Soundwave was my very first Transformer back in ‘84 so I am DEFINATLEY getting this.

Already got my TRU connection on the case (literally lol).Those that know me best here in the forums will no doubt tell you that I can be a real hardcase when it comes to bitching about decisions being made at Hasbro and TFCC in general…but I want to take this opportunity to say something positive for a change regarding the TRU Soundwave. As soon as I figured out that MP-10 would be seeing a stateside release as a TRU exclusive, I had a feeling that that would soon be the case for most (if not all) future Takara Masterpiece figures. It just made sense, especially with the 30th anniversary coming up combined with how well the Matty MOTU (He-Man) line has done for that fan base of adult collectors. Anyway, sure enough Soundwave is announced as the next exclusive last year and then we find out that all 5 of the original ‘84 cassettes would be included (something that Takara didn’t seem to be polite enough to do). When they announced the extra cassettes, I thought to myself “Great, this will be a blatant cash grab and will no doubt cost a fortune.” But if this announcement on the MSRP is correct then it will be the same price as MP Optimus, and I think that is something to be commended for. My biggest complaint about this hobby lately has been the inconsitant and manipulative pricing that seems to be going on all across the board with every size/class figure line. I mean Toys R Us even raised the price of the remaining DOTM inventory to $16 to match the other newer deluxe class figure on the pegs, are you f’ing kidding me! At first I thought that was a mispriced error but nope, sure enough. That toyline is over 2 yrs old. I don’t mind paying a fair price for any product from any company but this price gouging for plastic is seriously becoming more than I can handle in this hobby, the most recent case being the Rain Maker seekers released over the weekend. The eBay prices for that and TFSS Scourge are just absurd. So kudos to Hasbro for keeping the price point for Soundwave at a reasonable and consistant level. I just hope they can manage to get more than two cases per store with this one. I noticed with MP Optimus last year that smaller cities only got two cases (4 figures total) but larger cities got a few times that amount. Yeah, I get it, demographics and all but if you don’t religiously check your store daily in person your just S.O.L. I’m thinking atleast 8 should be good for each store.Now regarding Acidstorm…‘meh. I’ll pick him up IF I ever see him being liquidated. To me a Skywarp would have been a better choice even though he had a Wally World run several years ago, but he hasn’t been released stateside with the new MP seeker mold update which would be nice to buy off the shelf here. I just think a black versionn would sell better than puke green even to non TF customers. And that could have lead up to a 4th quarter 2014 release of MP Starscream updated mold. C’mon that would have made sense and you would have gotten a matching stateside seeker trio within 16 months or so. Just saying…