Most Transformers collectors gave up on Cyberverse back during its initial release in 2018 due to poor reviews and simplified toys and transformations. While no one is disagreeing with the “quality” of these action figures compared to other modern releases, Collecticons might want to take a second look at the wealth of packaging and release variants that are going almost completely un-noticed as we speak. I’m going to point out a rather peculiar case in Transformers Cyberverse Warrior Class Laserbeak Blast Soundwave, a figure that stands a cut above many of the other toys in this same size class.
Warrior Soundwave has the distinction of being the only Warrior class Cyberverse Toy to see 3 complete repacks in all three of the refreshes of the Transformers Cyberverse toyline. Instead of modifying the deco or adding new remolded parts like with Megatron and Bumblebee, Soundwave has simply been repacked into each iteration of the toyline. There is a possibility that minor differences are present, such as product codes or production date stamps, but not a lot of collectors are rushing to open what appears to be identical action figures and compare. If you find out a difference, let us know!
The point of this article is not to focus on this figure, but in turn its three separate releases and packaging that differs wildly from each release.
To even understand the major differences, you must first understand a little bit about the Transformers Cyberverse toyline. It started in 2018 as simply “Transformers Cyberverse”, then in 2019 the toyline was refreshed with the tagline “Power of the Spark”, and at the end of 2019, some cases of Warriors with a third refresh appeared early but were meant for wide release in 2020 under the “Battle for Cybertron” subline. There appears to have been a mishap since many of the toys in these initial early waves including the Target Exclusive Quintesson packs and new Scout class toys have the “Battle for Cybertron” logo on their packaging. Everything else in 2020 is rebranded as “Bumblebee: Cyberverse Adventures” to coincide with the final season of the cartoon. If I had to guess, I’d say the initial name for Cyberverse’s third arc was “Battle for Cybertron” but for marketing reasons, was quickly changed to “Bumblebee: Cyberverse Adventures.” Fun times in marketing land, for sure.
Originally, Soundwave was in a late release Warrior wave and short-packed to 1 in a case of 8. This figure had a barcode of 630509788804 and shared a similar box art design with all other warrior class toys found in 2018. He was pretty hard to find due to being short-packed, but became a bit more plentiful once the Wave 4 cases hit shelves in 2019. Soundwave was once again short-packed but now sported the “Power of the Spark” branded packaging. The second release of Soundwave has a barcode of 630509831968. Still following?
Now comes what is expected to be the final release of this toy in the “Battle of Cybertron” branded packaging. This is part of wave 6 of the Cyberverse Warrior class case assortments. It showed up in December of 2019 at some Walmarts and once again featured lovable old Soundwave with no changes except for his packaging, and barcode which is now 630509888115. There is one last listed wave, wave 7, which is mostly repacks of wave 6 toys but includes Warrior Starscream and Hammerbyte.
So was this information helpful? You’re probably saying “Who cares!” but if you’re a variant collector, then actually trying to purchase one of these specific versions of the figure can be very difficult. Walmart, Target, and Amazon all seem to intermittently swap product photos with the different waves and as far as I can tell, there is no official in-package photo of the Battle For Cybertron Warrior Soundwave from Hasbro, leaving many to sub-in other inaccurate product photos.
For Instance, on Walmart.com, the same toy is listed multiple times with incorrect graphics. They’ve even labeled “Battle for Cybertron Warrior Soundwave” as “Cyberverse Adventures Soundwave.”
I mean, this is clearly not a catastrophic ordeal, mostly because the toy is identical in each package. It’s the box that’s different, and that’s some hardcore Collecticon brain damage right there. If you are afflicted with Late Stage Transformerism, then you might appreciate this information.
I don’t have any examples yet, but there may even more MORE package variants for this toy due to multi-lingual international editions in Europe. So far, I’ve discovered quite a few of these for the first run of Cyberverse Toys, especially Ultra Class Starscream, but that’s a story for another day…
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