Phil's Seacon & Piranacon reviews

[Philip Ayres]

Yeah a little late for Seacon week but that'll have just given you more time to enjoy Graham's Excellent Reviews.

Hope you enjoy!

[Philip Ayres]

Overbite

Overbite is a Shark. Well sort of a shark. All the Seacons are more sea monsters than authentic sea creatures. He's got a pair of smaller crab claw like arms and lager articulated rear legs - the turn at the hip and bend and the knee & ankle - that end up becoming the robot's arms. Why they didn't mould the arms as fins, leave off the legs and have the tail split in two to form the arms as per Combaticon Vortex I don't know. The colours used on this toys are the same sea green found on many of the other Seacons on his head, tail and lower legs while his opening jaw, claw arms and upper legs are the same pink used for many of the Seacons beast limbs and accessories. Unique in this team to Overbite is some bright Decepticon purple which is used for his body, tail & dorsal fins, feet and hand gun. The beast mode can be modified into an attack mode by pegging the 5mm base of his hand gun's handle into the 5mm socket under his chin.

Like all the Seacons limbs Overbite comes with a three part stand for his weapons mode. The base looks like a chest shield with a 5mm peg hole in but I'm yet to find a Transformer with a peg in the right place on it's chest that it will usefully fit. The connector at the top end has a 5mm peg hole in the bottom and a Scramble City combination socket in the top. This piece is designed to attach the Season's weapon mode to the stand using the Scramble City combination connector. It will also let you mount the weapons mode on any 5mm peg such as a Mini-com post. The third piece is an upright shaft with a 5mm peg at each end. At the side of one end of the shaft is a small peg that will let any of the Seacons hold it as a gun, with a 5mm peg mounted on either side that will let larger toys such as Snaptrap use it as a gun. The stand assembles by plugging the stock end of the gun shaft into the base and the connector into the top end of the gun.

To transform Overbite to weapons mode: Fold the shark's head up 90 degrees. Fold the arms forward. Straighten the legs out, fold so they point forward and fold the feet onto the top of the legs. Plug the 5mm peg on the stock of the gun into the 5mm peg hole under the chin. Fold down the combined mode connector from under the fish and plug into the top of the weapon base. You get a ground mounted single barrelled weapon out of the end of the process. I've always found all of the weapons modes a bit odd mounted on their stands like this, but now I think they're meant to be stood there as a weapon with another toy stood behind them. Having tried this with Snaptrap I've found he's just the right height. This would be the end of it, but for some changes made to the Seacon team from the Scramble City standard. For a star there's *SIX* Seacons rather than the five found on the other Scramble City combining teams. Then there's the Seasons' combined mode, Piranacon, who's fists don't have the standard 5mm peg hole seen on the other combiners. Instead they have a Scramble City connector that turns, similar to those seen in the shoulders of the Scramble City team leaders. This lets Piranacon hold the spare Seacon limb transformed into weapons mode as a hand gun. All the limbs can be used as Piranacon's gun but Overbite is the Seacon that usually serves this purpose. If you're looking for another use for the weapons modes then I'll point out that the Scramble City style connector used for mounting them in the weapons stand/Piranacon's fist will also fit the shoulder plugs on Metroplex and perhaps more relevantly Metrotitan giving them alternate weapons to their existing shoulder cannons.

Seeing as Overbite's weapon mode is important, let's have some fun with it and beef it up a bit. For a start you can remove Overbite's hand gun and replace it with one of the larger guns used in the weapons stand. Then we find that the claws at the front of the creature are also attached using 5mm pegs. So pull these off and replace them with the long guns from the weapons stand too to form a trident like triple barrelled weapon, which is somewhat appropriate for a sea going warrior.

To transform Overbite from shark to robot mode: Fold the head up 90 degrees and pull it out further. Fold the arms so they point the same way as the face. Stand on the bottom of the jaw with the underside of the fish facing you. Fold the dorsal fin flat on the robot's back. Fold the tail back onto Overbite's back and straighten the back legs out as arms. Fold the feet back under the arms to reveal the hands. Place his hand gun and/or the gun post from the weapons stand into his hands.

