release of Ravage and Buzzsaw have little undocumented
flip-out pegs that officially do nothing.
SOUNDWAVE
This is, of course, a rerelease of the Netflix Soundwave mold, which
enjoyed an exclusivity to Walmart when it was originally released near
the end of 2020. Availability was spotty, partly due to being a store
exclusive and partly due to the pandemic completely wrecking normal
shipping and distribution channels, so a lot of people have been waiting
for this toy to make its way back into circulation. Furthermore,
Netflix Soundwave was one of the toys that experienced spontaneous
yellowing, with the silver parts sometimes turning a sickening copper
color (it also happened to toys like Kingdom Cyclonus and Legacy
Motormaster). Presumably, Hasbro addressed and solve the issue with the
badly-yellowing plastics, so this version of Soundwave shouldn't succumb
to that specific malady. Fingers crossed!
The new version isn't a straight reissue of the Netflix toy. There are
some minor color and deco changes. The new version is a slightly darker
shade of blue plastic, for starters. It's subtle. If you swapped parts
around between the two toys, you would probably notice a slight
mismatch. Also, the silvery plastic used for his forearms and upper
legs and such is a distinctly lighter shade. It creates a higher
contrast between the blue parts and the light grey parts. The border
around the window of the Netflix toy was painted yellow, but on the new
toy it's gold, which better matches the gold "wings" on the sides of the
tape door. The bottom of the hinge is also now painted gold (it was
unpainted clear plastic on the Netflix version). The silver metallic
paint used for his mask, the details on his shoulders and knees, etc. is
now a more muted pearlescent grey. It's not quite as shiny. And
finally, the new toy has red stripes around the barrel for his handheld
concussion cannon and his shoulder launcher.
I would characterize the new colors as an improvement, though there's
nothing really inherently wrong with the colors for Netflix Soundwave.
This might have been an opportunity to do some "premium" style deco, and
finally paint the colored lights on his shoulders and knees to match the
stickers on the G1 toy, but they didn't go that route.
RAVAGE
The original release of Ravage was marketed as "drone armor" that could
attach to Soundwave or other toys, so there wasn't a strong emphasis on
making him look like an obsolete audio cassette tape. The new version
has stronger fidelity to his G1 release, with tampo markings that
identify him as being made in Japan, stamps identifying the painted side
of the cassette as side "A" and it being a 60-minute tape, and even an
"MC" logo which hearkens back to his origins in the Microchange toy
line. There is also new silver paint deco which creates the illusion of
cassette reels, even though the toy's sculpt didn't actually include
these elements.
Where Ravage's previous panther mode was black with grey legs, this new
version is entirely black. This includes the grey drone armor peg that
makes up part of his neck, which helps to make his neck look more
uniform, since the grey chunk isn't breaking up the lines of his neck.
They also remolded his head slightly, giving him an open mouth instead
of a closed one. You can see his tiny little sculpted incisors. But,
they painted the inside of his mouth silver, as if it were his teeth.
His eyes are also much smaller triangles now, and they're painted gold
(like the G1 toy) instead of red (which is more like the G1 cartoon).
I'm not really sure which Ravage I like better. The original release
has cleaner deco, and in some ways I like the two-tone look better than
the all-black look. Ravage needs a new toy, regardless, so I hope they
come up with a better design at some point, even if they can't or won't
sell him at the Core-class price point. This release seems a bit
redundant, and I wonder if I would have been happier if they'd done a
redeco as Nightstalker or Stripes or somebody.
RUMBLE
We've already gotten Rumble and Frenzy twice, once for Siege as tiny
little midget cassettes and a second time as Core-class toys with longer
legs and more goodies. I suppose Hasbro wanted the name recognition of
a character like Rumble, but they didn't want to just sell the same
exact Core-class toy over again. So, this time they produced him in
"Hasbro toy colors" instead of Sunbow cartoon colors.
And, yes, this toy is being marketed as Rumble despite the fact that
this is actually the color scheme for the Frenzy toy as he was sold in
1984-87 (yes, he was available for four solid years). In the past, they
have occasionally assigned new names to different versions of the same
character (like calling G2 Jazz "Laser Cycle") so I'm a little surprised
they didn't give this toy a different name, like Covert Narcissist Clone
Rumbler or something.
So, Rumble has a very dark blue body, head, forearms, and lower legs.
It's the color of ink that comes out of some supposedly black pens,
slightly purplish and distinctly different from Soundwave. His upper
legs and upper arms are a lighter, cornflower blue. These are the
colors that served as the basis for Rumble's cartoon color scheme, but
both shades of blue were reinterpreted as shades of purple, leading to
the creation of the cartoon color scheme that we know and love today.
The toy look is very different from the cartoon look, though.
Despite the change in color scheme, they used the same deco for his
cassette mode, with the silver and teal colors. He does still have a
painted Decepticon symbol, but it's a fairly dark purple paint over dark
purplish plastic, so you can hardly see it. He comes with his pile
drivers in the same vintage toy-themed colors, despite these never
existing as Hasbro toy accessories during G1. It's trippy.
If they were determined to sell us this toy again, I think I would have
liked it if he'd been a new character. One of the generic orange or
yellow cassette troops from "More Than Meets the Eye" perhaps, or maybe
a redeco as Enemy (I guess he would have been all red). The toy colors
are an interesting novelty, but in a collection of toys with (normally)
such a strong fidelity to the cartoon, it makes my brain short-circuit a
little bit.
BUZZSAW
Buzzsaw was honestly the biggest draw for me out of this entire set,
since we haven't gotten the character at all since the days of the
Titans Return "spy tablets," which means he's never gotten a Siege-era
cassette. His release effectively completes the 1984 Decepticons cast
in neo-G1, and it's been a long time coming!
So he's a redeco of Laserbeak, of course, using a brownish-gold plastic
for the body in place of Laserbeak's red, and black everywhere else. He
even uses black for the parts where Laserbeak had grey, like the little
birdy feet or his neck (it's likely that Laserbeak and Ravage are
gang-molded together). Buzzsaw also got a new paint hit for the beak,
which is painted gold. Laserbeak didn't get a painted beak at all.
Buzzsaw has the same painted deco on his wings that Laserbeak got,
except that the border around the details is in gold this time instead
of silver. He fits into Soundwave's chest snugly.
I have joked that I paid $55 for Buzzsaw, but that I also got duplicates
of Soundwave and Ravage and Rumble for free. Maybe that's not quite
right, but Buzzsaw was absolutely the main reason I wanted this set, and
now that I have him it pleases me immensely. I still think the cassette
choices could have been different, but I recognize the need to drive
sales, and at the end of the day, recognizable characters will certainly
do that.
Zob (my 12-year-old daughter got a phone today, as well, so... watch
out, world)