The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[technoblue]

Yeah, I completely understand where you're coming from.

Although most naysayers are complaining about MP-51's physical design on other forums, I decided that really isn't the sticking point for me. It's the odd colors that are much more uncanny in my view. I'll have to think about whether or not I want to pick up the Masterpiece to satisfy my own morbid curiosity. If I do end up picking up a copy, I'll write a review and post it here comparing it to MMC's. 

Speaking of MMC's, I know it's off-topic but I got my shipping notice for the OX repaint. I'm looking forward to it.

Edited May 16, 2020 by technoblue

[M'Kyuun]

I'm skipping MP Arcee, but I've got Earthrise Arcee PO'd, despite my abhorrence for parts-forming. More and more, Has/Tak are getting lazier with their engineering. Cliffjumper's another example. I wish they'd return to the 'perfect transformation' mindset they used to espouse.  At least she's a nice looking figure, but I have a feeling I'll still prefer T30 due the transformation. 

I may get the Cyberverse Arcee, too. She's sporting a Mt. Everest-summit-worthy backpack, but at least she actually transforms instead of having 2/3 of her alt mode snapped on.

I don't take issue with the color of MP Arcee as much as I do with the shaping of the chest contour. Her chestplate is located properly, but the upper portion plateaus instead of contouring up to her shoulders, and that's what's really ruining her profile. If you look at Earthrise Arcee, her chest is in the same place, but the shape angles nicely up to her shoulder, and it makes all the difference in how she looks. Not sure how the fellas at Takara could look at MP Arcee and think it looks nice, especially when compared to their other Arcee figures, as well as the third party offerings (minus Nicee whose shaping is purposely more anthropomorphic and embellished than the G1 model). It looks off, and it seems like something that could have been fixed. I wonder if the fourth party folks will fix it?  Her backpack is another source of personal contention; one would think a company that's been making these things for 35+ years could find a better solution, especially given all the panel-fu they've been pulling off with the Beast Wars figures. Her backpack looks like they gave up without trying.

[mikeszekely]

2 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Cliffjumper's another example. I wish they'd return to the 'perfect transformation' mindset they used to espouse. 

I don't really care to use Cliffjumper's backpack as a shield or whatever, but I don't really think it's too big, and the partsforming to get it from the back of the car to the back of the robot doesn't really bother me.  If it does bother you, though, TF Safari (where I've been getting a lot of my upgrade kits) is selling a piece that puts the rear of the car on a hinged armature that keeps it attached during transformation.

[M'Kyuun]

That armature is interesting. I don't own a pin vice, so I'd have to get one to R & R that pin, as it's in a rather tight space. $15 seems a bit much for that (almost as much as the figure itself), but I like the improvement. The simplicity of it makes me wonder, with no little aggravation, why Has/Tak didn't make it part of the original design.  I would have preferred the budget went towards that than all the bits for the water skis.

[technoblue]

Before Mike reviewed the Impactor and Roller kits, I was using TFSafari mostly for Matrix Workshop upgrades. I've picked up their kits for Ratchet, Refraktor, Ironhide, and Hot Shot. The quality is very good on all of them, and I'm really keen on how they're all pre-painted. Saves me some work. It's definitely a site that works best if you pick and choose the best fit for your collection. Buying a lot of upgrade kits quickly adds up.

Anyway, I agree that TFSafari is a great resource. There are a number of clever kits available if you are looking to add value to a Siege/Earthrise collection.

[mikeszekely]

10 minutes ago, technoblue said:

Before Mike reviewed the Impactor and Roller kits, I was using TFSafari mostly for Matrix Workshop upgrades. I've picked up their kits for Ratchet, Refraktor, Ironhide, and Hot Shot. The quality is very good on all of them, and I'm really keen on how they're all pre-painted. Saves me some work. It's definitely a site that works best if you pick and choose the best fit for your collection. Buying a lot of upgrade kits quickly adds up.

Anyway, I agree that TFSafari is a great resource. There are a number of clever kits available if you are looking to add value to a Siege/Earthrise collection.

Yeah, in addition to the Impactor and Roller kits I've bought Ratchet Studios filler kits for Ratchet and Ironhide, and a pair of Matrix Workshop ion rifles for Siege and Earthrise Prime.  In addition to those kits I bought the two Generations Selects Seacons I have on hand there.  The upgrade kits are, perhaps, a little on the pricey side, but they can really improve a figure.  I have more coming for Studio Series DotM Megatron, Earthrise Hoist, and Siege/Earthrise Astrotrain.  Oh, and if you buy a couple of kits at once they have coupons on the site you can use for $1 off two kits, $2 off three kits, or $3 off four kits.

It's not just about the upgrade kits, though.  Since I've started dealing with them TF Safari has been consistently one of the best customer service experiences I've had from a Chinese seller.  Their prices are fairly competitive with bigger names like ShowZ Store, and they were very responsive with an issue I had with a recent order (missing piece from one of the upgrade kits I'd ordered, I asked if they could get me the part and mail it with my next order, and in under 24 hours they promised to do just that, going so far as to send me some stuff I'd preordered without waiting for the rest of the stuff I'd preordered to come in).  Plus they've been tossing little freebies in with my orders (I'm not sure, but I think they might be Halo Mega Blocks minifigs, or KOs of such).  If they have something in stock that you want I'd strongly recommend giving them a try.

[mikeszekely]

Ok, it took him a little longer to get here than Hot Rod did, but I did also get Cyberverse Deluxe-class Grimlock.

Grimlock is basically the same size as the rest of the Cyberverse Deluxes (or, as it were, Warrior-class RiD Grimlock, aka the last Grimlock I bought from an aimed-at-kids line), and while that strikes this old geewunner as wrong it's actually fairly in keeping with the show, from what I've seen (the first season).

I know, missing paint apps have been something of a running theme with this line, and that's certainly going to be the case for Grimlock here.  Most noticeably his shins should  have a yellow stripe running from under his knee pads to the tops of his feet, with one blue and one red square per shin.  Many of the little spikes on his legs are painted, but some of them aren't, and he could use a little black on his biceps.  However, when you consider that he's almost entirely made of gray plastic, Grimlock is actually sporting quite a bit of paint and, shins and biceps aside, he's actually fairly well done.  His upper torso is painted yellow with red details, leaving the gray correctly showing on the vents on his chest.  His abs are painted red, and his lats are black.  The red on his pelvis is painted, and the black and red details on his shoulders.  Even his head is mostly painted, with just his face showing the original gray plastic.

Overall, I'd say he looks pretty good.  The colors are a good homage to G1, and the big shoulders and forearms give him an appropriately beefy silhouette.  I'm not a huge fan of the face, but that's cartoon-accurate so what can you do?

