By Loran
Ah, Shockwave… one of those Transformers characters that never had a consistent personality. Remember how in the TV show he was as loyal to Megatron as Starscream was traitorous? Most people know that one, of course. But in the comics, he was even more of a bastard than Starscream was, to the point where he got Megatron to take orders from HIM! Seriously, that’s some balls. Loyal or not, being left in charge of Cybertron for millions of years, you’ve got to come up with some good plans, maybe amassing an army of your own. Let’s just hope he lives up to that in the movie itself.
Dark of the Moon Shockwave turns into a… Cybertronian tank thing. Once again, it doesn’t look like much of anything. Just a purple blob of Cybertronian alloys. What bugs me about the design is the bit in the front that seems to serve no purpose whatsoever. Maybe it was needed to give him some extra mass on the CGI model, but on the toy it just looks superfluous. He does have six MechTech ports in this mode and a few 3mm clip ports, but two of the Mechtech ports are kind of shallow and many of the 3mm clip bars end up obscured in some way.
For a movie guy, Shockwave has a surprisingly easy transformation. There are no tricks, and you could probably get him between modes without instructions on your first or second try. It doesn’t require much precise aligning or anything crazy like that. A breath of fresh air, I’d say.
Shockwave’s robot mode is… exactly what you’d expect a movieverse Shockwave to look like: skeletal, menacing, and PURPLE. Oh god is he purple. While I’m not a fan of the Cybertronian alt-modes themselves, I can understand why they’re used, especially in the case of someone like Shockwave. I don’t think he’d care enough to scan an Earth vehicle. Subtlety? Who needs that!
Shockwave’s shining point is his head. He looks like a Dom from Gundam, seriously. He also has the awesomest light piping ever—he might as well just have an LED in his head it looks and works that well.
If there’s one weakness the figure has, it’s the poseability. It’s not BAD; it’s just not up to snuff as far as Voyagers are concerned. He has those stupid rotated hands/elbows like Animated Starscream has, but it’s not AS bad here, thanks to his weapons. His shoulders also end up kind of high. It LOOKS odd, but it doesn’t affect playability that much.
Shockwave comes with two weapons-a MechTech cannon and some weird sword thing. His Mechtech gun is probably one of my favorites so far, with its awesome cable plugging into his back. It’s an awesome touch but it makes posing a little hard. It looks cool, though! The gun also locks into place, has its own MechTech port AND a pair of 3mm clip ports! Now THAT is deadly.
Shockwave is one of the characters and figures I’ve been wanting to see in the movie for awhile now, and I’m glad to say that he lives up to my expectations, even with a handful of flaws. While I would’ve liked to see the design from the first video game in toy form, I feel that a Cybertronian vehicle mode suits him a lot more. I hope they make him into a Leader-class figure, fixing some of the problems, but for now, the Voyager does the job pretty well. Recommended!
