Dave's Transformers Reactivate Rant

Soundwave (armored SUV) vs. Optimus Prime (armored semitractor)

Permalink: https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/Reactivate2

Again, without playing the game I don't know if this is really a versus
set, or just "we're not getting this into most retail so might as well do
two-packs for the novelty factor" packaging. And as with the Starscream/BB
set, one is definitely Voyager size (Optimus) while the other is somewhere
between Deluxe and Voyager (Soundwave).

CAPSULES

$62.99 on Hasbro Pulse.

Soundwave: Somewhat disappointing robot mode, it feels like a little
more work could have made the torso more compact and stable. Transformation
is a little fiddly, but not too bad. Mildly recommended.

Optimus Prime: Decent in both modes, with an interesting if sometimes
"will I break this?" transformation. Has some gapping problems due to the
complexity of the transformation not being matched by the quality control.
My main issues involved the weapons, which are badly designed and either hold
awkwardly or not at all. Mildly recommended.

Set overall: Not bad, per se, but both toys have aspects that could have
been better without major changes. Neither really sells the game's premise
the way the BB/Starscream set does. If you want to try out Reactivate but
not commit to both sets, get the other one.

RANTS

Packaging: Same as in the other set, review found at
https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/Reactivate1 for more details.
The art shows both of the with shattered chest glass and other battle damage,
but the toys don't follow Starscream's lead in that regard.

DECEPTICON: SOUNDWAVE
Assortment: F0384
Altmode: Armored Communications SUV
Transformation Difficulty: 15 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: None

Packaging: Six plastic ties secure the robot to the left side of the
inner tray (well, the chest one is technically a double tie), a tissue paper
bundle taped to the front of the tray to Soundwave's left has both his
weapons and Optimus Prime's rifle.

Robot Mode: I spent a fair amount of time trying to "finish" the robot
mode, figuring that it had to collapse down more and get more solid. Nope.
Just a huge hollow box hunchback design. The chest doesn't even open up,
something that even the TITAN HERO version can claim. Basically, he has a
vaguely tape-door-like chest not because it makes sense or does anything in
either mode (it's the hood, not the windshield, which would at least kinda
make sense), but because it's a Soundwave toy.
5.75" (14.5cm) tall, in mostly dark blue and black with some silver and
neon red, plus the usual gold border on the fake chest window. Black plastic
is used for the biceps, fists, hips, thighs, feet, transmission dish on the
back, much of the stuff hidden inside the torso, wheels on the backs of the
boots, and the attachment peg of the shoulder cannon. Everything else is
dark blue plastic.
There's matte black plastic on the top of the torso, around the borders
of the chest, the abdomen, the shins, some fake headlights on the shoulder
fronts, and much of the backpack. The faceplate is silver, as are the tops
of the forearms, the fronts of the pelvis, vents on the shins, and the
"missile" tip on the rifle. There's neon red (strong UV glow) strips on the
torso top and shoulder outer front corners (somewhat indifferent masking on
these), the optic visor, and some headlight-ish details on the lower chest.
A slightly metalflaked yellow paint runs around the edge of the chest, and a
violet Decepticon symbol (without a border) is on the center of the chest.
The neck is a ball joint with the socket near the back of the head, the
waist is a VERY stiff (possibly gummed up with mold flash) swivel. Ball and
socket shoulders, very stiff upper arm swivels, hinge elbows, swivel wrists.
The hips are hinge and swivel, but the swivel part includes the pelvis and
has a joint near the upper front corner so lifting a leg too much looks
weird. Fairly stiff upper thigh swivels (these are needed for
transformation, so the stiffness can be an issue), hinge knees that bend
pretty far, ankles hinged on the inside to let the feet lie flat (also very
stiff joints, so I can't just press down on the figure to get the feet to
flatten out on their own). The shoulder cannon has a hinge that lets it
elevate somewhat.
The hands can hold 5mm pegs, there's a 5mm socket to the right of the
head dedicated to the shoulder cannon, another on the backpack for rifle
storage. There's 5mm sockets under the toes, and a 3mm socket in the back of
the pelvis. There's also some tabs on the underside of the backpack (just
above the rear bumper in vehicle mode) that can be used to hold the rifle by
its stress slots. This seems to be intentional, but is not documented.
While somewhat small, the rifle and shoulder cannon are designed to
evoke the G1 battery guns. There's a socket in the back of the rifle, but
it's 4mm in diameter and will not attach to the front of the shoulder
cannon. I suspect it's just a weight-reduction thing. The rifle is a single
piece of dark blue plastic 1.75" (4.5cm) long with silver paint on the
"missile" part. There's a 5mm peg grip near the back, a 3mm diameter muzzle
for attaching Fire Blasts, and a 1.7mm peg on top that seems to be based on
the firing button on the Microman version of G1 Soundwave. The shoulder
cannon is 1.5" (38mm) long with no paint, and seems to be intended to evoke a
rotary cannon rather than a rocket pod, with tiny barrels molded around the
3mm stud at the tip. It attaches using a black plastic 5mm peg on a hinge
about a third of the way from the back.

