TransFormers Animated Shockwave

It's not often that I have to contemplate adding a spoiler warning to a toy post, but I'd like to think that, by now, TransFormers Animated has been seen in its entirety by everyone who actually wants to watch it, and so the story spoiler inherent in this toy is thereby no longer likely to affect anyone's enjoyment of that show.

 

Essentially, Shockwave had a small but pivotal role in the show, with far-reaching consequences for several other characters, thanks to the very interesting spin the show's writers put on the G1 stalwart. Not content with having him follow tradition and be the de facto Decepticon commander on Cybertron, in Megatron's absence, they made him a spy, infiltrating Autobot Boot Camp and, from there, Cybertron Intelligence, thanks to abilities which allowed him to adopt an Autobot disguise, known as Longarm, with its own unique robot and vehicle modes.

 

Naturally, this was more successful in the cartoon than it could ever be in three-dimensional plastic, but the TF Animated toyline performed some minor miracles with its engineering in some cases, so it's really just a question of whether or not Shockwave is one of the better attempts.

Shockwave

Vehicle Mode:
One of the saddest truths of the TransFormers brand in recent years is that robots who turn into tanks invariably end up being what's known as H-Tanks - that is, tanks with four sets of treads instead of the standard two, as opposed to having some connection to hentai - so that each set of treads can end up as (part of) one of the robot's four limbs. As a general rule, and particularly with a Cybertronian vehicle like this one, I don't mind too much... but it does kind of reduce the vehicle's effectiveness as a disguise if it's meant to be terrestrial.

So, aside from Shockwave being a tank rather than a giant floating space gun (who, unlike G1 Megatron, clearly never learned the mass shifting trick), the most obvious deviation from the character's traditional appearance is his colourscheme. Rather than being purple, he's a matte bluish-grey, with a black turret and black scuplted treads. There was a purple version released later on (both as a 2-pack with Bumblebee in the West, and solo in Japan) which, in a lot of ways, I wish I'd held out for... but this was never intended to be a new G1 Shockwave, so I'm basically OK with the palette change... And it's not as if I've never had to make do with an alternate colourscheme before...

 

It's a really odd-looking vehicle, really living up to the H-Tank moniker, since the vehicle looks very much like a stylised H from above. Sure, it has a very wide cross-bar, and that turret interferes somewhat with the overall impression... but the tiny body and protruding tread blocks are quite unusual. Unfortunately, it's not all the good kind of unusual as, while the front end looks reasonable, the back end leaves the robot's thighs exposed between the rear treads, with large flaps of the lower leg, just below the knee, hanging down near ground level below them.

The main turret is mounted on a 5mm port rather than being permanently attached, and has 360° rotation, albeit with a couple of sticking points where the turret body hits protrusions from the top of the vehicle. The cannon itself can be angled upward as well, and is supplemented by a couple of smaller guns which can be flipped out from the turret body on either side. I don't think it looks especially elegant either way, to be honest, and the proportions of the weapon seem a little off anyway, but I do like the way the tip of the barrel has been designed to somewhat resemble the G1 toy's head, though the 'eye' is recessed and not picked out with any paintwork of its own. Still, it works... kind of... Curiously, the only instance of a Decepticon insignia on this mode is the silver logo stamped on the end of the main cannon... Though the reasons for this will become apparent later.

 

Given the way this figure transforms, I was a little disappointed that he didn't get at least partially rolling treads instead of the standard embedded plastic runner wheels, as I think it would have been reasonably easy to accomplish, working around the necessities of his transformation. At least the outer part of the treads could have become a textured rubber band on runners, though it would have been quite a slim band due to the transforming section in the centre of each of his front treads, and the robot's heel spur in the rear treads.

 

I doubt this will ever feature in a list of the best TransFormers tanks, but it is at least more convincing than the alleged 'tank' modes of Energon Shockblast/Superlink Laserwave and TransFormers Prime Shockwave, and certainly better than the live action movie interpretations, both the original DotM version and the more screen-accurate Studio Series update.

 

Robot Mode:
While G1 Shockwave was certainly one of the taller Decepticons from the early years of the toyline - thanks in part to being one of Hasbro's imports from ToyCo rather than Takara - I've never really thought of him as being 'lanky', as such. Sure, his legs were slender because they had to collapse into a grip comfortable for a child, but his upper body was pretty chunky, he had a protruding chest that rivalled some of the Diaclone-derived Autobots. This version is very much its own entity, with an unsettling, gangly design and oversized, claw-like hands complementing a new spin on the character's traditional cyclopean noggin... But more on that later.

