Seacons
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The Seacons are a group of fictional characters from the Transformers universes.
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[edit] G1 Seacons
The Seacons are a team of Decepticons named for their sea-animal alternate modes. The team is the last of the traditional combiners from the original series, able to merge their bodies and minds to form the gigantic Piranacon (although the later Pretender Monsters combined to form Monstructor, they never appeared in any of the various fiction). The team members are:
- Snaptrap (spelled “Snap Trap” in comics, and known as Turtler in Japan), the team leader. Nicknamed “The Butcher of the Bogs” after single-handedly slaughtering an entire Autobot regiment in the Toxic Sludge Swamps of Cybertron, Snaptrap often seems that he is programmed for destruction and nothing else. Cold-hearted and brutally, lethally efficient in his work, he leads the Seacons by terror, rather than example. He is armed with an atom-smasher cannon, an incendiary sword and twin sonic shell cannons. He transforms into a turtle.
- Nautilator (Lobclaw in Japan) is the most inept of the Seacons, perhaps of the entire Decepticon army. Originally land-based on Cybertron, he joined up with the Seacons only to discover he had no aptitude for sub-aquatic operations. He frequently gets lost on the bottom of the ocean, and has to call to his begrudging team-mates to rescue him – only for him to then quickly pass the buck, blaming them for his failures. He wields a triple crusher cannon and transforms into a lobster, scanning for fuel deposits under the sea with the sensors in his tail and legs. The other Seacons opt to let him function as Piranacon's weapon rather than let him combine with them, and his utter ineptitude often has the other teammates consider abandoning him.
- Overbite (called Jawbreaker in some areas of Europe) sees his life as an endless, obsessive quest for the next piece of prey, and will attack vessels for the fun of it. He is virtually unbeatable in underwater combat in his shark alternate mode, which also possesses legs for land operation and claws for manipulating objects. He is armed with a freeze-beam blaster and wields a corrosive jawbreaker cannon.
- Seawing (Kraken in Japan) revels in the fact that he is known as the eerie, ominous member of the group, gliding through the waves like a spectre. Some say he even has designs on leadership of the Decepticons – and Seawing doesn’t deny it. He transforms into a manta ray and is armed with twin paralyzing venom lasers.
- Skalor (Gulf in Japan) is so disgusting that even the other Seacons try to avoid him. Constantly seeping lubricant and other fluids, Skalor is a malodorous menace who leaves a stinking trail of grease and filth wherever he goes. Skalor ignores any advice about fixing the problem – he doesn’t care about it, so it’s not his problem to fix, though as a consequence he sometimes suffers breakdowns at critical moments. Skalor transforms into a coelacanth, and wields a pair of crustation rifles which coat opponents in hard, sticky scales.
- Tentakil is the cruellest of all the Seacons, luring an opponent in with soothing, kind words and compliments, before moving in for the kill in a flash. He seems to take more pleasure in the charade that in the actual killing stroke, as he crushes victims in the electrically-charged arms of his squid alternate mode, and prefers to crush them to their face so they can see that they were deceived. He can discharge clouds of grease, and is armed with twin lightning rifles.
Given how distinctly different and often-feuding the separate Seacons’ personalities are, one might expect that their combined form of Piranacon (known in Japan as King Poseidon) would have a confused mind, like other combiners in similar predicaments. But in actuality, the opposite is true – when it comes down to it, the Seacons all love what they do, and Piranacon is the truest expression of this lethal paramour: the love of the hunt. He unending quest for prey is so single-minded a pursuit he will even run out of fuel in the course of it, not even pausing to recharge, knocking aside both foe and even friend should they try even simply talking about something else. Piranacon is immensely strong, but not particularly fast; however, his nigh-impervious hide means that this is not much of a limitation.
The group is notable for possessing an extra ability not present in the other combiners – each “limb” can also transform into a weapons emplacement, which can be wielded as a gun by Piranacon (hence the need for a sixth member in the team). Because of this ability, the toys were sold under the Targetmaster banner when they were released in 1988. When later packaged together as a giftset, however, Nautilator was not included (note that he is not depicted as part of Piranacon in the character’s box art), making him the rarest and most sought after of the group among collectors. In a nod to this, when Dreamwave Productions profiled the Seacons, it was mentioned that Overbite, who normally becomes Piranacon’s gun (given the role by the toy’s instructions), often has to stand in for Nautilator as a limb because of his incompetence.