Grimlock comes with a few accessories.  There's a crown he wore in the Cyberverse episode "King of the Dinosaurs," and like Grimlock himself it's made from gray plastic with yellow and red painted details; it's just missing some blue.  He's got a translucent orange effect part.  And he's got Maccadam's right forearm.  Would be nice to get some biceps and shoulders so I could attach these forearms already...

So Grimlock's got a few limitations when it comes to articulation.  His head is on a ball joint, and although he can't look down or do much in the way of sideways tilt it's cut in such a way that he can look straight up, as well as turn his head to the sides.  His shoulders are ball joints, and why they rotate without issues the bulk of his shoulders means he can't even quite move them 45 degrees laterally.  His elbows are ball joints, which also act as a swivel, but again due to the bulk of his arms he can't quite bend them 90 degrees.  His wrists can bend inward due to his transformation, but there's no swivel.  His waist, on the other hand, does swivel.  His hips are ball joints and they can go a little under 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally.  He has cut thigh swivels, and his knees are single hinges that bend under 90 degrees.  His feet are on double hinges for transformation, so you can bend them down and if you work both joints even up a little, plus he has over 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

I don't know if this is just my copy or if it's a production thing, but while none of his ball joints feel too loose his left thigh swivel is kind of tight, and trying to manipulate it will cause his entire leg to pop off the ball joint. (which is a little irritating as it's necessary for transformation).  His right leg is fine, though.

The tops of Grimlock's ears fit into slots inside the crown, fixing it to his head.  And while he doesn't have guns or a sword (not that I recall him having any in the one season of the show I watched), the end of the effect part has the shape of a 5mm peg, and you can put it in his hand like some sort of firey club.

When I reviewed Hot Rod I mentioned that his transformation reminded me of the G1 toy, and I was critical of the figure's simplicity.  Grimlock, on the other hand, is surprisingly complex for kid's toy.  There's no big surprises with his upper body, but his waist turns 90 degrees and his tail unfurls from his legs.  Interestingly, his feet double-hinge out to form part of his back and some of his chest and stomach, filling in some gaps. 

The "Cyberverse lacks paint" bug hits his alt mode more than his robot mode, I think.  He's missing a lot of yellow that should be on his dinosaur neck and a large segment of his tail.  And the way the little spikes on his legs were painted means that on one side of his tail they are but on the other they're not.  You can also notice around his dino hips that his robot torso was assembled from two parts, and only the front was painted.  The inside of the circular details on his legs should be been painted red.  Finally, instead of having a yellow dewclaw his entire fist is just chilling on the back of his foot. 

Weirdly enough, his dinosaur hands were painted yellow but they're actually not supposed to be painted.  

Grimlock's articulation is even more disappointing in dinosaur mode.  His jaw does open, but he's got no other head articulation.  His dino arms are just molded bits and have no articulation.  His tail has no articulation.  His dino hips, aka his robot shoulders, are still ball joints so they can rotate and give him a slight spread.  He has no knee articulation in this mode (or rather, due to his transformation, the ball joints are cut so that his knees would bend in toward his body).

There's a tiny tab on the crown that plugs into a notch on top of his head, so he can still wear his crown in dinosaur mode.  A peg inside his mouth allows you plug the effect part in, so it looks like he's breathing fire.

If I'm being totally fair and comparing Cyberverse Grimlock to a Siege or Earthrise Deluxe I'm still struck by how much better the Siege/Earthrise stuff is.  The missing paint apps and the reliance on ball joints instead of mushroom-cut biceps, hinges for elbows, and universal joints for the shoulders and hips is blatantly lower-quality for a figure that costs the same price.

I'm I limit my comparisons to just the other Cyberverse stuff, though, he's not too bad.  The amount of paint he does have is a bit more than the others, he comes with some appropriate accessories, and the engineering is pretty interesting.  And when I look at the other Cyberverse Grimlocks only the much larger and more expensive Ultimate Class is even remotely as show-accurate as this Deluxe version.  So, if you're not into Cyberverse then there's nothing here that would change your mind.  But, if you're a fan of the show or are already collecting from the line then Grimlock is a decently fun figure that won't disappoint the way Hot Rod did.

[mikeszekely]

OK, enough with the Cyberverse stuff (for now).  Here's Studio Series Voyager-class Sentinel Prime.

The molded details on this figure is pretty good.  It's a little hard to describe, but panels and lines you'd find on the CGI model are generally represented on the toy.  However, while red and gunmetal is basically the right colors, you'll find if you look a little closer that sometimes the colors are inverted.  For just a simple example take a look as his hip and thigh.  There's a bit of hinged armor on his hips that's gray on the toy, but it should be red.  Meanwhile, some of the gray on the outside of his thighs should also be red, and the large, y-shaped molded detail on the front of his thighs should actually be gray.  It's a little irritating, given the Studio Series' emphasis on greater screen accuracy than older toys, but given that I think all the red you see here is paint it's probably appropriate for the budget Hasbro gives to a Voygaer-class figure.

Sentinel comes with his weapon, the Primax blade.  Aside from the fact that the holes near the grip are filled in on the toy, and it's lacking the red paint, the molded detail is again pretty screen accurate.  It's even got the asymmetric three points on one blade one point on the other.

I think Sentinel's head is on a ball joint, but the range is fairly limited.  He can look up a decent amount, but he can't look down or tilt his head sideways.  Even turning his head is limited to a little under 45 degrees to either side.  His shoulders rotate and move laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel just above his elbows, which bend over 90 degrees.  His wrists swivel.  He does have a bit of a waist swivel, but it's hindered by the wheels in his sides.  His hips can go over 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees laterally, and over 60 degrees backward due to a bit of backpack kibble.  His thighs swivel just above his knees, and his knees bend 90 degrees.  His feet can tilt up and down a little due to his transformation, but unfortunately he's lacking ankle pivots.

The handle of the Primax blade splits in two, and you can slide them into the top and bottom of a fist to reunite them.  Alternatively, although I don't know if he did anything like it in the movie, you can leave the halves split and it looks like he's holding two short swords.

Considering how little vehicle kibble is showing (at least from the front) on the robot mode the transformation is surprisingly uncomplicated.  Much of the front and top of the vehicle is, indeed, that aforementioned backpack.  Meanwhile, his chest turns inside out to form the sides of the vehicle, trapping is arms inside.  That just leaves his legs to form the bottom of the truck.

