K... due to what others are saying about Siege Starscream and Soundwave, I feel I gotta weigh in. I'm not terribly active here these days, but I think the consensus is Soundwave is best boy and Screamer is meh correct? MAN do I ever have the opposite opinion.
Starscream is the new love of my life. He is SO posable. My lord. Standouts (as in uncommon on a standard figure IMO) double elbow joints, wrist swivel, ankles have tilt/forward/backward(!!!??), waist, and crazy deep knee curl. Waist swivel and ankle tilts seem to be standard in this line, but forward/backward on the ankle is a rare commodity that I'm overjoyed to see. He does have faults, but nothing that's a deal breaker by any means. The leg kibble in jet mode looks bad at certain angles but totally unnoticeable at others. The chest at the back of the jet, don't care. chest piece falling off in general doesn't even bug me because it's at least solid once you get him to either mode.
Just look at the poses!!
Then there's Soundwave. Mine suffered from QC, but it's honestly not what's colored my opinion of him. His butt plate was missing its screw, and fell right off as soon as I opened him. Annoying, but an easy fix though with a screw borrowed from Megatron's butt (he had 3 but can get away with 2).
So people are raving over Soundwave? .... why?
Ok look, I don't expect them to make his alt mode a lamppost, but a generic Cybertronian THING isn't any better. It barely resembles a ship. It's a brick with skis, some junk, and a tiny thing that's like "seriously, I'm a cockpit". I think I find this mode so offensive because it's not as if it's some sort of sacrifice for a third or fourth mode. Cause he can't do the tape deck thing without a 3P piece. And if you're going to tell me that the tape deck mode isn't important, then why go so far as to give him a functional chest door?
The best example of the "satisfy everyone" designs is Siege Shockwave. His base bot mode is perfect, his armored mode and Cybertronian thing mode are fine, but he can also perfectly pull off the G1 gun mode as well! I see nothing sacrificed with his design.
Not to mention, Soundy is missing a couple articulation points that Starscream has (wrists, and feet forward/backward tilt). But I don't mean to **** all over him, he's still pretty nice. Kinda like a miniature MP. But I don't find him nearly as impressive as Starscream.
I closing, Starscream is best boy. and Soundwave is meh
