With the new Transformers Soundwave set officially out in the world, it’s time to pay tribute to the other wave-monikered Decepticon from Season 1, Shockwave; brought to brilliant life by Ben Cossy. This evil Decepticon, who turns into a ray gun and was tasked with guarding the base back on Cybertron, was never as popular as his cassette player teammate. But I don’t think that bothered him. Shockwave is a cold, calculating type, driven by logic. And, logically, a vocoder-voiced dude with a zoo in his chest is just cooler. That said, Shockwave isn’t without his charm and Ben has captured it all, from the distinct cyclopean visage to the laser gun in place of a left hand. If only there was some way to shove a jaguar inside his chest.
Tag Archives: Decepticon
LEGO Soundwave Transformer drops some heavy beats
The moment I first saw this amazing transforming LEGO Soundwave by Student Scissors I had flashbacks to my childhood, playing with my own version of the action figure and the cassette tapes that transformed into a hawk and a panther. The builder has captured the dark blue and white Decepticon in perfect detail, with his shoulder-mounted cannon, cassette-playing chest, and even the aforementioned entourage of mini-bots. I particularly like the tilework used to replicate the play and stop buttons on the torso.
And to prove that the Transformer is worthy of that moniker, here’s Soundwave in his microcassette deck mode. Looks like he’s ready to play the song of the Autobots’ destruction.
With shock and awe, behold the lead Decepticon scientist
Shockwave’s cold intellect and looming presence stand out in this LEGO figure by Shaddowtoa. Coming out of the Transformers toy line, Shockwave is the Decepticon’s leading scientific mind. This articulated figure captures his often repeated iconic look as established by the 1984 The Transformers animated series. This figure bears the classic purple and grey color scheme befitting Shockwave, with that dark pink chest. His singular yellow eye shines out from his angular head, analyzing everything in his gaze. The recessed black around the eye is cleverly achieved by way of SNOT (Studs Not On Top) techniques paired with brackets and slopes for the purple surrounding it. The articulation of the figure is well worth the sacrifice of the transforming elements. The figure has bend at the shoulders, elbows, ankles, knees, hips, head, and waist–not to mention the articulation in his wrist and fingers.
Don’t trust your eyes, its a deceptive disguise...
Let’s talk about LEGO and Transformers. When Transformers were first introduced in the 1980s, the LEGO system didn’t quite have the available pieces to recreate the complicated designs of vehicle-to-robot transformations. Fast-forward to today and it’s a totally different story. Armed with a slew of modern joints and plates, Librarian-Bot is pulling off designs that are more than meet your eyes.
Solo Transformer Assault Group
One of the things that made The Transformers such a great toy line was the arms race nature of the Autobot/Decepticon conflict that kept piling on the gimmicks for kids to drool over.
“We turn into cars.”
“We turn into jets.”
“Well then we turn into dinosaurs.”
“Oh yeah? We combine.”
“Well then we also combine.”
“Okay, but now we turn into two vehicles.”
And on and on it went, with each new gimmick creating a new set of must-have toys. And undoubtedly, one of the most impressive gimmicks was 1987’s Sixshot, an evil robot with five different alternate modes. Sam C. has taken on the challenge of replicating all six configurations in his custom LEGO recreation of the Decepticon warrior.
Click here to all of Sixshot’s alternate modes in action!