That truck, by the way, is a Rosenbauer Panther, a kind of firetruck used mainly by airports.  Hasbro actually did license the vehicle, and the resulting alt mode is quite good.  It's just lacking a bit of color; a lot of the gray would look better if it were closer to black, while other parts like the railing and boom on the top of the truck should be white.  The back of the truck should have red and white stripes, with white ladders.  None of the lights are painted, and while it's got the Rosenbauer logo and the big "316" on the side it's missing a lot of the smaller markings.

His weapon integrates into the alt mode, forming some of the paneling on the bottom edges of the truck and hiding his robot thighs.  Aside from that he rolls ok, and the boom on top can hinge up and down.

Even if much of the plot of Dark of the Moon seems to conflict with the previous two films, I like it when Transformers media explores the lineage of Primes before Optimus.  Plus, with the great Leonard Nimoy providing his voice, I think Sentinel Prime was one of the better bits of the Bayverse.  The new Studio Series version isn't an MP Sentinel Prime, but for a $30 Voyager I think it's a fine representation of the character, especially if Toyhax releases a label set for him or you're handy with the paints.  I'm going to give this guy a recommend.

[mikeszekely]

Probably more eagerly anticipated than Sentinel Prime is his wavemate- Studio Series Voyager-class Scrapper.  But is Scrapper any good?

After digging through some concept art and screenshots, it looks like Scrapper is fairly screen accurate.  He's got the squished insect-looking head the big round shoulders, thin arms, smokestacks on his back, narrow waist, wide hips with tires, tires in his heels, and shovel feet.  His left hand is curled into a mace, but alas there's no chain or mechanism for using it as such.  His right arm is a claw, but the large flat piece behind it isn't so accurate.  He's got molded detail in his chest that could be the lights you see on the actual character model, but they're not painted or marked as such.  Overall, like Sentinel, he's not perfect but he seems appropriate for a Voyager-class figure.

For comparison, I have him here with Voyager-class Long Haul and Deluxe-class Scrapmetal, the two figures I'd consider to the be the best Stunticons so far.

Scrapper's head is on a ball joint in the back, which allows him to look up a little, down a lot, and rotate in a way that tilts his head sideways.  The base of the ball peg has a hinge, though, and that hinge allows him to look left and right as well.  His shoulders rotate, although the pipes on his sides and the smokestacks on his back can get in the way, and a hinge allows his shoulders to move 90 degrees laterally.  Both arms have bicep swivels and double-jointed elbows that combined give him almost 180 degrees of elbow bend.  His right arm has a second (wrist?) swivel where the black piece connects just below the elbow.  The flat part of his "hand" is hinged so it can bend in and out, and the claws at the end can open and close.  His left hand only has a hinge for transformation that allows it to bend up.  The curled claws on it don't move, which is kind of a shame.  No waist swivel.  The way his pelvis is built the entire hip and leg can swivel a bit, but there's almost no lateral movement. His hips do rotate, though, allowing him to kick forward or bend backward well over 90 degrees. Below the tires on his hips he has thigh swivels.  His knee can bend to 90 degrees, but it actually can't straight more than a 45 degree bend.  If everything is tabbed together the way it's meant to be he has no foot or ankle articulation.

As has often been the case with the Studio Series Constructicons, Scrapper doesn't come with any accessories.

Scrapper's transformation is fairly simple.  The most difficult parts are finding the right clearances to move his legs around to make the wheels.  As for his size, well, a part of me think he should be a lot smaller, but if they're heavy mining equipment and not your typical construction vehicles then I guess it's ok.  Judging by the size of the cockpits, anyway.

Thing is, whether Hasbro is going to sell me on this being a mining vehicle or not, it's not screen accurate.  Aside from being yellow, having wheels, and being a front loader it's really not even all that close.  A lot of its bulk from the cabin to the back don't resemble any front loader I've seen, let alone the CAT in the movie.  In fact, it looks like the random jagged metal that makes up Bayverse robot kibble.

Scrapper can roll (quite well, even).  His shovel can lift up a little at his robot knee joint, but there's no additional articulation to be had in this mode.

If you can get Scrapper into his alt mode, you can get him into his arm mode.  Just split apart his shovel, rotate each piece 180 degrees, fold out the claws on the bottom "finger," flip out the combiner connector, and you're basically done.  Technically the instructions have you bend the cabin forward, but all that entails is untabbing it and not tabbing it back into anything else. 

As I mentioned earlier, it's my opinion that Longhaul and Scrapmetal have been the best of the Studio Series Constructicons.  And I honestly think that's because they have more humanoid bodies than Scavenger, Mixmaster, Rampage/Skipjack, and Hightower, so I had pretty high hopes for Scrapper.  Well, my expectations were half right.  I definitely like Scrapper better than Scavenger, Mixmaster, Rampage, and Hightower.  However, I do think he falls a little short of Long Haul or Scrapmetal.  So for now, on his own, I'd give him a soft recommend if you need more Decepticons.

Of course, I suspect that won't matter for a lot of collectors.  It's all about Devastator, right?  And after seven releases we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, with just one more Overload left to complete the gestalt (although time will tell if I pick up Skipjack just to have a more-accurate yellow left foot).

 

[David Hingtgen]

I gotta say, I think an upscaled/tweaked (with PAINT!!!!) Sentinel Prime could be amazing.  It's so close, but still just looks "good" to me.  "Everything is gunmetal grey" just takes so much away from it.  It should have silver, grey, and black bits.  And have the back end painted.  And a few more bits fold away or fold out, etc.   Hate to say it, but I'm waiting for the KO.  (as in, assuming it gets heavily tweaked like a lot of Movie Primes are---bigger alone isn't nearly enough)  

[M'Kyuun]

Out of curiosity, I watched a leader class Sentinel vid, and honestly, I think it's the superior figure, especially in the transformation.  The SS version cheats the chest, but the leader actually used the side windows to form the chest. The coloration and overall shaping of the leader's truck mode is better, too. Just from a personal collecting standpoint, if I had the leader toy, I don't think I'd bother with the SS, unless you've got a whole collection of them and you're looking to complete the set. Moving on to Scrapper, I like how they did the legs on him. I'm not crazy about his whisk and pincer-laden spatula non-hands, but the rest of the bot mode is kinda neat looking. I'm just not crazy about the Bay aesthetic, so I'll likely pass, although the transformation, and the ability to move the scoop up and down, make this guy more appealing to me than most Bay stuff.  

Earthrise, aside from the Walmart Netflix exclusives, seems to have come pretty much full stop for releases and revelations of upcoming figs in the line. Definitely been one of the slowest collecting years I can remember. I've got a bunch of stuff PO'd from Pulse, and Prime PO'd from Sure Thing Toys (PO'd him back when Pulse was sold out and weren't offering POs on Prime). I've never used Sure Thing before, so I hope they're a good source. Anyway, June seems to be the month that things are starting to open up again, so hopefully, this stuff will start shipping.  I need to try and score a PO on the Target exclusive Decepticon clones, which will likely be a similar scenario to new valk releases. Situations like this suck the fun out of this hobby.

