I would absolutely recommend getting ENCORE Soundwave over the sh!tty Hasbro one.

 

They're both Soundblaster repaints, but the Encore one has a new chest-door that's been resculpted to better resemble original Soundwave's chest-door.

 

Here's a comparative video of the three Soundwaves...

 

Just wanted to add my thanks to Goktimus Prime for the very informative video! I recently got back into collecting TFs, having been an obsessed fan back in the mid 80's. Back then I had nearly completed the entire set of '84-'86 released figures with box/papers/parts and kept them in perfect condition for years. Then in around '92, I sold the set at a garage sale for a lousy few hundred bucks. I was heart-broken later when the internet boom came around and found my collection would cost many thousands of dollars to replace in the condition I had them in. About the only part of my collection that I managed to hold onto was my complete mint set of the original comic book line (US Marvel). Thankfully I found out about the Encore line and have been starting over collecting the figures from that. I'm a bit of a purist, so I managed to avoid buying KO's. What tipped me off was when I looked at a KO package of the Frenzy/Ratbat set on ebay (misrepresented as a reissue). I very distinctly remember my original Frenzy having gold guns, whereas the KO has silver ones. I refused to buy it and did some research to find out what lines are legit versus what are KO's.

 

Of course I know the Encore Soundwave had to be reconstructed and is really not exactly as he was before, but I'm in it for the nostalgia and official branding, so the Encore line is perfect for me. I have absolutely no interest in the Comm version, regardless of the extra Ravage.

You're welcome dude.

 

Also, Frenzy did have silver guns originally. The 1984 Frenzy which came with Laserbeak had silver guns, whereas the 1986 version that came with Ratbat had gold guns. Ratbat had gold and silver guns (variants).

 

The cassette KOs are difficult to identify at first glance unless you know specifically what to look out for. Generally speaking, I would be very cautious when looking at G1 Transformers that are MOSC/MISB and have been known to be KOed. I know of a fan who has become quite proficient in spotting KO cassettes - like you he got the KO Frenzy/Ratbat set without knowing that they were KOs. He was mighty p!ssed over it and has educated himself about how to spot the difference and has become quite good at it too. :)

Aha! That would explain why mine were golden then. I remember buying it in '86. That particular version was stolen from me when I took it to school for a sort of "show and tell" day way back then. The teacher investigated and was able to find the kid that stole it, and I got the figure back sans the golden guns. I was very disappointed the theif had managed to already lose the guns in the short time he had my property, and the teacher thought I was mental for even worrying about some little plastic guns. I was never told which kid had done it, because they knew I would go beat the little monster's ass.