Shock to the System

That's what Shockwave is! A Decepticon, a spy, and a fan favourite in G1 or Animated.

And we can't talk Shockwave without revealing a few secrets. But I'm sure if you're reading this, you probably have seen TF: Animated anyway, so I won't be spoling anything. ;)

So this is how we see him in most of Animated:

"That's not Shockwave," you say?

Well you're right. That's Longarm Prime. Check out his head/face and his Autobot symbol.

What I love about him by just looking at the figure is the colour. His body is a slight blue-grey, and his Autobot symbol is silver to match.

His silvery-grey eyes, and his white face match his colour scheme too.




"Well wot's this?" you ask in your best British accent.

This is the same guy, but now he's in his true form--Shockwave! (As Ultra Magnus found out, much to his detriment.)

His white face is gone, he's got the antennae up, and lookie here--a gold Decepticon symbol! And that's just his head! (and uh...symbol...)




Well, check him out in full robot mode--both of them:

Woah there, Shockwave, no need to go pointing that gun everywhere...

Spot the differences!

Shoulders are red instead of black, Longarm's crane pack is Shcokwave's Laser Cannon, and of course the hands!

Overall Shockwave is taller than Longarm.

Oh and his lower legs spin around when he's an Autobot spy. :)


















And the best part is, he's got two vehicle modes!

Autobot Crane, or a Decepticon Tank!

The crane head is Spring loaded, so when you slide down on its switch, the gun snap-folds out with a pop. Cool feature that Hasbro once again didn't really have to include. They've done a lot of these hidden/bonus features for the Animated line and I'm glad that they went out of the way to please fanboys like myself. ;)










So with 4 modes, just how poseable is Shockwave?

He's Staying Alive poseable! Ah ah ah ah Staying Aliiiiiii--iiiiii--ii-iiiiiive....










He's in your face, poseable...



















And he's for sure light piping poseable! Check out the classic cyclops eye!

Here's how I rate him:

Show Accuracy: 9/10 - He looks like the Animated character in not one but 2 robot modes. He's transformed into a crane once or at the most twice as far as I can rememeber. We haven't seen his tank mode yet, though. But 3 outta 4 ain't bad at all--and it still very likely might be 4/4. ;)

Aesthetic: 8.7/10 - He looks great as Longarm, and even better as Shockwave. I love the grey and white base, with metallic grey and metallic red bits. Gotta love the three-fingers hands as well. Paint apps are very very solid. One thing I dislike though, is that his laser cannon fits on his forearm to look like he's holding it. This makes him look like he's toting a mini spaceship in his claws. Looks unbalanced. I wished they could've allowed his gun to be mounted on the top/outside of his forearm like Megatron. I think he'd look cooler that way.

Poseability: 9.3/10 - Well this guy passes the "Down on bended knee" test. You see, with every figure I own, at one point or another, I like to pose it so that he/she/it is kneeling on one knee and firing/swinging their weapons. Well, not many figures can do this, Transformers or otherwise. Shockwave, though, can do this easily. I guess it helps that he has 4 modes, so his joints can bend almost every which way. His feet also bend all the way forward and back and his claws on his hand ar also individually articulated. He can point. Awesome! :)

Overall: 9/10 - Many rate this guy as the best TFA figure. But while I think he's awesome, he isn't Optimus Prime (uh-huh, betcha saw that coming. :P). So great figure, wonderful tranformations, and excellent paint job and articulation. Oh and as an aside, after getting this guy and seeing the purple Shockwave, I kinda not want to get purple anymore. This guy's colour scheme is definitely better. Oh and it's also show accuarate. :)

I guess Shockwave agrees. (Cos he's not pointing his gun elsewhere and not at me anymore! :P)