with Blaster, who erased his recordings. Soundwave made his final appearance in the American cartoon series, the Season 3 finale, The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1 as he was only seen giving the latest piece of information gathered by Ratbat that two scientists had discovered Optimus Prime's body, a fact which made Galvatron eager to destroy it once and for all. Although Soundwave only appeared as a background character in the American cartoon series finale, the three-part The Rebirth, he returned to the forefront in the new Japanese-exclusive series, Transformers: The Headmasters, which was created to replace The Rebirth. Reborn as Soundblaster (New Soundwave in the English version and Vizar in Italy) Soundwave's new toy incarnation was, like the series, available only in Japan. In the 1987 anime robot superhero TV series Transformers: The Headmasters, Soundwave and Blaster's rivalry had increased dramatically. In the opening cut and thrust of Headmasters, Soundwave and Blaster engaged in their final clash in the Arctic Circle as the Autobots and Decepticons were in the process of searching for the missing Autobot Matrix of Leadership. The two opponents inflicted fatal damage to each other, and Soundwave's body exploded even as Blaster collapsed. Soundwave's fragments were recovered by his cassettes. Using reconstructive technology from the planet Master, the leader of the Decepticon Headmasters, Zarak successfully rebuilt and resurrected Soundwave and renamed him Soundblaster—essentially identical to his former self, except for his predominantly black color scheme. As Soundblaster, he served the same role as he had as Soundwave under the leadership of Galvatron and later Scorponok, frequently embarking on spying missions with Ratbat. In Headmasters, his character was somewhat changed to have more of a father-son relationship with the cassettes, as it was hinted on his resurrection as Soundblaster. Soundwave was performed by Frank Welker, whose voice was heavily modulated by a vocoder to achieve Soundwave's distinctive, metallic monotone. However, Welker's voice was left unmodulated at certain points during the episodes "Roll for It" and "Webworld" due to production errors. This left him sounding like Dr. Claw, another role Welker performed, from Inspector Gadget. Books Soundwave appeared in the following books: The 1984 sticker and story book Return to Cybertron written by Suzanne Weyn and published by Marvel Books. Oddly he was mistakenly depicted as an Autobot. The 1985 Find Your Fate Junior book called Dinobots Strike Back by Casey Todd. The 1985 Find Your Fate