In terms of its general shape, Shockwave's torso is like a flattened-down interpretation of the G1 character's look, but with Animated's standard exaggerated proportions. The chest may not protrude forward so much, but he has the classic vertical protrusions by his shoulders (albeit squared-off), and his waist is dramatically narrowed. The arms are when he shows the most differences, as the upper parts are enormous chunks of tank treads - similar to Armada Megatron - with a small section at the top flipped round to present a metallic blue and red panel near the tops. The elbows appear on tiny, narrow stalks from the base of the treads, and his claws - technically two fingers and a large, flat thumb - are on massive, blocky forearm chunks. His hips and thighs appear on the sides of his groin rather than coming straight down out of it. His legs are slim all the way down compared to a lot of other toys in the line, even though they do flare out toward the feet, per the Animated style. 

In terms of accuracy to the animation model, Shockwave is actually pretty terrible, since the bulk and squareness of his vehicle mode just doesn't lend itself to the smooth curves of the animated robot. The upper arms can't slim down toward the elbow, then bulge out again toward the wrist due to the way they form parts of the toy's vehicle mode... though I would argue that he may have looked better if the extending section from the upper arm to the elbow was slightly thicker, and if the shoulder joint could be slid closer to the top of the upper arm mass. The animation model has cylindrical protrusions from his comparatively narrow hips and thighs, which then gradually flare out toward the foot. Since the lower legs are another tread section, they're squared off at the knee, and the thighs are bulked out due to the requirements of one of the toy's other forms. The cylindrical parts are represented, but are proportionally smaller, less obvious as they haven't been highlighted with any paint, and they're also in slightly the wrong position.

The colour scheme isn't much different from vehicle mode, just with more prominent black, a shallow chevron design on his chest representing the G1 toy's iconic chest window and some panel lining in metallic blue on the waist section. In the middle of the chest is robot mode's single Decepticon insignia, a raised detail covered with gold chrome. As with the rest of the Animated line, there aren't a great deal of smaller, detail applications or even anything to emulate the boldly-outlined, cel-shaded nature of the TV show. Personally, I think that's where Hasbro really missed a trick. Sure, they went with a matte finish for most of the plastic, but the absence of the bold panel lining from the animation models made these three-dimensional plastic toys look flat and dull. The sculpts weren't very detailed to begin with, and colourschemes were kept plain and simple, to match the TV show. Panel lining would have been difficult to keep consistent but, where there were clearly defined areas, in terms of either colour or apparent depth, black outlines would have added the emphasis which was frequently lacking in the sculpt, and Shockwave exemplifies the need of this because so much of him is either black or bluish-grey. His details don't cast enough shadow in and of themselves to prevent him looking bland. The only other complaint is that some depictions of his animation model suggest the use of metallic blue and red paint applications on his forearms, in the area his fingers extend from, which is left as empty space on the toy, with no specific paintwork.

Where the usual Shockwave would have a weapon protuding from one wrist (normally the left) this version actually has two 'hands', while the wrists feature 5mm ports for mounting the entire tank turret. It's a very unwieldy look and, in retrospect, it almost feels as though movie Shockwave was based on Animated Shockwave more than any other (with the possible exception of the Energon/Superlink version). Thanks to the frequently dubious QC and joint tolerances of the Animated line, Shockwave's elbows aren't tight enough for him to be able to wield such a large weapon effectively. The right elbow can handle it briefly, but he left immediately flops back to being straight. The shoulder joints, thankfully, are ratcheted, but the additional weight of the weapon on either arm can be too much for both the hip and the knee joints in some poses. It really feels as though the tank turret could have used a few extra transformation steps, either just to shrink it slightly, or to better integrate it into the arm. The 5mm peg feels less secure than it actually is, but it's still not a great fit.

