Masterpiece Showcase: Part 1 – 1984 Decepticon Communicator
One thing that I was never able to do the first time around was to “collect them all” and gather all of the figures shown in the catalogs. With the Masterpiece line however, I’m finally able to work towards that goal with modern updates of the original figures.
The original Soundwave toy was borrowed from MicroChange where tiny robots transformed into common household objects. In this case, “Cassette Man” transformed into a 1:1 scale micro-cassette recorder. Micro-cassettes were not very common in the US so it was usually presumed that he was supposed to be a full size audio cassette player.
Admittedly, the “Decepticon Communicator” category is pretty easy to complete since it consists of only two figures:
24) Soundwave and Buzzsaw
Unlike the original, Masterpiece Soundwave came with Condor (aka Laserbeak) while Buzzsaw was released in a two-pack with Frenzy.
MP-13 Soundwave
Despite being released in 2013, Soundwave is still an impressive figure even though it is not as pose-able as the MP-36-style Masterpiece designs.
The Masterpiece version is compatible with most cassettes from 1984 as well as the Masterpiece versions. In fact, he can now hold three cassette minions, besting the previous record holder, G1 SoundBlaster, which was a Japan-exclusive remold of Soundwave for 1987 that held two cassettes.
Similar to how the G1 toy could store his weapons in his “battery compartment”, Masterpiece Soundwave’s weapons store in the back of the tape deck mode.
MP-16 Buzzsaw
The best part about this mold is that it features a fully integrated transformation where the booster packs fold into the cassette mode.
As a Masterpiece, Buzzsaw is much more pose-able than the original.
Third Party Alternative
Ocular Max has released a larger version of Buzzsaw called Buzzard scaled so that the alt mode is the size of a normal cassette rather than a micro-cassette. However, since for me a lot of the fun is the interaction, I haven’t really paid much attention to it.
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