Overbite's robot mode is mainly the purple of the beast mode with the colours & articulation of the legs transferring into the arms while the feet are formed from the shark's head. The head - which is also the Scramble City combination connector for the toy - is the same sea green as used on the rest of the toy, with the face painted yellow like the eye of the beast mode. It's nothing really to write home about as robot modes go but the arms are articulated more than the average combiner limb of the time.

Overbite can form the arm or a leg for Piranacon:

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

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

If you can get past the limbs on the beast mode then this is a good fun toy. The bonus weapon mode is nice, but I find it works better as Piranacon's gun than a stand alone weapon.

Overbite was sold in the west in 1987 where he was Seacon SE1. He appears in the Piranacon giftset released in the USA the same year where due to the absence of Nautilator he serves as Piranacon's right arm. In Japan he was released as Masterforce toy D-313 Overbite who was also available in the D-318 King Poseidon giftset.

Overbite has something of a dual identity. For some reason he's referred to as Jawbreaker right the way throughout his Marvel UK appearances. Oddly enough when Beast Wars Jawbreaker was released in the UK and Europe *his* name got changed to Cackle!

Sea Phantom

Sea Phantom is a Beast Wars II repaint of Overbite. When the Seacons were first hinted at for a Japanese Beast Wars release all six appeared in the second Beast Wars promotional leaflet/catalogue in their original colours. By the time the five selected Seacons were released together pink had become pale grey with everything else moulded in white plastic. The Beast Wars II release omits the hand gun that's necessary for the weapons mode and the weapons mode stand pieces.

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

TFCC Overbite

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.

The following colour swaps apply for this release:

Pink becomes grey
Purple - including the gun - becomes grey/blue
Green becomes purple

This toy includes all the parts the original had that were missing from the Beast Wars II release. The toy looks OK, not great, unlike the version that TF Wiki have on their site where Pink becomes dark blue, purple becomes blue and green becomes Deception purple. That looks superb!

Generations Overbite

Overbite returns as part of the Generations Reissue Seacon/Piranacon set, which is an exclusive to Big Bad Toy Store in the USA. While supposedly a straight re-issue set Overbite is one of the Seacons (Snaptrap is another) to have their colours altered. Gone is the purple on the body replaced by pink. Unfortunately it's a slightly darker, more purple shade of pink than the pink used on the rest of the toy. My original Jawbreaker is somewhat aged and miscoloured but for what it's worth I'm feeling that the pink of the body better matches the original pink on the limbs while the new limbs are a brighter pink.

[Philip Ayres]

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!

[Philip Ayres]

poor, unloved Nautilator yet. But we're going to give him some love here and seeif we can work out what his BWII version should look like!

[grahamthomson]

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!

[Bogatan]

See I really like the orange on Seawing. the manta mode looks glorious.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

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.

[grahamthomson]

I have two questions for you, Phil, based on your previous reviews:

1. How do the Seacons and their sea monster modes fit with your Autobots Should Be Cars, Decepticons Should Be Planes conceit?

2. Was Snaptrap going to be another Optimus Prime since he has a head that has a face plate (and looks similar to Hot Spot/Boss and suchlike)?

[Philip Ayres]

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 ?

[grahamthomson]

Okay, I won't mention the Dinobots. Or the Monsterbots.

[Philip Ayres]

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?

[Philip Ayres]

Seacon Nautilator

Poor Nautilator. If there's some missing out to be done, then Nautilator gets the short straw. Well not here he doesn't. We love Nautilator.

Nautilator is a Lobster, one of the more authentic looking Seacons. Most of his body is an aquamarine colour with the centre of the body and his claws being grey and his legs black. The legs are mostly fixed but each set of four on each side will fold under the toy as a unit. The claws raise up & down where they meet the head because they terminate in a 5mm peg which fits into a corresponding hole on the head. Unfortunately this means they can be removed and that means they can be lost so, like Overbite, many originals show up on eBay missing their most distinguishing feature. Under the head is a black lower jaw which folds down to an angle of 90 degrees revealing a 6mm peg socket in which you can mount the 6mm peg on the butt of his hand gun for an attack mode.

