Got Studio Series Soundwave in. He's an outstanding package overall. While I didn't dislike the Legacy Leader, the brighter blues, less stubby proportions and improved articulation are massive improvements. The bright primary blue, while arguably not even cartoon accurate is a lively, vibrant shade that pops and the painted gray parts aren't actually flat; they have the slightest hint of metallic texturing. Overall, the only part I actively dislike is the clear blue used for the chest door. More on that later.
Soundwave is not an acrobatic dude. All I really need him to do is to stand around and press his eject button. He can do both of these with no problem. Notable points of articulation are double-jointed elbows and ridiculous ankle tilts that let him do a Van Damme. No complaints here. The usual soundwave guns are included and they do their job and fit nice and snug on all of Soundwave's 5mm ports. Quality control is good, although the tab that locks his right arm assembly is noticeably easier to dislodge than the left and the lower elbow joint is stupidly tight.
Soundwave comes with Laserbeak, Buzzsaw and Ravage. Unlike the Stege-Legacy era Soundwave cassettes, these separate the weapon modules from the main body to make for a better animal mode. I don't really mind but the removable chunks aren't very convincing weapons and just peg into whatever available ports are on Soundwave. Would have been cool if they could hide inside the cassette player mode like the guns. Ravage is a noticeable improvement and even comes with two bends in the torso to simulate his haunch, but the birds are eh. They're pretty much the same but with a gappier cassette mode and less bird head articulation. Personally, I'll keep Buzzsaw as the older mold to differentiate the birds. As you can see, there's no attempt to form complete rectangles but there are sculpted spools to weakly insist that these are cassettes. They all fit into Soundwave nicely but only one at a time. The cassettes are why I'd prefer the colorless clear chest door. The blue messes with the color of the inserted cassette for display.
Tape player node is a rectangle. Not much of note here. Aside from the button on the front and the eject button up top, there isn't any sculpted detail to make this a more convincing audio device. Of note for this version is that it has a step to flatten out Soundwave's kneepads which the previous version just left sticking out of the tapedeck mode's sides. Another win over Legacy is how the guns store in the back to simulate batteries and are partially covered by panels. There's two 5mm ports in the back to fit the cassette weapon packs but with the three cassettes he comes with, one will have to sit up top on the shoulder cannon port. Regardless of placement, one of the ports is going to have to accommodate a cat butt. No fit issues with this mode although my copy has some slight paint chipping on the tape deck's top right corner, which I suspect is due to the way it's tied down in packaging. I'll probably fix that when I have the time.
Overall, a nice, complete playset package . New Soundwave is definitely worth the upgrade from Old Soundwave. No real problems to report and everybody needs the tape guy with the cool voice in their collection anyway.
Of note: the Studio Series Frumble mold and the 3P cassettes seen above are a very, very tight fit into the chest door. Wouldn't recommend inserting them due to the risk of stressing the clear plastic or getting the tapes stuck.