[tekering]

I've had the "Leader Class" Sentinel for years, and it's a disproportioned, ungainly mess that barely stands on its own.

The Studio Series version is immeasurably superior, and I would welcome an oversized knock-off.

[M'Kyuun]

I don't own either, and and have no plans to buy them, but I will say what looks good on a screen doesn't always translate to how something feels in-hand. Personally, the leader speaks more to me b/c the transformation is better developed, more like an old-school Transformer, where bits of the vehicle mode form the bot mode; I like that. But, as a toy, and as an action figure, I can understand where the SS is a superior figure. It all comes down to subjective preferences. I will say, from watching Peaugh's review, the leader seemed loath to stand on its own, and one of his fig's knees seemed a little loose, so there is that. In the end, it's good that there are options. 

[David Hingtgen]

Anyone interested in some Combiner wars figs?  Just really don't "feel the need to keep 'em" but also don't feel like ebaying them.  Would like to just dump them all as a lot, cheap:

• Trailbreaker, Reprolabeled.
• Slug/Slag, Reprolabeled
• Swoop
• Dreadwind
• Dragstrip  (inked in a few of his molded-in-rivets, like 6 of them, barely noticeable)
• Can also toss in a Repolabeled and custom-repainted Elita one (a lot of red and white bits repainted coral-pink), and a Moonracer with a damaged-paint fender

Might sell as a second lot, if they're worth anything:

• Groove, Reprolabeled
• Air Raid
• Blades, Reprolabeled
• Slingshot, Reprolabeled
• Sky Lynx, Reprolabeled

[sqidd]

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/125929

 

 

[jenius]

Is it me, or does something look off with that Ultimetal? The lower leg also looks a bit sparse.

[Kuma Style]

I'm pretty smitten with the Awakening Studios stylization for the Ultimetal product and can't wait to get my copies of Megatron in. The only thing that I wish is that after all of this time it didn't use the exact same frame as prime. It's been over 5 years since it was revealed and that's a pretty.... lazy route.

[sqidd]

28 minutes ago, jenius said:

Is it me, or does something look off with that Ultimetal? The lower leg also looks a bit sparse.

The covers pop off (magnets) so you can see the skeleton. The pics I put in have them removed on one side.

I'm not actually a huge Megatron fan, but, I REALLY like the Ultimetal Prime as a toy. It's well, the ultimate. It really is over the top. I would pay huge bucks for a VF-1S Focker Ultimetal. Even if it didn't transform.

Pic with covers on:

Edited May 27, 2020 by sqidd

[Major Focker]

i had an inkling getting that Ultimetal Optimus would come back to bite me.

now i have to sell my MAS-01 and MAS-02 so the Ultimetals will be my definitive display pair 

[sqidd]

8 minutes ago, Major Focker said:

i had an inkling getting that Ultimetal Optimus would come back to bite me.

now i have to sell my MAS-01 and MAS-02 so the Ultimetals will be my definitive display pair 

And that's how that happens!

[Ignacio Ocamica]

 

17 hours ago, sqidd said:

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/125929

 

They are copying/taking inspiration from Bandai Perfect Grade RX-178 inner frame.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Ignacio Ocamica

[mikeszekely]

Feels like forever ago that I got Turtler/Snaptrap and Gulf/Skalor (late March, really).  The next two Seacons came out, but I needed more stuff to get free shipping, and by the time I had enough for free shipping some other stuff was close to coming out... next thing I know it's almost June, reviews have been out for all the Generations Selects Seacons, and I'm just getting mine.  Oh well, that lets me cover the rest in whatever order I want instead of the release order.  So I'm going with Deluxe-class Overbite next.

So yeah, when I covered Gulf I had Rippersnapper out with him, thinking they'd be similar because they're both essentially fish with limbs.  And it turned out that Gulf was actually based on Blot.  So now we've got Overbite, and did Hasbro go the TFC route and retool him from Gulf?  Nope.  Overbite is definitely a recolored Rippersnapper.  From this angle you can mostly only see a new head, although some of his backpack and the beast legs on the sides of his bot legs are new.  Well, it's ok.  I think Rippersnapper was my favorite of the PotP Terrorcons, anyway.  I dig the Shredder claws on the backs of his hands.

The colors are pretty good here; the silver paint on his toes where the G1 toy had silver stickers is an especially nice touch.  The one issue I have is the purple forearms instead of teal.  And the new head is spot on.  What I find interesting is that, while not as prominent as the ribs on G1 Overbite, the molded detail on his chest seems more evocative of those ribs than the molded detail on G1 Rippersnapper.

Overbite comes with a large blue rifle, a "sword" that's more or less the same as Gulf's, and another of the combiner hands that came with Gulf.  In addition to the peg that I'd consider to be the handle, the rifle as a peg on the butt and a peg on top, plus a peg hole on either side.  I covered them a bit in Gulf's review, so we'll keep moving.

With minimal mold changes Overbite's articulation is identical to Rippersnapper's.  If you need a refresher, aball-jointed head gives him some upward tilt and a little sideways tilt in addition to roation.  Ball joints in his shoulders give you rotation and 90 degrees of lateral movement, but those balljoints are on hinges in the chest so you can go all the way to 180, or just pose him with a shrug.  Ball joints in his elbows provide both a bicep swivel and 90 degrees of bend.  He has wrist swivels and a waist swivel, ball-jointed hips that go 90 degrees forward and backward and about 45 degrees laterally, mushroom-style thigh swivels, and 90 degrees of knee bend.  No foot articulation.

He holds his rifle without issue.  Like Gulf, the shape of the sword's blade and the short peg make it a bit more trouble to hold, but I think it's easier for him than it was for Gulf.  Additionally he's got the 5mm ports on the sides of his back that Rippersnapper had, the one under a cover on his chest, plus new ones on the shark's head and chin.

In shark mode you can see more of the new parts, in the beast legs, head, and part of his back with the fin.  Technically not even the while leg... the pink thigh is actually the same as Rippersnapper's, but the lower leg and foot has been replaced by a larger foot. 

Considering that the transformation is kind of backward compared to the G1 toy I think they did a fair job color-matching, too.  The purple section is a little short, but it is followed by the teal tail with pink fins.  The thighs are properly pink, with teal feet where the G1 toy's lower leg was and correctly-purple claws.  The shark head has the right combo of teal head, pink lower jaw, and yellow eyes.  Only his arms are a bit off, since they have purple in addition to the pink.

