Soundwaves

Soundwaves was the first dedicated letters page printed in The Transformers. Hosted by the Decepticon Soundwave himself, Soundwaves ran for 53 issues, between issue 22 and and issue 74.

TFWiki has a transcribed archive of every Soundwaves page  in chronological order, but on our page here, we're grouping titbits by topic.

Note that, before the instalment of Soundwaves in issue 28, answers were still written as from the perspective of Marvel staffers. We're presenting information gleaned from these answers in italics.

Soundwave(s)

Soundwave's personality and quirks

Soundwave permits "the carbon-based entities that construct toy facsimiles of both he and his fellow Decepticons" to refer to him as "Cassette Man". To everyone else he's Soundwave, or "Sir".^[24]

Soundwave refers to the Constructicons as his "Decepticon friends" and "new colleagues".^[28]

When asked why the Decepticons and Autobots don't simply work together, Soundwave decided the letter writer had the human condition of insanity. When told that, if he were crossed with a cake, he'd be a gateau blaster, he considered setting Ravage on the sender.^[28]

Soundwave considered a Transformers-themed "My first is in..." riddle to be "constructive prose [...] worthy of great praise", likely because the answer was a Decepticon.^[28]

Soundwave thought he came across very well in the cartoon.^[28]

The column

Soundwaves-the-column was absent from issues 26 and 27 while Soundwave-the-Decepticon overthrew the human letter answerers, seizing total control for himself. "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED."^[28]

The Transformers

The Transformers stories between "Man of Iron"  and "Raiders of the Last Ark"  inclusively take place before "The Last Stand". ^[22]

The Dinobots  were created from scans taken of still-living dinosaurs of the Savage Land  in Antarctica.^[28]

Autobots

Ironhide 

Ironhide and Ratchet's differing colours in the comic compared to their toys is jokingly blamed on a re-spray job.^[24]

Mirage 

On receiving a letter claiming to be written by Mirage, Marvel staffers wondered how he could be writing while deactivated and strung up,  before considering the sluggishness of the postal service.^[24]

Ratchet 

Ironhide and Ratchet's differing colours in the comic compared to their toys is jokingly blamed on a re-spray job.^[24]

Decepticons

Ravage 

Ravage's closest look-alike on Earth is the jaguar (as opposed to a dog).^[25]

Soundwave considered setting Ravage on a letter writer who told him he'd be a gateau blaster if he were crossed with a cake.^[28]

Starscream 

Starscream certainly got his come-uppance from Ravage in "The Enemy Within!". ^[22] On the same topic, when a reader suggested that Starscream not upset Ravage again, Starscream reportedly responded with a suggestion that wasn't fit for print.^[24]

Hasbro

Marvel UK staffers suggest that care must be taken with Transformers toys, as with anything that is constantly being changed between two configurations.^[24] They also reckon that if a toy breaks through no fault of the buyer, it should be replaced by the shop or manufacturer.^[24]

Soundwave allows Hasbro to refer to him on occasion as "Cassette Man".^[24]

An advert that first appeared in issue 20, in which the Decepticon strike planes' names are switched, is claimed to have been a deliberate mistake to make sure readers were paying attention. Yeah right.^[25]

The cartoon

Soundwave was under the impression the Transformers TV series was a big hit from the letters in his mailbag, and thought he came across well in it.^[28]