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. ----- 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. ----- 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. ----- 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. ----- With the remaining Decepticon forces splintered, General Strika enacted a contingency plan put in place by Megatron. Carrying a back up of the deposed leader’s core consciousness, Quickstrike tracked down Blackarachnia and presented her with a proposition: create a powerful new body for the resurrected Megatron and raise a technorganic army for him to lead, and he would use his ship to rescue the spider from her primitive exile. Ostensibly agreeing, Blackarachnia had no intention of giving up control of the growing Predacon forces. Using designs conceived by Megatron himself while on Earth, she crafted a suitable form, but put a shell program in place severely limiting the new Megatron’s intelligence and instilling unquestioning loyalty to her. Unbeknownst to the technorganic queen, Megatron’s core consciousness was able to override the shell program almost immediately. Dubbing himself Galvatron and declaring himself superior to his predecessor, he chose to bide his time, pretending to be a simpleminded buffoon while subtly manipulating events to suit his purpose. With all of the cunning and charisma of the original Megatron coupled with a technorganic’s instinct and a flair for the dramatic solely his own, that purpose may well spell doom for the entire galaxy. Props so massive they have their own gravity go out to Nemesis Predaking for not only pioneering this mod, but posting a video explaining it in detail here. The short version is that magnets allow me to attach either a regular hand or the T-rex head to his right wrist, while the latter can still store on his back. Story wise, this is gratifying because I'm finally getting to reveal some things that I've been planning all along. Quickstrike's 'special delivery' was mentioned all the way back on his bio. This bio incorporates a lot of send ups to Transformers lore, not the least of them being his in-story name. A purple, reincarnated Megatron? What else could he be called but Galvatron? I also like the idea of arguably the smoothest, most manipulative Megatron ever playing the 'Starscream' role on the Predacons. Or, more specifically, the 'Tankor' role, for those of you who picked up those recycled elements in his background. Homages galore! Remember, Animated Grimlock was designed by Megatron while he was experimenting with constructing himself a new body. Apropos, no? And you thought I was kidding about this week guest-starring Spider-man! That's the Super Hero Squad figure that came packaged with the equally tiny and awesome Iron Fist, for those who care. Obviously I'm homaging the classic cover to The Transformers US #3: Prisoner of War and showing off a little ball-jointed neck action while I'm at it. Ol' Megs has got him own opinions on spider-folk of all types, of course. 'Bad Spark' had a lot of terrific lines, didn't it? ----- We have movie sign! This time it's based on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I originally had a version with a white background and black borders like the original, but it ended up looking really empty and unfinished. The borders stand out better this way anyway, compared to my first attempt. I also changed the text around a bit because I knew someone was going to go all mental trying to figure out why it said "and the Bad" instead of "and the Ugly". Fun fact: there's actually only a single photo being used here; those are their actual relative heights standing next to each other. Considering that this is S1 Megs, and how tall both Depthcharge and Rampage were, it ends up being pretty accurate. My Silverbolt is crazy tall, but it lets him carry Blackarachnia convincingly, so I can live with that. Now, Beast Wars Animated Season 2 is going on a short hiatus while I deal with exams, but when we return the fate of the third stasis pod will be revealed! Be there! Beast Wars Animated Axalon Crew Beast Wars Animated Predacons
I'm attaching photos here so that I can more easily change the thumbnail for the thread as I add new figures and images.
Love the jet-sub idea. Now all we need is a waspinator to blow up. I like the colour scheme on this guy, and the head turned out excellent. Great job.
And GizmoTracer does it again! I don't even have words to describe how cool he is (like all the rest of your BW animated crew). He totally has a great sub vibe going for him and those colors are so perfect. (Remind me again what kind of ultra flat paints you use again cause I might have to get me some.) How you got Starscream's head to look like that is beyond me, but wow does it look GOOD. I really like how you put his bot symbol on his chest there. It reminds me of a sheriff badge like that and I always thought of Deathcharge as kind of a badass rouge cop. Like Shaft or something. Too bad there was no room for it to be an elite guard symbol- that'd be perfect! I am so excited you are starting season 2 transformers. BTW are you going to make Transmetal versions of the characters you already made?
Fantastic figure! I can't wait to see who's coming next. ...even though I have an idea who one of them will be. I'm clueless on who Depthcharge's partner is though.
Holy shit that's awesome. Now you need to make Rampage. 11/5: Damn, Silverbolt looks great. I can't wait to see who you do next. Your entire Animated Beastwars line is outstanding. I would buy these figures if they were in retail. 11/19: Excellent choice for Rampage. I can't wait to see more.
looks really nice and screams Depthcharge. I think that you contradicted yourself by saying the colours don't really go together, the trick is to use the secondary colours to highlight.
i would say less sub but more manta ray! edit: obviously I didnt follow bw enough to know that he was a ray lol
Depthcharge looks amazing GT! i like his face the most though! Its sooo Depthcharge! i mean if he ever got an animated version in the series then this face would have to be it! and he's partnered up?!?!!?? Didnt see that coming!!! Cannot wait to see what else season 2 has
The head sculpt is great and the simple lack of a nosecone is just enough to sell it as DC! Epic win!!
Your paint job is flawless. The color scheme is an excellent choice as well. But the real selling point of this guy is his head. Great job!
I wanna start taking bets on who the partner is. Rampage? No, because primal's bio mentions their ships "Real Mission" so that means weapon X. Besides, depthcharge was sent to destroy weapon X anyway. My thought: Ravage.
could his partner be silverbolt? his personality would definitely go against everything in depthcharge's profile here
You are to send that to me first class mail within the next five seconds or face the concequences. Seriously though, awesome job, can't wait to see Rampage & Depth Charge's "partner"
