Dave's RotF Rant: Deluxe Preview Wave Bumblebee (2010 Camaro, retool, 89099) Soundwave (Satellite/Space Cruiser, 89087) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/Deluxe0 I actually found wave 1 before the preview wave. Well, found it BUYABLE first. I found a store with the preview wave on Memorial Day 2009, but they had it listed as unavailable when I got them up to the checkout, defeating the purpose of a preview wave. Bumblebee was folded into Wave 1, and presumably Soundwave will show up in some later wave as well. But the local Walmart finally put out their box of preview wave, so I scored a Soundwave a couple days before I would have finished my wave 1 review. :) http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Movie/Deluxe2 - Original Bumblebee mold version CAPSULES Bumblebee: Original mold was recommended, and this is a fairly extensive retool. If they're all as floppy as the one I got, though, I can't go beyond mildly recommended. $11.88 at Walmart. Soundwave: Insanely articulated and visually interesting (if not all that Soundwave-y) robot mode. Altmodes are fairly arbitrary and not all that impressive, unfortunately. Still, mildly recommended just for the robot mode. If it were a bit more stable in either altmode, even without looking better, I'd bump that up to recommended, but the few places that peg together do so poorly. $11.88 at Walmart. RANTS Packaging: Same basic pattern as the Scouts, but bigger of course, and with a new ancient Cybertronian glyph on the left side. Each has a single cosell on the bottom (BB has SW and vice versa). It's worth noting for those who (like me) prefer to cut the blister off (to keep the card looking nice), the triangular notches go all the way down on the card, but there's still only three notches in the blister. What this does is bring the blister right up to the notch on the bottom two notches. On the plus side, this provides a place to insert the knife. On the minus side, it's hard to cut past a hole and there'll be at least three besides the one you use for an entry point. Rather than a picture of the vehicle mode as used on the Scout packaging, the blister insert's front has a head shot of the robot mode, either painted or a filter on the CG to make it look airbrushed. Unlike wave 1, there's no Mech Alive for these. Bumblebee is a retool and retains his Automorph, while Soundwave's gimmick is that he's a triple- changer, sorta. Both are packaged in robot mode. As with the Scouts, there's no official functions or mottos, so I'm making my own. There's also no catalog in with the instructions. [Later note: the catalog that came with Wave 2 provides a function for Bumblebee, which I added in brackets.] AUTOBOT: BUMBLEBEE Altmode: 2010 Camaro Licensor: GM Previous Name Use: G1, G2, Universe, Classic, Universe2, Movie1, TF:A Previous Mold Use: Movie1 (modified) Function: Bodyguard [Scout/Protector of Sam] Motto: (sung) "I'll be there...." Having chosen to stay with Sam after the end of the battle for the AllSpark, BUMBLEBEE made arrangements to stay close to him at all times. It's been a pretty good deal. He gets regular detailing, and as much high-grade fuel as he needs. Plus, he gets to spend time with Sam and Mikaela. His vocal processors still aren't fully up to snuff, but he and his friends communicate just fine. If he ever misses the action of battle, ha can always give IRONHIDE a call and go DECEPTICON hunting. STR 6 INT 8 SPD 6 END 5 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 3 SKL 9 Avg 6.5 Twist-ties/packaging: 5 on the robot, 1 on the missile. Be careful when removing the tie around the blaster, the weapon can pop off its peg. Also, he's a bit warped around in package, in order to fit (right forearm kibble rotated around to vehicle position, toes mooshed up). Plastic Changes: The yellow plastic is a tiny bit more orange, but that could be batch variation. The wheels remain black, but the other black plastic has been replaced by metallic light blue. The clear plastic is about the same. Paint Apps: Mostly the same as the original, although the new front end needs new paint: black grille, silver lights. The face is painted gunmetal with blue rings for eyes. The yellow paint and yellow plastic are a pretty good match, and neither has a UV glow to speak of. The black printed Autobot symbol on his dickie is slightly off-center on my copy. Mold Changes: Totally new head, with a more accurate helmet and maskless face. The right hand and forearm have been replaced by a blaster, and the separate hand weapon has been removed. He still has the peg holes for storing the blaster/blade weapon, though, as they didn't retool the legs. The front end of the vehicle mode (and therefore the chest) has been remolded to match the 2010 Camaro better, and has an air intake scoop (although the photo on the package has a sagging front end and makes the scoop look even bigger). There's a new missile made from bright orange plastic. Other notes: The joint between the abdomen and chest is REALLY loose on mine, and it's hard to get the ball back in the socket after removing it. The hips are somewhat loose (the new metallic plastic seems to be more slippery than the old black plastic), but not fatally so. The superglue trick fixed all the loose ball joints, though. Those yellow bits