Good old Soundwave, after having a break for many years he got revived for the Cybertron series and has been a staple ever since. Animated, Prime, RID(15), Movieverse – he’s been in them all. It should not come as much of a surprise then that Soundwave has cropped up in the new Cyberverse series, ensuring he gets yet another new toy. So lets take a look at Cyberverse Warrior-Class Soundwave. 
Robot Mode
I kinda like the style of it. Somewhere between the G1 and Animated Soundwaves. The blue is quite vibrant, the yellow stands out well on his chest with the Decepticon Symbol in the middle, the soundwave patterns on his shoulders, the shoulder cannon – all good! Good to see the cassette-player symbols on there too despite the fact that’s not what he transforms into. He also has an extra little satellite dish that can flip out from the side of his head.
The articulation here is better than most other Cyberverse Warrior class figures too with the elbows and knees bending, the neck turning and the leg and shoulder connections being able to swivel.
The only letdown is how bare his legs look, much like Cyberverse Prowl, they look far too plain due to making up the back half of the vehicle mode.
Vehicle mode
Quite a letdown. A survellience vehicle is a good alt-mode choice for him but this is just way to bland. Some different colours on the lights and grill or even a stripe down the side would have helped break up this big box of blue. Once again you can flip out the satellite dish which makes sense for the vehicle, whereas the cannon definitely does not.
The Laserbeak Blast
This made me laugh the first time because I didn’t mean to activate it, I was just seeing if his head swiveled. By turning his head & cannon you make Laserbeak (who sadly can’t detach) pop out of his chest compartment at a surprising speed! But that colour – translucent neon pink?! Haven’t seen a Laserbeak this pink since he was pretending to be a Bumblebee copy in DOTM! It’s kinda fun and it’s kinda quirky – it would have just been a lot better if Laserbeak popped all the way out.
Laserbeak can also pop out the back of the vehicle. I can’t figure out if this works in the figures favour or not. On the one hand it forces Soundwave’s head to be uncovered and the overall effect is weird. On the other hand the back panel dropping down like that and Laserbeak shooting out makes it looks like Soundwave is getting tailed and is deploying Laserbeak out the back of his vehicle – could make for some interesting play options.
Worth Getting?
I’d say that this figure is worth getting for the price tag, but only just. The robot mode is really nice (if small) and has replaced Shockwave as my favorite Warrior-Class bot. However the vehicle mode is definitely lacking. Pretty simplistic transformation too. It may simply be a case of how amusing you think you or your kids will find the Laserbeak gimmick. But it’s easy to say this is definitely one of the much better Warrior-Class Cyberverse figures. 
Got anything to say about this figure? Pop it in the comments section below!
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