NEW AGE REALGEAR NO. 21 COMMUNICATIONS SCARAMANGA (SOUNDWAVE)

This is the review of New Age Real Gear No.  21 Communications Scaramanga, at least that's the information from the box but some reviewers also refer this model as H21, in short this is basically Soundwave from Transformers series but because it was produced by neither Hasbro or Takara Tomy, hence they don't use the "Soundwave" name on the box/packaging - it's the usual licensing issue bla bla bla....

The box:

Out of the box:

You will get all the stuff you can see from the picture below:

1) The transformable Soundwave figure

2) 3 transformable Soundwave's minions in the form of "cassettes"

3) Optional hands

4) The usual shoulder mounted cannon and rifle, both are extendable

5) Some sort of canon arms or what ever it is

6) A box thingy with some electronics board and LED light that requires CR927 coin battery (which is not included and during this review, I cannot find the battery from local shops around me and I have to ordered it from online retailer)

Anyway, the Soundwave in his robot mode:

The height of this Soundwave is in the "Legend Class" of those from Hasbro equivalent, basically around 4.7 inches which is almost 12cm.

The price is around USD63.00 including shipping and honestly I think it's quite expensive for such a small sized figure. However, the overall design, transformation steps, sculpt quality and painting finishing of this Soundwave is very good and it comes with die-cast material on certain parts and magnet gimmick.

Articulation is also very good for most parts they are using ball joint but they also incorporates sliding and double joint mechanism here and there which is nice.

The face/head design is simply Soundwave, spot on, accurate, nothing else to say. On the other hand, that eject button on his left shoulder only exist for cosmetic reason, it has no function at all but it's still look pretty solid. 

The optional hands:

Using those optional hands, you can do this:

The weapons:

I only have 3 complains about this figure:

1) The shoulder mounted cannon seems to be a little bit too long on the front end

2) The elbow joint is OK but it can be better

3) Complex transformation process for the legs part 

The 3 minions in "cassettes" mode - Ravage, Laser Beak and Rumble (or maybe Frenzy?, up to you):

First, Ravage the phanter:

Laser Beak the birdie:

Rumble (or Frenzy?) the mini robot:

They also supplied us with a pair of "pile driver" which can be attached on to the arms of Rumble:

Note: That pile driver is extendable, I forgot about it during the photo session:

Soundwave with his 3 minions:

The magnet gimmick are as below, which is very cool:

Even at this position, the magnet works very well and hold the Laser Beak steadily:

And of course the cassette bay:

You have to open it manually using your nails or whatever:

And you can insert any of the 3 minions (in their cassette mode) into that chest compartment:

The provided this manual for transformation process. The transformation process is mostly easy and straightforward but the legs part is quite complex. Naturally for me, I will just search and follow those video reviews from Youtube as my main reference. It's faster than trying to understand those pictures in the manual....

And this is Soundwave in his alternate mode - cassette player:

As you can see from the pictures above, the sculpt quality and the detailing is very good.

This how it looks like on my palm:

And a little bit of extra pictures just for fun:

Size comparison with the Soundwave from Takara Tomy and/or Hasbro:

This Titan version Soundwave which is around 11 inches tall in the picture below, I only paid USD43.00 after 40% discount, which means the price without the discount is more or less the same as this tiny Soundwave from New Age, hence I said earlier it's quite expensive but I guess at the end I'm willing to swallow it because the quality is so good that made me forgot about the cost.

Overall, this is a very good transformable Soundwave figure produced by New Age. It's a bit pricey, yes, but it comes with great quality finishing and detailing. Unfortunately for me, I'm a sucker for Soundwave, so yeah, at the end this is a must grab for me...

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