Nautilator's Weapons Mode involves folding down the Scramble City connector under the toy then folding back the tail and pegging the hand gun into it. This can then be used as a hand weapon by Piranacon or as a stand alone weapon when mounted on a weapons stand (See Overbite's review for details). However if I was using Nautilator as Piranacon's weapon I'd use the attach mode with the connector peg folded down as I reckon he's more fearsome with the claws facing forward. You can't replace the claws with weapons stand shafts like you can on Overbite but you can substitute one for the gun to beef up either version of the weapons mode.

To transform Nautilator into robot mode start by pulling back on the tail, then folding it back 180 degrees to become the legs. Stand with the underside of the crustacean facing forward. Fold the beast head back 180 degrees to reveal the robot head. The instructions say to fold the beast legs back at this stage but with the beast's claws there they can't move and removing them, as I outlined earlier, is the first step to loosing them. I prefer to raise them up beside the robot head. Swing the arms up and place his gun into his hand, or let him hold the gun like post from his weapons stand.

The legs on this toy are open at the front which does annoy me. He'd look much better is the waist could rotate placing the solid rounded side of the legs to the front which would also give him a function knee joint. In many way his robot mode, grey chest & upper legs, black head and aquamarine arms & lower legs, looks a little plain compared to the beast parts that hang round it. His only meaningful articulation here is his arms which raise up at the shoulders.

Nautilator can form a limb for Piranacon:

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.

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.

Nautilator's beast mode looks great, and it's alternate attack mode makes a great weapon. However the official weapons mode and the robot mode are somewhat lacking.

Nautilator was sold in 1988 as Seacon SE3. Unlike the other Seacon limbs he was not part of the Piranacon giftset issued in the USA - that Piranacon has to use Snaptrap's gun as his gun. As a result vintage Nautilators are slightly more in demand than the other four Seacon limbs. Nautilator was sold in Japan as Masterforce Seacon D-315 Lobclaw and also appears in the Japanese D-318 King Poseidon (Piranacon) giftset. Takara would make us pay for this act of generosity to Nautilator ten years later.....

In 2010 Nautilator was reissued as part of the Generations Commemorative Series Piranacon in the states where name becomes Decepticon Nautilator.

Beast Wars II Nautilator

Beast Wars II Nautilator Does not exist! In 1988 Takara decided to reissue the Seacons as part of their Beast Wars II line. The first Beast Wars II catalogue, which features a number of early/alternate colour schemes, shows all six Seacons in their original colours amongst a number of toys due to appear in the line, including K-9, who only shows up substantially re-moulded as Max B and Razorclaw who doesn't show up until 1999's Beast Wars Neo where he's repainted as Rockbuster. However when the Seacons did show up, in the D21 God Neptune giftset, they were re-coloured, missing their hand guns and weapons stands. Most importantly the set contained no Nautilator repaint.

We can take a guess at what Nautilator would look like by looking as the other Seacons in the set and seeing how they're recoloured from the originals. The black of Nautilator's legs only appears on one other limb, Seawing , and Seawing swaps the black for white to become Terrormander so we have a start. Terrormander also has Seawing's sea green swapped for white and swaps the grey for a pearly silver. So we end up with a rather plain looking Nautilator that I'm sure would have been jazzed up with some lovely paint ops.

TFCC Nautilator

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.

The following colour swaps apply for this release:

Grey becomes orange
Aquamarine becomes off white
Black becomes purple.

I hated the orange on Seawing but here I feel it works quite well. Imagine how great he'd look in the prototype colors used for TFCC Overbite! `

[Philip Ayres]

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.

[Philip Ayres]

Over half way through I've changed my position on the stand alone weapons modes now I've realised what they're for!