Transformation: Flip the head back, then unfold the backpack into most
of the vehicle shell. The front wheels are folded up on double hinges
inside, and need to be unfolded just right so that tabs on the struts can go
into slots under the front fenders. But before you try doing that, the arms
fold up inside the shell and slots on the forearms go onto tabs inside (the
arms need to be bent just a little at the elbow for this to work), then
transform the legs. The legs rotate at the thigh swivels, then panels on the
sides of the boots pop open to let the wheels fold out. Peg the legs
together, but don't fold the side panels back in yet. Then fold the whole
thing in two and do a bunch of mashing and massaging to get all the tabs into
their relevant slots. Those little panels from the boots like to misalign,
and you'll probably need to pry them out of the wrong places a few times no
matter what you do. Then fold up the comms dish and attach the weapons to
taste.
When going back to robot mode, trying to squeeze the torso just a little
bit more closed inevitably makes the collar piece pop off its tab.
Otherwise, it's a lot easier since most of the tabs and slots from vehicle
mode are irrelevant other than getting the torso in the least bad position.

Altmode: Like a lot of modern Soundwaves, it's a vaguely Hummvee-like
vehicle with a microwave transmitter dish. Like Bumblebee, it has armored
slats over the front windshield. And it's about as big as Bumblebee's
altmode, so no real attempt to stick to scale here. The shoulder cannon can
technically be left in place during transformation, since it goes in the same
socket in this mode.
4.75" (12cm) long in the same basic colors but without the silver. The
only black plastic still visible is on the wheels and microwave dish, but
there's even more black paint (mostly on the fenders and front end).
However, the rear fenders lack black paint on the fiddly parts that are on
those boot panels. The wheel hubs are painted dark matte blue.
While much of each foot is visible in back, the bits with the 5mm
sockets are covered up, so not useful in this mode. There's 5mm sockets in
the right front and rear left of the roof for the two guns, although there's
also the undocumented attachment tabs above the rear bumper where the rifle
can go. The microwave antenna is just on a hinge, it can't rotate.
Clearance isn't great, but it's there and if everything is properly
tabbed it rolls well on all four wheels.

Overall: Kinda disappointing, between the "didn't seem to try hard
enough" robot torso, and the undersized weapons that didn't need to be so
small since they don't store inside the vehicle. Maybe if it had been a
proper Voyager instead of this halfway class they might have had the parts
and plastic budget to fix the problems I have with it.

AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME
Assortment: F0384
Altmode: Armored Semitractor
Transformation Difficulty: 37 steps
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: None

Packaging: Six ties (again the chest one is a double tie, so seven) hold
the robot to the right side of the tray. The fist-covering energy axe weapon
is held to the tray by two ties, between Optimus's feet and Soundwave's
feet.
The figure kinda shook apart in shipping, I had to get a lot of tabs
back into their slots to stabilize things. Even with excessive force I
couldn't get it to hold together properly until I transformed it back and
forth and was able to realign some of the torso hinges from scratch. Even
then, while it's stable it still has a significant seam open between chest
and abdomen. Also, that seam pops open further when I try to open up the
chest windows to get at the Matrix.