The head was taken from a Cybertron Soundwave and painted. The purple lightpiping section has also been painted over, with the eyepiece painted yellow, for a more Gen 1 lookTRANSFORMERS: BINALTECH
C-02

DECEPTICON: SOUNDWAVE
FUNCTION: COMMUNICATIONS

VEHICLE MODE: TOYOTA bB/Scion xB

Having witnessed Megatron's dramatic disappearance, Soundwave realised that his position was untenable - without Megatron's protection, someone treated with as much suspicion and distrust as he would become the target of much retaliation - so he made good his escape and travelled the universe in search of some explanation of the mass disappearance.

For a time, he joined the crew of the space pirate, Cannonball, who appreciated his ability to easily and reliably sniff out the spies in his midst. As a reward, Soundwave was installed into a stolen Binaltech Project prototype, and given a sharp new paintjob to help him leave behind his reputation as a cold, calculating opportunist. His new alternate mode is the Scion XB/Toyota bB, with gold rims and flaming wheel decals.

Cannonball's technicians even found a way to bring back his minions Rumble and Ratbat, who now masquerade as super-tuned engines. Rumble retains his ability to create earthquakes by generating low-frequency groundwaves, but now adds this ability to Soundwave's alternate mode, while Ratbat adds his ability to syphon fuel from other nearby cars, and energon from any robot, Autobot or Decepticon, unfortunate enough to come within range. Buzzsaw, too, has been upgraded, and becomes a turbocharger. Now ready to take on the universe, Soundwave decides to seek out Ravage, who he feels is most likely to be able to find the answers he's looking for...

For the most part, I've stuck with traditional Gen 1 Soundwave colours. Since I wanted him to use his Cybertron Hexagon weapons, rather than Skids' puny blaster, I decided to do some paintwork on them, too. The inside of the handgun is painted metallic silver, to give it some 'weight', while the lines on the area leading up to the barrells has been filled with flourescent yellow, suggesting glowing energon within. The same effect has been applied to the gunsight, though it's not visible here. The shoulder cannon's repainting was much more substantial - the sides were painted blue, to match the body as closely as possible, with some gold detail, and a 'power scale' on each side, where the raised rectangles are painted red and yellow.

Only the front two doors' windows are painted transparent blue, as this is an effect for robot mode only. If I change my mind and feel less lazy about it, I may repaint the others too.


Rumble and Ratbat - Knok and Skar, Powermaster partner of Doubledealer. While I had my own Doubledealer, I decided to pick up a spare,
rather than repaint my own. Coincidentally, one was available on eBay that week, so I put in a bid. No-one bid against me, so it was in my hands very quickly.
The customisation is mainly in the paintwork, though the large peg on Ratbat's back had to be cut off (not a very neat job - I may sand it down sometime - to fit.
Aside from the obvious complications of getting a brush into such small spaces, Ratbat was quite easy to paint. Rumble, however, doesn't seem to like the gloss black,
and it's flaking off just about everywhere. May have to rethink that...


Buzzaw is a straight repaint of Cybertron Soundwave's Laserbeak hexagon unit. I've described him as a turbocharger but,
with the 'wings' folded out, he could just as easily be come kind of antenna/satellite dish arrangement... Or even speakers, for that matter.
For the most part, all I've really done with this is take the paintwork from GF Soundblaster and take it up a notch or two.

Both 'engines' can be mounted inside Soundwave's chest in robot mode, thanks to a slightly modified (think hacksaw) blue chest/mounting plate
from Doubledealer. The gap in the middle only needed widening a touch to fit around Soundwave's central lever, then parts of the front had to be
cut off because of the screws holding the headlights in place. The whole thing was painted black so it doesn't stand out, and fits quite snugly.


"Ratbat, Eject! Operation: Fuel Syphon." The Ratbat 'Tri-Turbo Vampire' engine would allow Soundwave to steal fuel/energon from nearby cars or robots.
As an autonomous unit, Ratbat would function in the same way he always did...


"Rumble, Eject! Operation: Groundshaker." As Soundwave's engine, Rumble adds his earthquake-generating powers to his master's arsenal.
Low-frequency groundwaves are transmitted via Soundwave's suspension and wheels, making him the epicentre of the earthshattering devastation.
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