The popularity of Soundwave and his interactive tape gimmick was evident from an early stage: his toy continued to be sold throughout 1986, after the vast majority of his 1984 brethren had been removed from toy shelves Mini-Cassette partners continued to be produced for him even after this, through 1988 and Soundwave and Buzzsaw were shipped to Australian retail again in 1990. This modification became the standard for all subsequent re-uses of the Soundwave mold.Īside from the aforementioned button remold, Soundwave's first notable modification was the addition of a heat-sensitive rubsign to his chest in 1985. Takara also made a running change to the mold, re-sculpting the recessed buttons on Soundwave's pelvis into one solid, protruding piece, and moving the cassette door's hinge from inside the figure's chest to a lower, external position on either side of this new button assembly.
Soundwave's rocket launcher featured a spring-loaded firing mechanism that Hasbro had removed, as they did with all such features at the time. Originally in the Cassette Man release, the figure came with either Rumble, Frenzy or Laserbeak, as different releases and copies varied. To further emulate Cassette Man, Takara's Soundwave came with Rumble, rather than Buzzsaw, and a clear plastic case that he could fit into in tape mode. Takara's release of Soundwave reinstated the extra Cassette Man accessories that Hasbro had excluded from their release: a set of headphones and a microphone, both non-functioning. A pair of trapezoid-shaped stickers intended to decorate these batteries were repurposed by Hasbro as visible speakers in alt-mode (which end up on the inside of his legs)-it's possible that Buzzsaw was composited over his package art specifically to cover the visible sticker on his gun, so as not to contradict the new suggested sticker placement in the instructions. Soundwave is armed with a shoulder-mounted cannon and a hand-held concussion blaster, which both transform into imitation batteries that store in a compartment on his back while he is in his alternate mode. He transforms into a realistically-sized blue and silver microcassette recorder, complete with an opening cassette door that can accommodate any of the numerous Mini-Cassette figures, and came packaged with Buzzsaw to fully exploit and advertise this interactive gimmick. Soundwave began life as the Micro Change toy "Cassette Man", and went mostly unchanged when he was imported by Hasbro to become part of the Transformers toyline, save for exclusion of some accessories, and the removal of a molded "Cassette Man" logo and "MC-10" on his cassette door. Known designers: Hideaki Yoke (TakaraTomy), Shinji Aramaki (concept artist).Accessories (Takara release): Rumble, tape case, rocket launcher, 3 rockets, headphones, microphone, concussion blaster.Accessories (Hasbro release): Buzzsaw, rocket launcher, 3 rockets, concussion blaster.Soundwave and Condor Cassette: Buzzsaw (Decepticon, 1984- 1986, 1990).
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