Headmasters Soundblaster

Prelude: Many thanks to fellow TF-fan BlackZarak, who loaned me his Soundblaster for this review. And many thanks to Laserwave13 as well, who supplied the additional pics of Soundblaster's packaging.

Remarks: Soundblaster is a repaint (with one minor engineering change) of G1 Soundwave, so just a few short words on the differences here. I’m not one hundred percent certain, but I think Soundblaster is actually THE original black repaint and the prototype of a character being upgraded into a recolored (read: more powerful) form. The Headmasters cartoon featured a titanic battle between Soundwave and his Autobot counterpart Blaster (called Broadcast in Japan), which saw both of them perish. Both were rebuilt one episode later with new colors and new names (Twincast in Blaster’s case), though one must say that Soundwave/blast got the better deal than Blaster with his blue repaint. Anyway, that’s the fictional background of this repaint.

Apart from the black color (which strangely did not spread to the stickers, which remain blue, even in this 2005 reissue of the original 1987 release) the major difference between Soundwave and Soundblaster is the tape deck, which was doubled in depth to enable it to hold not just one but two cassette tapes. Most of the Soundwave reissues in recent years have also used this enlarged tape deck. It also gives Soundblaster a bit more ‘chest’ than Soundwave, who was pretty much flat-chested when looked at from the side. Apart from these changes, Soundblaster remains the same excellent figure that G1 Soundwave was, is, and ever shall be.

Bottom line: every Transformers collector needs a version of G1 Soundwave and Soundblaster is as good as the original. Do you want him in black or blue? That’s entirely up to you, of course.

Rating: A-