I can easily see the Japanese engineers flicking through their old design prototypes and sketches back in '95-'96, when tasked with looking for an equal to Rampage figure, and coming across this design and working off of it/taking design cues to achieve what Depth Charge would eventually become.
Clearly it's an old G1 Decepticon design sketch, but I can see some very heavy cues and similarities and IMO it would make an awesome Pre-Beast Wars Depth Charge, hell, even a Depth Charge before the 'Great Upgrade'.
It really sucks eh!![]()