Phil's Seacon & Piranacon reviews

Seacon Seawing

Seawing is a sea monster based on a Manta Ray, but with the addition of legs behind his wings which turn at the hips and bend at the ankles. The wings can fold up at the body and the jaw opens ..... which will cause some trouble later! The top of Seawing's body, his legs and jaw are the same sea green plastic found on other Seacons, while the wings and lower body are grey. The sides of his head, feet, tail and weapons are black. He comes with two guns, each with it's own curved wing. One gun can be pegged under each wing to form an attack mode for Seawing.

Like all the other Seacon limbs, Seawing has a weapons mode that can be used independently with a stand (see Overbite's review) or as a hand weapon for the combined Piranacon. Fold the legs back, fold the wings upwards, peg the guns together to form a gun that mirrors Seawing's shape and peg into the 5mm plug on Seawing's nose. To hold or mount the weapon fold down the Scramble City style connector under the toy.

To form Seawing's robot mode, start by folding back the wings on the beast mode. Fold the tail back. Pull the sides of the face forward and then flip them round 180 degrees. Stand on his beast mode nose. Fold the legs down to the sides to serve as robot arms. Fold the feet back to form the hands.

The robot mode has some very odd legs with the body coming down to near to the floor and short stubby legs to either side. Remember the mouth? Now it's on the front of the lower body with the hinge at waist level. And the mouth can still open. Oh dear. Thankfully it doesn't open too far! The legs move at the "hips" and the arms move at the shoulders in this mode while the wrists bend mainly as part of the transformation. He can hold his guns either as individual weapons or as a combined gun. There's a lot of grey in this mode with the legs, connector in the centre of the chest and hands being black and the arms the sea green which makes the robot mode look a little plain.

Seawing can form a limb for Piranacon:

Arm mode: Beast mode with the connector peg under the fish folded out and a hand plugged in the 5mm hole on the nose.

Leg mode: Robot mode, but push the legs/feet up and plug a foot into the 5mm hole between the legs.

In all the places this toy has appeared under the Nautilator name he has served as Piranacon's left arm.

Seawing has a nice looking beast and weapons mode, but is a little let down by the robot mode.

Seawing was released as Seacon SE2 who was also available in the Piranacon Giftset. He was released in Japan as Masterforce Season D-314 Kraken and also available in the D-318 King Poseidon giftset. Seawing was re-released in 2010 as part of Generations Commemorative series Piranacon giftset where, to use the original name, he's had the Decepticon prefix added. This release of Seawing is very similar, if not identical to the original.

Beast Wars II Terrormander

Seawing is repainted as Terrormander, part of the Beast Wars II Seacons team. The following colour swaps apply on this toy:

White for blue & black
Shiny pearl grey for grey

In addition there's quite a lot of additional paint added including completely covering the outer halves of the head in gold paint. As a downside he looses his weapons and weapons stand like the other Beast Wars II Seacons.

Terrormander was available in Japan in 1998 where he was only sold in the D-21 God Neptune set.

TFCC Seawing

Originally intended as an exclusive to a store in the USA, possibly an Energon/Universe exclusive to Wal*Mart, the Universe Seacons were eventually released several years later through the Transformers Collectors Club.

Seawing uses the following colour swaps:

Grey becomes orange.
Blue becomes off white.
Black looks like is stay the same

*BUT* there's a small amount of purple plastic visible on the tail hinge on the TFU photos which makes me think the black is actually paint over purple plastic. Nautilator uses the same black for his beast legs and TFCC Nautilator has purple legs so.... However I don't have a TFCC set in hand to check but to my eye the black looks painted.

Seawing again comes with all his weapons and accessories in this release.

Who's idea was the orange ? It looks awful and doesn't work at all!

I never did get round to reviewing the combined mode. I think I got distracted by something else.

I look forward to your review of it, Phil!

Yeah, will get to it later on in the week.

A favour though: Has anyone got an original set of Seacons to hand? What colour is Snaptrap's shell and head? The blue of Skalor and Tentakil's robot arms or the blue/green of Overbite, Seawing & Nautilator.