Overbite's jaw does open, and his arms have the same articulation as in robot mode.  His beast legs are on ball joints at the hips, with a hinge where the pink section connects to the teal.  And that's about it for beast articulation.

For weapon storage in this mode you again have the port under the flip cover on his chest, the port on his head, and the two on his back.  For some reason, he's also got three 5mm peg holes under each of his beast feet.

Overbite's limb modes are pretty much what you'd expect- the same as Rippersnapper's.  The official transformation does have the tail on the top of the wrist, so using both his hips and knees will give him a double-jointed elbow in arm mode.  As limbs go, Overbite's a pretty good choice for either.

Of course, the "proper" configuration for King Poseidon has Overbite as a gun.  Once again, due to the very different transformation compared to the G1 toy the gun mode is not at all G1-accurate.  In fact, it's really just the leg mode with the combiner peg angled down, the claws turned, the beast feet at a different angle, and his rifle plugged into the foot/hand peg hole.  At least, that's the official transformation, and officially it leaves the shark tale dragging down lower than the hand that serves as the base.  What I like to do instead is turn his waist 180 degrees, so the tail sits like a fin on top of the gun.

Like I said, I think Rippersnapper was the best of the Terrorcons, and as a result Overbite is a pretty solid figure by extension.  Is he $40 good?  Probably not.  Even the best of the Combiner Wars/Power of the Primes Deluxes were kind of a step down from Titans Return, let alone the newer stuff in the Siege and Earthrise lines.  If your a fan of combiners or the Seascons, though, Overbite winds up being a better figure than Gulf.

[David Hingtgen]

I'm one of the biggest Seacon fans around, but I passed on all of these, mainly due to price. Plus never being that enamored with Combiner Wars in the first place.  I love combiners above all else, and it's pretty much all I buy---but I just think Hasbro missed the mark, with almost all of them.  Also, I got most of my TFC limb-bots for $63 shipped. A single TFC Poseidon FOOT has more plastic and mass than Hasbro's Snaptrap.  I can't really justify paying $40 for a repainted deluxe when I can get new-mold leaders for 50% more.  (now, I adore the colors on Hasbro's, as they are spot-on to the originals, whereas TFC did mostly TV colors-----if TFC did toy-colors I'd sell my original in a second)      

Overbite ("Cyberjaw" for TFC) is by far the most mis-colored of TFC's, there's very little purple and it's the totally wrong shade (neither toon nor TV), and I'd love to have a new properly-colored one----but $40 is just way too much for a boxy remold of Rippersnapper. 

[mikeszekely]

58 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

I'm one of the biggest Seacon fans around, but I passed on all of these, mainly due to price. Plus never being that enamored with Combiner Wars in the first place.  I love combiners above all else, and it's pretty much all I buy---but I just think Hasbro missed the mark, with almost all of them.  Also, I got most of my TFC limb-bots for $63 shipped. A single TFC Poseidon FOOT has more plastic and mass than Hasbro's Snaptrap.  I can't really justify paying $40 for a repainted deluxe when I can get new-mold leaders for 50% more.  (now, I adore the colors on Hasbro's, as they are spot-on to the originals, whereas TFC did mostly TV colors-----if TFC did toy-colors I'd sell my original in a second)      

Overbite ("Cyberjaw" for TFC) is by far the most mis-colored of TFC's, there's very little purple and it's the totally wrong shade (neither toon nor TV), and I'd love to have a new properly-colored one----but $40 is just way too much for a boxy remold of Rippersnapper. 

Can't argue with any of that logic.  But I wanted Seacons I could use with Siege/Combiner Wars.  While I own TFC's, I think they're too big for that.

[Scyla]

The new Figure King issue has an image of the underside of MPM Starscream: https://news.tfw2005.com/2020/05/28/figure-king-no-268-scans-masterpiece-mpm-10-starscream-mp-51-arcee-mp-39-spinout-netflixs-war-for-cybertron-earthrise-studio-series-cyberverse-god-neptune-411871

I need to check if the StudioSeries one didn‘t do it better.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Scyla

[mikeszekely]

So far we've had Turtler/Snaptrap as a remold of Hun-Grr, Gulf/Skalor as a remold of Blot, and Overbite as a remold of Rippersnapper.  Care to guess which Terrorcon Kraken (or Seawing, as he's known outside of Japan) is?

Did you guess Cutthroat?  Because it's Cutthroat, although it might not be immediately obvious from the waist up since he's got a new head, new wings, new forearms, and his chest is covered by a new beast head.  Take away the new wings, forearms, and beast head, though, and what you have left is the same from the neck down, including the beast legs on the outsides of their legs.

But how accurate does that make him?  Well, his lower legs are black, and the yellow knee pads are kind of evocative of the beast eyes, but the beast legs are kibble the G1 version didn't have there.  As for his thighs, I guess it's sort of how you interpret the G1 toy, since it wasn't really animated.  One interpretation could be that his thighs should  be all black, and he should have a large blue-green jaw for a loincloth.  Another interpretation might be that the jaw becomes the thighs, and making them blue-green while omitting the loincloth is the way to go.  Although it's colored very differently (almost entirely blue and gray) that seems to be the direction the Marvel Comics were going, so I'll give this one credit.  His arms start off correct, with blue-green shoulders and biceps, but where the G1 version was blue-green down to black fists this one goes for black on the forearms and blue-green fists.  The wings are upside down compared to the G1 version, and black (from this side) instead of gray.  Behind the beast head is torso is mostly gray with some black in the middle which would be G1-accurate except it's covered by a beast head that really isn't.  His robot head is ok, although the corners are a bit pointier than I'd expect.  Almost like cat ears.

Kraken comes with the most accessories among the Seacons (even the ones I've yet to review).  You get another hand, a rifle, two pistols, and... an axe?  Maybe?  Much like Gulf and Overbite's "swords" Kraken's axe suffers from being designed as a part of a larger sword before being an actual weapon on its own.  The pistols have, in addition to their hand grips, a small peg on the butt and a peg on one side.  The other side of the gun has a peg hole.  Meanwhile, the rifle has the handle, a peg on top, a peg on either side, and a peg on the butt plus a peg hole on top near the barrel and two peg holes on the underside.  While some of these pegs and holes are necessary to arrange the accessories as part of the gun mode the combination of pegs and holes on these weapons is starting to seem like the guns might combine into a larger gun for King Poseidon.

