Retro Bot Reviews: Transformers: Generations Selects Soundwave Spy Patrol, Third Unit

Originally written June 2020.

Way back near the beginning of Siege, I took a look at the Soundwave Spy Patrol, an early set of Micromaster figures that were the minions of Soundwave, part of his well-known-since-the-beginning-of-G1 gimmick of having any army of small robot critters (and occasionally humanoids) who changed into microcassette tapes and shot out of his tape-player chest. He has a whole well-known lineup of soldiers, and every time they put out a new Soundwave (like the 2019 Siege one), it’s always a race to see how many compatible ones they can release, with Ravage the Panther and Laserbeak the Bird being the first in this case. Near the end of Siege, there was a “Second Unit” released, consisting of Frenzy (a little man) and Ratbat (a bat), another well-known pair.

However, they saw extremely limited release in Canada (and other places, I’m told), and I was never able to snag a pair. Apparently motivated by this limited release, a “Third Unit” was released in the exclusive Generations Selects toyline, consisting of four figures made from repaints and retoolings of the Second Unit’s two figures. Being sold through Hasbro Pulse and EB Games in Canada, the Third Unit wound up being a way more available way to grab the figures. For this set, we’re looking at one well-known guy, and three deep cuts. Let me run through who we’ve got here.

Frenzy is one of Soundwave’s original little army, characterized as a scrappy young punk in most fiction. Also, depending on the media, sometimes he’s the red one, while Rumble is the blue one (it’s confusing, here’s the TFwiki page explaining it). A lot of people will probably want this guy in order to be their Blue Cartoon-Accurate Rumble. Those people include myself.

Wingthing is the first deep cut. Originally, he was a transforming weapon (going from bat to gun) that came with the Actionmaster Soundwave figure in 1990. But when Takara realized they could repaint Ratbat orange for quick obscure-character brownie points, they started making modern updates of him, to the point where, despite having nothing but tiny cameos in stories, he even has a Masterpiece figure.

The other two characters in the set, Knok and Skar (the two little guys at the bottom of the above pic), aren’t actually usually associated with Soundwave. Instead, they’re the Powermaster partners of the traitorous G1 faction-swapper Doubledealer (the big robot in the picture), each transforming into engines that pop into him and unlock his two alternate modes. There’s a new version of Doubledealer coming out in Earthrise as a Leader-class figure, which will include space for these two characters with their re-invented cassette modes to combine with him again, with this set being a separate way to get them out. I don’t personally plan on getting Doubledealer, so these are just additional Soundwave minions to me.

Anywho, let’s see how this whole set holds up. Since it’s the same two molds re-used, I’ll look at them in pairs.

Frenzy/Knok

Something I complained about back when I reviewed Ravage and Laserbeak was how there wasn’t even a token effort to pretend that their alternate modes were still microcassettes, instead of rectangular lumps of robot bits. But I’m pleased to report that this pair actually does try a little bit, with the positioning of the screwhholes and the details around them on the front side of each of these little rectangles suggesting tape spools in a way that works just well enough for me. From this angle, Frenzy’s a fairly bland mix of solid blue and black, while Knok is a surprisingly good-looking mix of grey, red, and light blue (with some silver and dark blue bits). Something about the red and blue really pops, and it’s a color combo and set of shades that I really like.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the other side of the tapes, where you can blatantly see their robot mode faces and torsos just hanging out, something that the original team’s less-convincing altmodes managed to hide, so I guess it’s a tradeoff.

For gimmicks, they, of course, both fit into Soundwave’s chest just fine, if a bit tightly (they go in fine, but sometimes they stop the springloaded compartment from properly opening).

Rumble’s colors blend decently with Soundwave’s, though Knok’s definitely stand out against the dark blue.

In addition, the pair has the same weapon/shield mode as Ravage and Laserbeak, where you can flip a tab on the front of each cassette out, and plug it into a weapons port on a larger Siege or Earthrise figure, though this feature doesn’t even seem to be called out in the instructions this time, making it more of an Easter egg than full feature. A problem with this form, though, is that their robot mode faces are fully exposed when in these “shield” modes, making them either macabre or hilarious, depending on your disposition. You can opt to rotate the faces out of view, though this still leaves their silver copyright stamp info out for full-on view.

A few short steps later, and the pair are in their robot modes. I’ll be honest here: This sculpt doesn’t make for the best Frenzy/Rumble. Despite their small size, previous versions of these characters have always had mostly humanoid proportions, even the original toys. This version, however, is extremely stumpy, with a wide torso, and short arms and legs. On top of that, he’s lacking any representation of his traditional back-mounted guns, or piledriver arms (save, possibly, for some pegs on the ends of his fists.) It’s mostly noticeable because the sculpted detail on him is very much trying to replicate his G1 self outside of this, whereas if it had been a more original take on the design (like his Fall of Cybertron Data Disk iteration) it would have stood out less.

At least he’s got a nice headsculpt, with a tiny visor and scowl, along with a great-looking paint job, with the two shades of blue and black being highlighted with gold, silver, and other nice, bright paint apps, including a flea-sized Decepticon symbol. I particularly like the toy-sticker colors on his legs.

