Pocket Toys TS04 Tuner S (Soundwave)

This is an exciting transformable action figure from Transformers series not produced by the usual official Hasbro/Takara Tomy brand but rather by a third party manufacturer/brand from China called "Pocket Toys TS04 Tuner S" which is basically  Soundwave and 3 pieces of his minions (Laserbeak, Ratbat and Ravage). 

You can find this from many of those online retailers and the price varies from one to another but the average price range will be from USD13.00 to USD16.00 (presumably excluding shipping), we paid USD16.00 for this from a local online retailer and I think it's a great value for the price.

First, the box:

Out of the box, you will get all these:

And also the product transformation manual and a character card made not from paper but rather from a decent hard plastic:

Considering the price, I'm pleased with the manual being printed in "picture type" and with colors - something that we don't get from Hasbro/Takara Tomy at such price range:

OK, let's have a look at this Soundwave (or rather Tuner S) in his robot mode:

I think it looks great. The back section of the body is impressive and while they are some minor paint scratches here and there but it's not bad actually and probably wont be noticed with naked eyes. The pictures above were shot using close up/macro lens hence we can see a lot of "details". The size of this figure is only about 9.5cm (3.5 inches) tall, hence they call it "pocket toys" - I guess that means something that you can easily fit into your shirt pocket.

This Soundwave is kind of "manual" type, which means that eject button have no function whatsoever apart from being a decoration to complete the looks and essence of Soundwave figure.

Which means, those storage compartment on the chest must be opened manually using your finger or whatever you think suitable.

Once that done, you can put 1 cassette at a time inside that compartment - you can try 2 cassettes at a time but the cover can only close up to 95% - so I guess it's a NO for 2 cassettes.

And this is now Soundwave complete with his typical weapons, the usual shoulder mounter canon and the blaster,

Articulation is very good, the ball joint despite being minimalist can perform accordingly and I'm happy with it:

Now let's have a look at the cassettes, starting with Laserbeak:

And then the Ratbat:

Lastly, the Ravage:

And here it is Soundwave with all his minions:

Size comparison with all the other Soundwave that I have in our collection now - the biggest on the right is Leader Class (TITANS) which is at about 22.5cm (8.8 inches) followed by the Voyager Class at about 17.78cm / 7 inches (Fall of Cybertron) and another Voyager Class (Siege) at about 16.51cm / 6.5 inches and the purple/black version from Music Label at about  13.97cm / 5.5 inches and finally this pocket size which is at about  9.5cm / 3.75inches.

And now - the Boombox Mode - or maybe you can call it Cassette Player Mode - whatever you like...

As you can see, it looks the very decent and very Soundwave in his Boombox Mode - what more could you ask for at such price. The transformation process is typical like many other similarly designed Soundwave - again, I'm very pleased with this.

Overall, this is a very decent Soundwave from Pocket Toys. Yes indeed this is a "knock off" character, product and/or design from Hasbro/Takara Tomy but as a figure or toy product itself, everything is fine. Not much for me to say, I simply love it so much!!! Probably one of the best Soundwave I've ever had in such a tiny "pocket" size. I personally not sure if Hasbro/Takara Tomy ever produced such Soundwave at such scale and price but if I have to guess, probably no, not yet. Furthermore, if Hasbro/Takara Tomy were to produced them, the price might be slightly higher and they probably sold the minions (those cassettes) separately, like they always do - nothing new about it.

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