Prime Soundwave

Let's take a look at the Prime-line again, shall we?


This time it's a reiteration of my all-time favorite Transformer: Soundwave.


I don't even know where to start, this guy is just plain awesome.


He is intelligent, collected, loyal, conniving, highly aware of his surroundings and his lithe frame betrays nothing of his physical abilities. He is shown able to effortlessly overpower the fast, vicious Airachnid but even more impressive: lore depicts him capable of fighting Megatron to a stand-still.
This propels him to the position of one of the show's most powerful characters, up to the likes of Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime.



But his most apparent feature, or rather, lack thereof: he is effectively faceless.
This, combined with his skinny build, gives him a very unsettling appearance.

Instead of a face he has a visor/monitor which functions like a computer screen.
It shows calculations, radar, information... anything he wishes to display from his vast, information-laden hard drives.
Suiting his being the Decepticons Communications Officer he outfitted himself with a direct uplink to the Decepticon warship, eventually rendering him capable of opening Ground- and Space Bridges at his fingertips.

Adding to his sinister air is the fact that he doesn't speak.
Not that he is not able to, mind you, but having taken a vow of silence, he prefers letting his actions to the talking.
Like a monk.
A giant, robotic, stone cold homicidal monk.



On to the toy.
Now first of all: I think mold-wise the figure is an excellent representation of his animation model.
However, because of his faithfulness to the animation model, he is a bit odd to pose, but we'll get to that.



First his alt-mode, which is an unmanned aerial drone inspired by the MQ-9 Reaper.
Very fitting to have a character who generally observes and records transform into a vehicular form which is designed for observing and recording.
It would have been beautiful if drones didn't creep me the hell out.




The transformation sequence is roughly split in 3 parts and suprisingly easy, if a bit finnicky.

First we form the legs, which is done by splitting the cockpit and front fuselage.
Simple enough, but there is a protrusion used to fill up the body of the alt-mode which just sits there post-conversion. This combined with the back-folded spurs gives him some awkward leg kibble, to the point where it becomes obstructive. The dual hinged "chicken leg" configuration (which is screen accurate I might add) makes up for this somewhat, but I feel a seperate hinge for each of these protrusions would have easily solved this.

Now, his already long and skinny wings become his even longer and skinnier arms in an impressive combination of design, engineering and simplicity. It's merely a matter of unpegging and unfolding the wings, swing the entire assembly up, re-align the joints and there are his almost swordesque arms.
The (admittedly slightly odd) holes in his hands are are standard 5mm holes primarily used to give his (again, screen-accurately)  hidden drone Laserbeak a place to perch, but more about Laserbeak later.

From here simply opening the thruster/tailfin assembly will have a spring-loaded gimmick snap his head out, and there is Soundwave in all his creepy glory.


Of course, Soundwave alone is not complete.



With him he carries Laserbeak, a semi-sentient aerial drone whom, like his silent master,  packs a surprising payload of firepower.

And, like Soundwave, he has a databank of his own, used for his function as spy deep behind enemy lines.
Soundwave carries Laserbeak around in his iconic chest compartment, and deploys him when necessary.
Now, his chest compartment is just a Laserbeak-shaped hole in his chest, but doesn't make him look weird(er) either with our without Laserbeak docked inside him.
Said docking is just a good ol' 5 mm peg, by the way.



Final verdict: Soundwave's design sacrificed function (Function? It's a toy...) for the sake of screen accuracy. A noble goal, I'm sure, but a few minor tweaks could have made him nearly perfect.
Even so, he is a fantastic feat of design. A bit tricky to pose, but definitely one of the Transformers Prime line's better figures and despite his small stature he's full of creepy personality.