The apropriate section of Overbite's review now reads:

I've always found all of the weapons modes a bit odd mounted on their stands like this, but now I think they're meant to be stood there as a weapon with another toy stood behind them. Having tried this with Snaptrap I've found he's just the right height.

Only taken me 22 years to realise this !

[Philip Ayres]

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.

[grahamthomson]

Aug 24, 2010 10:07:49 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Over half way through I've changed my position on the stand alone weapons modes now I've realised what they're for!

The apropriate section of Overbite's review now reads:

I've always found all of the weapons modes a bit odd mounted on their stands like this, but now I think they're meant to be stood there as a weapon with another toy stood behind them. Having tried this with Snaptrap I've found he's just the right height.

Only taken me 22 years to realise this !

Come on, Phil! I'd put that in my Overbite review!

[Philip Ayres]

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!

[Philip Ayres]

Aug 24, 2010 10:13:54 GMT @grahamthomson said:

Aug 24, 2010 10:07:49 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Over half way through I've changed my position on the stand alone weapons modes now I've realised what they're for!

The apropriate section of Overbite's review now reads:

I've always found all of the weapons modes a bit odd mounted on their stands like this, but now I think they're meant to be stood there as a weapon with another toy stood behind them. Having tried this with Snaptrap I've found he's just the right height.

Only taken me 22 years to realise this !

Come on, Phil! I'd put that in my Overbite review!

Which I'd purposely not read. I don't like reading other people's reviews of toys when i'm going to write something in case they influence my thoughts. The only point I look at another review is to check a detail I'm a bit dodgy on.....

I'm going to read them when I'm done though.

[grahamthomson]

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

[Philip Ayres]

I've bigged them up for the readers out there in the real world. I'm sure they are excelent. They have photos, mine doesn't. All your others are great.

<reads reviews of limbs>

I've been commenting regularly in that thread though so I must have been reading them as I went. And thus was justified in making the comment at the top of the thread. My memory is useless these days. 20 years ago, no problem. Last week? I could have gone to Birmingham for all I remember.....

<reads snaptrap's review to check he's not going to make an arse of himself again>

At least my big revalations here you didn't get before me ! But you'll have to wait a bi cos A) I need some lunch and B) I've got to go and get the boy from Koalas playgroup.

Never been a koala TF has there.....

[Philip Ayres]

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!

[Philip Ayres]

Seacon Snaptrap

Now I don't know about the rest of you but my combining toys tend to spend most of their life combined together as a large robot. With the Seacons you've got five robots capable of being limbs so it's easy to take one off and replace it with whoever was being Piranacon's weapon. Snaptrap however has to be there at the centre of Piranacon so he doesn't get to come out and play so much.

Snaptrap is officially a turtle. But he's a turtle with feet so *technically* he's a tortoise but we've not let minor details like arms and legs worry us when we described Overbite as a shark or Tentakil as a squid. I suppose you could argue, given the feet and the two tails, that Snaptrap is a *mutant* turtle and a subtle dig at another popular toy franchise that started it's cartoon run and rise to mainstream popularity in 1987.

Snaptrap's colour scheme is something of a patchwork with the head, feet and the back of his shell being the same aquamarine as found elsewhere on the toy. His four thighs (if the top of a foreleg a shoulder or a thigh?) are lavender pink as is the lower jaw on the head which folds down. The majority of the body is cerise pink. Some black is visible, notably the internal joints on the rear hips and the cannons projecting out of the front of the shell. Yes, Snaptrap's attack/weapons mode is built in. These cannons are of a reciprocating "pom pom" nature and are moved by moving a cerise peg (between 5mm and 6mm wide) across his back. Behind that peg is a 5mm peg hole which you can use for mounting Snaptrap's hand gun on to give him some extra firepower. You could argue that he doesn't need it but.... At the rear of the shell two curved & barbed tails extend backwards and to each side. These are silver chrome. I'd try to tell you what the base plastic colour is by using the repaints of this toy as a base but they give conflicting results. As we'll see later Snaptrap has some parts move position on his parts tree for later releases.

