Once the affable security chief for Colony Omicron, Depthcharge’s personality was irrevocably changed when the colony was brutally wiped out, leaving less than a servo-full of survivors. Obsessed with revenge against the perpetrator, he now prefers to shoot first and to the Pit with asking questions. When the Axalon
mission went missing, the Elite Guard gave Depthcharge his chance to track down and destroy his foe once and for all. Unfortunately, they also gave him a partner. 
Oh snap, folks! It’s the the first figure from GT’s
Beast Wars Animated: Season 2! Okay, so, yes, Depthcharge didn’t show up until Season 3 of the real show, but this is my version, boys and girls. Anything can happen. It’s crazy, for reals.
Anyway, I always felt that the Transmetal colour schemes were a bit all over the place. Granted, that was part of the point, but that philosophy doesn’t really work with the
Animated aesthetic. Now, Depthcharge featured blue, yellow, purple, light grey and chrome. Which is, y’know, kinda nuts. I replaced the light grey and chrome with a great colour called Underbelly Blue, and downplayed the yellow and purple. I actually though about doing away with the purple altogether, but he started looking a little too much like Thundercracker. I went with two shades of blue, Cygnar Blue Base and Highlight, to give him some variety while remaining cohesive. I think the black lines on the torso and legs really help sell it as a whole.
His vehicle mode is supposed to be a submarine. I... well, I favoured the robot mode on this one. I experimented with a few things to make him look more like a sub, but they all interfered with transformation to varying degrees. I figure the running gag is that everyone assumes he turns into a jet, which really ticks him off, since he hates ‘Cons so much.
My favourite part by far is his head. It turned out really nicely, and I was even able to make use of Starscream’s chin of doom, which makes this look like a specifically
Animated Depthcharge. I placed the faction symbol off centre to give the impression of a badge. You’ll undestand why I’m playing up the cop angle when I introduce his partner next week! Woah-ho, segue into cliffhanger! I’m just that smooth.
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Autobot scientists, repeating the experiment that created the Jet Twins using programming from the captured Bitzwing, implanted their test subject with reinforced Autobot ideals to counteract the Decepticon’s insanity. The result was the impeccably chivalrous and honourable Silverbolt, proving that perhaps one can have too much of a good thing. The Elite Guard foisted him off on the grim Depthcharge, but Silverbolt doesn’t mind; a ‘rescue mission’ is right up his alley. Just don’t ask him to hit a lady. 
Blitzwing seemed like an obvious choice for Silverbolt, since tank/jet is roughly analogous to wolf/eagle. I started thinking about how excited guys like Perceptor and Wheeljack would get over the potential of copying triple-changing tech on top of the huge upgrade we saw the Jet Twins receive from Starscream's programing. The obvious problem is introducing code from a total madman into the equation. You'd need to take precautions, but what if you overcompensated?
The idea that they managed to reverse engineer all of that firepower, but it's attached to a guy who doesn't like to use ranged weapons because they're 'unsporting' is pretty much hilarious. I mean, these are the guys who specifically made Omega Supreme too dim to disobey orders. Nobody in the Guard wants to deal with 'Bolt, so they pawn him off on Depthcharge, which is even funnier. Buddy cop style fun times ensue.
This is another head that turned out really well, I'd say; I really like his goofy grin for some reason. I wasn't sure how he'd look without a muzzle, but I think the
Animated chin is a pretty good stand-in. I used the old 'translucent yellow over metallic silver' trick for the gold. His tabard and/or loincloth is made from sheet styrene and a metal hinge and miraculously doesn't interfere with his transformation! As you can see, I went with the off-center badge style faction symbol again, and I think it works even better of Silverbolt than it did on Depthcharge. The asymmetry really makes it 'pop'.
These characters are each so committed to their personal concept of justice, and those concepts are so different, that the Batman/Superman comparison seemed inevitable. Plus, y'know, puns. And I do love my puns.
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Admit it, these are the photos you were waiting for. They're also why I had to make an exception to
Animated's 'Autobots don't fly' rule for 'Bolt; he's here to rescue falling damsels and chew energon goodies, and he's all out of energon goodies.
I'm putting these up this week because Rampage isn't quite ready to go up yet, but he is coming, never fear.
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When Optimus Prime returned from Earth with the partially reformed Allspark, a team of the top Autobot scientists were gathered at Colony Omicron to study the massive fragment's properties. Two projects were approved: Project Matrix and Project Infinity. The latter sought to replicate the immortal pseduo-spark granted to Starscream by a sliver of the artifact.
The result was the abomination known as Protoform X; an unstoppable killing machine which slaughtered scientists and civilians alike before Depthcharge was able to force it into stasis lock. Primal was secretly ordered to find a desolate rock and dispose of X. When the Axalon
crashed on the primitive world where Blackarachnia was gathering her forces, however, the creature escaped. Now its mad laughter echoes through the jungles, as it attacks Autobot and technorganic alike. 
Rampage was always a character I liked better in theory than in practice. He had a great back-story, great dialogue, a great voice... but I couldn't stand his design. The giant, top-heavy kibble backpack, the scattered colour scheme? Blech.
With that in mind, I took the opportunity to redesign him for my
Beast Wars Animated series. I still wanted him to be big, and since his third, Transmetal 'vehicle mode' had been a tank of sorts, Shockwave seemed like a good place to start.
I decided to follow the cardinal rule of Transformers repaints: when in doubt, add more black. I replaced the lighter elements of his
Beast Wars colour scheme and darkened up his red and purple as well. The gold and magenta highlights really pop now, which is an added bonus.
I kept his signature three-barreled cannon, of course, and his cool horns and pedipalps. His head is kinda huge, but I think it does a good job of showing that this is Rampage, just not the Rampage you might be used to.
Speaking of his cannon, here's a better look at it. The barrels were originally pens. The left over parts make a pretty snazzy missile that screws right into the cannon!
Here are a couple of recreated scenes from the episodes 'Bad Spark' and 'Deep Metal', respectively. Like I said, great dialogue.
Beast Wars Animated Axalon Crew Beast Wars Animated Predacons 
i mean if he ever got an animated version in the series then
