SOUNDWAVE (ROTF)

When the Transformers movie sequel came out back in 2009, I recalled that Soundwave was the first toys that were on the shelves as a preview. Away from the usual radio form, Soundwave still remains as the communications bot in charge in the form of a satellite.

What you see different from other Soundwaves is that I like to line my toys with a silver pen, rather than black ink. It brings out the mecha in them.

Even though this is from the deluxe line, Soundwave stands rather short as compared to other deluxe figures. I'm surprised however that this figure is very articulated & the rear solar panel actually works as a stabilizer to provider added stability when posing Soundwave.

For a deluxe figure, I have to give credit that this toy is fairly complicated & posts a challenge during transformation.

Well according to the manual, this is Soundwave's vehicle mode allowing it to travel across space. It looks like a cute shuriken to me. You can see that Hasbro's done a fairly good job with the paint works on Soundwave giving it a generous amount of silver coating on the solar panels.

Next, we have the third mode which is the form of a satellite. It looks fairly identical to the previous vehicle mode. Soundwave would hover around planet Earth in this mode to gather information for the Decepticons.

If you followed Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, Soundwave launches Ravage from orbit into earth to steal the AllSpark. Here's Soundwave next to Deep Sea Ravage for size comparison, since I don't have the initial black version of Ravage.

Here's Soundwave is bot mode next to Deep Sea Ravage. It's kinda funny to think that Ravage actually launches out from Soundwave isn't it?

Anyway to wrap this review up, there are two other versions of Soundwave that came out later on. The first comes in a twin-pack knows as Battlefield Bumblebee & Infiltration Soundwave. This Soundwave comes in dark blue & maroon. The other is actually an exclusive from a convention in Japan that comes in black & red.

POWERLINX HOT SHOT WITH POWERLINX JOLT MINI-CON

By the time I started getting hooked onto the Armada series, Hot Shot was already becoming a rare item & difficult to find in retail outlets. Hence, once this came out I knew that I just had to get hold of it.

This Powerlinx version is identical in every way to the previous Hot Shot (Yellow), except for the paint job.

Here's taking a look at a gimmick. All you have to do is to press down on the external overdrive engine to flip the front bumpers out into what looks like an open jaw/blade.

Hot Shot's assistant, Jolt can carry the overdrive engine to Hot Shot whenever needed on the battlefield.

Combination of Powerlinx Hot Shot & Jolt in vehicle mode looks funny with the tail of the copter sticking out like a sore thumb at the rear or the vehicle.

Let's take a closer look at Jolt.

Jolt carrying the external engine.

With a couple of simple transformation steps, we now have Jolt in robot mode.

An up close angle of Jolt.

In robot mode, the engine can be attached onto the chest of Hot Shot. Jolt on the other hand sits at the lower back of the body. It's as though Hot Shot has a yellow tail in bot more.

When the Mini-Con is placed at the lower back, a rocket launcher will flip out at the top of the head.

Here's how Hot Shot looks with the launcher flipped out. Initially it looked fine to me, but over the years it's starting to look a little weird.

The ball joint of the waist are not that tight so I had some trouble posing my figure around. Nevertheless, here's just a couple of examples of Hot Shot with some additional Mini-Cons attached. Even though this figure isn't that huge, there are a couple of holes for you to place Mini-Cons around to make Hot Shot look stronger when facing off with the Decepticons.

TRAKK

From the Mutant Earth series, here's a review on Trakk!

This was one of those toys that I collected while I was residing in Australia. Taking a closer look, I feel as though the workmanship of this toy is comparable to McFarlane's Spawn figures.

Trakk comes with a couple of accessories all around his body. First you have the huge grenade launcher that he carries around his shoulder. Then you also have the huge sword at the back & a small knife kept at the right leg.

Here's the view from other angles & taking a look at the sword holster at the back.

There is a fair amount of paint detail given to this figure. The grenade launcher sits nicely in the hands of Trakk even if you don't sling the holster around his shoulders.

Here we see Trakk holding both blades together. The left fist can be interchanged in order to hold the blade, as compared to previous images above.

Although many of us do not follow the series, this piece of art would look good in your display cabinet among other your toy collection.

GREEN SPARKPLUG MINI-CON (TV BOY EXCLUSIVE)

Back in the days that I was collecting the Transformers Armada / Micron Densetsu / Armada line, I got hooked onto collecting the Mini-Cons.

This Green Sparkplug is one of those rare figures that I hunted down. It comes exclusively with a magazine (TV Boy) mail-out in Japan. The original Sparkplug Mini-Con that comes with Optimus Prime is actually yellow in color. In vehicle mode, this Mini-Con looks like a Lamborghini sports car to me.

Being a Mini-Con, transformation is as easy as any other legend class Transformers.

Lastly, a close-up look a the face of Green Sparkplug. Besides the color, everything else is identical to the normal yellow version.