Character Name: Shockwave
Transformers Series: Generation One
Faction: Decepticons
Rank: Guardian of Cybertron
Released By: Takara/Hasbro
Brief Character History:

Shockwave is the Guardian of the Planet Cybertron and perhaps is one of Megatron's trusted Generals. Once the Decepticons took over the Planet Cybertron it was chosen by Megatron that Shockwave would defend Cybertron in his absence.

Shockwave like most Decepticons seeks control and power and Shockwave himself works on complete and total logic, however unlike most Decepticons he follows Megatron's orders and does not seek to replace him. Even the fact that Megatron was missing for over 4 Million years didn't stop Shockwave from keeping control of Cybertron against the Autobots.

During that time Shockwave held back many Autobot attacks with the army of Decepticons at his disposal until finally Megatron returned from Earth from his 4 Million year status lock.

Working by logic alone usually gives Shockwave the advantage over his enemy and he has never trust Starscream (for very good reasons) and never hesitates to remind Megatron what a traitor Starscream really is.

Keeping peace on Cybertron (by Decepticon rule) is Shockwaves specialty and he plans to be the Guardian of Cybertron forever at the command of Megatron.
 

Extra Details:

Originally Shockwave was released way before the Transformers series came about. He was originally released by Takara as -Astro Magnum- which was basically a futuristic gun. He was also released by Radio-Shack and was dubbed by the Transformers community as Shack-Wave.

The Toy has basically stayed the same and has only really been repainted slightly, while the Transformers version is purple the Shack edition is Grey and the Astro-magnum edition is also a slightly grey/black color.

There have been a few other different versions of Shockwave released but the only real difference is that some Shockwaves had a pink colored blaster for a fist and gun while some others had a clear fist and gun arm.

Shockwave has never had a reissue to date but he has had several homage figures released in other Transformers lines based on the original Shockwave. In Japan however he has always been called Laserwave and the homage toys in Japan have kept the same name while Hasbro editions have had to usually change the homage names to ShockBlast.

Universe History:

The history of Shockwave following the Generation One cartoon is fairly simple, Shockwave commands Cybertron and is the guardian of Cybertron and he hates Autobots with a passion. He watches over Cybertron and follows Megatron's orders until eventually he is killed when Unicron attacks Cybertron. It has never been officially shown or stated that Shockwave dies in the attack against Cybertron but the fact Unicron attacks Cybertron so hard and smashes so many buildings to pieces pretty much gives the impression Shockwave died in the attack. You also never see Shockwave again after Transformers Movie, you never see him during series 3 not even in the background and he never makes an appearance in the Japanese Headmaster cartoons either.

The fact that no one led the Decepticons after the events of Unicron is another impression that Shockwave must have died during the attack against Cybertron. When Galvatron returns to lead the Decepticons he is totally insane as the Magma lava has fried his logic circuits and he won’t let anyone near him to repair him. Shockwave would never have stood for non-logic leading and would have caused a civil war against the insane Galvatron had he survived.

The comic Universe was pretty much the same as the cartoon Universe except that in the comics you get to understand Shockwave more and his way of thinking. During one event Cyclonus, Scourge and Galvatron are transported 20 years into the past, Shockwave finds out that in the future Cyclonus and Scourge are the reason he dies. Finding this out Shockwave manages to convince Megatron to rip off Cyclonus' head and kill him. Shockwave then takes the ruined and destroyed body of Cyclonus and keeps it as a trophy, however keeping this trophy means that while Shockwave may live now he is actually causing the rest of the Universe and time itself to fall and crumble. Shockwave thinks with logic but finds it not logical to let Cyclonus live because it means that he will eventually die 20 years later, thus making Shockwave go insane as he has no logical way to solve the puzzle.

Another huge event in the comic was when Shockwave faced off against Deaths-Head. Shockwave felt that he had the battle won because Deaths-Head was using weak tactics against him. However Shockwave was over confident and didn't realize exactly what Deaths-head was planning until it was too late and Shockwave met his end at the hands of Deaths-head.

Toy History:

There have not been that many figures released over the years with the name Shockwave, recently however we have had a fair few homage toys based on G1 Shockwave but have had the name changed to ShockBlast due to right issues. Here is a run down of a sample of Shockwave/Blast figures out there: