New Galleries: Platinum Edition Year of the Goat Soundwave with Cassettes

He should have come with a transformable sheep.

RhA wrote:He should have come with a transformable sheep.

Does Soundwave dream of electric sheep?

I keep trying to tell myself that this works for some people, and that to those people, it looks nice, but the more I see it, there's no getting around it: that thing is fugly. Clear and orange? WTF??

didn't think it could get worse than sunstorm. i was wrong.

Desslok2201 wrote:I keep trying to tell myself that this works for some people, and that to those people, it looks nice, but the more I see it, there's no getting around it: that thing is fugly. Clear and orange? WTF??

Now, if it was white and orange, where the white replaced the clear, I'd be very tempted to buy it. The orange looks great on it. Combined with the clear, however, it does look odd.

TheVenocWarlord wrote:

Desslok2201 wrote:I keep trying to tell myself that this works for some people, and that to those people, it looks nice, but the more I see it, there's no getting around it: that thing is fugly. Clear and orange? WTF??

Now, if it was white and orange, where the white replaced the clear, I'd be very tempted to buy it. The orange looks great on it. Combined with the clear, however, it does look odd.

I agree. Creamsicle Soundwave would be better than 'I think I'm a test shot' Soundwave

i wonder if this will start showing up in say... BBTS or TRU's.... i dont wanna pay a premium to get the sucker.

They should have given it clear yellow plastic for a cool frozen piss effect...

Soundwave would look much better if he was done up like his Cassettes.

Hasbro didn't use a clear image of the symbol that represents Year of the Goat. From my Google searches, it looks like it's supposed to be the Earthly Branch symbol. If I used the incorrect symbol, please correct me so that I can update the spotlight image accordingly.

Seibertron wrote:Soundwave would look much better if he was done up like his Cassettes.

Hasbro didn't use a clear image of the symbol that represents Year of the Goat. From my Google searches, it looks like it's supposed to be the Earthly Branch symbol. If I used the incorrect symbol, please correct me so that I can update the spotlight image accordingly.

The characters for goat are 山羊, at least in Japanese. Chinese has different ones: 色鬼. The latter has the main meaning in both cases.

Except those aren't the symbols that Hasbro used on the Year of the Horse package. The symbol they used last year came from the Chinese Zodiac symbols which are different than the actual words.

Not JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Except those aren't the symbols that Hasbro used on the Year of the Horse package. The symbol they used last year came from the Chinese Zodiac symbols which are different than the actual words.

OK, that's a weird glitch...

Anyway, the character for Sheep 羊 seems to be the closest match, it's just highly stylised I'm guessing. Two disconnected stripes on top, one vertical line and three horizontal.

Seibertron wrote:Except those aren't the symbols that Hasbro used on the Year of the Horse package. The symbol they used last year came from the Chinese Zodiac symbols which are different than the actual words.

I updated it based on the stylized images at this link ...

http://www.geckoandfly.com/13034/100-chinese-japanese-kanji-tattoo-symbols-designs/

If you force a refresh in your browser, it will update with the new symbol.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Anyway, the character for Sheep 羊 seems to be the closest match, it's just highly stylised I'm guessing. Two disconnected stripes on top, one vertical line and three horizontal.

Thanks for your help, JelZe GoldRabbit

This thing is so mad I actually quite want it now. Obviously not at full price. Maybe if it dips to, like, half price.

I imagine some people will want the vaguely stealth-style Ravage anyway...

Diem wrote:This thing is so mad I actually quite want it now. Obviously not at full price. Maybe if it dips to, like, half price.

I imagine some people will want the vaguely stealth-style Ravage anyway...

My biggest issue with it is the lack of paint on his face shield.

I do like the idea of transparent Masterpiece figures, which is something we've oddly not had prior to YOTG Soundwave. I would be all about a Sons of Cybertron styled MP-10 Convoy or "Lucky Draw" ROTF Leader Class Optimus Prime.

Seibertron wrote:
I do like the idea of transparent Masterpiece figures, which is something we've oddly not had prior to YOTG Soundwave. I would be all about a Sons of Cybertron styled MP-10 Convoy or "Lucky Draw" ROTF Leader Class Optimus Prime.

