Hasbro's Transformers Masterpiece Soundwave & Others Get

Very old, very new; very big, very small
A couple of new items with polarizing characteristics just arrived recently. ^^



The newest, and biggest of them all is of course Hasbro's Transformers Masterpiece MP-02 Soundwave shown in the first picture. ^^ I couldn't bring myself to get the original Takara Tomy version after its price was pushed up "mercilessly" by sellers everywhere when the first production release came out. ^^; When Hasbro announced the plan to release Soundwave in the U.S. under its Masterpiece line, complete with all five cassettes, four which were sold separately for the Takara Tomy version (MP-15 Rumble & Jaguar, MP-16 Frenzy & Buzzsaw), I decided to hold out for Hasbro's release. I'm certainly glad to be able to get it now. ^^

Despite having some rough idea about it before holding the box in my own hands, its insanely huge box size is staggering. ^^; Soundwave himself in Masterpiece format is pretty big, so he would need quite a bit of space inside the box, but with the five cassettes and other accessories placed around the figure, the box just had to be made bigger to accommodate everything. I figured the box could be 50 percent smaller if Soundwave comes packaged in his cassette deck mode instead. It would be somewhat like the arrangement for Takara Tomy's Transformers Masterpiece MP-12 Lambor, or any of the releases from the now defunct Alternity line. ^^ A bit unimpressive it would be with a smaller box, but at least it won't cause too much of an issue for storage. ^^;

In this new relaunched image for Hasbro's Transformers Masterpiece line (which is really just about the packaging more than anything else ^^;), Soundwave is labelled as "MP-02" - the second of the series, after Acid Storm, a green deco of Starscream with digital camouflage effect on its wings and stabilizer fins. I always like the more cartoon-accurate robot mode design of Takara Tomy's Transformers Masterpiece MP-11 Starscream, but I don't particularly fancy its coronation gear. With that display part set substituted by a set of optional missiles, and a display base (inherited from the original version of Transformers MP-3 Starscream), and for liking the digital camouflage effect, I think I'll be getting Acid Storm in the future. ^^

Other figures that I managed to get are HCM-Pro Force Impulse Gundam and Zaku Warrior, which I chanced upon on from a local forum recently. The same story goes for "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" Deluxe Class Armor Topspin, except he's from eBay. It's quite funny to me that with a new Transformers live-action movie, and a new Gundam TV series coming up soon, I'm actually getting in merchandises from previous releases of those mecha franchise instead. ^^; Then again, that's what I always do anyway. XD

I was hoping to get EP404 Sandtrooper from Hasbro's Star Wars Lost Wave Figure line ever since getting Star Wars Attack of The Clones VC51 Barriss Offee (Jedi Padawan) and Lost Wave Figure EP505 Princess Leia (Bespin Outfit) back in late January this year. Its backpack, red shoulder pad, and weathering effect on pretty much all action figure incarnations of the character are always interesting to me. While I didn't managed to find the smaller-sized 3.75-inch version, I got the 6-inch The Black Series Sandtrooper. Apart from the unique character design points mentioned above, the elegant box design is pretty awesome too. ^^ It's definitely a good substitute for the Lost Wave Figure version to me. ^^