on the upper arms are still just pegged in and quite prone to popping out (superglue fixed that too). Storage for the missile is to just load it into the launcher. The launcher itself swings around to fill the gap that held the original version's weapon. The trigger button can't be accidentally pushed in vehicle mode, so no worries about random launches, but it also means you have to at least partly transform the toy to get the missile back out. In robot mode, the loaded missile fills a groove in the forearm but doesn't stick out of the back of the launcher far enough to hinder elbow articulation. Goodness, I don't recall the original being such a finicky panelmaster, nor does my review allude to such issues. Maybe it's just a combination of looser joints and stronger springs. Overall: Just enough changes to merit a rebuy, but you might want to wait for the one with the pop-up cannons in vehicle mode (already available on hasbrotoyshop.com) for an even more significant change. Unfortunately, if I'm right about the blue plastic being to blame for the waist joint's looseness, it might be endemic to the mold, and it's a serious problem. DECEPTICONS: SOUNDWAVE Altmodes: Space Cruiser, Satellite Licensor: None Previous Name Use: G1, G2, BW, MW, Cybertron, TF:A Previous Mold Use: None Function: Communications/Spy Motto: "I am the eye in the sky, looking at you, I can read your mind." Stationed in orbit above Earth, SOUNDWAVE swiftly taps into every satellite in range. Within minutes, communications, data traffic, weather information, and high-resolution spy photography flood his sensor net. The spill of data fills him with pleasure, and one by one, the humans' systems come under his complete control. From his seat on high, he is in a position to control the destiny of mankind without their knowledge...or to run their civilization into the ground. STR 4 INT 9 SPD 8 END 5 RNK 8 COUR 7 FRB 9 SKL 9 Avg 7.375 Twist-ties: 7 on the robot, 1 on the missile. There's a sticker on the blister proclaiming his triple-changer status, same graphics as seen on Blitzwing. The package photos have the chest in robot mode slightly mistransformed, although it's hard to keep it in the position that has all the chest lights exposed like in the instructions. Crud. The instructions are packed in the blister in such a way that when I went to cut open the blister I sliced through the instructions too. Robot Mode: There's a strong Tigerhawk feel to this, but with a Boba Fett style backpack missile. All the satellite panels and solar panel foils give him very broad shoulders that are probably intended to look like he's wearing a big cloak. The head makes me think more of Ratbat than Soundwave, though, with the big Batman style ears on the helmet and a vaguely fanged look to the face. Soundwave has two repeated motifs: spiky bits and clear blue circles. Spiky bits are pretty much part of the territory for Bayformers, and don't bear further explanation. But this toy is covered in round bits made of clear blue plastic, like speaker cones or directional antennae or something. Three on the chest, one on each shoulder, one on each panel attached to the shoulder, one on each wing, and two thirds of one (a small full circle on a larger half circle) on the outside of each calf. 5" (12.5cm) tall at the head, add another half inch or so for the missile sticking up behind his head. The total width depends on exactly how you configure the panels, but it's around 6" to 6.5" (15-17cm). So, yeah, he's wider than he's tall. The general color scheme is light gray with dark blue and black, plus bright clear blue. In general, the gray to blue balance is a LOT more towards the gray than in other versions of Soundwave that use the general color scheme. The "bulk" parts are made of light gray plastic, including the solar panel foils that form his wings and a sort of buttcape. The thighs, the upper forearms and an assortment of struts are made of dark blue rigid plastic. There's also rubbery dark blue plastic used for forearm blade/spike things. The wing struts, Ravage missile and many of the internal bits are black plastic. And, of course, there's all the blue plastic mentioned already. There's lightpiping molded in, but then they painted over the eyeslit. Disassembling the head and then carefully wiping the paint off with acetone should restore the function should you want, but the lightpipe opening is small so the effect would likely be too weak to be worth the bother. Dark blue paint accents are found on the uper chest, and much of the helmet is painted dark blue, plus the backs of the fists are dark blue. A dark blue Decepticon symbol is printed on the back of the left forearm. The solar panel details of the foils are painted silver, and silver is also on the face and some small details on the chest, abdomen and legs. The eyeslit and bits on the abdomen are painted bright red, while a brownish barn red is found on the wrists, kneecaps and some not-made-of-clear-plastic round details on the shoulder flaps. There's gold detailing around the chest to evoke the old tape door, plus gold bits on his forehead tablet and some dots on his shins. If you count all the struts and joints for the folding panels, the degree of articulation on this figure borders on insane. Each wing has a swivel at the