There was Ghost Starscream. I would also like some clear MPs but it might be an engineering issue considering the comparative fragility of transparent plastics. Id' be interested to see how well this one holds together after a few years of ownership.

Diem wrote:

Seibertron wrote:
I do like the idea of transparent Masterpiece figures, which is something we've oddly not had prior to YOTG Soundwave. I would be all about a Sons of Cybertron styled MP-10 Convoy or "Lucky Draw" ROTF Leader Class Optimus Prime.

There was Ghost Starscream. I would also like some clear MPs but it might be an engineering issue considering the comparative fragility of transparent plastics. Id' be interested to see how well this one holds together after a few years of ownership.

I forgot about Ghost Starscream. Mine is still holding up just fine. I worry about the translucent parts on the Cassettes more than I do Soundwave. Of particular concern to me are Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, but maybe they're not any more fragile than the regular versions are which I've heard some people have had problems with.

i hate translucent figures

I felt bad for the Linkin Park guys while working on this gallery. I kept thinking ... here's the golden hued paint that your exclusive was supposed to have but somehow was absent in lieu of brown colored plastic. The Linkin Park Soundwave would have looked so much better with a similar shade of gold paint on the toy instead of just plain brown plastic.

seems hasbro got a good deal on a lot of brown paint

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Soundwave would look much better if he was done up like his Cassettes.

Hasbro didn't use a clear image of the symbol that represents Year of the Goat. From my Google searches, it looks like it's supposed to be the Earthly Branch symbol. If I used the incorrect symbol, please correct me so that I can update the spotlight image accordingly.

The characters for goat are 山羊, at least in Japanese. Chinese has different ones: 色鬼. The latter has the main meaning in both cases.

Except those aren't the symbols that Hasbro used on the Year of the Horse package. The symbol they used last year came from the Chinese Zodiac symbols which are different than the actual words.

You are kidding right? The Chinese for goat is 色鬼? I wonder where your En-Ch dictionary comes from, as you sure need to get a refund for that.

Crystiallic wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Soundwave would look much better if he was done up like his Cassettes.

Hasbro didn't use a clear image of the symbol that represents Year of the Goat. From my Google searches, it looks like it's supposed to be the Earthly Branch symbol. If I used the incorrect symbol, please correct me so that I can update the spotlight image accordingly.

The characters for goat are 山羊, at least in Japanese. Chinese has different ones: 色鬼. The latter has the main meaning in both cases.

Except those aren't the symbols that Hasbro used on the Year of the Horse package. The symbol they used last year came from the Chinese Zodiac symbols which are different than the actual words.

You are kidding right? The Chinese for goat is 色鬼? I wonder where your En-Ch dictionary comes from, as you sure need to get a refund for that.

Go write to Google Translate then

Crystiallic wrote:You are kidding right? The Chinese for goat is 色鬼? I wonder where your En-Ch dictionary comes from, as you sure need to get a refund for that.

Nope, not kidding. You can see the same character I used in the Decepticon logo on the Year of the Goat Soundwave package. Now that I know what the symbol is, I can make it out in the Decepticon symbol but I wasn't sure what I was looking at before.

It's also the same symbol used on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_(zodiac)

The Goat ( Chinese: 羊; pinyin: yáng) is the eighth sign of the 12-year cycle of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Goat is associated with the 8th Earthly Branch symbol, 未 (wèi).

Apparently, Hasbro is using Pinyin for the characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin

Pinyin, or Hanyu Pinyin, is the official phonetic system for transcribing the Mandarin pronunciations of Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan (Republic of China),[1] and Singapore. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese and a pinyin without diacritic markers is often used in foreign publications to spell Chinese names familiar to non-Chinese and may be used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into computers.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Crystiallic wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Soundwave would look much better if he was done up like his Cassettes.

Hasbro didn't use a clear image of the symbol that represents Year of the Goat. From my Google searches, it looks like it's supposed to be the Earthly Branch symbol. If I used the incorrect symbol, please correct me so that I can update the spotlight image accordingly.

The characters for goat are 山羊, at least in Japanese. Chinese has different ones: 色鬼. The latter has the main meaning in both cases.

Except those aren't the symbols that Hasbro used on the Year of the Horse package. The symbol they used last year came from the Chinese Zodiac symbols which are different than the actual words.