Ah but the original Decepticon tapes were Beasts so that's allowed :-),aconspet that's continued with the Insecticons in the second year.* By this time the cars/planes thing had totally gone out of the window. My planes/cars view allows for some slipage, the point I'm, endeavouring to make is that Superion & Menasor are the first of this type of Combiner on each side so should be more generally representative in each side.

However they do fit nicely in within the theme reset introduced in Headmasters with Autobot vehicles vs Decepticon Beast/Monsters. (That'll be in the Piranacon review, and was made in the Hotspot review.)

As to Snaptrap and Optimus Prime..... If anything Snaptrap's Onslaught remade. (Onslaught's
review)

* you're going to mention the Dinobots now aren't you ?

I think the Dinobots are where they are partially because kids like Dinosaurs, but also because Hasbro needed carded pocket money Decepticon toys in 1985. So the Dinobots, who would have made great rampaging evil robots get put on the Autobot side. In return the Decepticons get the Constructicons, carded toys that pocket money can afford. Haven't you ever thought that Construction vehicles sit better on the Autobot side where they can make and repair things rather than the Decepticon side where they're more likely to go in for something destructive?

Skalor

Skalor is a sea monster based on a coelacanth with the addition of some arms and legs. The main colour of this toy is a pale blue, which is the same as used on Tentakil but slightly different to the Aquamarine used for the rest of the Seacons. The blue is found on the body, tail and hips. A cerise pink, the same as Overbite's claws and hips, is used for his dorsal fin, arms and lower jaw. A lavender pink is used for the toy's head underside and feet. The jaw opens, indeed it will fold down 90 degrees, the hips turn and the knees bend on this toy. His attack mode involves folding the dorsal fin to one side, joining his two hand weapons together and plugging both of the small posts into the body behind the dorsal fin. I can't get this to work on mine, the peg on the side of the folded down fin won't fit. A better design of gun would have pegged at the back of the weapons and towards the front allowing it to be passed over the top of the fin. the fin.

Skalor's weapons mode involves swinging the legs back, folding the head up 90 degrees and then plugging his combined gun into the underside of the jaw. Fold the tail back to reveal the head which is folded down as a Scramble City connector then replace the tail into position. The weapon can then be plugged onto a weapons stand (see Overbite's review) or held by Piranacon, where you'll probably need to fold the tail forward again.

Transform Skalor to robot mode by starting with folding his arms straight out and then pulling his head forward and then folding upwards 90 degrees. Stand with the fish's underside facing you. Fold the robot's fists out from within the fish's feet. Fold the dorsal fin to one side and fold the tail back exposing the head.

Skalor's robot mode looks similar to Overbite's with the same open leg front with beast mode arms to the sides of the feet and arms that have more articulation on them than just the shoulder joint found on the average Scramble City/Special Team combiner. From the front most of the robot is lavender pink - the chest, forearms & feet - with the legs, chest centre, head & shoulders being blue and the hands & beast arms being pink. His arms turn at the shoulders and bend at the elbow & wrist. He can hold both his hand guns individually or in combined mode or he can hold the loner gun that forms the central part of the weapons stand.

Skalor can also form an arm or a leg for Piranacon:

Arm mode: weapons mode, but swap the gun for a hand.

Leg mode: robot mode with a foot plugged into the 5mm hole in his feet.

Skalor's beast mode is odd but functional. His attack mode is let down by the gun not fitting right while I quite like the off hand gun. The robot mode is pretty good with more articulation than the average combiner limb.

Skalor was sold in 1988 as Seacon SE4 and he also appeared in the Piranacon giftset. In Japan, Skalor was sold as Masterforce Seacon D-316 Gulf and also in the D-318 King Poseidon giftset.

Skalor was reissued in 2010 as part of the Generations Commemorative series giftset where he is essentially unchanged from the original.

Coelagon

Skalor's first recolour, Coelagon, was available in Japan in 1998 where he was only sold in the D-21 God Neptune set. This release does not include his hand guns or weapons stand.

Blue and lavender pink are swapped for white while the pink becomes grey. With a liberal amount of gold & silver paint used on this toy he really looks rather nice.

Skalor

Originally intended as an exclusive to a store in the USA, possibly an Energon/Universe exclusive to Wal*Mart, the Universe Seacons were eventually released several years later through the Transformers Collectors Club.

Skalor swaps blue for grey/blue, lavender for black and pink for orange on this release.

I'm afraid the colours here aren't really my cup of tea.

I'd also like to point out that Seawing can use his handguns in limb mode if you peg them into his wings again.

Whichever version of Nautilator's arm mode you use you can fold a 5mm port out the top of his arm and plug his hand gun in there.

Here endeath the corrections so far.

Seacon Tentakil

Tentakil is a sea monster based on a squid. We say "based" because at the bottom of the squid we've got two legs, which can turn at the hips, and support Tentakil in an upright position with all his tentacles facing you. These legs give the toy an action figure like feel to Tentakil that's not there on the other Seacons. Most of the tentacles are mounted to the sides of the toy in two sets of three. They're moulded in lavender pink plastic, like his head, and are on a hinge which means they can fold forward. There's two more tentacles, made of cerise pink plastic like the waist, hanging down to the rear of the toy which can be used like heel spurs to help the toy maintain some odd poses. The middle of the figure, moulded in sea blue plastic like the legs, has a face moulded into it including a mouth lined with sharp teeth & face mask, painted black, and painted yellow eyes. Somehow the beast mode for this toy has ended up being a cut above the other four limb Seacons in terms of detailing and paint.

Now for most of these Seacon reviews I've briefly skipped over the Attack Mode. But there's some fun to be had here. Tentakil's official attack mode involves pegging a gun handle from his twin guns, moulded in the same blue as the body & legs, into the peg holes found on each side of the head, which just further increases the insane look of this toy. But if you turn the toy round, you'll find the sides of the back of the toy form the robot arms. At the top end of the arms, the robot's shoulders being at the bottom of the squid mode, are the hands with the peg holes facing outwards. If you grab the central gun shaft from his weapons stand and borrow one from one of his team mates you can can attach them to his back as cannons mimicking his team leader Snaptrap. If you've used two of these guns, then why not replace the ones on the side of his head with weapons stand cannons too. So Tentakil now has four of the five weapons stand posts/cannons attached. Can he manage the fifth too? Incredibly, yes! Pull his forehead up and then fold it forward 90 degrees to reveal a 5mm peg hole into which you can plug the remaining cannon. But for a better look combine Tentakil's two hand guns - one has a 6mm post on it's hilt, the other a 6mm peg hole - to form a dual laser which can then be folded forward as some form of medical device or, given Tentakil's personality, a torture device. About the only thing you could ask of this mode that they haven't done is for the tentacles to be able to hold a weapon. Temptingly there are some holes on the back of the tentacles but none are the right size to accommodate a weapons peg.

Tentakil can also form a weapons mode that can be mounted on his weapons stand (see Overbite's review) or be used by Piranacon as a hand gun. Start with the beast mode, pull the forehead up and then fold forward 180 degrees. Peg the gun halves together and place in the 5mm hole on the flat end of the forehead piece. Fold the legs and tail tentacles forward so they cover the squid's face. Fold the Scramble City combination connector down under the toy. The resulting weapon has a fat, bulbous, alien look to it. It's different from the other weapons but I think it makes a great gun mode.

Transformation to robot mode: From squid mode start by pulling the forehead up and swinging the forehead through 180 degrees so the open side that was on the back of the squid is facing you and the flat edge is at the top. Stand the toy on the flat edge with the back of the squid facing you. Fold the tail tentacles and squid legs back onto the robot's back. The instructions seem to suggest folding the tentacles backwards - they're forward in one panel, backwards in the next but there's no accompanying text hint that that's what you're meant to do.

What we get out of the end look like what you'd expect the robot mode mode of a Scramble City/Special Team combiner limb to look like. We've got a mono pedal lower leg which was the forehead, so is thus lavender pink, but unlike several other Seacons (Overbite, Nautilator & Skalor) the solid side is to the front. He's effectively got a knee joint here due to his transformation. Next we have his upper legs which are just odd! The design is fine, it's the colouring that's the problem. They're the only part of the toy moulded in the aquamarine colour used on Overbite, Seawing, Nautilator & Snaptrap. This produces a very odd effect next to the blue on this toy, it makes you think your eyes are going funny because your brain is telling you they should be the same colour! I'm led to wonder why they aren't the same. In fact Tentakil is the only Seacon to use both the blue and aquamarine colours. Personally I think just one of these colours should have been set as standard across the entire set of Seacons. Tentakil's wide chest and Scramble City connector style head are moulded in the cerise pink seen earlier while the arms and fold out Scramble City connector in his chest are the blue, also seen earlier, that's doing the clashing with the aquamarine. His sole meaningful articulation - we won't count the knee joint - is found in his shoulders, each of which turn. His hands each have a peg hole capable of holding one of his guns, the combined form of his guns or, as we've already seen, the cannon shaft from a Seacon weapons stand. His peg holes for mounting the weapons in attack mode are now on the sides of his feet so his hand guns or weapons stand cannons can be attached there in robot mode.

As with all the Seacons, Tentakil can form an arm or a leg for Piranacon:

Arm Mode: The squid mode, but with the forehead folded forward and a fist inserted into the 5mm peg hole.

Leg mode: The robot mode, but with the tentacles folded back so they don't hit the other leg.

Each mode find the peg holes for mounting the weapons in attack mode now on the sides of his base so his hand guns or weapons stand cannons can be attached to there in limb mode to give Piranacon foot or wrist cannons.

All the Seacons are mad designs to some extent, but Tentakil is the most insane design of the lot. With this insanity the designers have gone to town and you've ended up with a toy you can do more with than on any other of the Seacon limbs. He's great fun as a stand alone toy so even if you have no other Seacons I recommend hunting one of these down.

Tentakil was released in 1988 as Seacon SE5 and was also part of the Piranacon giftset. In Japan he was released as Masterforce Seacon D-317 Tentakil and as part of the D-318 God Neptune giftset. He has recently been re-released as Decepticon Tentakil, part of the Generations Commemorative Series Piranacon giftset where he is essentially unchanged as a toy but has acquired a Decepticon prefix in an effort to retain the use of the original name.

Beast Wars II Scylla

Tentakil is re-coloured as part of the Beast Wars II D-21 God Neptune giftset. In this release he has had a sex change and is one of the earliest female Transformer toys, Scylla. In the Beast Wars II cartoon she's attracted to the Maximal squid Scuba (Clawjaw) while Bighorn (Bonecrusher) lusts after her.

This release loose the hand guns and weapons stand parts but swaps aquamarine, blue & cerise for white and lavender pink for grey. Silver paint is liberally applied all over with the face mask getting painted bronze with black eyes and bright red lips round the mouth while leaving the claws and fangs of the mouth their natural white.

Super repaint.

TFCC Tentakil

Originally intended as an exclusive to a store in the USA, possibly an Energon/Universe exclusive to Wal*Mart, the Universe Seacons were eventually released several years later through the Transformers Collectors Club.

Tentakil swaps the lavender pink for black, with the squid mode front of the tentacles getting a coat of metallic grey paint. Blue becomes grey and the cerise pink becomes orange while the brief amount of aquamarine used becomes cerise pink, a colour I can't find anywhere else on the TFCC set indicating this piece is moulded separately and making me wonder more about the original colour choice!

But you said my reviews were "excellent"... You... lied to me...

Want to know how to attach a Seacon weapons mode to the *TOP* of Snaptrap?

Or how a Seacon can ride Snaptrap into battle?

We tell you how!

You don't know just how cool Snaptrap looks with Tentakil's squid mode standing on a platform on his back till you try it. Everyone must tonight.

Transformers Piranacon

Piranacon is the seventh and final Scramble City/Special Team combiner. He is the combined mode of the Seacons. While he might seem like any other Scramble City/Special Team combiner, there's been some interesting changes made.

The Seacons consist of:

SE1 Overbite the shark
SE2 Seawing the manta ray
SE3 Nautilator the lobster
SE4 Skalor the coelacanth
SE5 Tentakil the squid
SE6 Snaptrap the Turtle and larger central component

There's one extra carded Seacon, the smaller robots that serve as combined mode limbs, in this set than there are in the other Scramble City/Special Team combiners. Each robot can serve as an arm, a leg or a weapon for Piranacon. So you need to choose which 2 Seacons serve as arms and which 2 Seacons serve as legs. The fifth limb needs to be set aside in weapons mode for use later.

Consult the individual reviews for more details.

Overbite

Arm mode: Weapon mode but swap the gun for a fist.

Leg mode: Robot mode with a foot inserted into the post in his foot.

Overbite frequently serves as the gun for Piranacon but has also been shown as the right arm or right leg.

Seawing

Arm mode: Beast mode with the connector peg under the fish folded out and a hand plugged in the 5mm hole on the nose.

Leg mode: Robot mode, but push the legs/feet up and plug a foot into the 5mm hole between the legs.

You can mount Seawing's weapons under his wings in limb mode to give Piranacon a little extra armament. In all the places this toy has appeared under the Nautilator name he has served as Piranacon's left arm.

Nautilator

Arm mode: There's effectively two versions of the arm mode. The first is the official weapons mode with a hand instead of the gun. The second is the attack mode, with the hand again replacing the gun, and the Scramble City connector folded down under the beast. Either mode allows you to fold out the other piece containing the other 5mm peg hole at the top end of the limb and to plug his gun into it to give Piranacon some extra fire-power.

Leg mode: Robot mode with the foot inserted into the peg hole on the bottom of Nautilator.

I've seen Nautilator used as an arm, a leg and the gun on various pictures and instruction sheets over the years.

Skalor

Arm mode: weapons mode, but swap the gun for a hand.

Leg mode: robot mode with a foot plugged into the 5mm hole in his feet.

Tentakil

Arm Mode: The squid mode, but with the forehead folded forward and a fist inserted into the 5mm peg hole.

Leg mode: The robot mode, but with the tentacles folded back so they don't hit the other leg.

With each of these modes, you find the peg holes for mounting the weapons in attack mode now on the sides of his base, just above where the hand or foot attaches, so his hand guns or a pair of weapons stand cannons can be attached to there in limb mode to give Piranacon foot or wrist cannons.

Snaptrap

Snaptrap forms the centre of Piranacon, no matter which limb configuration you use. Fold the forearms up at the elbow, push the fists in and fold the arms back so the fore arms are behind the shoulders. Fold each leg out to the sides at the hips and then fold the lower legs back in at the knee. Fold the heel spurs back up. Take the rear shell half/tails section and position the tails so they point out of the flat edge. Fold the two Scramble City connectors out from the rear of the shield. Slide the shield over Snaptrap's chest so that the straight edge on the chest is flush with the straight edge on the top of Snaptrap's chest and the connectors wedge on tabs sticking out the chest sides. Place the Piranacon head over the robot head. Attach each of the limbs adding an arm or foot (two of each are supplied with Snaptrap) as apropriate.

Piranacon

The main new pieces used in this mode are the head, hands and feet. The head is moulded in the same aquamarine plastic as the rest of Snaptrap with swept back fins, black painted faceplate and yellow eyes. One of the main differences between this toy and the standard Scramble City style combiners that old time fans will recall from their youth, and newer fans will be familiar with courtesy of Ruination, is the fists: God Neptune's fists aren't the same size as the standard fist post on largish toys - they're the same size as the head joint other combiners which means it can hold a combiner limb as a weapon. The sixth Seacon fills that roll in weapons mode - though the varying photos show Nautilator and Overbite being used as either the weapon or the arm holding it, any of the five Seacons can for the weapon. The fists can also hold Snaptrap's weapons thanks to the built up ridged top at the top of the 5mm peg. Most Piranacon's are pictured using the trident, and the American boxset, missing Nautilator and using the remaining four seacons as limbs, shows him using the hnd gun too. The big spikes sticking out of the fists are a nice touch too, and mirror the 3 clawed toes found on the feet. The feet are the only Scramble City feet to be flat, nothing rises up above the flat base bar the 5mm peg that's used to attach it to a Seacon leg. They're moulded in the same cerise pink plastic as Snaptrap's legs. Piranacon's articulation is the same as the previous six Scramble City combined robots: The only intentional moving joint is the shoulders but the hands & feet can turn as a result of their peg connection. In a change from the previous combiners the chest shield is formed from part of the leader toy, in this case the rear half of Snaptrap. There's a 5mm peg hole in the centre of the top of the chest. Using this you can attach one of the unused combined Seacon limb weapons as extra fire-power.

I like Piranacon. The colour scheme is relatively the same over all the toys with the Aquamarine dominating. Overbite's unique purple stands out a bit, but since he's usually serving as the weapon in most official combinations that's OK. The Sixth team member acting as a weapon is an interesting extension of the Scramble City concept, by this point in it's third year, and helps to promote the original idea of being able to swap the limbs round by making you want to try all the Seacons as weapons, thus forcing you to replace their position on Piranacon with another toy. A couple of the limbs (Tentakil especially) are top toys in their own right and as we've seen there's lots of fun that you can have with Snaptrap and another Seacon that more than makes up for his lack of a base mode.

The six toys that make Piranacon - Overbite, Seawing, Nautilator, Skalor, Tentakil & Snaptrap - were released in 1988. A Piranacon Giftset was issued in the same year containing five of the six Seacon toys - Nautilator is not included in this giftset.

Masterforce King Poseidon

The Japanese version of Piranacon is called King Poseidon, after the greek god who was king of the sea. An apropriate name which fits in with the earlier Transformer names inspired from classical roots. King Poseideon is made from the following six Masterforce Seacon toys:

D-312 Turtler (Snaptrap) - the Turtle and larger central component
D-313 Overbite (Overbite) - the shark
D-314 Kraken (Seawing) - the manta ray
D-315 Lobclaw (Nautilator) - the lobster
D-316 Gulf (Skalor) - the coelacanth
D-317 Tentakil (Tentakil) - the squid

All six toys are the same as their western versions. A King Poseidon giftset, this time containing all six toys, was sold at the same time and numbered D-318

Beast Wars II God Neptune

The original review for this toy was written c2000/2001. I reproduce it here, with a few additions, but note that some of the contents are reproduced elsewhere in this review and in those of the individual team members:

One of the advantages of being off on a Monday is that you're there when Parcelfarce come calling. No customs today - happy :-)

One of the disadvantages of having a flat screen monitor at home (thank you work) is that you loose the space on top of it where you can perch toy's you're trying to review. Oh well.

God Neptune..... I've been after one of these for some time since it's one of the few modern Japanese beast toys I don't own. I was quite surprised (pleased ) by it when I got it. Most of us have seen G1 style combiners so I'll skip all the obvious stuff: We'll start with the brief moan: Of the six G1 Seacons, Nautilator (The Lobster) is missing again (see the original Piranacon giftset), all the toys are missing their hand guns, and the toys that form the limbs are missing their weapons stands.

What you get in the God Neptune set is:

HALFSHELL (Snaptrap - the Turtle and larger central component)
SEA PHANTOM (Overbite - the shark)
TERRAMANDER (Seawing - the manta ray)
COELAGON (Skalor - the coelacanth),
SCYLLA (Tentakil - the Squid),

(here end's Phil's guide to ID ing the Beast Wars II Seacons)

Unlike some combiners, God Neptune has a very nice standard colour scheme running through him of whites, greys, golds and greens - see www1.sphere.ne.jp/nekotom/bw96.html for some pictures (Note: Link now dead. But go and look it up on The Wayback Machine). The name itself is a nice play on words - King Poseidon is the name of the old Generation 1 Japanese toy, whereas the Beast Wars II version is called God Neptune - a transfer from the Greek to the Roman form of the deity's name and an implication of a power upgrade from King to God!

One of the main differences between this toy and the standard scramble city style combiners that old time fans will recall from their youth and newer fans will soon be familiar with courtesy of Ruination is the fists: God Neptune's fists aren't the same size as the standard fist post on largish toys - they're the same size as the head joint other combiners which means it can hold a combiner limb as a weapon. The sixth Seacon would have filled that roll in weapons mode - though the varying photos show Nautilator and Overbite being used as either the weapon or the arm holding it.. Despite being missing Nautilator the fists still can do this trick, so I'm shortly off to find God Neptune a Combaticon to hold :-) Big spikes on the combined fists are a nice touch too !

I would of course be remiss if I didn't mention that this toy has Prime's head on Halfshell - I know not why the resemblance is there!

And to end - a rather obvious plea: If anyone has any spares of Nautilator or any of the hand weapons (including Snaptrap's) /gun mode weapons/gun stands they want to sell/trade then my email's in the signature at the bottom)

An added plea: Anyone wan to sell me a complete God Neptune to replace the one I sold in 2004?

TFCC Piranacon

This Piranacon/Seacons giftset was originally intended as an exclusive to a store in the USA, possibly an Energon/Universe exclusive to Wal*Mart, the Universe Seacons were eventually released several years later through the Transformers Collectors Club in 2008.

The set contains:

Snaptrap - the Turtle and larger central component
Overbite - the shark
Seawing - the manta ray
Nautilator - the lobster
Skalor - the coelacanth
Tentakil - the squid

The boxset contains all hand guns and a complete set of weapons stands.

This set is a greatest hits collection of the Universe colourist's favourite ways to wreck a decent toy. We've got a dirty grey, bright purple, orange and bright yellow all on the same toy providing a complete train wreck of a colour palate.

I didn't buy one and I don't want one.

At this point I must recommend The Stardub Channel's excellent video reviews of the first three Seacon sets divided into Part 1 and Part 2.

Generations Decepticon Piranacon

Decepticon Snaptrap - the Turtle and larger central component
Overbite - the shark
Decepticon Seawing - the manta ray
Decepticon Nautilator - the lobster
Skalor - the coelacanth
Decepticon Tentakil - the squid

All six Seacons were re-released in 2010 as a special Generation Commemorative Series boxset. In the USA this was exclusive to Big Bad Toy Store. The boxset contains all hand guns and a complete set of weapons stands. The intention was for this set to be a straight reissue of the original toys in the original colours. But as we've already seen some parts move from one set of colours to another on the previous TFCC release, indicating some re-moulding/reconstruction of parts.

One of the most obvious change in this release isn't visible in combined mode. Snaptrap's head, black on the original, is now aquamarine on this release. Just as on the previous release it's the same colour as the turtle's head. While a problem in individual mode, here Snaptrap's head is covered by Piranacon's combined mode helmet.

Overbite, on the other hand, has swapped his Decepticon purple for a pink that's close to, but not quite the same as, the cerise pink used elsewhere on the toy. As Piranacon's probably carrying Overbite as a weapon you can see this change.

One other minor change is made to Snaptrap & his accessories in this set. The sword/trident, previously lavender pink, is now chromed. This is a big improvement though. Although the handle has been left un-chromed so you can still hold it OK in a 5mm fist hole, the ridged top to allow Piranacon to grip it is chromed so I expect this to be getting scratched away over time with repeated trips in and out of Piranacon's fists.

Like several toys in this set Piranacon also gains a Decepticon prefix to his name to continue the name's use on a Transformer toy. Why they didn't use Seacon in this case is beyond me!

I think I was more excited about this reissue than any Transformers reissue since the line began. Like many people I've indulged in this set, in fact I leapt on the first UK dealer I could find offering a pre-order. I've had nothing but fun with it since! If you don't have Seacons you need to buy one. Now.