Transformers Masterpiece MP-15 Rumble & Jaguar (Ravage)

Ever since I got my hands on the Masterpiece Soundwave, I have been looking forward to the release of this MP-15 set. Two more of Soundwave’s cassette minions, Rumble and Jaguar, or as he is better known here in the states, Ravage. I had been very impressed with the Laserbeak cassette that came with Soundwave so the bar was set high for these to be just as good, but are they? Read on to find out.

Check out hi-res images for this figure in our GALLERY below.




Packaging - The set comes packed in a standard Masterpiece box with images of the two figures on the front in both robot and cassette modes along with their names. The back has descriptions written in Japanese along with more images of the figures and their accessories. The box is significantly smaller than any other Masterpiece due to the small size of the figures.



Sculpt - Rumble looks very similar to his original G1 counterpart. I don’t actually own a G1 rumble anymore but the details on the head sculpt seem a little more detailed than what I remember from the original toy. The gold circuitry on his chest and waist is sculpted as are the little vent designs on his legs. This is a very tiny figure but they still managed to capture all the detail of the character. The figure stands less than 3.75” high.

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Ravage looks pretty good from the side. The side rockets which used to be detachable on the old figure are sculpted on this one, similar to what we saw with the laser cannons on Laserbeak. They are significantly smaller than the old ones and no longer chrome plated. Ravage is a little on the skinny side. When you are transforming him, you actually split the head open down the middle and there is a break between the two pieces. There is a tiny nose piece on the inside you will want to make sure you pull out when you are putting him in robot mode. It's very hard to pull out and easy to miss, but if you don't do this their will be a hole in place of his nose. A drawback with Ravage is that when he is in cassette mode, the backside is not solid due to his transformation so it looks funny when seeing it from that side.



Paint - Rumble incorporates his G1 toy colors of red and black opposed to his cartoon color which was blue. In the toy world, Rumble is red and Frenzy is blue but in the old cartoon they had it backwards. The chest, waist and knees are painted with a gold vac-metal paint. They use a sky blue color on the vents on his legs which is a bit of variation in the color scheme seen on the G1 toy. I believe the G1 toy actually used stickers and was a darker blue with some red used on it. This new figure looks much nicer. For Rumble’s jet/laser guns, they used a non-metallic silver paint. The original accessories were vac-metal. The cassette design on his backside is painted instead of using stickers like on the original. They used a metallic red for his eyes so when it catches the light right, they look like they are surging with energy.



Ravage is mostly black. There is a touch of red used in the eyes which you really have to look closely to see. He has some silver and gray tones mixed in. His legs are gray while his feet remain black. The different tones of silver, grays and blacks actually help the figure stand out some and give it some added dimension. As I mentioned before, the side rockets no longer use vac-metal, instead they are painted with a non-shiny silver paint.

Ravage has two tiny Decepticon logos painted on his upper front legs and Rumble has one painted on his torso section. Both are very tiny; originally I thought these were stickers, but they appear to be painted on.



Articulation - Both cassettes actually have pretty good articulation for such small Transformers. Rumble can turn his head 360 degrees and can put his head all the way back because of the joint used for his transformation. This works well when you want to put him in flight poses. He can’t look down at all. His arms are attached at the shoulders with ball joints, and he has basic hinged joints at the elbows. His wrists can’t swivel but they can be pushed inward, again due to his transformation. There is no waist articulation, and the legs are attached with ball joints. The legs can go all the way back and the knees can also fold all the way back. The feet are attached with ball-joints and have a good range of motion.



Ravage has multiple points of articulation in his legs and paws. He can move his neck up or down; you can also move the tail up and down. The articulation on this Ravage is very similar to his G1 counterpart. The main difference is that his back and front legs have more width between them which gives him a better range of motion. He is also able to stand a lot better without falling over. His front legs have a swivel joint mid-way up the leg, and the back legs can be pushed outwards in a split position if you want. The neck actually has two joints on it where it attaches to the body and another one where the head actually attaches to the neck. There is no articulation in the jaw.



Accessories - Unlike the original toy, this Rumble comes with detachable working pile-drivers so Rumble can actually make things rumble. When I say working, I mean you can manually pull the pistons down or up. Rumble also comes with jet/laser guns that detach from his back and can be held in both hands. You can place the guns in the pile-drivers if you want or you can store them on the MP Soundwave. An attachment comes with Rumble so you can put the pile-drivers together and attach them to his back if you want. This attachment also fits on Rumble’s back by itself or can be used so Soundwave can attach the pile-drivers on his arm.



The little detachable piece that came with Soundwave can be attached to the end of the piledrivers making what I believe to be a thumbdrive which you can then plug into Soundwave in cassette player mode. Honestly, I am not sure if it’s supposed to be a thumbdrive or supposed to be the attachment Soundwave always used to hack into other computers. It looks more like a thumbdrive to me though. Finally the two cassettes comes with a florescent colored cassette holders similar to Laserbeak. When you stack all three cassette holders together, it looks like you have stacks of Energon.



Overall - I really like Rumble and think he is a vast improvement over the old G1 version. The only thing I find a little distracting about him is that you can clearly see the ball joints on his feet in robot mode. Ravage is okay but is definitely the weakest of the 3 MP cassettes released so far. He does have better articulation than the original G1 toy, but he doesn’t really look any better. If you already have the Takara/Tommy Soundwave, then I would definitely recommend picking up the MP-15 set. If you haven’t made that Soundwave plunge yet, then I would suggest you hold off and wait for the Hasbro MP Soundwave which will include all 5 of his cassettes. That will be released as a Toys R’ Us exclusive later this year.



Score:
Rumble - 4 1/2 out of 5
Ravage - 3 1/2 out of 5