You are kidding right? The Chinese for goat is 色鬼? I wonder where your En-Ch dictionary comes from, as you sure need to get a refund for that.

Go write to Google Translate then

Those kanji literally translate to "colour" and "demon/spirit/oni" (depending on Japanses vs. Chinese and context). Together they can either be iro-oni, a children's tag game, or shikiki which would be "pervert" or "lecher" (for my minimal knowledge it could be either in Japanese, but only the latter in Chinese). Someone somewhere is having a bit of a laugh.

Seibertron, if you want to see cleaner version of the Zodiac kanji you can always check out the sticker sheet for Autrooper (or your gallery thereof).

Seibertron wrote:

Crystiallic wrote:You are kidding right? The Chinese for goat is 色鬼? I wonder where your En-Ch dictionary comes from, as you sure need to get a refund for that.

Nope, not kidding. You can see the same character I used in the Decepticon logo on the Year of the Goat Soundwave package. Now that I know what the symbol is, I can make it out in the Decepticon symbol but I wasn't sure what I was looking at before.

It's also the same symbol used on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_(zodiac)

The Goat ( Chinese: 羊; pinyin: yáng) is the eighth sign of the 12-year cycle of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Goat is associated with the 8th Earthly Branch symbol, 未 (wèi).

Apparently, Hasbro is using Pinyin for the characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin

Pinyin, or Hanyu Pinyin, is the official phonetic system for transcribing the Mandarin pronunciations of Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan (Republic of China),[1] and Singapore. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese and a pinyin without diacritic markers is often used in foreign publications to spell Chinese names familiar to non-Chinese and may be used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into computers.

By joking I wasn't talking about your choice of character. That is the right character for "year of the goat".

I believe Hasbro hired some people to twist the character to fit into the Decpticon symbol, as they did last year with YotH. Although last year they used 篆书 as font style, which is the style Chinese used in Bronze age. This year they used 行书, which though dated thousands of years but is still commonly used. The font style you used is more like 行楷 which is the font style between 行书 and 楷书, which is featured in GoldRabbit's picture.

By the way, 色鬼 means "creepy horny man", or "pervert" as per Diem.

Diem wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Crystiallic wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Soundwave would look much better if he was done up like his Cassettes.

Hasbro didn't use a clear image of the symbol that represents Year of the Goat. From my Google searches, it looks like it's supposed to be the Earthly Branch symbol. If I used the incorrect symbol, please correct me so that I can update the spotlight image accordingly.

The characters for goat are 山羊, at least in Japanese. Chinese has different ones: 色鬼. The latter has the main meaning in both cases.

Except those aren't the symbols that Hasbro used on the Year of the Horse package. The symbol they used last year came from the Chinese Zodiac symbols which are different than the actual words.

You are kidding right? The Chinese for goat is 色鬼? I wonder where your En-Ch dictionary comes from, as you sure need to get a refund for that.

Go write to Google Translate then

Those kanji literally translate to "colour" and "demon/spirit/oni" (depending on Japanses vs. Chinese and context). Together they can either be iro-oni, a children's tag game, or shikiki which would be "pervert" or "lecher" (for my minimal knowledge it could be either in Japanese, but only the latter in Chinese). Someone somewhere is having a bit of a laugh.

Seibertron, if you want to see cleaner version of the Zodiac kanji you can always check out the sticker sheet for Autrooper (or your gallery thereof).

色鬼 means 痴汉 in Japanese.

Crystiallic wrote:色鬼 means 痴汉 in Japanese.

I believe that 色鬼 still works in Japanese, though I'm no native speaker, but 痴汉 would definitely be the more common one, at least in animu!

Fun fact, a guy I knew from Alabama who lived in Japan but didn't speak a word of Japanese loved eating chicken, but used to pronounce "chicken" as "痴汉", and wondered why everyone kept staring at him. True, but kind of boring story.

Crystiallic wrote:By joking I wasn't talking about your choice of character. That is the right character for "year of the goat".

I believe Hasbro hired some people to twist the character to fit into the Decpticon symbol, as they did last year with YotH. Although last year they used 篆书 as font style, which is the style Chinese used in Bronze age. This year they used 行书, which though dated thousands of years but is still commonly used. The font style you used is more like 行楷 which is the font style between 行书 and 楷书, which is featured in GoldRabbit's picture.