One of the key features of the Animated aesthetic was the exaggerated proportions of the face - large chins being quite a common feature - and, while Shockwave's toy strays from the animation model here as well, the end result is arguably better for it. In the TV show, Shockwave's head is essentially claw-shaped, with the tip on the back of the head. In common with the more traditional Shockwaves, he doesn't have a face, just a black void with a large red eye floating in the middle. Partly due to the requirements of one of his other forms, the toy's head is more squared off, and the chin block has migrated up from the underside, so it faces forward. The eye is slightly higher up than it should be, and surrounded by small scuplted panel details which are present only for for his alternate robot mode. His antennae are no less antler-like than those of the animation model, but they don't protrude out so far and are proportionally shorter and thicker due to the necessities of his transformation as well as to protect against breakage. It looks good, but is let down somewhat by the awkward, segmented neck and a certain gappiness from some angles.

So... that's Shockwave in a nutshell... but that's not all there is to the toy. Cleverly, it was designed to also transform into the disguise he used to infiltrate the Autobots:

Longarm (Prime)

Vehicle Mode:
OK, this isn't really much of a transformation... Literally all that happens to go from tank mode to this is that the treads get angled down so the vehicle is raised up slightly, with just the tips of each tread touching the ground, and the cannon gets raised and folded back on itself to deploy a short crane arm.

...And it really is short, with the hook on its tip barely clearing the main trunk of the crane. This is the the least effective part of the toy in this form, because there's just no way it would be of any use. The slide switch on the top of the main trunk only extends it as far as is shown in my photos, making it proportionally one of the shortest arms on a toy this size. On that score alone, this really isn't a very convincing vehicle mode and I'd imagine that if another character happened to be pursuing Shockwave in his tank mode, and rounded a corner to find Longarm in his crane mode - with an almost identical paint job - they'd at least be suspicious.

Then again, if you look at the Cybertronian vehicle modes of other Autobots - Ratchet and Ironhide in particular in the official toyline, but also the likes of Bluster and Trench from Mech Ideas - the raised, angled treads seem to be common among the Autobots, so perhaps he would get away with it. Plus, in the TV show, part of Shockwave's schtick was that he could mass shift, allowing certain specific parts of him to shrink and enlarge as needed... Which comes dangerously close to implying the same level of perviness as the live action movie's hentai satellite Soundwave...

Robot Mode:
Longarm's robot mode is achieved by basically collapsing Shockwave's head, limbs and torso, leaving a shorter, dumpier robot. The Decepticon insignia on his chest is on a rotating panel, the opposite face of which displays a silver chromed Autobot insignia. On mine, this is a little fudged, and either the sculpt is missing a groove on one side of the insignia's nose, or the chrome was applied so thickly that it filled in. Everything else is nicely defined, and I have to say I like this varian on the theme of Animated Autobots getting silver tampographed insignias and Decepticons getting gold.

On the newly-truncated arms, Shockwave's fingers fold back onto his forearms and the 'thumbs' reveal a complete, fixed-pose hand sculpted on the inside of each. It's a surprisingly economical and effective use of parts, since it's not immediately obvious in his Shockwave form that his 'thumbs' are so large, or what's sculpted on their inner faces.

Along with the shortening of his torso, the waist area has become wider, so the transition between the upper and lower part isn't as extreme in Longarm as it is on Shockwave. Conversely, the shoulder area has been flattened out and widened, so the upper body still seems chunky. The metallic red and blue panels on Shockwave's shoulders are concealed here, so Longarms shoulders are just the vehicle mode's unembellished treads. The lower legs are similar, rotated the opposite way round such that the treads now face forward, Shockwave's toes become Longarm's heels and his single heel spur becomes the front of Longarm's feet. With the lower legs this way round, he seems even plainer than Shockwave as there's far less of the bluish grey on show from the front. The only interesting feature of the limbs is the texture of his treads.

Naturally, in this form, he's not wielding a massive cannon, and the crane is generally best left on his back. He can, of course, still have it attached to his arm but, due to the orientation of the forearm in this mode, it sits on the side rather than on top so, again, it feels as though the turret could have done with a bit more transformation in its own right, for the sake of integration.

Given that Longarm's head is basically just Shockwave's, but squashed down into the shoulders and with his antenna flipped down to connect with his prodigious chin, it's surprising how different he looks. The off-white painted face and its metallic blue eyes become the centre of attention and the red jewel on his forehead just looks like the kind of helmet feature you'd often see on TransFormers head sculpts. The sculpted details on the top of his forehead are more appropriate to this form, but the absence of the metallic blue lines from Longarm's animation model is disappointing, even though they would obviously have a negatively impact on Shockwave's robot mode.

