In the season 1 episode of The Transformers (1984), “Divide and Conquer,” (link goes to that episode on TubiTV.com) three unnamed Starscream recolors appear, in incredibly garish, bright colors. They then transform into Cybertronian jets that resemble pyramids, fly up into the skies of the Transformers’ homeworld of Cybertron and pollute the clouds badly enough that acid rain starts falling upon our Autobot heroes, as well as their human compatriot, Chip Chase.
Unofficially, since then, the trio of Seekers have been referred to as “The Rainmakers.”
In 2003, Takara-Tomy and E-Hobby released an orange Seeker repaint and named him Sunstorm, the first of the background Decepticon Jets to get a name and characterization. Then, as part of the Universe 2.0 line in 2008, Hasbro recolored the Classics Starscream into green camouflage colors, and named him Acid Storm. Immediately, Transfans recognized Acid Storm as the green Rainmaker.
And in 2013, they released a Masterpiece Acid Storm, in a bright shade of green much closer to his original cartoon appearance, but with some cool digital camouflage patterns. This was twenty-nine YEARS after his one appearance in “Divide and Conquer” had originally aired.
Many assumed that Sunstorm was the yellow Rainmaker — Except it turns out he wasn’t! Sunstorm is from the first scene of the first episode, and is orange (although he often looks like the “yellow/orange” color of a bowl of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese). The actual yellow Rainmaker, we’d learn later, was a female Seeker named Nova Storm. At the same time, we’d learned the blue one was officially named Ion Storm. In 2019, the trio were released as part of the War for Cybertron: Siege toyline (the show that goes with these toys is now available exclusively on Netflix), in even CLOSER colors to their initial appearance, but with the battle damage paint deco that the entire SIEGE line sports, with their alt modes being Cybertronian jets similar to the pyramid design they had in the cartoon.
I didn’t want to pay $80 for three toys in a line I wasn’t really collecting, nor was I ready to invest in getting ALL the Seekers from the Siege line. So instead I dug up some Heroes of Cybertron Seekers that I hadn’t painted yet, and made my own set of Rainmakers.
To make mine a little more distinct, I gave Acid Storm a yellow stripe on his wing instead of the standard red Seeker stripe, and gave Nova Storm some red deco on her shins. Acid Storm and Nova Storm also got a layer of glow-in-the-dark paint over their chassis. I’d love to make Ion Storm glow, too, but I didn’t have any GITD blue at the time. Someday, maybe.
Anyways, there’s too much information about some background Decepticons you didn’t care about and will promptly forget after you go to bed tonight.
But all of that was WHY I painted these toys in the way I did.