Music Label Soundwave: Blaster Black version review by Diosoth Series: Transformers Music Label Purchase Price: $55, on sale from bigbadtoystore.com The Music Label was a line from Tomy in Japan centering around working music player devices. The other inclusions in the line were a working set of Rumble and Frenzy headphones and an Optimus Prime/Convoy with a working, licensed iPod docking station as a trailer. Optimus was initially released on solid white, with an exclusive new head sculpt onto the G1 original toy, with a later release in the "normal" colors. I have no Apple iPod so I have no need to look into purchasing this toy. Soundwave was a working MP3 player, released three times - the standard iPod white color, "Spark Blue" in standard Soundwave colors, and "Blaster Black" in Soundblaster colors. I ordered Soundblaster as it was the one on sale. I could not justify an extra $40 for the blue version. Packaging: A nice flat-finish black box, meant to looks more like the packaging of an electronic device than a toy. Photos of the white version are used, with a sticker indicating which version is inside. The front flap lifts up so you can see the toy. Honestly, if this toy DOES get a domestic US release, I'd like to see this package kept, with proper translations. The toy sits in an inner cardboard tray, sandwiched between two pieces of plastic, no twist ties. The toy, guns, extra hands and headphones are all on display. Four pieces of tape keep the tray halves sealed, and a loose bag of papers floats free in the box under the tray. MP3 Player Mode: As the original Soundwave was just a rectangular cube with some details to give it the look of a Walkman, this is the same: a rectangular cube, with the details giving it away. Unlike the 80s toy, the buttons are flat. The shoulder button protrudes a bit, the SD card door popping open on a good spring. Honestly, if not for the back side being a bump to allow the battery compartment, this would be a nice, flat squared toy. The shoulder gun slot is replicated as the headphone jack. Transformation: A fairly decent copy of the original. Legs fold down, arms from the back. Some changes, though, such as the legs being reversed to give proper knees, the hands folding under, and the shoulders slide forward on a track to line them up properly. The guns do not store in the back anymore, and the missile of old is now a permanent gun tip. You will also have to change the hands to allow the toy to hold the rifle. Robot Mode: Black and silver. Basically, as happened in Japan in the 80s, Soundwave had black replace blue. Strangely, while Soundblaster had a red door, this has purple. Heavily articulated, more so than it even has a right to be. As far as this toy goes, it's a nice 6 inches tall, making it a decent $10 toy without the MP3 player guts. As an interesting side note, if you turn the legs backwards, you can mimic the look of the old toy, as the heel bits serve as feet. You disable knee movement...but as the original Soundwave had backwards knees, it's a nice feature. My only gripe is that the spring platform that pops the head up wobbles some. Mini SD Card Notes: Either a Mini SD card or a Micro SD with Mini adapter are needed for this toy as it has no internal memory. A brand name, reliable card is suggested - SanDisk and other established brands. Transcend brand cards as well as other cheaper brands are known for high card failure rates and especially seem notorious for failing to work in portable devices. Transcend brand cards are especially notorious for failing to work in Soundwave, usually dying after baout 1 week. Some SD cards come with USB slot readers. These can also be bought separately, either as stand-alone SD readers or as universal memory stick devices. Many computers now also have card readers installed. For this, I am using a SanDisk Micro SD 2 GB with Mini and SD adapters. MP3 Player Functions: Right, so we've reviewed the toy...but that's not what I sunk money into. You want to know how this works as an MP3 player. Okay, so... load some random MP3s onto the card, plug it in, install a battery.... And honestly, the sound quality is excellent. If anything, this is superior to what I get from Winamp running on my computer. The quality of headphones may have an impact on this, of course. Using a dollar store brand is not advised. I would also suggest against using the included earbuds, as earbuds are typically garbage. The buttons function as play/power/pause, volume up and down, and track selection. There is no fast forward or rewind feature, nor a track memory. The player will start over at the beginning