Anyway, Kraken's head is on what seems to be a ball peg, but with only a slight downward tilt and a swivel.  Nothing really up or sideways.  However, there is a hinged flap tha tyou can use to fake more of a downward gaze.  His shoulders are ball joints for rotation and 90 degrees of lateral movement.  Note that on my copy both joints seem adequate, except at certain angles where his left arm is rotated forward about 90 degrees and out about 45, then it becomes super loose.  The right arm doesn't have that issue.  Moving along, both arms have bicep swivels and hinged elbows that bend about 90 degrees.  His wrists don't swivel, but they bend inward for transformation.  His waist swivels, and his hips are ball joints that go 90 degrees forward, backward, or laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a tiny bit over 90 degrees.  No foot articulation.  His wings have rivets that they can swivel up on where they connect to his back, and hinges that allow them to bend foward and backward.

He holds all his weapons just fine.  For storage you have a pair of peg holes on either wing, one that's just on the side facing forward and one that goes through his wing, plus a peg hole on the beast head on his chest.  Technically there's some on the sides of the backs of his legs the foot/hand peg hole under one of his feet, too.

So, I don't really have strong feelings on whether to use Gulf or Skalor for the fish or Turtler or Ironshell for the turtle, but what was Takara thinking when they called this guy Kraken?  He's not a kraken.  Tentakill is closer to being a kraken.  Seawing makes a lot more sense, eh?

But I digress.  The purpose of the new forearms becomes apparent as, instead of tucking into the sides like on Cutthroat and Swoop, they actually reach up and become the sides of the beast head.  Aside from the blue-green biceps and shoulders it works surprisingly well.  His back is mostly blue-green, and his wings are properly gray and properly oriented for beast mode.

He does have his issues, though.  His tail, which does curve downward like the G1 toy, is a bit of a thing.  Like, there is a stumpy little tail, but there's also his robot legs forming a big brick on the ray's butt.  Going by the color, is that supposed to be part of his tail, too?  Regardless, it's not the smoothest transition.  Also, his beast legs are actually the same as Cutthroat's, but due to the differences in their transformations they're oriented backward, so Cutthroat's big front toes act as a heel spur, and Cutthroat's little heels become tiny toes for Kraken.  The way they bend that way does give you the freedom to make Kraken stand kind of tall or so his belly is just off the ground, so they work, but they kind of look weird.

Kraken doesn't actually do much in this mode.  As I said, the articulation in the beast legs gives you some posing options, as does the articulation in his wings.  But he doesn't have any beast arms or working jaws or anything.  

Kraken makes for a fairly effective leg.  I can't recall off the top of my head if it's like Cutthroat/Swoop's, since I kind of tossed the PotP Dinobots in a bin and I have Cutthroat as an arm.  Interestingly, the instructions tell you that you should stick the pistols on the sides of the rifle and attach the combined guns to the peg hole on the beast head for this mode.  While there are certainly plenty of places you could plug stuff in on them, official weapon storage wasn't included in Overbite and Gulf's leg modes.

Kraken is usually depicted as an arm, though, and he's equally fine at being an arm.  As with the others the instructions indicate that the back of the robot legs is the front of the forearm, allowing you to use both the hips and knees to give King Poseidon a double-jointed elbow.

Gun mode is similar to leg mode, which is usually the case, except for gun mode you want to rotate the waist 190 degrees.  The beast head doesn't fold down as far as leg mode, either, staying in the same spot as robot and arm mode.  Finally, instead of pegging the combined guns into the beast head you plug them into the hand/foot peg.  At this point, I think it goes without saying that the Generations Selects Seacons have very different engineering than the G1 toys, and the result is very different gun modes.

Despite his flaws, Kraken is probably the best use of the Swoop/Cutthroat design yet.  He makes for a solid robot, mostly solid beast, a solid arm, and a solid leg.  I've always liked Seawing the best of the Seacon limbs, so I might be a bit biased, but I think he's overtakes Overbite as the best Deluxe-class figure in this set.  Of course, the same caveats about the premium Takara pricing and whether you're getting your money's worth compared to a $20 Earthrise figure still apply, and given how quickly the Seacons seem to have sold out whether I recommend him or not might be moot.  Suffice to say I'm happy with him.

 

[mikeszekely]

So if Turtler was a retool of Hun-Grrr, Gulf a retool of Blot, Overbite a retool of Rippersnapper, and Kraken a retool of Cutthroat, then could Lobclaw (or Nautilator in the West) be a retool of Sinnertwin?

Nope.

Lobclaw is, in fact, a second retool of Blot.  You can see how they have all have the same legs, torsos, and biceps, although the back of Lobclaw's lower legs have been retooled and included new beast mode legs, plus he's got a new head, forearms, and backpack.

Speaking of leg kibble, the fact that it's on his calves instead of his back, and he's got big Shredder claws on his forearms, no beast claws on his back, and his beast head sticks up kind of like a hood are some of the more notable changes over the G1 toy, boxart, and Marvel Comics art (again, no animation model to work with).  His chest isn't nearly as broad, and rather than being solidly gray the combiner peg and the flap over the Power of the Prime's-style 5mm "Prime armor" peg hole are black.  The blue-green is where it should be on his lower legs and arms, though, and he's got some red-painted accents on his knees and waist that recall some of the G1 toy's stickers.  The head sculpt looks good, too, so on the whole I'm not too fussed about the changes that were necessary to get Lobclaw/Nautilator out of an existing mold.

Lobclaw comes with kind of the usual accessories.  He's got a black rifle, and like Kraken's it has some extra bits that look like they could be useful for combining them with other weapons, in this case a peg on the butt, a peg on each side, a peg hole on the top, and some peg holes underneath around the handle.  He's got an axe, and unlike Kraken's it actually looks like an axe.  And since Blot originally folded up into something like a box with legs the beast mode tail a partsforming bit.  Not pictured, just because I forgot it, is a fourth hand for King Poseidon.  You can just imagine it, though, because it's identical to the first three.

Lobclaw's articulation is identical to Gulf and Blot's.  I'm not going to cover it again in detail, I'll just link you back to my review of Gulf with a note that Lobclaw's fists bend inward, not down, due to transformation. 

Lobclaw can hold his rifle and axe with no problems.  There's also a 5mm peg hold under his backpack, on the back of his backpack, and on the "hood" behind his head.

The tail part has a piece that flips around, making it into a gun, and doing so more effectively than Gulf's, I might add.  I actually kind of prefer it to his holey, peggy rifle.  That said, if you prefer to just give him is rifle and need a place to stow the tail it can peg into the hole under his backpack with no issue.

While Blot and Gulf both kind of curled their legs up and around onto their back Lobclaw's transformation is more akin to their limb modes, with the waist rotating 180 degrees and the legs collapsing in the Combiner Wars style.  His claws unfold like Blot's, reaching up instead of forward, and the beast head hinges up over his robot head.  The tail pegs into the hand/foot peg at the back.  All that works pretty well except his beast legs, which unfurl and swivel around on armatures.  The issue here is that I'm not sure they were planning this far ahead when they made Blot.  The armature's with his legs have little tabs, and those little tabs rest in notches that were molded into the Blot chest, but those notches weren't really slots.  So they rest, but they don't actually tab and there's no secure connection.