The thing with H-tanks is that they lend themselves to very simple transformations... and, by and large, that's what you get with Shockwave. The arms are formed from the front treads, the legs from the back treads... but some of it feels overengineered and awkward. The arms, admittedly, barely need to do anything - the thumb is folded out from its vehicle mode position, pointed toward the middle of the vehicle, while the rest of the hand is swung forward from the elbow and the fingers then separated from the knuckle area. The arm then just has to be extended above the elbow. The legs are slightly more complicated in that they not only have to be straightened out, but the waist/hip section has to be extended and the parts of the hips and thighs manouevred into position, while the lower legs just need to be rotated and the heel spur extended out. The 'hood' part over the back of Longarm's head must be flipped back to allow the neck to be extended, which automatically transforms Longarm's face into Shockwaves, while the antennae have to be swung back manually. Transforming to Longarm requires a couple of these steps to be undone, so the legs are shorter and stockier, while the arms are very nearly in their vehicle mode configuration, bar the hands being exposed. Since the turret is a separate component, it plays no part in transformation, and doesn't have to be removed at any stage. Probably my least favourite aspect of this toy is that the black thigh shells don't clip into place in any of his four modes... but in vehicle mode, at least, they're not required to do anything. In either robot mode, they're very wobbly and tend to want to move independently of the leg within them.

 

The biggest let-down with the Animated line was their stability in any dynamic pose, and Shockwave - and Longarm - is very much on a par with other figures in the Voyager size class. He's well-jointed, but that doesn't add up to good poseability because of a few key omissions. Because a lot of the shoulder mass is above the shoulder joint, they can't swing out to the sides very far without butting up against his head. Had there been a way to pull the upper part down, closer to the joint, this would have improved both screen accuracy and poseability, since there would then be less getting in the way of his shoulders' movement. Shockwave's hands are a highlight, because his two fingers are individually poseable, with two joints in each. The thumb isn't quite so lucky, as it only really moves for transformation... but it is at least on a ball joint. There's no waist joint, and Shockwave's hip movement is limited while the blue-grey sections are clipped in to the sides of the groin. When they're not clipped in, the joints have great range - almost too much - but are too weak to support a decent pose. Longarm comes of slightly better in this instance, but his hips are set at an angle, which makes posing awkward in a different way. The rotation joint below the knee is ostensibly for transformation, but does a reasonable job of substituting for the more common mid-thigh joint, but then the feet are only articulated for transformation, and don't offer a particularly stable base in any pose. The toes can move down slightly, but offer no real support due to the weakness of its hinge, while the heel spur only really moves for transformation, but is a little more sturdy. Add to that, the weakness of the knee joints and attaching Shockwave's weapon to either hand tends to make balancing the figure even more fiddly, as well as giving him a tendency to overbalance in the direction of the weapon, to the point where he doesn't even stand straight very well. Shockwave's neck joints are both awkward and weak, so his head is difficult to pose well - it doesn't really turn from side to side without also tilting, and is remarkably wobbly in any case. Longarm, meanwhile doesn't have any head articulation at all.

 

One unique aspect of Shockwave among his Animated contemporaries is that he features an 'ab crunch' joint, just below the chest, which I don't recall being documented in his instructions. This adds to his weird appearance, either making him slightly hunched or in a sort of comic book superhero pose, depending on how the torso is angled relative to his legs.

Purely in terms of screen accuracy, Shockwave is pretty terrible... and the combination of weak joints and effectively fixed-pose feet means that getting him into a dramatic pose is a frustrating chore. He's also another fine example of a TransFormers Animated toy where the engineering exceeds the tolerances of the materials used, leading to him being a bit on the wobbly side. Nevertheless, like the more successful toys, the overall effect is close enough to the impression of the animation model that the lack of accuracy is acceptable... Though, in retropect, it seems strange - perhaps even hypocritical - that I'll argue that lack of adherance to the animation model is a bad thing with TFA toys, but a good thing in G1-based toys...

The main point in Shockwave's favour is that they even attempted to replicate his ability to become Longarm, let alone that they did a (reasonably) good job of it. The differences between his vehicle modes may not be anything special, but the two robot modes - plain-looking and flawed as they are - are quite an achievement. With tighter joints and more adaptable feet, Shockwave could have been on of the best TransFormers Animated toys... as it stands, he's still among the better ones.