The composition of Piranacon’s limbs differs from depiction to depiction. Seawing and Tentakil are the constants, always forming the left arm and leg, respectively. Piranacon’s box art and Dreamwave Productions profile show Overbite as the right arm and Skalor as the right leg, while his instructions show Skalor as the right arm and Nautilator as the right leg. His depiction in Marvel comic books and animation, on the other hand, has Nautilator as the right arm, and Skalor as the right leg.
[edit] Marvel Comics
With the US Transformers animated series having come to a close the previous year, it fell to the comic book series from Marvel Comics to provided supporting fiction roles for the Seacons. However, their comic book debut came not in the pages of the US title, but in its sister across the Atlantic, the UK’s official Transformers comic, which interspliced its own stories with the US material.
The Seacons were brought to Earth by Shockwave to put their undersea adeptness to use fortifying the Decepticons’ sub-aquatic island headquarters. Outfitted with Earth modes by Shockwave, the Seacons were going about their task when they met with their first challenge, which also proved to be one of their greatest – they were ordered to defend the island against the insane, time-travelling future Decepticon, Galvatron. The Seacons gave a good account of themselves, merging into Piranacon (misspelled “Pirranacon” in the story) for extra power, but ultimately, the team was defeated by their stronger adversary, only for Galvatron to reveal that he had not planned an attack at all, merely wishing to talk. Now, however, he claimed that Shockwave had made an enemy of him – although it was all part of a plan to destabilise his leadership. Seeking a weapon that could truly combat Galvaton, Shockwave sought out the former Decepticon leader, Megatron, who had been missing in action for some time. When what was believed to be his body (but was, in actuality, a clone of him) was located in the Thames river by entrepreneur Richard Branson, Overbite (called Jawbreaker in his UK appearances) was dispatched with some of the Decepticon jets to bring the body to Shockwave. Snaptrap subsequently repaired the clone’s physical damage, and aided Shockwave in using the psycho-probe to brainwash it into his service.
Following this, the Seacons made their US title debut, having departed from Shockwave’s service and now under the command of Ratbat, the leader of the primary Earth-based Decepticon force. Ratbat had relocated the Decepticons’ island base to the Florida Keys, disguising it as a holiday resort named “Club Con” to allow the Seacons to search the seabed for a sunken pirate ship, the treasure chest of which contained two Autobot tapes, Grandslam and Raindance. The recovery mission was successful, but the tapes were then stolen by the Autobot Blaster, and the holidaymakers on the island had their peace and quiet rudely interrupted as the Seacons erupted from the ocean and attacked, searching for Blaster. In the ensuing battle, Blaster sent the tapes back to the depths of the oceans, encouraging the Seacons to call off the attack and head after them.
The tapes, it was revealed, were sent to Earth centuries ago to warn the Autobots there of the approaching threat posed by the Underbase, a massive space-born information storehouse that could convey infinite power. Unfortunately, it was the Decepticon, Starscream, who managed to attain the Underbase’s power, turning on Autobot and Decepticon alike and attempting to conquer Earth. The Seacons joined in the attempted defence of New York, striking at Starscream from the East River, but were all deactivated by the cosmically-powered villain.
The Seacons did not appear again after this, but in the UK title, Megatron briefly sent his consciousness back in time to the Underbase affair and possessed Snaptrap, hoping to spare the Seacons their fate in the past so they could survive to bolster his forces in the present. His scheme was stopped by Prowl.
[edit] Devil's Due
The Seacons would return in the third Devil's Due crossover between G.I Joe and the Transformers. Without Megatron or Shockwave's steadying influence the Decepticons had fallen apart in a series of internecine conflicts. One such was the Seacons taking on the Predacons. The Predacons seemingly had the upper hand, forcing Nautilator to flee into the water. The Seacons emerged as Piranacon and battled Predaking, until interrupted by a strange, tiny figure: Serpentor, a human military cyborg built with Megatron's memories. Using these memories to convince both combiners to join him, they then participated (along with the Stunticons) in the ambush that killed Bumblebee. They were then Serpentor's principal weapon, along with Predaking and Menasor, in the attack on Capital City, where the three of them defeated Omega Supreme. Unfortunately Piranacon wouldn't have time to enjoy his victory, as he was deactivated by an out-of-control Sixshot smashing into his face. The Seacons would survive, but Nautilator was killed when the G.I Joe member Snake-Eyes used his mental powers to convince the Stunticon Breakdown to shoot him.
