Function: Pirate Sneak Attacker
A shark transformer. Like a bullet, he's a very warlike guy. He likes to make a surprise attacks with his simple-teleport ability. A great eater that bites everything with his fangs. Weapons include Phanthom Jaws in mecha-beast mode and Phanthom Fin, also in mecha-beast mode.
I've spoken of my love of Masterforce here before and dammit I'm going to again. Recently I've been re-watching it, mostly by myself, though the other day while my wife was napping on the couch. She woke up and asked me what I was watching. I just told her robots. We often just say robots in regards to Transformers. She then said 'no, really, what even is this', and I said 'it's my Transformers cartoons'. She still did not believe me and probably still doesn't now. Masterforce is just that different of a Transformers series that it takes people completely by surprise.
Why is it so different? During development, it was decided the ongoing story had reached a natural conclusion and a fresh start was needed. The show is still in continuity with the previous shows and following shows despite of that. It's a little out of place though as it went from the then future, to obviously the late 80's. Sometimes it's best not to dwell on that sort of thing as the show was great regardless. Initially focusing on Pretenders, the show later works in Headmasters and Godmasters/Powermasters into the mix.
The overall vibe of the show is different too. It's clearly taking inspiration from traditional super robot shows as well as tokusatsu like Super Sentai and Ultraman. MetalHawk and Shuta Go remind me a lot of older Ultraman shows where the Ultra of the series would often serve as a mentor to a local child. The kids before becoming Headmaster Jr's make me think of the team from Hard Gumi. The Pretenders go from standard human disguises to armored mode in battle. Then release their inner robot mode as things get complicated when fighting the monstrous Decepticon Pretenders and Seacons. Which follows the standard fighting sequence of a Super Sentai/Power Rangers series. Godmasters/Powermasters are handled similarly as well.
Aside from the stark differences, the show is just fun. From the all out brutality of the Decepticons to moments like Shuta playing soccer at school. The show is a roller coaster ride, and that's just the first few minutes! Clearly as someone who likes monsters, spooky stuff, Pretenders and loves Powermaster Optimus Prime like I do would favor this show. Not just that, but Transformers every once and awhile needs a refreshing and this was the first major one. Not just a change of scenery or new characters, they practically reinvented the wheel while still staying true to it's roots. It's a real treat to watch the first time and again for the millionth.
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| "Embrace your enemies... until they're terminated." |
Function: Underwater Demolition
Crushes submarines like they were soda cans. The more benevolent he appears, the crueler he becomes. Electomagnetic tentacles add super strength to his vise-like grip. Electrically-charged feelers short circuit and stun on contact. In robot Mode, carries dual slime lasers that shoot globs of highly-adhesive gelatinous goo. In weapons Mode, transforms to twin 50,000 volt lightning rifles. Also able to burst away in a cloud of viscous black grease that hinders his pursuers. Combines with fellow seacons to form Piranacon.
This morning I found some time to play with my new rainbow colored Seacon set and man, what a time I had. Like I said yesterday, it's a downsized set. Meaning, it's much smaller than the original toys.
Whenever these knock off toy companies make a Transformers set, they tend to get creative. There's molded over parts, sometimes new parts made to compensate for deteriorating molds. Or in these downsized sets, they seemingly have to re-engineer some of the parts a little.
The Seacons were a Scramble City style combiner team, meaning any of the limbs would work as any limb. That wasn't the case here, or from what I could tell after a lot of fiddling. Not to mention, the neat 6th member could be a gun wasn't universal either. Which didn't matter as Piranacon doesn't have fists to hold it with. I opted to keep Tentakil out of the combiner since I just love his weird sea monster mode so much. Thanks to ample peg holes and guns, you can fashion a blaster type hand easily. Honestly in combined mode, I really like this toy. The wacky colors look sharp and the sculpt looks really good in a smaller size.
Going back to the individual team members, the sea monster modes look really great. Snaptrap is as small as the limb bots, which is funny as the smaller size makes for good proportions when combined. They're really good copies of the original toys as well.
In robot mode, some of that knockoff toy new part magic comes in. Leg/mid-sections are serviceable, but are clearly where the company has had to get a little creative. It's still a really nice looking set. While a few parts were omitted and not all the accessories are there, they've all got weapons. Aside from scale and color, they're pretty close approximations of the team.
The quality is always in question with knock off toys. Sometimes it's a near perfect replica, sometimes it's kinda ok. Sometimes it's apparently made from old soap and turns into powder instantly. For the most part these guys were pretty good. Some of the joints are really loose, while one of Snaptrap's legs was impossible to move. I'm no stranger to knock off toys and some of my old tricks came into making a more stable set.
I absolutely love the Piranacon this set makes. That smaller Snaptrap makes for a different looking torso and the proportions are absolutely wonderful. Normally with Scramble City style combiners, you have a big body with stumpy limbs. Everything is more evened out here and it makes for a better looking robot. I can't help to look at other combiners and imagine them with similar builds.
It was a total surprise when Shawn sent me this and made for an interesting week. I'm pretty grateful for it. I've got a ton of toys, but the ones with stories I really appreciate. Shawn's an awesome friend as is, but dude gets me. He saw some weird shit and knew I would not only like it, but would turn into a week of site content.
Before I go any farther, let me explain. I live in a town home neighborhood. The mailboxes are similar to an apartment set up, with them being at the front. Little mailboxes and storage lockers for packages, though usually those are left on door steps.
So when Shawn says something is waiting for me in a storage locker. I check and... nope. I let him know, he double checks tracking and same info. So, I used the little tracking tool on the Post Office website to let them know something went wrong. I get a generic 'looking into it email' back and when the mailbox was checked, there was a key for a storage locker. Ok, no problem, whoever did the Saturday run must have forgot. Inside the storage locker was... wait for it... another key. The hell?
This key however is not like the other... because it doesn't work on any of the lockers. I get to work and reply to the email. This morning, I call the Post Office and... the manager who wrote me the reply had went on vacation. I think this is actually a Rascal Flats song, your Mom loves them. BTW, ever notice the singer of those dudes looks like the guy who played Duke on old GI JOE commercials?
Now you and your Mom have something in common. You can talk about how knowing is half the battle and that life is a highway. Speaking of talking with Mom, tell her the Star Brigade toys in that commercial had Action Master Shockwave's art used to represent Hawk. Also tell her that I need her dog to stop shitting in my yard.
So my wife suggests I ask to speak to a manager and I get the supervisor! Who then calls the employee who handles my neighborhood (and usually leaves packages at the door), who then says which box my package is in. Great, because I don't have a key that first and ... know what I'll just check again... still didn't work. So the supervisor has the employee to bring it to my door (as they normally freaking do) when they come. Which they do... without knocking and I have this key that I have no clue what to do with. Guess I'll mail it back?
So what was in the box? A red foil zip-lock type bag with a label that you can zoom in and read. Or if your the type to figure out the title of my posts normally have something to do with the subject, you may have already guessed.
Indeed inside was something amazing, a scaled down set of Seacons in the most pleasant rainbow colored pattern one would never expect. It's a worn out meme to label anything with crazy colors 'G2', but a G2 set of Seacons probably would have looked like this had one been made. That or some random European version of the molds like Rescue Force.
The toys themselves? They're fantastic! Big thanks to Shawn for thinking to send me this rad set. I'll talking about the actual toys tomorrow in the action packed conclusion to this post. Spoiler warning, it won't be that action packed. This is just a blog.
