Universe Depth Charge

Follow my orders or get out of my face!
Brought back from the other side of the Matrix by Primus and Optimus Primal, Depth Charge knew his role in the upcoming war against the monster planet, Unicron, had only just begun. Having finally dispatched his longtime adversary, Protoform X (known as Rampage during the Beast Wars), this solemn, no-nonsense warrior immediately volunteered to assist King Atlas in operating and maintaining a refugee network within the monster planet himself. Depth Charge demands nothing less than perfection from his comrades. Anything less is unsatisfactory in his eyes and he has no problem letting any lazy Autobot know about it!

His fusion-powered cybershark drone conducts recon missions and doubles as a reinforcement in battle. It can also covert into a hand-held blaster, firing dual quantum torpedoes. Depth Charge´s beast form is optimized for underwater combat and can withstand the deepest oceanic pressures. Offensive weaponry in this form includes his drone and an ionic launcher mounted on the forward section of his manta ray mode. His intermediate space-cruiser form can maintain planetary orbit for brief periods of time. In robot mode, he launches ionic discs from his chest and wields an Energo-cutlass for hand-to-hand combat. Defensively, his wings can double as shields against most energy-based beams and missiles. Can also act as solar converters to store energy for prolonged missions in the ocean depths. Although Depth Charge is a skilled warrior in any situation, his abilities underneath the waves is second to none.

Prelude: The 1990s were a weird decade and anti-heroes driven by revenge were all the rage. Enter Beast Wars Depth Charge, too cool for the good guys, driven, broken, and constantly pissed off. After he died killing his nemesis, he was resurrected for the Transformers Universe line with a cool new color scheme. So here is Universe (2003) Depth Charge, now all decked out in Boba Fett colors. Let’s say go!

Robot Mode: Of course Universe Depth Charge is a repaint with some minor changes of Beast Wars Depth Charge, whom I have reviewed before. It’s been twenty years, though (yeah, I’ve been doing this for a long time), so we can give this figure another go.

Depth Charge is an Ultra Class Transformer, meaning by today’s standards he would be a pretty large Leader Class. He also appears still larger than he is thanks to his big wings and even bigger backpack. The wings can be folded in on the sides and on top if you prefer a smaller silhouette, but the default configuration has Depth Charge proudly spreading his full wingspan, just so you know. 

Like most figures that originated in Beast Wars, Depth Charge is very nicely articulated. He has knees, moveable feet, elbows, hip and neck rotation, the works. His huge backpack makes him somewhat prone to toppling over backwards, of course, but his big heel spurs can compensate that in most poses and if all else fails, you can use the manta tail as a third leg (see picture 9 in the gallery). The tail can be unplugged if you want to make the backpack a tiny bit smaller, but then you have a left-over part lying around. 

Depth Charge’s new paintjob consist mostly of dark reds, dark green, and a light grey. According to TFWiki it was inspired by Slave I, the space ship of Boba Fett from the original Star Wars trilogy. I don’t really see it, to be honest, but I never was that big a Fett fan, to be honest. Either way, the colors look really good on him. I can’t quite decide whether they look better than the original, but at the very least there is no flake-prone chrome paint here, so that is a definite point in his favor. 

In terms of weapons Depth Charge comes loaded for bear (or king crab, rather). He carries his cybershark drone as a double missile launcher, he uses the hindmost part of his tail as a sword, and he has a built-in disc launcher inside his chest. The trigger is the rear fin on his backpack, while folding back his head opens up the shaft where the discs are loaded. For defense, Depth Charge can fold his wings partway around his body as a shield.

Now despite “only” being a repaint of the previous toy, Universe Depth Charge did have some changes made for safety reasons. The “cephalic lobes” (those things on his knees that become the mouth things of the manta ray) are made from a more malleable, almost rubbery plastic this time. The tail of his cybershark drone is now a separate piece that can be turned sideways in order for the robot to hold it better, and it also pops off if too much pressure is applied. Finally, the discs he shoots from his chest received a thicker, rounder border. As a result only five of them fit into his chest chamber, not seven as with the original toy.

Bottom line for the robot mode: awesome, as long as you don’t look at it from the back. The very big backpack and the way the wings are attached makes the figure very back-heavy. I presume the launching mechanism for the discs is mostly to blame here, as otherwise I see no reason why there couldn’t be an additional hinge or something to at least fold the whole thing down and flat against his back. Apart from this (rather large) thing, though, I very much like the robot mode. Whether I like it better than the original is a very, very close race. 

Alternate Mode: Depth Charge transforms into a truly gigantic manta ray. The transformation isn’t exactly one-step, but still not terribly difficult. One thing to keep an eye on: the hinges where the robot’s lower body rotates around the chest are prone to stress marks and breakage, so be careful there and don’t apply too much force when rotating it. You can somewhat see the stress marks in pictures 10 and 17 in the gallery.

The finished manta ray, while clearly cybernetic in nature, looks awesome and the new paintjob on the wings comes into play even better here than in robot mode. The long tail can swivel sideways on two joints and the wings can flap a bit. Did I mention it looks awesome?

The disc launcher gimmick from the robot mode remains fully functional here and the shark drone can either “swim” alongside the manta ray or attach to its underbelly. Side note here: it attaches way better if you have the robot mode arms (ending in turbines now) at a right angle, so the shark drone is nestled in the elbows, so to speak. The official positioning of the arms flat against the underbelly (or as flat as you can make it) works, too, but the drone barely stays attached this way.

I am not sure that Depth Charge was ever called a Transmetal in the show, but he is clearly a Transmetal toy and as such he has a sort-of third mode, which he also utilized in the TV show quite a bit. It’s called a space cruiser mode, but really, it’s just the manta ray with the wings now vertical instead of horizontal. That’s it, that’s the whole difference. I guess it’s supposed to be like a TIE fighter here (yet another Star Wars reference, if that’s what it is), but otherwise this mode is pretty unremarkable to me.

So bottom line: Depth Charge’s beast mode is awesome and gorgeous and while the original Beast Wars version certainly looks more “aquatic”, I like the looks of this one here, too. Still don’t really see Boba Fett or Slave I here, to be honest, but no matter. It’s still awesome!

Remarks: After his demise in the Beast Wars finale, Depth Charge was finally at peace in the Matrix, his revenge against Rampage / Protoform X finally fulfilled. His peace was disturbed, however, when Primus resurrected him at the behest of Optimus Primal to help defend Cybertron against the forces of Unicron (as seen in the Transformers Universe comics by 3H Productions). Unwilling to fight again, Depth Charge sought to keep out of the conflict, but was drawn back in, first by defending Rattrap against a corrupted Blackarachnia, then facing a horde of Sharkticons. Eventually, according to his profile text, he aided King Atlas in freeing refugees from inside Unicron, but his final fate remains unrevealed, as 3H Productions lost the Transformers license before the Universe comic line could be finished.

Depth Charge pairs one of the best aquatic alternate modes of all time with a robot mode that looks pretty cool, but has some drawbacks, especially that huge backpack. Looking at the Universe and Beast Wars versions side by side, I’m not really sure which one I like better, but being the Beast Wars fanatic that I am, I’ll simply keep both. So bottom line: a definite recommendation for fans of aquatic beast modes or awesome beast modes. Maybe even for Star Wars fans, who knows? Anyway, this guy is really cool, but keep in mind the shortcomings of the robot mode.

Rating: B-

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