Animated Soundwave

with Laserbeak

Series: Animated
Allegiance: Decepticon
Categories: Deluxe
Year: 2008

You ain't heard nothin' yet!
Soundwave has only been around for a little while, but he knows that if there's one thing he loves, it's noise! Sound is like clay that he sculpts to his purpose. The more noise there is around him, the more elaborate he can get in how he uses it. He can imitate voices, make humans fall asleep, and even take control of simple robots with sound. He hopes the Autobots are ready, because he's about to rock them harder than they've ever been rocked before.
* Sonic attacks can fry circuitry.
* Sonic shielding can deflect attacks.
* Laserbeak can acoustically hack any computer.

Robot Mode: While Animated Soundwave does bear quite a bit of resemblance to his G1 counterpart, he’s by far the stockiest incarnation of the character yet. He looks more like a brawler than the cerebral manipulator he really is. The stocky build doesn’t hinder his articulation any, though, as he can move quite well. Like most Animated figures he’s got the non-standard hands and a rather cartoony look overall, but I like that quite a bit.

Soundwave has a lot of details that reference his G1 incarnation and his status as a “sonic warrior”, the latter evident by the wheels on his shoulders which double as speakers. He’s got the standard Soundwave cassette deck and control buttons on his torso, though no actual cassettes can be inserted here. His head is a heavily stylized version of the G1 figure’s noggin. Just about the only negative thing I can say here is that the paint applications haven’t been properly applied in some cases, the bright blue rings on either side of his head are somewhat sloppily painted. I know that quite a few Animated Soundwaves have similar problems, so it’s not just my version, but there are quite a few where the paint is applied correctly, too, so it’s pretty much luck of the draw.

Overall Animated Soundwave is a very cool robot. He lacks the cassette gimmick that most of his other incarnations have in one form or other, but unless you’re put off by that, there’s nothing wrong with Soundwave’s robot mode at all.

Alternate Mode: Soundwave has transformed into a car numerous times these last few years, but I do believe Animated Soundwave was the one who started the trend. While he does retain certain elements from his original cassette player mode, he now becomes an SUV-like car. The buttons on the front bumper and the cassette-like styling on the sides do give him that old G1 nostalgia feeling without making the car look funny. The detailing isn’t exactly stellar here, but that is just part of the Animated design aesthetics. Not much more I can write here. A good, solid car mode. No complaints.

Partner: Like most Soundwaves this one, too, comes with a bird-shaped partner called Laserbeak. In this case Laserbeak isn’t a cassette, though, he’s a guitar. The guitar can be played by Soundwave or stored on the roof of the car mode. Laserbeak can also unfold his wings on the car roof, giving Soundwave a kind of flying-car-mode. In bird mode Laserbeak still looks a lot like a guitar, truth be told, but that’s not a big thing. All in all a good partner for Soundwave.

Remarks: Created by Megatron as a toy for Sari Sumdac, Soundwave was intended to steal the AllSpark key from her, but was upgraded by it and became a sentient Transformer, who intended to subjugate humanity in the name of the machines. Soundwave was all but destroyed by Bulkhead, but returned to plague the Autobots again and even managed to trap them all, making them believe they’d become human.

As one of the most recognizable Transformers overall, Soundwave was a given for inclusion in Animated. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call him great, he’s a good, solid incarnation of this classic character. I liked his role in the cartoon and the figure has no flaws, just lacks that little something extra to make it truly spectacular. Still, a must-have for all Soundwave and/or Animated enthusiasts.

Rating: B+