#never left the nautilous. sad.

[bluebeetle]

for some reason the bg3 achievements on steam are broken for me, which ehhh i dont care about but it is VERY funny seeing these back to back

[allspark]

Getting caught in the undertow of the Allspark Studio today is the stumbling and bumbling Lobclaw (Nautilator)!  Will he be quick to blame others for his numerous mistakes, or will he start a self-help group personal fulfillment?  Tune in after the break to find out!

Sadly, I never even saw the Seacons during the original G1 run.  My first exposure to the designs was during the Beast Wars II toy series of the late 90’s.  Being a fan of both G1 and Beast Wars, I couldn’t help but be enamored with the figures, though my budget at the time only allowed for a late in the game grab of a set with no combiner parts off BBTS that I think was the result of a find in a flooded warehouse (more on that in another review).  I wanted to get a complete set, and never imagined that one day Hasbro would release them in the original toy colors, especially after I missed the Timelines Seacons set released by FunPub (I STILL need that set).

To my further surprise, TakaraTomy (and Hasbro) went all in on the Seacon love and gave us the currently being released Generations Selects set, remolded from several Terrorcon molds and the Moonracer mold.  In spite of many things being on lockdown due to COVID-19 at the moment, the Generations Select Seacons have finally made it to the United States and have begun to trickle out in groups of 2 through the mail.  Today we will look at Lobclaw/Nautilator, a remold of the Terrorcon Blot.

Colors

Before we really get started, let’s talk about colors.  One of the first things Western fans will note is that the colors on the Generations selects figures do not match the G1 toys exactly.  There is a good reason for that, and one I had totally forgotten until I was reminded by fellow Allspark staffer SOS.

You see, my only exposure to the G1 Seacons came as an adult, out of a wonderful discovery that, being a speaker of Spanish, I would get to enjoy all of the Japanese G1 shows in a dub language I understood.  It has been a long time since I watched Super God Masterforce en español, and I had forgotten about the colors used in the cartoon, which Takara has matched in the Generations Selects line.  So, there you have it, the reason for the colors not matching the toys.

  Beast Mode

(editor’s note: I realize I am missing the beast mode claws on the G1 figure.  I misplaced them during Spring cleaning last year and spent 4 days last week looking for them.  No luck.  I’m sure I will find them during the next move.)

I love crustaceans and insects. I love crustacean and insect Transformers.  The various Beast Wars series of the 90’s gave me some amazing figures of this body style, and also introduced me to the missing element of God Neptune, the Nautilator mold.  The original Lobclaw/Nautilator looks less like a lobster and more like a parasite of some sort, but he’s still a monster crustacean, and who doesn’t love G1 Cybertronian beast bodies anyhow?

Generations Selects Lobclaw does a better job than the original of looking like a lobster, even if it is an unbelievable retro-robotic styled lobster.  Unfortunately, as nice as he looks, he’s mostly a brick.  His lobster claws can pinch, and he has ball joints in the “elbows” and the “shoulders”, allowing at least a little bit of poseability to the mode, but this is about all you get.

The beast mode legs are on a rotating panel that unsatisfyingly rests against the body without connecting anywhere in a solid fashion.  This means that after left in beast for a while there is the chance the panels will slip to the side, or the legs will bow out.  That is a major downer for a very nice-looking beast-tank of a creature.  It leaves me conflicted, because as I said, I love Cybertronian crustaceans.  I love the way Lobclaw looks in beast mode, I just wish the legs locked in place.

  Robot Mode

As with all the God Neptune components, robot mode has a nice amount of new parts to bring about the classic G1 robot mode.  New parts include:

  Robot head

Beast legs

Beast head piece

Forearms

Lobster tail/gun

  Articulation from this mode:

  Knee swivels

Thigh swivels

Ball-jointed hips

Waist swivel

Ball-jointed shoulders

Ball-jointed elbows

Ball-jointed head (with a minor amount of up/down movement)

The characterization of Nautilator does not match up with the way this robot mode looks.  The fiction makes him sound like an incompetent idiot, but the robot mode on this figure is nothing but a monster.  He is a fierce looking beast.  Between the powerful lobster forearms and optional claws, the blasters and the ax he wields, paired with the mouthless face and dead eyes, I would expect a cold-hearted killer, more likely to snap your neck than say hello.

Lobclaw’s robot mode is fun to fiddle with, due to the scary look and the deadly forearms.  He appears convincingly tough with the arms left in beast mode, and while this is unofficial, it seems he would be able to pick up heavy objects easier this way, since the outer claw would hinder the range of his hand function.  The lobster legs on the outside of the robot legs are understandable kibble, given the way they turned this mold into a new character. They do not take away much from the poseability, which is nice.  Lobclaw can be a little back-heavy as a robot, especially if you plug his tail weapon into the back of the beast head.  Other than that, I think this is one of the most fun robot mode figures out of the set, but I also love Blot for many of the same reasons I love Lobclaw.

Arm/Leg Mode

Leg mode is (again) the more solid of the two appendage modes.  I did not have as many issues with arm mode staying together for Lobclaw as I did for Kraken, which is sad since he is normally used as the gun for Piranacon.

There is not much more I can say for these modes other than in addition to being solid, they balance well with the other appendages.

Weapon Mode

Lobclaw’s primary role for Piranacon was that of the weapon, and he does a nice job in this mode.  He is compact, most of the parts connect to the body solidly (minus the lobster arms, but it is not a big deal), and he does a decent job of looking like the G1 figure’s weapon mode.  Actually, I take that back.  He does a better job of being a weapon than the G1 figure, which is mostly lobster mode splayed out in the air, while this one forms by pulling all the parts into a solid, single piece.  Considering he would likely be used in a defensive manner to block blasts and melee attacks, I think it is super fitting that an armored creature forms the weapon.  I cannot wait for the last 2 figures to arrive so I can finally place him as such.

Overall Thoughts

I give Lobclaw 8,500/10,000 gallons of seawater!  All of his modes are fun, he poses reasonably well in robot mode, and he looks like a fierce warrior in both robot and beast mode.  He may have some stability issues with the beast mode legs, but let’s face it, he’s probably going to be in weapon mode most of the time anyhow.  Despite the beast legs, he is one of the better remolds in this set, and definitely worth the purchase.  Let’s hope Takara and Hasbro do another run, because demand seems high, and I think there are still plenty of fans that want to get this set.

While they are at it, a giftset Beast Wars II repaint of this would be the Piranacon’s knees.  (Do it, TakaraTomy).

  Sources:

Transformers Universe

TFWiki.net

  Generations Selects GS-TT06 Lobclaw/Nautilator Gallery and Review! Getting caught in the undertow of the Allspark Studio today is the stumbling and bumbling Lobclaw (Nautilator)!