I did not intend to fall down a nostalgia hole the other day, but that’s exactly what happened when I made the mistake of looking up the Lego Soundwave set. You know the one. The gloriously blocky blue cassette-deck icon of 80s childhood, reborn as a $200 Lego set that instantly vaporizes all adult financial responsibility.
Two hundred dollars. For a robot who literally turns into a Walkman. And you know what? I looked at it and thought, “Yeah… that seems fair.” No, I’m lying. The truth is I looked at it and thought, “I must have it!” Something more like:
This is how childhood brands get you.
Transformers was one of those series that hit at exactly the right age. Saturday mornings, cereal, and robots punching each other while shouting their own names. Every character felt like a personality carved into thin plastic: Soundwave the monotone loyalist, Starscream the treacherous whiner, Optimus Prime the dad we all wish we had. I mean, it was either Mr Miyagi or Optimus Prime. Come to think of it — now that’s a crossover waiting to happen!
Anyway, and Megatron, who somehow thought turning into a handgun was a reasonable battle strategy.
But Soundwave was always the coolest. Actually… was he? Grimlock was right up there. You know I still had my original Grimlock until a few years ago — then my firstborn got to it. I’m still in mourning. Anyway, Soundwave. Maybe it was the voice. Maybe the cassette minions. Maybe the fact that he didn’t care about posturing, he just did the job. The Lego version gets all the angles right: the chest that opens, the stiff square silhouette, the way he looks ready to give orders in that vocoder monotone.
There’s something strangely comforting about seeing these old designs revived in expensive adult formats. It’s like the universe saying, “Hey, you survived long enough to buy the toys your parents said were too pricey.” A small reward for making it through bills, jobs, and all the other nonsense that didn’t exist when the biggest worry in life was whether your Transformers would break at the hinge. I never did have Soundwave when I was a kid. I wanted him! But the price was out of my parent’s budget, so it remained the thing of dreams.
So yes. If I ever have a spare $200 lying around — and let’s be honest, I don’t — I just might buy Lego Soundwave. Not because I need it, but because it scratches that pleasant little spot in the brain where 1980s Saturday mornings still live.
And man, it would look cool on my bookshelf. At least until one of my kids broke it.
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David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Bluesky. |