[Magic Square] Voice Ripple & Roarer

Legends Class figures have certainly gained traction in recent years and today we take a look at a Voice Ripple & Roarer, a recent offering from one of the big names in the Legends Class arena.

BUILD QUALITY, PLASTIC QUALITY & PAINT APPLICATIONS

RATING:          3 / 5

Now, Magic Square has a reputation of using a distinctive type of plastic for their figures, which to be honest, may not sit well with those who are used to more rigid and heavier kinds of plastics. This is not to say that the plastic used is prone to breakage, etc. In fact, it is precisely the more pliable nature of this plastic which makes it quite resistant to breakage. Nonetheless, for larger scaled figures, this will be frowned upon. But for this scale, it kinda works.

Paint application on Voice Ripple and Roarer is done well, except for the paint for the eyes on my copy of Roarer. It’s really not noticeable though. I’d only noticed it when I took the photos and saw the eyes up close

AESTHETICS & PROPORTIONS

RATING:          4.5 / 5

Standing Voice Ripple and Roarer on the shelves, they shine like stars. I absolutely love their aesthetics and proportions, in particular Roarer. It is no mean feat, getting the look right for such a small figure (the figure is only about 45mm (1 ¾ inch) tall)! My personal gripe is that I’d wished Voice Ripple to come in a darker shade of blue.

In alt mode, Voice Ripple was more convincing as a tape recorder than Roarer is as a tape. But hey, I’ll cut the small guy some slack.

DESIGN, ENGINEERING & ACCESSORIES

RATING:          4  / 5

You’ll think that for such small figures and such boxy alt modes, transformation would probably be simplistic. However, they have managed to work in meaningfully engaging transformation sequences that are also intuitive. There were, however, one or two instances where parts popped out during transformation (e.g the arm cover on Voice Ripple, the barrels of Roarer’s blasters). I view these as design limitations as a result of the size of the part. It initially bothered me but after a while, I get to understand why it probably had to be done this way. And thankfully, because of how pliable the plastics is, these parts do not fall off when you are posing the figure. Nevertheless, I would recommend caution when dealing with the barrels of Roarer’s blasters. Those parts are miniscule!

Voice Ripple comes with an empty energon cube and two additional sets of hands for posing.

He also comes with Autoscout, which transforms into a more convincing tape than Roarer.

Roarer comes with his iconic pile drivers, which allows for some degree of up/down movement.

JOINTS, ARTICULATION & BALANCE

RATING:          5 / 5

Let me start with this: Roarer, a figure less than 2 inches tall, has ankle tilts. This puts so many larger figures to shame! This has set the benchmark for all figures in the future.

Both figures are amply articulated and will give you a decent range of options when posing them. My copy of Voice Ripple does have loose ball joints at the hips but it was easily rectified with some pledge/nail polish remover.

While this is not the first Legends scaled Soundwave, this is most definitely the best one that’s out in the market at the time this review is written. There is another one coming out soon from NewAge and we’ll see how they match up. But if you are looking for a screen accurate Soundwave, this is the one.