I wish Transformers like this were re-issued more often. This is certainly a prize for anyones collection!
The toy comes packaged extremely well, Takara and Hasbro know that they are selling collector's items so they display this toy and all of his accessories very nicely. The box has a fold-open flap with a large picture of the toy in robot mode as well as some background info. On the other side the toy is stored in cassette player mode very visible in behind the plastic. Ravage and Laserbeak are both stored in robot mode and look great in the packaging.
If you choose to open your Soundwave, he also comes in vacumm molded plastic, with a removeable plastic cover, so you can take him out of the box and display him without the cardboard so you can see everything. Nicely missing are any twist-ties. If I have any gripe about recent transformers toys its the amount of twist-ties holding the toy in the package. For 20th Anniversary Prime there were about 20. This toy is held in place by the molded plastic, and the clear plastic cover. He is easy to get out of his box, and easy to put him back in for display.
The toy itself is made from plastic very similar to the original. It feels classic, and it is more brittle than more modern transformer toys, so you probably want to be careful with this toy (won't survive a fall off a shelf, for instance). And as mentioned, the cassette door is enlarged using a newer mold than the original Soundwave. For some people this is a draw-back, but personally I don't care.
A lot of attention to detail was put into this toy back in the 80's when it was released as part of Takara's Diaclone toy line. The weapons transforming into batteries is a real nice touch, as is the fact that the batteries are stored in the battery compartment (which even has a belt clip! :)
If you can find one of these toys and are a Transformers Fan, don't let it pass, buy it right away. I was lucky enough to find some at my local Toy R' Us and I bought 3 of them for their list price of $30, but it is unlikely you will find one there anymore. The TRU near me has been sold out for weeks, and when I tried to order them over the phone the operator told me that they were running out because the pre-order and sales had been higher than anticipated.
So if you see one, buy it!