You may find color an issue in this mode, too.  While they did use two different shades of blue-green and add some black to his head the original didn't have to help break up the colors really none of the gray shows through in this mode.  I can sort of understand why they didn't give him gray claws, since they're made from his robot arms instead of partsforming or chilling on his backpack, but his back isn't gray either.  This seems sort of lazy to me.  While his beast back isn't his robot chest like the G1 toy's it is his robot back, and there's no reason why it couldn't have been gray.

Lobclaw doesn't have a ton of beast mode articulation.  His tail can't flap, his body is mostly a brick, and his beast legs are molded as one solid part on each side, hinged only where they connect to the body for transformation.  He makes good use of the articulation he has, though.  His beast head can tilt down, and his jaws can open to reveal some nice red paint and silver teeth inside.  His arms have a hinge just behind his robot shoulders that give them some in and out movement, the shoulders' ball joints give them some up/down movement (or in-out if you rotate them), and the ball joints at the biceps act as swivels and elbow bends.

For weapon storage in alt mode he's got a 5mm port on his head, on his back, under his jaw, and behind a flap on his chest.

Destined for arm mode, Lobclaw works here about as well as Blot does, which is to say he's fine.  For this mode the tail stores on the beast head and will hang off King Poseidon's shoulders.  Do note that unlike the others the official transformation in the instructions has his legs pointing forward, toes on the wrist, with the beast legs splayed out, which would give him just Lobclaw's hips for a single-jointed elbow.  It's my personal recommendation that you rotate the waist 180 degrees.  Not only will that give King Poseidon a double-jointed elbow, it'll allow you to curl the legs in on the sides of the arm which, in my opinion, gives him a cleaner look.

Of course, Lobclaw does have a leg mode and gun mode, too.  The leg mode is perfectly fine, with the tail plugging in to the armature under the beast head and filling out the shin.  And the gun mode is just the leg mode with the tail flipped to gun mode and plugged into the hand/foot peg instead of under the head.  The black rifle is supposed to peg in under the tail gun. 

Interestingly enough, I think if you remove the tail and just use the black gun, don't tuck in the claws, leave the beast legs in their beast mode position (except maybe curled in a bit), and untab his beast head and allow it to sit as far forward as it can with his robot head in the way and you'll have an alternate gun mode that's actually a lot closer to the G1 toy than any of the other gun modes we've got from this set.

I think Lobclaw is one of the better figures in this set.  Maybe not as good as Kraken, but I like more than Gulf and Overbite.  But, y'know, the same caveats apply- Combiner Wars/PotP Deluxes not being as good as Siege/Earthrise, importing Takara figures (even through Hasbro Pulse) is still not a good value, and good luck finding one even if you do want it.

[David Hingtgen]

Yeah, his gun mode is by the most G1 of this set's gun-modes. 

[mikeszekely]

Last Seacon up would be Tentakil.

Tentakil is another retool of Blot... ok, just kidding.  Unlike the rest of his teammates Tentakil isn't a retool of any of the Terrorcons, he's a retool of the Power of the Primes Novastar/Moonracer mold.  The resulting figure has thin biceps and a tapering waist that gives him a rather feminine appearance, and this is almost certainly because Takara was planning for the God Neptune repaint even as they were designing the Seacons (for those that are unaware, the Seacons were repainted and sold as part of the Beast Wars II line in Japan, and in the accompanying anime Tentakil's repaint, Scylla, is a girl).

Frankly, I think Tentakil came out the least-accurate of the set.  For starters, the outside of his lower legs, his feet, his crotch, and the tentacles on his back split the difference between the cartoon (white) and the G1 toy (lavender) and wind up kind of a light pink.  But, suppose for a minute that we just accept the light pink.  Then his whole lower legs should be that pink.  That magenta color doesn't belong there.  It does belong on his torso, though.  In fact, it should be magenta where that blue "belt" is, and his pink crotch should be magenta.  The blue is fine for his biceps, thighs, and hands (although the thighs were technically more of a blue-green that was definitely different than the blue on the rest of the figure).  So fine, in fact, that they should only be blue.  None of that magenta should show on his forearms.  There's a tiny bit of blue in the middle of his chest, that seems to be the only concession to the large vertical blue combiner peg that ran down the G1 toy's chest.  The abs and lats on the newer figure have molded angular segments that weren't on the G1 toy or on Scylla's animation model, so they're kind of baffling.  There are more silver-painted segments in the middle of his shins that could maybe be the molded vent-like details on the G1 figure's shins, and just a splash of blue paint that is maybe meant to represent the stickers from the G1 toy, but they're not very similar.  There's a ton of kibble visible behind his head.  At least that head is pretty good, although I could do without the magenta part coming in under his eyes.  You can't really see it from this angle, but Tentakil has the most obnoxious backpack of the set, too, with a large chunk already containing the combiner peg and tentacles, but also with his beast legs dangling off of them, part of the beast head sticking up and forming that hood, and the rest of it folded around and sticking even farther off his back.

Tentakil comes with a fifth hand for King Poseidon, and an "axe" that's identical to Kraken/Seawing's.  They shouldn't be much of a surprise.  You also get a pair of pistols that seem a bit G1-inspired.

Since I don't own and haven't covered the Novastar/Moonracer mold I guess Tentakil's articulation might be new.  His head is on a ball joint with a slight up/down and sideways tilt.  The other end of the peg is hinged, though, and that hinge is set into a hinged collar, and with the extra hinges you can get quite a bit more up/down tilt.  Shoulders are on ball joints for rotation and under 90 degrees of lateral movement.  Elbows are also ball joints for 90 degrees of bend and pulling double-duty as bicep swivels.  No wrist swivel, but they bend inward for no discernible reason.  His waist can swivel.  His hips are on ball joints, and they get significantly under 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally.  His thighs can swivel.  He's got double-jointed knees, with about 90 degrees of bend at either joint and roughly 180 degrees of bend total.  His feet can tilt up and down, and he's got a very slight ankle pivot.

He has no trouble holding his accessories.  For extra storage there are five 5mm ports on his back, two on the front of his hood, one on the outside of each shin, and one each on his two largest tentacles.