Snaptrap can be further enhanced by plugging a Seacon in weapons mode into the Scramble City sockets found inside each shoulder. Now it's possible to mount a Seacon weapon on top of Snaptrap by putting the bottom post of a weapons stand - the one that usually sits in the base - into the 5mm peg hole meant for the gun. This results in the weapon being somewhat above the shell and looks a little odd. If you could get it closer to the body it'd look much better, you'd need a short 5mm peg to change the gender of the socket so the connector at the top of the weapons stand mounts directly on it. Hmm, I wonder if there's anything in my Zoids blox parts box that might do the trick......

D'OH ! Hasbro's already provided the solution and if I'm right intended it all along, just didn't document it anywhere. That's what the 5mm pegs on opposite sides of the weapons stand shaft are for! Insert the stand shaft/cannon in side ways so the barrel points forward, a peg goes in the socket while it's opposite peg faces upwards. Attach the Scramble City socket connector onto the top side of the stand using the upright peg and attach a weapons mode Seacon onto the top of the connector. RESULT!

We can extend this trick to add further play value to Snaptrap: Using the same sideways mounted cannon with upwards projecting peg, attach a base panel for the weapons stand on top of the upright peg. Now Seacons in either fish or robot mode can now stand on this and ride their leader into battle ! I'm so happy at finding that feature, that's made my day! More than makes up for the lack of a base mode for Snap Trap.

Transformation: Remove the rear half of Snaptrap's shell complete with both tails. Fold the rear legs back behind the beast, then fold them up so the thighs are now in the space where the shell was. Fold the feet up onto the front half of the shell. Turn Snaptrap over with the head pointing upwards. Fold the sides of the underside out to the sides and then down under the toy to form the robot's legs. Fold down the heel spurs and stand. Close the jaw and fold turtle head forward 180 degrees locking it into the robot's chest and exposing the robot head. Swing the forelegs down to the sides to act as the arms. Fold the turtle's feet back which pushes the robot's hands out of what's now the forearms. Nice touch that. Take the shell and tails section, swing the tails back so they stick through the straight side, then fold one of the connector pegs out from it to use as a shoulder mounted shield.

The main colour of the robot mode is the cerise pink used on the legs, waist, sides of the chest and back panel visible between the body and arms. The shoulders & Upper limbs are all the lavender pink with the forearms and chest centre (top of the Turtle's head) being cast in the aquamarine colour. Finally the head and hands are black. The head has eyes, a faceplate, central crest and side ears making it look similar to Optimus Prime or Soundwave. But given he's a Decepticon, the centre of a combining robot, with twin cannons on his back and this head design, then the toy he resembles the most is probably Onslaught. All the articulation on this mode is concentrated in the arms with turning shoulders and bending wrists - the hands stay out, they don't automatically retract and won't recess till you push them in.

Snaptrap comes with two weapons to use in robot mode. One is the long hand gun which we've used earlier, with a 5mm peg as a handle. The other weapon is described as a sword but it has a blade to each side so perhaps it's more correctly (and appropriately given that Snaptrap's a sea creature) be described as a Trident. He can also use the cannon/weapons stand shaft as a weapon if he holds it by one of the 5mm pegs on the side of the weapon's butt. You can use the spare 5mm peg on the top of the weapon to attach a Seacon in weapon mode to act as a larger cannon. He can balance holding one Seacon weapons, but two is too much and will cause him to topple over. He can also use Seacons as shoulder cannons by attaching them to the Scramble City connectors mounted in each shoulder. You can also use his hand gun as a shoulder cannon thanks to the built up ridged top to the gun handle. Finally Snaptrap is designed to use the weapons mode of the Seacons when they're mounted on a stand. Fold his arms out in front of him and position him at the rear of the weapons mode so it looks like he's firing it.

For some more alternate fun with this toy fold the Turtle head up 90 degrees from the chest so it faces forward and gives Snaptrap's robot a reptilian head.

