The return of Transformers review on this blog after Transformers United Rodimus Prime back in September. It's one of my favorite purchases made last year. ^^
This is Hasbro's Voyager Class Shockwave from Michael Bay's 2011 movie "Transformers: Dark of the Moon". It's very fierce-looking, in both robot and vehicle modes; it has a huge cannon; it's Shockwave. No other argument needed to support the purchase decision really. ^^
As a character in the movie, Shockwave's role is just as little as his allocated screen time in my opinion. ^^; The Driller, the large mechanical worm that followed Shockwave around in the movie seemed more outstanding than the latter. ^^; Then again, given that many named characters in the movie were also quite badly written and portrayed, especially on the Decepticon side, maybe I shouldn't be too disappointed with Shockwave's role at all. ^^; For the record, I think the best Decepticon character in the movie is Laserbeak. ^^ In terms of action figures on the other hand, this Voyager Class Shockwave, as well as Megatron from the same product line are my picks as the best. If not for the crazy weapon set that came bundled with it, Leader Class Bumblebee would be on that list too. ^^; It would be great if there's a separate version where the weapon set is excluded, and I would gladly get it for my collection. Alas, that's not possible. ^^;
Anyway, back to Shockwave. ^^ Much like The Fallen in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", Shockwave's vehicle mode is an "original" design for merchandising I think, since he was only shown in robot mode in all of his appearances in the movie. I actually like how Shockwave was portrayed burrowed underground with the Driller, and would burst his way out to wreck havoc on everyone and everything. It certainly added a sense of uniqueness to the character.
So, arguably, Shockwave doesn't need a vehicle mode to look great already, but for the sake of merchandising, you know that wasn't going to happen. ^^; Like The Fallen again, Shockwave was given a vehicle mode - a Cybertronian tank, which looks just as awesome as the robot mode in my opinion. ^^ Apart from being happy with the tank's look, I'm relieved that the design didn't look "forced" like the Fallen's vehicle mode. Instead of being an "awkward mix-match of bent and twisted parts to look like an alien craft" (my felling on The Fallen's vehicle mode ^^;), Shockwave's vehicle mode closely resembles a terrestrial tank, and its look closely compliments the character's fearsome image as well. ^^
As you can see, the box image depicts Shockwave's color as dark blue rather than purple. I'm not sure the exact reason behind that "recolor", but it's certainly good to see that the more movie-accurate purple was used as the final color on the action figure itself. It comes in varying tons for different reincarnations, but purple has also been Shockwave's color I believe. ^^
The front window allows the figure to be seen very easily and clearly.
"Try Me" feature on the front window allows you to try out the cannon's Mechtech gimmick. Unfortunately, the secondary cannons would be stopped by the front window before the weapon can be fully expanded.
Character introduction and stats on the box sides.
Top and bottom views of the box.
Preview of Voyager Class Skyhammer on the box bottom.
Introduction of the character on the back of the box.
Box open.
The actual plastic tray that holds Shockwave is been held onto a hard paper box with a picture of Earth as the content backdrop.
Shockwave bound in front of the plastic tray.
Now that the content is removed from the box, the "Try Me" feature can be realized completed: pushing the lever forward will expand side panels and launch two secondary cannons to the front.
Nothing to see behind the hard paper box.
The strings as seen in the image above bound Shockwave's waist and legs all the way through to the back of the hard paper box.
There are a couple more strings which bound Shockwave's arms to the back of the immediate plastic tray it's placed upon.
Shockwave on the plastic tray.
Removed strings from the figure.
The backdrop.
It would make a terrific backdrop for the figure if those holes weren't there. ^^;
A straight-out-of-box display of Transformers DOTM Voyager Class Shockwave.
The giant hose of the cannon needs to be connected to a dedicated port on the backpack.
The two halves of the backpack need to be folded inward and connected to the bottom barrel.
Shockwave's mono eye extends from the clear red part on the back of the head. Due to its size, the glowing effect can be seen very clearly, giving Shockwave his iconic menacing image through that mono-eye. ^^
The folded instruction sheet removed from the package.
The unfolded instruction sheet shows how to transform Shockwave from robot to vehicle mode, ...
... and back again. ^^
Transforming Shockwave from vehicle to robot mode is more interesting in my opinion, as most of his fearsome robot mode features are revealed through the sequence. For that, I'll do a "reversed" transformation review this time, with more images of Shockwave in vehicle mode coming up next, followed by the transformation sequence after that. ^^
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