when powered on. The songs will play in the order placed on the card, not by file name. While it lacks some of the features of the iPod shuffle 2GB, it does have some advantages, such as swappable memory and regular batteries. A single AAA battery is indicated to last for 6 hours of play. Paperwork indicates the toy can only play MP3s at a 128 KB/s bitrate, but I am playing 320 KB/s music without problem. The paperwork also indicated Mini SD support of only 1 GB...guess Takaratomy wanted coverage in case something doesn't work. There is NO display screen, in case you were wondering. Oh, and MP3 playback functions work in robot mode as well. Other Notes: The removable hands make me doubt this will see a US domestic release. I am not sure if they would meet the US choking hazard safety specifications. A site called reprolabels.com sells a special sticker kit for this toy, designed to mimic the stickers of the original Soundwave. As I have spent a small pile of money on this toy already, I am not likely to order them as they wouldn't enhance the toy for me. Final Toughts: Vintage Soundwave toys can go for a LOT of money, and unless you were fortunate enough to purchase a reissue when it came out, you're out of luck - unless you don't mind a toy in awful condition, and even then the rougher shape toys can still go for some decent money thanks to an inflated market. As it is, I spent $55 on the toy, $7 on shipping, plus an extra $20 on a mini SD card, which brings this to the most I have ever paid on a single toy. An iPod Shuffle 2 GB costs about $10 less, and some of the non-Apple models may cost much less, some of which will have display screens. But...the toy did retail in Japan for about 8000 Yen, and import prices hit the $120 range for some time. That said, the MP3 playback quality is decent, the toy itself is very good, and who didn't like Soundwave? Now that the price is dropping, it may be something to look into, especially since it may fulfill two geek needs at once. For what I spent, I am actually happy, considering the cost. (Later Addendum: Nov 24, 2008) Comparison of Music Label Soundblaster to Moonshell: Moonshell is a homebrew media player app for the Nintendo DS, using an unauthorized flash card to load the necessary files. My card is an Acekard 2.1 with a Kingston Japan 2 GB FAT32 micro SD memory stick for files and a DS Lite for play. The same card was used in Music Label Soundblaster via Mini SD adaptor. Music file types: Soundblaster supports only MP3 files, the bitrate being dependent on when the toy was made(earlier models are stated to only play 128 Kb/s, while my Soundblaster played up to 320 Kb/s). Moonshell supports numerous file types - MP3, OGG, MOD, SPC, MDX (no PCM),GBS, HES, NSF, XM, MIDI, and low bit rate AAC - however, I have yet to test ALL file types. I do not know if the Acekard is simply not detecting them, but I can not load MIDI files in Moonshell. However, being able to play the smaller- file OGG format, thereby saving on stick space, wins this category. Moonshell also has support for image files, video files and text files, using the system's screens. Controls: Soundblaster relies on simple buttons while Moonshell uses the DS controls and touch screen with an iPod-knockoff play skin. The DS screen shows play details. This alone puts Moonshell ahead. Sound quality: about the same. The DS has built-in speakers, of course, but those happen to be very crappy speakers anyway. About equal. One point to note here is that Soundwave/Blaster's maximum volume can go MUCH HIGHER than a Nintendo DS by a good deal. The default volume of Soundblaster is equal to the maximum volume of a DS Lite. Price: Normal cost of Music Label Soundwave is still about $80 or more, barring any online sales. A DS Lite still retails for $130 new and a flash card can cost about $20. But the DS plays video games while Soundblaster just transforms into a robot mode. Depends on your preference, though if you own or want a DS you're probably looking at the game functions to begin with. If you already own a DS it's a cheap upgrade for a flash card and the functionality. On the other hand, Soundblaster relies on replacable AAA batteries that can get about 7 hours of play, while a DS uses Nintendo's proprietary rechargeable Li-Ion battery which might not stretch that far on MP3 play (I have yet to test. Shutting off the backlight or lowering brightness will stretch this out quite a bit, though). Moonshell is a better player for the gamer/DS player. Transformers fans who want a Soundwave toy out of the deal and no gamer interest will probably prefer the Music Label line.