Conversely, the fact that Knok was originally an absolutely miniature little figure with indistinct features makes this sculpt work better for him, since he doesn’t have a detailed original design to be inaccurate to. At first glance, you’d think he has a new robot torso, but it’s actually the same one, painted totally differently.

The one new bit on him is the robot-mode head, which is kind of an indistinct mask-and-visor combo in a baseball cap-looking thing, compared to Frenzy’s more detailed sculpt. I still really dig his colors (which add dark blue to the mix in this mode), particularly the way the bright blue pops against everything else.

For poseability, the pair have swiveling heads, ball-jointed shoulders, tilting wrists (thanks to the transformation, universal hips, and ball-jointed knees.

There’s no elbows or waist, but then, these are Micromasters, and they’re both still very well-articulated compared to essentially every other figure in this size class (especially the first two Soundwave minions), and have zero stability issues (a common problem throughout the size, as well).

Wingthing/Skar

I’ll be real: This pair has the weakest pseudo-tape mode out of all four molds in this bunch. While they do pull the same trick of using screwholes to resemble tape spools, there’s a massive chunk missing out of the side of each tape, wrecking the rectangular silhouette, and from the back, their bat mode faces and bodies are again, really visible, without even filling the space in the way Frenzy and Knok do.

That being said, the pair do have mode-specific paint apps in this form. Wingthing’s solid jack-o-lantern orange in this form, with a black stripe and some silver along the tape’s surface. Wingthing is purple and grey, and includes yellow stripes along the edges and bottom of the tape mode.

Once again, the pair both fit into Soundwave’s chest, albeit tightly again, and there’s a rare unintentional advantage to their visible bat mode parts:

When put in a specific way, you have the kind of cute effect of seeing their bat-face hanging upside down, peaking out.

Aside from that, they also have the ability to tab in as shield, and it’s once again on the side that makes their beast heads stick out, with no option to rotate them out of view, unfortunately. However, there’s a common fan mode I’ve seen around the internet, where you unfurl their bat wings, and turn it into a bladed, claw-like weapon.

This actually looks pretty cool, even if their bat faces are still visible. Plus, it restores Wingthing’s original G1 toy function of specifically changing into a weapon for Soundwave.

Flip out the wings, lower the heads, and deploy the tiny feet, and they’re both in bat mode. My Wingthing has a bit of an issue, though, in that his neck joint is too tight to complete one of the bends required to lower it, unless I brace it with a small object that can fit through the hole in his back to finish the transformation. Skar lacks this problem, but he has a different head, so I can’t say if this is a quality control thing, or a built-in problem.

In bat mode, Wingthing is an extremely faithful (and kind of adorable) replica of Ratbat’s snout-nosed bat mode. He’s missing his back-mounted weapons, but they’re not missed like they were with Frenzy, due to them not being as big of a part of his silhouette. His colors are also pretty plain in this form, being solid orange with some black bits, silver circles on his wings, and a Decepticon tampograph. He’s basic, but he looks good.

Skar, meanwhile, swaps the adorable bat-face for a more menacing-looking snarling visage, and the colors for purple with a yellow chest, silver wing-circles, and red eyes.

Honestly, even with the slightly different face, and the sightly different use of yellow, the fact that he’s still a purple bat makes me instinctively read him as Ratbat, and I’d say he passes the squint test to substitute for him.

Technically, these two have articulation. Their wings have joints in the shoulders, their feet have forward-and-back motion, and their heads can raise and lower. In practice, though, they’re nearly statues aside from the head, simply because any movement of the feet or wings will make them topple over.

I’d have also liked it if their heads had enough range of motion for a good flying pose, but no dice. At least they’re pretty stable once their wings and feet are both properly positioned.

As for their ability to perch on another figure’s shoulders, they lack Laserbeak’s ability to quietly use his shield-peg to mount, but you can use their wings as a gripping claw to keep them secured to your master of choice.

Overall

This is a weird set when it comes to recommendations to begin with, because no one’s buying it on its own, I feel. You’ll likely want this set because a) You have Soundwave or Soundblaster, and want to get some of their legion of cassettebots, b) You’re a big Doubledealer fan and want Knok and Skar to complete his Earthrise release, or c) You really want a cartoon-colors Rumble (that’s me).

The set does all of these things well, but at the same time, these two molds are definitely kind of disappointing compared to the first batch. They’re not bad, but they have their fair share of flaws and compromises. Basically, if you have any of the above reasons for wanting them, they do their job well enough (and, like I said, Skar passes for Ratbat really easily), but I can’t see them being worth it on their own. Me, I wanted the set for Frenzy, because having Blue Rumble puts me one step closer to completing my lineup of the Cybertronic Spree, so I’m happy about that. Now all I need is the upcoming Earthrise Quintesson Judge, and I’m in business.

(2021 Update: Well, I did eventually manage to track down Rumble and Ratbat. Aside from that, this set’s still valid as an expansion pack for Soundwave, regardless of whether or not you’ve got the Siege or Netflix versions.)