Transformers: Masterpiece Shockwave

 While we try to curb the high levels of various emotions that inevitably swirl in endless maelstrom at the end of another semester, it is only logical that we take time out to talk about Masterpiece Shockwave, or Laserwave, his Japanese name.

But not really. It's Shockwave.

 

The numbering of Masterpiece releases is a mystery around these parts, as only the real benchmark releases are known by their number. MP-01 and 10 were Optimus Primes; MP-03 and 11 were Starscreams, beginning a flood of Seeker repaints in both instances and in the latter, Conehead modifications as well; MP-44 is about to be the third version of Optimus Prime; MP-05 was and MP-36 is the Megatron; maybe Grimlock was MP-09. Shockwave is MP-29, which makes him seem so old considering the 44^th Masterpiece is coming up for order, but it seems like only a year or two ago he was first revealed. Time, man. It flies. Anyway, Shockwave is a great candidate for inclusion in both the Second Wave of the line, and probably also in the pending Version Three that the new Prime will launch, and Shockwave has even gotten one of those “anime version” rereleases that apparently makes the figure look more like the original animation model than this first version does.

This Shockwave, the original, is a nice lavender, although the photos here make him look a little too light. It’s a soft color for sure, and maybe he looks a little more menacing in the darker purple, but this is the color that I think of when I think of 80’s Shockwave. True to form in the Masterpiece series, Shockwave is an accurate representation of both his fiction and original toy forms, and looks excellent in both modes. In addition, this figure has a simple and intuitive yet interesting transformation scheme that feels really satisfying in hand.

In robot mode, Shockwave looks like he just jumped off the TV screen, and is a really nice and pleasing light purple color. All the standard Shockwave cues are present: the hexagonal, yellow mono-eyed head, the large roughly diamond shaped chest, a right hand with the left replaced by a blaster. The hand and blaster are both interchangeable, coming in solid and translucent plastic looks, allowing for Shockwave to employ his light-up feature in robot mode as well as blaster mode. The translucent hands really are only for that light-up mode, and since I’ve yet to get batteries for this figure, there’s not much to say about that. But the ability to deploy solid plastic hands is good, as they do look better for the figure in a relatively static deployment of just being on display. It’s good that the light up gimmick exists, but better that the figure is not so inextricably tied to it that it compromises display. Shockwave also comes with a second opaque hand, so you can recreate that one frame of animation error in the G1 cartoon where Shockwave had two hands for whatever reason. (I mean whatever reason you’d want to recreate that. –mr)

Shockwave has a good range of movement and poses well, with some panels and flaps worked into the hips and crotch to allow for leg movement in all directions. Depending on how the legs are positioned, these flaps may stick out quite a bit, but they can be smoothed over by simply pressing them against the leg, which eliminates that flap-sticking-out-of-the-hip condition that is so common with these types of moving parts around hips. There is a long, flexible tube that runs from behind his back to the forearm of the left arm, and it isn’t just a rubber hose, and feels like it’s durable and won’t crack or deteriorate quickly, a condition that plagues original Shockwaves and various newer models, such as the Prime Voyager, which had a tank tread serve as this hose.

Masterpiece figures seem ever so intent on including accessories that are real specific, such as the extra hand for Shockwave here, but also included in this package is a small blaster mode Shockwave so that Shockwave can wield himself as a blaster, because that happened one time in a G1 cartoon episode. It seems that other Masterpiece figures can hold mini Shockwave as well, but honestly, I haven’t had the chance to explore this, so this is just speculating on my part. Mini Shockwave has the tab in the handle that plugs into the groove in the palm of other Masterpiece hands, so it’s probably safe to assume that another Masterpiece could use him.

Blaster mode, again, looks like the original toy, only better. The transformation is very cool, with the legs splitting apart along both thigh and calf to form the handle and the arms folding upwards at the shoulders and closing above the head, with the purple part of the backpack coming off to reveal the blaster barrel around the hands. That’s a terrible description, sure, but what it meant is that the barrel of the blaster mode comes together basically the same way that it did in the 80’s. In fact, the entire transformation is an updated version of the original, obviously more involved thanks to better engineering and design, but familiar enough that using the instructions really feels like an unnecessary cheat. This seems a strange thing to say about a Masterpiece figure, but Masterpiece doesn’t necessarily mean that something must be more difficult than necessary.

The purple backpack cover box serves as a stand or prop to hold blaster mode Shockwave up for display, which works real well, since otherwise the blaster would be balanced on the handle and barrel, which isn’t that good of a display look. It also sorta addresses the idea that Shockwave transforms into a Cybertronian-sized weapon, like a large blaster emplacement, not usually mass shifting as Megatron would to be wielded in-hand. Again, blaster mode looks like an updated and better engineered version of the G1 original, and you can look at it and tell that it is a folded up robot, at least in some places. But that’s always what Shockwave was; he wasn’t a sleek and super hidden robot blaster like Megatron was. Shockwave looked like he just bent over a bit and raised his arms above his head.

Since it seems that the Masterpiece line is moving more in the direction of screen accuracy as its primary objective, a figure like Shockwave may be one of the origin points of that being realized. I think it’s hard to imagine that ANOTHER MP Shockwave could be produced that would be better or more accurate than this one, and I think it’s even harder to think that that would even be necessary. Like Soundwave and Sunstreaker  before him, Shockwave is practically perfect, both as a toy and a representation of a cartoon character. Also, since MP Shockwave has been reissued with a darker paintjob, prices on the original version are bound to come down a little, making what had been a figure that was more costly than it appeared to be worth more affordable. The new version is comically more pricey than the original was even when it was first released, and Masterpiece figures don’t experience much of a cost correction outside of etailers having them on sale to try and thin the supply. This one was purchased thanks to the TFSource Summer Sale, dropping it to $99, and that was just not a price that I felt I could pass on. If this got down to that price again, I’d advise everyone to buy one, which brings up the question of whether its usual over $120 price is actually worth it.

That’s hard to answer. Deep down, it’s a figure with a light up gimmick, something that I want to explore but am not driven by, either as a collector or as an enjoyer of toys. I could take or leave the lights, and if they compromised the figure, which they do not in this instance, I’d much rather leave them. But even setting the light up feature aside, Shockwave is a great figure, and worth owning. But, something that is becoming clearer and clearer these days as price creep keeps creeping, the $100 threshold is a real tough one to justify crossing. Or, at least, it still is to me, despite compiling a long list of Third Party figures and reaching over that line more than a few times. But the largest prohibiting factor of Masterpieces for me is the price, and once they creep too much above $100, I’m no longer interested. I’d rather pay over $100 for a Third Party piece than for an official one, even if it is a Masterpiece. I’d say Shockwave is very worth a $100 to $120 cost, the higher number being a real max ceiling, but as it is a rather simple and straightforward toy, and almost perfect improvement on a thirty-something year old original, $120 does sound awful rich. I feel like at that price, there’d be moments where I looked at him or had him in hand and thought, “huh, $120,” whereas at the $99 sale price I got him for, I look at him and think, “Masterpiece Shockwave!!”