Death's Head
04-09-11, 02:43 PM
Sometimes, the promise of a toy can be an utter let down. Just looking at that box art, with Shockwave drunkenly staggering across it, jabbing his arm out (notice that with the artwork reversed from the Japanese box, the wrong hand has Shocker’s gun) should’ve set alarm bells ringing, but no. I’d wanted Shockwave since I was kid. He made a more effective stab at the Decepticon Leadership than Megatron ever did only undone by his paranoia concerning Galvatron. Along with other toys unavailable in the UK, he was a staple of the comics, compounding the “must have/ can’t have” factor. Like the Predacons, Shockwave is something of a diasppointment.
As a ray gun, Shockwave is a decent enough effort at a space gun and like Megatron, makes for some nice role play shenanigans. However, he doesn’t feel quite as solid and durable as Megatron. The trigger in particular feels like you could snap it off without too much effort. Much of the weight is in the back of the gun - with the die cast legs and feet forming the handle, plus the nine volt battery pack - which makes Shockwave slightly uncomfortable to hold. The robot arms, although locking in place to form the barrel of the gun, don’t feel like they are sitting in place quite as neatly as they should due to the pressure exerted on them by Shockwave’s robot head which is on a tight spring loaded mechanism. The light and sounds are pretty good though! The lights are surprisingly bright and the ‘zappy’ space sounds are decent enough.
Transforming Shockwave is pretty simple and you can probably work it out just by looking at him. The viewfinder folds flat against the battery pack, which folds up against his back. The legs pull down, split apart and fold down to form his legs. The feet push out and rotate around and lock in place. The grey barrel pulls off and, uh, gets put to one side. The arms then pop apart and fold down – doing that causes the head to pop up. Shockwave is a wiry, spindly creature in robot mode. He’s equal in height to Jetfire, but doesn’t have his opposite number’s bulk and apparent show of firepower. This is a common theme that runs across the entire Transformers range – are the Autobots really such a benevolent group? They always seem to have four times the firepower of the Decepticon ‘aggressors’. He can move his head and arms a fair bit, (although I live in fear that his rubber hose will break) and even his legs a little – but he wont stand in any walking poses – he’s just too top heavy. Generally, he seems quite prone to tumbling over, with the joints in his knees where his legs lock in place developing wear over time with repeated play. Finally, there's that gaping hole in his crotch. Lovely, that is.
Whilst not a crushing disappointment, Shockwave deserves a toy to better represent. He eventually got it, with his Binaltech incarnation, but it still surprises me that this guy hasn’t been singled out for the Classics treatment – his general design as it is superb, it just needs beefing up and with some modern engineering would be a cracker.
606607608
As a ray gun, Shockwave is a decent enough effort at a space gun and like Megatron, makes for some nice role play shenanigans. However, he doesn’t feel quite as solid and durable as Megatron. The trigger in particular feels like you could snap it off without too much effort. Much of the weight is in the back of the gun - with the die cast legs and feet forming the handle, plus the nine volt battery pack - which makes Shockwave slightly uncomfortable to hold. The robot arms, although locking in place to form the barrel of the gun, don’t feel like they are sitting in place quite as neatly as they should due to the pressure exerted on them by Shockwave’s robot head which is on a tight spring loaded mechanism. The light and sounds are pretty good though! The lights are surprisingly bright and the ‘zappy’ space sounds are decent enough.
Transforming Shockwave is pretty simple and you can probably work it out just by looking at him. The viewfinder folds flat against the battery pack, which folds up against his back. The legs pull down, split apart and fold down to form his legs. The feet push out and rotate around and lock in place. The grey barrel pulls off and, uh, gets put to one side. The arms then pop apart and fold down – doing that causes the head to pop up. Shockwave is a wiry, spindly creature in robot mode. He’s equal in height to Jetfire, but doesn’t have his opposite number’s bulk and apparent show of firepower. This is a common theme that runs across the entire Transformers range – are the Autobots really such a benevolent group? They always seem to have four times the firepower of the Decepticon ‘aggressors’. He can move his head and arms a fair bit, (although I live in fear that his rubber hose will break) and even his legs a little – but he wont stand in any walking poses – he’s just too top heavy. Generally, he seems quite prone to tumbling over, with the joints in his knees where his legs lock in place developing wear over time with repeated play. Finally, there's that gaping hole in his crotch. Lovely, that is.
Whilst not a crushing disappointment, Shockwave deserves a toy to better represent. He eventually got it, with his Binaltech incarnation, but it still surprises me that this guy hasn’t been singled out for the Classics treatment – his general design as it is superb, it just needs beefing up and with some modern engineering would be a cracker.
606607608