base, then a hinge, then another swivel, and finally a ball joint where the foil attaches. The shoulder flaps have a hinge at the root of their strut, then a ball joint, and another hinge in the middle to let them fold in half. The buttcape is on a strut (two hinges, but blocked by robot bits when in this mode) and a ball joint (that lets the foil swing around). The arm spikes are on swivels. Just looking at the non-kibble articulation, the head is on a balljoint which itself is on a hinged strut. The big cylindrical shoulders are connected by balljoints to a hinged strut that can swing backwards. There's upper arm swivels, and the elbows are double hinge joints. No wrist joint, and the hands are molded into closed fists with no peg holes. The waist doesn't turn. The hips are kinda weird. The strut is hinged at the thigh for "out to the sides" motion, and then the strut ends in a ball that plugs into a socket on the pelvis. Thigh swivels, hinge knees with the ability to bend double, side to side hinge ankles, and then the two toes and one heelspur are independently hinged. Okay, even NOT counting the kibble, that's a lot of articulation for a Deluxe. Some of the joints are a little loose given how top-heavy the figure is, but not to the point of being floppy on my copy. And I expect the superglue trick would fix the ones that are borderline. All in all, there's a LOT to play with here even if you never transform it. Which is good, since the altmodes are kinda meh. Transformation: You need at least reference pictures to try this, if not the instructions, since the altmodes are pretty arbitrary. Both share hiding the robot face behind a panel, folding the torso open and tucking the thighs inside it, then snapping the boots together over this and putting the buttcape over the feet. The arms kinda fold up and hide a little, and you do various things with the shoulder panels to try to make the result look like something. Very few solid snapping parts, it largely relies on joint stiffness. The shin armor pieces do snap together, but it doesn't hold all that well. Satellite Mode: A sort of "sword of Damocles" look, with a new fake face and chest on the robot's back. There's a Eldar/bishop's miter look to the fake battle helmet, which also has clear blue lightpiping on the eyeslit and around the "collar". The forehead/crest of the fake helmet is painted silver. A lot of the panel positioning is pretty arbitrary, which suggests to me that this was just the result of someone stopping during transformation to the real altmode and deciding it looked different enough to call it a third mode. In fact, if you look at this from the side, it's reminiscent of Vector Prime's spaceship mode. Just transform the "thruster" panels into something like where they go in Space Cruiser mode, and you have a slightly better spaceship. Anyway, this mode is about 7" (18cm) long with Ravage loaded, and about 6.5" (17cm) wide. The shin armor has combined into a new main fuselage with a round clear blue piece. Placing it with the missile up makes it look like some sort of legless Beast Machine descendant with blade arms. Space Cruiser Mode: Frankly, just as the satellite mode looks kinda like a space ship, this looks more like a satellite. You spread the foils out into triangular symmetry and then fold some panels so that some of the clear blue bits sort of look like thrusters. There's a few tabs and slots that confirm that this mode was intended from the beginning rather than a result of someone just messing around with the toy to find a third mode, but it's still pretty hard to defend as being a space cruiser rather than a satellite. Maybe the names got accidentally reversed at some point? If you get things aligned right, it's like a three-armed mechanical starfish, with the foils equidistant from each other fitting inside an equilateral triangle about 9" (23cm) on a side. Seen as a flying craft, it has a 9" (23cm) wingspan and a length of 7.5" (19cm) with the missile loaded. Of course, it shoots backwards. All in all, once you have the fuselage part transformed, it's all rather inkblot-like. Arrange the panels and spines however looks best to you. There's so many joints and struts that you can get quite a lot of configurations to work. None of them are all that stable, but neither are the official ones. Ravage Missile: At least Scorponok got some articulation as Blackout's accessory, Ravage is a molded missile head. And if it wasn't labeled as Ravage, I'd never have known. There's various tech details molded into it, and it looks like it might unfold into something, but the safety requirement to fully round off the tip means that any detail there is lost, and with it most of the chance that someone would be able to tell it's Ravage. It can be fired in all official modes, if not in a useful direction, but the trigger is tiny and can be hard to press down. It only fires about a foot straight up. Overall: You might try playing around with the altmodes a couple of times, but for the most part this is a toy you leave in robot mode. It's pretty interesting in that mode, if kibbly, and good enough to be worth picking up just for the robot. It's only slightly Soundwave-y though, if that's what you'd want it for. Dave Van Domelen, now to finish the partly-written wave 1 review.