"Magnificently sweeping through the darkness with regal silence, a hunter trails his prey. Defender, pursuer, and if need be, judge; Depth Charge acts swiftly and with unquestioning resolve. He holds tightly to a desire for justice, even if he dispenses that justice himself.
After tracking down and incarcerating the murderous Protoform X, Depth Charge returned to a Cybertron torn apart by war. Aging masters forced the next generation of soldiers into battle in the name of "The Cause". Death haunted every street. Injustice abounded. Depth Charge was tasked with a mission to hunt down two deserters from the Maximal ranks who had dispatched their commanding officer, and consorted with the enemy in an attempt to use experimental transwarp drive technology to flee the planet. Retracing their steps with his own transwarp device, the Maximal soon found their escape route. It was not to another planet, but to another Universe: one which the Transtech call home."
Name: Depth Charge
Quote: "It's not revenge I'm looking for. It's justice."
Toy Line: Timelines
Continuity: Beast Era
Faction: Maximal
Function: Maximal Bounty Hunter
Strength: 9
Intelligence: 10
Speed: 8
Endurance: 9
Rank: 7
Courage: 10
Fireblast: 6
Skill: 9
Robot Mode
Depth Charge's robot mode is..well it's very colourful! He has about equal amounts of grey, blue and pink parts, plus with some yellow to break it up a bit. and features a lot of pieces of circuit detailing, and left over parts from his vehicle mode visible.
The torso of this fine fella is made mostly by the cockpit and nose of his vehicle mode, and filled in by his forward wing-fin thingies giving him a nice triangular chest look. His abdominal area features his cockpit behinda canopy type area, which sort of resembles the abdominal area of Unicron (though much, MUCH smller). His Maximal insignia is located in the center of his chest. On the back of his torso are his rear vehicle mode fins, which appear here as wings (ala, the Seekers etc) and also features a small connector on his very back that can be used to hold his spear (though I personally use the other connector more - will mention later)
His head is connected to the main torso by a ball joint connector, allowing him all head-based motion as desired. The head is sculpted with a small face-plate and a very pointy helmet on top, the rear of the helmet also features a light-piping port that gives his red eyes a glowing effect.
The arms are connected to the torso by pivoting joints, leading to a hinge into the upper arms, which feature a pivot joint up the top, and two hinges forming the elbows. The lower arms feature no additional articulation, except at the wrists, which can rotate fully. All these articulation points give Depth charge a very good range of movement (handy for a trident-using bounty hunter huh?) His hands are sculpted into an set of 4 fingers molded together and a thumb in a semi-open hand position, which allows him to hold his spear (at the larger points) and any other similarly sized weapons.
His left shoulder features a moving connector on the outside that can be used to hold his spear-trident as a storage space, rather than using the one on his back (this is my prefered method)
His legs are connected to the groin area of the torso by ball joints that lead to a pivoting joint, giving him great posing ability. His knees are made from a simple hinge joint that is hidden from the front by his kneecap decoration. His feet are connected by a couple of hinges that also enable you to reposition the feet depending on the surface, as needed. His wings are located on the bottom of his lower legs too, also giving some additional support points if needed.
Vehicle Mode
Depth Charge's alternate mode is a lovely looking bright blue fighter jet with forward pointing wings. The jet also features some grey pieces and pink and yellow paint apps, emulating the patterns seen on the original Beast Wars Depth Charge too.
This mode features retractable landing wheels allowing him to be displayed in vehicle mode, and still be stable. The rest of the vehicle mode is simply decorative and has no other hidden features (not that that's a bad thing, he still looks pretty). These decorative parts include thrusters, cockpit and simple panelling detail.
His spear accessory is able to clip to the undercarriage by a moving clip, and a single gap on the part that hides his robot head
Accessories
Depth Charge comes with his spear weapon which can turn from the smaller spear into a long trident-like weapon by simple unfolding the stick, and moving the spear-head, revealing his prongs. If your's is like mine however and is a bit wonky, and the spear-head doesn't work too easily, you can still position it manually with some minimal effort.
My Final Thoughts
Oh Depth Charge, I didn't think I'd like you, but I do. His vehicle mode is beautiful (I'm a sucker for the Terradive mold as it is), your robot mode is painted well, and both modes do well to emulate the original, which not making him look stupid (like painting random eyes somewhere etc).
My only real issue with this toy in terms of it's design is that his counterpart, Protoform X won't be out for another year, meaning he'll be bored and lonely for all that time!
Besides any other small issues I've had (as mentioned in the review itself) I'd say this is a great figure, and can easily go with several other previous toys to make a pre-Earth Beast Era cast shelf (such as Chromia-10 Pilot, DOTM Dark Steel etc)
So yeah, in terms of fun, and general appearances, I'd say this was a very worthwhile figure to get, and I'm glad I renewed my membership for this year, and glad I have a reason to for next year as well (Protoform X)
