I’ve written about a few Bluetooth speakers in my day, but this one—this one, dear readers—is more than meets the eye. It’s my pleasure to introduce Robosen’s newest addition to the Transformer robot lineup, Soundwave, which incorporates, well… actual soundwaves.

Like Robosen’s previous Transformers (this sick Bumblebee one, for example), Soundwave fully auto-converts from ass-kicking robot to ordinary object and vice versa. Unlike the others, however, Soundwave adds an audio twist, doubling as two things you may actually want to use. The first fun and useful thing you can do is tap into Soundwave as a Bluetooth speaker. Robosen doesn’t list any technical information about the actual speaker system but claims that it’s “high quality,” so for now we’ll have to trust that it doesn’t sound like you’re listening to tunes on speakerphone in 2004. Also, it’s a f*cking robot transformer, so it’d be hard to get mad even if it did.

The other rad thing Soundwave does is that it doubles as an actual, functional cassette player, which is not only a nice nod to the prevailing audio format at the time Transformers was released (1984 for any trivia geeks out there), but also weirdly trendy given the resurgence of physical formats and nostalgia in modern audio hardware. Robosen says the front buttons are functional, too, meaning you can do fun tape stuff like record your voice in addition to fast forward, rewind, and play/pause by pushing real buttons.

Outside of all the neat audio stuff, Soundwave is (like Robosen’s previous robots) also a dutiful and surprisingly complex homage to Transformers. In keeping with the whole sound thing, Robosen tapped one of the series’ original actors, Frank Welker, who voiced lots of characters, including Soundwave. Robosen says Welker recorded more than 200 lines for the robot, including classic phrases like, “Destroy Autobots,” and “Soundwave superior, Autobots inferior.”

Robosen makes the impossible real again with the world’s first fully auto-converting Soundwave.
Standing at Megatron’s side, the loyal communications lieutenant is officially back on duty! @transformers

Officially on sale — starting today: https://t.co/SmUYrLYnGQ#robosen… pic.twitter.com/vFi2rJagBT

— Robosen Robotics (@robosenofficial) December 4, 2025

Another nice addition is the ability to recognize voice commands, which is great if you don’t feel like getting up off the couch to turn your $1,000+ Transformer into a cassette player. Robosen says that altogether, Soundwave understands 48 voice commands, including “convert,” “hello,” and “attack,” which can all be activated by saying, “Hey, Soundwave.” No guarantee that these voice commands work any better than your Amazon or Google-powered smart speaker, but no worries if they don’t; you can always use the included app to make Soundwave do your bidding instead.

Getting your own Transformer/Bluetooth speaker/tape deck won’t come cheap. Robosen has rolled out preorders for Soundwave with an introductory price of $1,000. After Jan. 5, however, Soundwave will cost $1,400 going forward. If you do decide to pull the trigger on your own audio Decepticon, Robosen units will supposedly ship in April 2026.