[edit] Super-God Masterforce
Although the Seacons were released too late in the toyline to make an appearance in the US Transformers animated series, their Japanese counterparts made it to the small screen in 1988’s Japanese-exclusive series, Transformers: Super-God Masterforce. Here, the Seacons were notably different from their American selves – rather than each one of them being unique, entire legions of drones of the five smaller team members existed, lacking the power of speech or any true intelligent thought. Never transforming into robot mode (possibly not even possessing the ability), they operated under the command of various other Decepticons, acting as ground troops and cannon fodder during their numerous attacks on the Pretenders. In contrast, the Seacon leader, Turtler was indeed intelligent and capable of speech, but he too never transformed to robot mode. By combining with one of each of the Seacon drones, Turtler became King Poseidon, who was first dispatched to battle Ginrai and later participated in many pivotal battles. Of particular note was the assault upon the Autobots’ base, during which they abandoned the Decepticon double agent Clouder to die in the conflagration, encouraging him to switch sides when the Autobots saved him.
Turtler and King Poseidon were voiced by Masato Hirano.
[edit] Transformers: Zone
Although intended to be a complete direct-to-video series, 1990’s Japanese-exclusive Transformers: Zone series was cancelled after only one episode, but that was still enough time for Piranacon/King Poseidon to put in a return appearance. Under the service of the mysterious insectoid being known as Violenjiger, he was one of the nine great “Decepticon Generals” the villain had recruited, alongside Devastator, Menasor, Bruticus, Predaking, Abominus, Trypticon, Overlord and BlackZarak. Sadly for the Seacons, they were unceremoniously killed alongside Trypticon by the new Cybertron (Autobot) commander Dai Atlas with a single shot.
[edit] Beast Wars Second
The Seacon toys received their first repaint when they were revived as new characters for 1997’s Japanese-exclusive animated series, Beast Wars Second. The toys, sans Nautilator once again, were redecoed in a unified green, white and gold color scheme, and characterised as a team of space pirates who combined into God Neptune. They include:
- Halfshell (Snaptrap redeco), the Seacon Captain, is a shrewd mercenary who sees everything in terms of money. Although merciless with his foes, he is remarkably tender and big-hearted with his friends. His voice was supplied by Kazuhiko Nishimatsu.
- Coelagon (Skalor redeco) is the seasoned elder of the Seacons, but although he professes to be knowledgeable, his facts often prove wrong. He assumes the role of God Neptune’s left arm. He was voiced by Tadashi Miyazawa.
- Scylla (Tentakil redeco) is the group’s strategist, and the only female in their ranks. A proud woman, she falls in love with the Maximal, Scuba, at first sight, although his team-mate, Big Horn, is the one who’s interested. She forms God Neptune’s left leg. She was performed by Miwa Matsumoto.
- Sea Phantom (Overbite redeco) cuts through the water like a bullet. He delights in making sneak attacks using his teleport ability, and will sink his fangs into just about anything. He forms God Neptune’s right arm. He was voiced by Hiroaki Ichinowatari.
- Terrormandar (Seawing redeco) is the youngest of the Seacon Pirates. He may be lazy, but when a fight starts, his destructive power is incredible. He becomes God Neptune’s right leg. He was performed by Hitoshi Bifu.
The team combines into God Neptune, who smashes anything that gets in his way. Arguments between the team members often ensue about who gets to perform the less-than-enjoyable task of forming the legs, but when combined, God Neptune’s power is enough to rival Galvatron himself, and he is especially deadly in the ocean. Assuming the series is set within the same continuity as Masterforce, it is never explained why they resemble the original Seacons.
Strangely, a cheaper "budget" set of the toys was also released, in a box with no window and with no combiner parts(save for the chest which is needed for Halfshell's turtle mode, though the two clips to affix it as a chets plate were excised) or the sword and with very minor paint changes. The origins of this set are unknown, whether it is an official Takara release or a high-quality bootleg offering.
[edit] Transformers: Universe
A 2005 repaint of the original Seacon toys was planned the parallel-universe-spanning Transformers: Universe line, but has currently been shelved due to lack of retailer interest. Individual names for the toys were not released, but the team itself has been renamed the Piranacons, and their combined form’s name amended to Piranaking. Their lack of an actual release, however, did not prevent them from featuring in issues #2 and 3 of the Transformers: Universe comic book exclusive to BotCon, in which a herd of Piranacons (specfically, the Overbite mould) appear in the service of Tarantulas.
Additionally, the Overbite name was applied to a second shark Transformer for Universe - an imported version of the Japanese Beast Wars II Hellscream, who is in turn a remoulded version of the first-year Beast Wars figure, Cybershark, and comes packaged with Repugnus.