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 appropriate.

Snaptrap is sometime viewed as the least of the seven Scramble City leaders due to his lack of a base mode. But I like the tank on legs feel to the beast mode and while the robot mode is unremarkable, but perfectly competent & adequate, feel that the Turtle mode is it's strength and selling point. And as we've shown there's some real fun to be had if you add the weapons stand for the Seacons to the toy letting him use the Seacon weapons mode as extra weapons in both modes.

Snaptrap was released as Seacon SE6, the only individually boxed Seacon release. He was also included in the Piranacon boxset.

Snaptrap was released in Japan as Masterforce Seacon D-312 Turtler who was also part of the D-318 King Poseidon giftset.

Beast Wars II Halfshell

Halfshell is the repaint of Snaptrap and the leader of the Beast Wars II Seacons. He and his four team mates - there's no Beast Wars II version of Nautilator - were only sold in the D-21 God Neptune giftset. Like the Seacon limbs in this set, Seaphantom, Terrormander, Coelagon & Scylla, Halfshell does not have a handgun (The limb robots also don't possess their weapons stands).

The following colour swaps apply to this toy:

Black become green
Cerise pink becomes green
Lavender pink used on the shoulders, upper beast legs (& thus the robot upper arms becomes grey
Lavender pink used on the gun toggle, upper robot legs, lower jaw & trident weapons becomes bronze
The chromed tail also becomes bronze - indicating that these parts are moulded together
Aquamarine becomes white

The robot mode head gets some silver paint on the face plate while gold paint is used to highlight the Optimus Prime like windows on the chest. Both modes now have red eyes, with the turtle mode eyes gaining a gold rim.

My favourite colour scheme for this toy.

I wonder if the name is another dig at the Turtles franchise?

TFCC Snaptrap

Snaptrap returns as part of the TFCC Seacons/Piranacon set. 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.

There's been some re-moulding/recasting of components for this release which is best illustrated by looking at how the parts change colour:

The Cerise Pink of the legs, robot body front and combined robot feet become black.
The Cerise Pink of the back plate and robot body black become purple.
The Aquamarine becomes purple
The black of the head becomes purple - this becomes even more important on the subsequent Generations version.
The black of the turtle guns, hands, rear leg hinges, hand gun and fists becomes yellow.
The chrome of the tail becomes yellow.
The lavender pink becomes grey.
The grey of the fist inners becomes black

Notably this is the first time that the robot head has had the same colour as the beast head.

The end result of this is a bit of a mess in both modes I'm afraid.

Generations Commemorative Series Decepticon Snaptrap

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 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. The most obvious change in this release is that the 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 this wasn't a problem with the TFCC release which is a recolour anyway, here it's a big issue as we expect Snaptrap's head to be black. It's a shame it couldn't be painted black to match the earlier version and indeed the character art used for this set.

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. Thoughtfully the handle has been left un-chromed so you can still hold it OK in a 5mm fist hole.

For other changes in this boxset see the Overbite review.

Snaptrap also gains a Decepticon prefix to his name to continue it's use on a Transformer toy.

Use Generations Snaptrap for Piranacon and you won't know the difference. Stand him in robot mode and the head will bug you.

[Philip Ayres]

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.

[Philip Ayres]

Pictures!

Snaptrap's serpent head

pic1
pic2

Snaptrap ready for a weapon:

pic3

Snaptrap tooled up with Jawbreaker:

pic4

Snaptrap waiting for a rider:

pic5

Tentakil's robot rides Snaptrap:

pic6
pic7

Tentakil's tooled up Squid mode rides Snaptrap:

pic8
pic9

Snaptrap uses the Jawbreaker cannon to defend Decepticon HQ:

pic10
pic11

Tentakil insists his cameo is retaken and wants his own starring photo:

pic12
pic13

[Philip Ayres]

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.

[Philip Ayres]

If you enjoyed the Seacons you may want to take a look at Brave Captain Shark