By the way, 色鬼 means "creepy horny man", or "pervert" as per Diem.

I assume the connection is related to goats being allegedly very sexually uninhibited animals. It's the basis for mythological creatures like Satyrs and their patron god Pan, as well as more modern usages, like calling a dirty old man an "old goat," for instance.

I've already shared my thoughts on this deco, so my only question here is.....is it Year of the Goat or Year of the Sheep? They're different animals, but I see on this chart



That it's consistently specified as sheep. Anyone know the reason for the contradiction?

Bounti76 wrote:I've already shared my thoughts on this deco, so my only question here is.....is it Year of the Goat or Year of the Sheep? They're different animals, but I see on this chart



That it's consistently specified as sheep. Anyone know the reason for the contradiction?

Great question! The kanji used is literally the one for sheep per its modern usage, but going back etymologically further the kanji was used for basically any horned mammal that looked vaguely bovidae (the invention of kanji preceding the invention of taxonomy) so the correct answer is both! Or either!

When they get around to MP Mirage, I'll understand (and want) a translucent figure. I just don't get this one at all. YOTH colorations were way easier on the eye, not that I wanted that either, but you can't say it's a stealth mode because of the garish orange.
I guess if you enjoy collecting bizarre and unforturnate recolors, this is your year.

The toy's official name is "Year of the Goat", but the Chinese Zodiac animal itself has been translated by multiple sources into being a goat, a sheep, or even a ram.

Other animals have been translated as an ox or a bull, a pig or a boar, a monkey or an ape, a cock or a rooster, a rat or a mouse, while the rest have been mostly consistent as just dragon, rabbit, tiger, snake, horse, and dog.

Am I the only one looking forward to 2021? (Hint, it's a Prowl repaint)

Sabrblade wrote:The toy's official name is "Year of the Goat", but the Chinese Zodiac animal itself has been translated by multiple sources into being a goat, a sheep, or even a ram.

Other animals have been translated as an ox or a bull, a pig or a boar, a monkey or an ape, a cock or a rooster, a rat or a mouse, while the rest have been mostly consistent as just dragon, rabbit, tiger, snake, horse, and dog.

Well, rooster and cock are actually exactly the same animal. They're just alternate words for the same thing, a male chicken. Bonus: you can also call a male chicken a "chicmen." Yes, that's real.

Madeus Prime wrote:
Am I the only one looking forward to 2021? (Hint, it's a Prowl repaint)

Those aren't in the right order.

The years go Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig, repeat.

2021 would be the Ox, which would be an odd Prowl repaint.

I'll gonna punch a basket of puppies and throw the resulting mess at an orphanage's window if they don't repaint an Optimus Primal toy for the Year of the Monkey.

Sabrblade wrote:

Madeus Prime wrote:
Am I the only one looking forward to 2021? (Hint, it's a Prowl repaint)

Those aren't in the right order.

The years go Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig, repeat.

2021 would be the Ox, which would be an odd Prowl repaint.

2017 it is, then.

Reissue Scattershot!

Damn I want a MP Soundwave but one made of ice and caramel wasn't what I wanted!

-Kanrabat- wrote:I'll gonna punch a basket of puppies and throw the resulting mess at an orphanage's window if they don't repaint an Optimus Primal toy for the Year of the Monkey.

Considering that next year is also the 20th anniversary of the Beast Wars (yikes!), maybe your wish will come true. Or at least something special with Beast Wars would be awesome!!!

Seibertron wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I'll gonna punch a basket of puppies and throw the resulting mess at an orphanage's window if they don't repaint an Optimus Primal toy for the Year of the Monkey.

Considering that next year is also the 20th anniversary of the Beast Wars (yikes!), maybe your wish will come true. Or at least something special with Beast Wars would be awesome!!!

Given the recent awesome Generations remakes with Rhinox and Rattrap, they have no excuses.

-Kanrabat- wrote:I'll gonna punch a basket of puppies and throw the resulting mess at an orphanage's window if they don't repaint an Optimus Primal toy for the Year of the Monkey.

I'll hold the basket while you do the punching.
Why they didn't do something with Ramulus this year boggles my mind.

If the rumors are true (as they have been with Devastator and the Protectobots), then Combiner Wars shall be running for two years, extending further into 2016, meaning that Generations will stick to its combiner theme for that year instead of switching to a new beast theme.

Also, wasn't the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary line not that successful for Hasbro?

Sabrblade wrote:If the rumors are true (as they have been with Devastator and the Protectobots), then Combiner Wars shall be running for two years, extending further into 2016, meaning that Generations will stick to its combiner theme for that year instead of switching to a new beast theme.

Also, wasn't the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary line not that successful for Hasbro?

Of course it will extend into 2016. Hasbro's Transformers lines usually have a shelf life of 1.5 years. There'll be a package refresh in the fall most likely, but that doesn't always hold true for Generations toys.

The Chinese Zodiac has provided Hasbro Asia a theme to use for annual repaints and redecos of previously released figure molds that could be reissued in several world markets and give access to many who had missed out on these molds the first time around. They're also made to address the changing world economy in the Asian region where Transformers are growing in demand for a rather thirsty audience.

The redecos and remolds have utilized molds from Generation 1 all the way up to Masterpieces, with a number of them being from the Car Robots/Unicron Trilogy era. Next year's Zodiac choice is the Year Of The Monkey, with an Optimus Prime colored redeco of the Super Class Air Attack Optimus Primal from 2001's Robots In Disguise, a late release figure that was a holdover from the Beast Machines toyline that didn't make it to retail before that series had ended.

Today's galleries focus on exclusive repaints/remold of Transformers Energon Leader Class Optimus Prime and Supreme Class Omega Supreme.

Full stats of today's galleries:

The who:
Leader Class Optimus Prime, Supreme Class Omega Supreme. (<--- You can see the Energon originals by clicking the hyperlinks to the left of the arrow.)

The What:
Year Of The Snake repaints (in Prime's case) and a remold (in Omega's case).

The Where:
Exclusives to Asia, based on the year of the Snake, part of the Asian Zodiac system.

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

The Shēngxiào literally "birth likeness", is also known in English as the Chinese zodiac. Zodiac derives from the similar concept in western astrology and means "circle of animals". It is a scheme and systematic plan of future action that relates each year to an animal and its reputed attributes according to a 12-year mathematical cycle and it remains popular in several East Asian countries including China, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, and Thailand.

The When:
2013.

The Why:
Asian region exclusive repaints and remolds aimed at the Asian audience, addressing the recent change in the economy for that part of the world and to meet the new demand for Transformers that's growing on a global scale. They became shared exclusives in North America through retailers such as Amazon.com and Seibertron.com sponsor Big Bad Toy Store.

You can click on the images below to be taken to either figure's respective galleries:


Platinum Edition Year of the Snake Omega Supreme
















Platinum Edition Year of the Snake Optimus Prime













Keep your optics tuned to Seibertron.com for the latest in news and updates, plus the best galleries around!

I'm so upset with myself for missing Omega when I saw him going for $99. He would look awesome with my classics collection.

Black Bumblebee wrote:I'm so upset with myself for missing Omega when I saw him going for $99. He would look awesome with my classics collection.

I'm a bit surprised by how much he goes for, now. He sat around for quite a while and then got snapped up pretty quickly. $99.00 seems like a great deal compared to the current pricing.

It's odd how some figures will sneak up and surprise you while others just sit there with bargain pricing that make you regret paying MSRP/retail pricing in the first place.

Fickle, this market is.

Same, I've missed out on all the variants of him. I've always regretted it.

Hellscream9999 wrote:Same, I've missed out on all the variants of him. I've always regretted it.

The G1 deco looks really nice on the mold, but the Energon version had two things going for it: The light/sound gimmick (which was pretty neat) and the Headmaster. His was the first to be articulated and he was awesome!

Autobot032 wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:Same, I've missed out on all the variants of him. I've always regretted it.

The G1 deco looks really nice on the mold, but the Energon version had two things going for it: The light/sound gimmick (which was pretty neat) and the Headmaster. His was the first to be articulated and he was awesome!

Yeah, I would settle for any variant (at the right price) but sentinel was always my favorite version, followed by this one

Clearly the best vairant of this mold is YotS OMEGA SPREEM