They share more than just weapons...
As indicated just a little bit ago, the cassette robot repaint is the first official transforming iteration of a character referred to as Enemy. He was originally a Microchange-exclusive color scheme for Soundwave’s humanoid minion.
Serendipity stirkes again as the Ratbat repaint is identified as a transforming version of Soundwave’s Actionmaster partner, Wingthing! How deliciously appropriate considering that’s been the most out-of-place minion for Soundwave yet. Now he has a proper home in Soundblaster’s chest.
Onto the Autobots, which are a little more obscure. (Really? More obscure than that crap?)
The red Ravage is meant to be a character that only existed in pre-canon move draft lore. His name is Stripes and he was replaced by Ramhorn in the final iteration of Transformers: The Movie. Notice that he exchanges his weapons with the black version of Steeljaw known as…
NIGHTSTALKER! This black Steeljaw is from the UK continuity of comics where Nightstalker and Ravage were originally buddies. Soon enough though, Ravage turns to the dark side and becomes loyal to Megatron. I had never, ever heard of this wacky shit. I’m just not a comic guy I guess.
So what does this mean for collectors? Well if you never had a Soundblaster or Twincast, I guess this is your shining moment because these two come with the greatest cassetticon accessories in history. Do these figures stand up to the task?
“I will buy Soundblaster” says Cassetticon enthusiast Deceptigtar. There you have it folks.