Raindance

Raindance is an Autobot Mini-Cassette from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Little known fact: His default mode is actually a pair of legs and this jet fighter just a cunning disguise.

Raindance is a daredevil photojournalist who'll risk anything to capture a great picture. Witty and likable, he has seen thousands of battles and has thousands of war stories that he's more than happy to share. His lively and exciting narratives never fail to entertain his listeners.

He can combine with Grand Slam to form Slamdance.

Fiction

Marvel The Transformers comics

 

BLASTER THAT IS NOT HOW YOU EJECT TAPES

Hundreds of years prior to 1988, a troop of Autobot astronomers on Cybertron detected the legendary Underbase making its way towards Earth. In order to alert their Autobot colleagues on that world, they encoded the information onto two Mini-Cassette warriors, Raindance and Grand Slam. Their ship was damaged upon entry to Earth's atmosphere, and it crash-landed. The damaged Autobots were found in their cassette modes by a band of 18th century pirates, who kept them with the rest of their booty in a treasure chest. Their ship, however, would be lost at sea during a storm.

In 1988, the Decepticons on Cybertron eventually tracked down the two Autobots, and sent Ratbat to Earth to find them. Ratbat and his Decepticons set their disguised desert island starship in the area of the shipwreck, and opened a Club Con vacation resort for fleshlings to disguise their true intentions. The Seacons retrieved Raindance and Grand Slam from the treasure chest, but the two were pilfered by the investigating Jesse and Blaster, who stored the tapes inside himself. The Seacons pursued the two to Club Con's beach, and Blaster was forced to spit the tapes into the sea to end the threat to the beachgoing humans. Club Con!

The tapes were recovered by the Decepticons, and Ratbat and Soundwave were able to use Realvision to access the information within Grand Slam (who provided audio) and Raindance (who provided visuals). Through them, Ratbat and Starscream learned of the backstory of the Underbase and that it was set to pass by Earth in less than a week's time. The Flames of Boltax!

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

Merged as Slamdance, Raindance and Grand Slam served as a correspondent overseeing the Pax Cybertronia between the Autobots, Decepticons, and Ultracons. Engineered by Ultra Magnus and accepted by Shockwave and Ratbat as a means for pooling their dwindling energy resources, the Pax was to be an ending of the Dark Ages. Unfortunately, a bombing run followed by an all-out assault by Starscream and his Predacons ended all hopes of an easy truce, and the dramatic return of Megatron with his cloned Aerospace Extermination Squadron ended any ideas of truce at all. The Age of Wrath Slamdance avoided the termination sweeps only by falling deep underground. The Age of Wrath Pt.3 He eventually linked up with the resistance movement organizated by Blaster and Perceptor. The Age of Wrath Pt.2

Generations Selects Special Comic

In 2050, Raindance and Grand Slam were covering the Selector revolution when the Terrorcons crashed the party. Abominus caused Angolmois Energy to run wild on the planet, and the embedded reporters broadcast the effects. Abominus comic 2

Toys

The Transformers

"Huh? No, I'm not Frenzy's jet-mode! What the Hell are you even talking about?"

• Raindance/Grand Slam (Cassette 2-pack, 1988)

• Accessories: 2 "proton missiles"
• Known designers: Masakatsu Saito (concept artist)

Released in the fifth year of The Transformers as part of the final assortment of Mini-Cassettes, Raindance transforms from a Cybertronian hover plane into a microcassette. In cassette mode, he can fit in the chest compartments of the Soundwave and Blaster molds. He has two chromed proton missiles to add to his plane mode. He can also form the lower half of the robot Slamdance.

He was only available in a two-pack with Grand Slam, who forms the top half of Slamdance.

• More information on Raindance at TFU.info

War for Cybertron: Siege

Uh, since when did I form the head?

• Autobot Alphastrike Counterforce (Multi-pack, 2019)

• ID number: WFC-S26
• Accessories: 2 guns (combine to form a launcher)

Siege "Autobot Raindance" is a redeco of Skytread's jet component, which combines with Grand Slam to form the Deluxe-sized Slamdance. He includes two guns compatible with the C.O.M.B.A.T. System, which can combine to form a launcher, form Grand Slam's tank barrels in vehicle mode or be added to Raindance.

As a redeco of Skytread's jet component, Raindance uses the same connection port and plug system as Power of the Primes Battletrap, allowing for mixing and matching between the six components. He features multiple hardpoints all over himself and his weapons to accommodate "Fire Blasts" from the Battle Masters assortment, which can be used to simulate blaster fire or explosions. Unfortunately, due to the nature of Skytread's mold, Raindance ends up forming the upper half of Slamdance instead of the lower half.

The set was an Amazon exclusive in North America, which also labels the set as "Final Strike Figure Series: Part 1." The Alphastrike Counterforce was rereleased in early 2025 and exclusive to multiple online retailers and Gamestop in the United States.

Notes

These guns are for the birds.

• Raindance's Dreamwave profile artwork incorrectly shows Squawktalk's guns mounted on top of his jet form instead of his own missiles mounted correctly below. This was likely a mistake made due to those two being archenemies, toyetically. Not only is it possible to attach both sets of weapons at once, but Slamdance can easily accommodate them in addition to all of his own weapons, so if you happen to have extra cassette weapons, there's no reason not to make your Raindance Dreamwave-accurate. Besides, this error is just an extension of the proud tradition of Slamdance never having a published photograph with his weapons in their proper configuration.