Tentakil's transformation was a bit different than I expected, but ultimately pretty simple.  I like that Takara painted the lips and teeth red and silver, which matches the Masterforce anime, instead of just leaving them blue like the original toy, but I wish that they could have painted a little more black between his eyes.  Otherwise, I think he looks fine from the beast face up.  Going down, though, his body is too long.  The anime (and to a lesser extent) had a blue body, which this version seems to, but with just a little magenta pelvis, which is a bit less that what we have here.  The G1 toy also had two magenta tentacles that came off the back of the beast pelvis like tails.  This version doesn't.  Instead, pink covers double-hinge over his hands and I guess we're supposed to pretend that they're those tentacles.  Then thin beast legs reach around from from beast hips that are set back way too far and wind up looking much to short.  Frankly, I think they should have just designed the robot arms to turn into the beast legs, and put the magenta tentacle-tails  on the hinges that the actual beast legs are on.  Not only would it have likely given him better beast proportions and set the beast hips in the right spot it could have made the tentacles a more-correct all-magenta and the robot arms a more-correct all-blue.

Tentakil doesn't have a ton of articulation in this mode.  The mouth doesn't move.  The beast legs can only rotate at the hip; there's no lateral movement, no thigh swivel, no knee, and no foot articulation.  His tentacles, which sit a bit far behind his face, are molded as a solid piece on each side hinged only at the base.  Only his robot arms retain any real articulation, especially if you ignore when the instructions tell you to tab his biceps to his sides.

He can attach his guns to the sides of his head, like the G1 toy did.  He also has the 5mm port on top of his head the two in his large tentacles, and technically his fists are still usable under those tentacle covers.

Tentakil's arm mode is a bit awkward compared to the others.  The waist that becomes his bicep swivel is set kind of far forward, and his thinner legs make for a thinner forearm.  Meanwhile, the beast face just kind of dangles down from the bicep.  The instructions tell you to put Tentakil's guns on the flap with the beast mouth, but I think that just draws attention to it hanging out behind the forearm.

It's fine if Tentakil isn't the best arm, because he's supposed to be a leg.  But he's kind of the worst at being a leg, too.  For one, because his legs don't do the usual Combiner Wars-style collapsing that traps the waist joint while part of the beast face shifts back, preventing the mouth section from tabbing in, Tentakil can still partially swivel at the waist in this mode.  But much worse than that is the fact that that same Combiner Wars leg collapse usually locks the hips and knees while in leg mode.  Tentakil's calves do tab into the backs of his thighs, which locks the knees, but the hips can still move.  Plus the port for King Posiedon's foot is on the beast face, which is hinged at the base and doesn't actually tab into anything in this mode.  Yes, the actual port is hinged, and there's notches on the bottom.  The notches fit over the base of Tentakil's knee pads, but they don't lock into place.  So, if Tentakil's hips or the hinge with his beast face shifts King Poseidon's whole leg can bend mid-shin at best or come apart at worst.

Tentakil's gun mode is the leg mode, turned on it's back with his guns stuck together and plugged in instead of the foot.  It has the same stability issues that the leg mode does.

Again, I don't have Novastar, Moonracer, Lancer, or Signal Flare.  I don't know if they have the same issues that Tentakil does or not.  All I can say is that he's an ok (if inaccurate) robot with a horrid backpack that turns into a so-so squid monster that could have been better just by having his arms turn into his beast legs instead of tentacles.  And he's the worst at being an arm, the worst at being a leg, and the worst at being a gun for King Poseidon.  I've been coy with recommending the others, acknowledging their higher price tag and their deficiencies when compared with the current crop of Siege and Earthrise figures while nevertheless stating my enjoyment of them anyway.  But Tentakil is easily the worst of the set.  Unless you really can't live without all six Seacons or you're a stickler for the "official" combination (and/or the color symmetry it brings) then pass on Tentakil.  Build King Poseidon with Overbite as one of the limbs and forget about a sixth Seacon Targetmaster.

[mikeszekely]

I usually don't do more than one of these posts a day, even if I have more stuff to look at, but I want to get this off my desk.  With all six Seacons in hand we can combine them to form King Poseidon (or Piranacon if the old Marvel comics were more your thing than Masterforce).

So here he is, with the guy who's around 60% the same thing.  As a Scramble City-style combiner you can, of course, use any of the Deluxes as any limb (or even borrow pretty much any other Power of the Primes or Combiner Wars Deluxe), but I tend to go for the "official" combination (that is, the configuration most-commonly used in media depicting the character).  On the boxart for the G1 King Poseidon gift set and in the Masterforce anime he was shown with Kraken as his left arm, Lobclaw as his right arm, Gulf as his right leg, and Tentakil as his left leg.  You eagle-eyed readers might notice, then, that I have his arms reversed.  It's easy to do, because one of my favorite features about King Poseidon is that he's color coordinated.  Gulf and Tentakil, both as legs, are mostly blue, magenta, and pink.  Kraken and Lobclaw are green, gray, and black arms  Turtler has the green from the arms and the magenta from the legs.  Overbite matches Turtler's green and magenta but trades Turtler's pink for purple.

Despite being a "new" combiner, Generations Select's King Poseidon is definitely part of the older Combiner Wars/Power of the Primes "G1, but updated" design (as opposed to Earthrise's "G1, but with modern engineering").  Even at a glance it's unmistakably King Poseidon, but the configuration of the limbs (Gulf and Tentakil's beast heads on the front of the legs, Kraken and Lobclaw's heads being the shoulders instead of the forearms, no tail sticking off his Kraken-arm shoulder or claws on his Lobclaw-arm forearm, no spikes on the backs of his hands, etc) is quite a bit different.

As far as accessories go, as you might have guessed the melee weapons that came with each of the six Seacons combine to form a sword for King Poseidon.  You start by sticking Overbite's and Gulf's swords onto the top of Turtler's.  Then take the axe-things that came with Tentakil and Kraken and plug them onto the pegs that Overbite's and Gulf's added to the sides.  Now, before you add Lobclaw's axe you need to plug what you've already built into the 5mm port built into the thumb on one of the hands.  The handle is long enough to go all the way through and stick out the other side.  Technically you could stop there (which is good, because I do believe that Beast Wars II God Neptune only has five members, and there was no repaint of Lobclaw/Nautilator).  But that protruding bit of handle fits into a peg hole on top of Lobclaw's axe, giving it a secondary blade on the handle.

As for the guns, well, despite all the extra pegs and peg holes there is no official combination for them.  Assuming Overbite goes to gun mode when the others combine, and assuming his rifle is necessary for that gun mode, this is the best I could come up with for the rest.  With Lobclaw's and Gulf's tales tabbed pegged onto their limb modes that should cover all their individual accessories except the extra hands.  Well, the feet have peg holes on the backs, and the instructions tell you to use two of the hands as heels.  That fifth hand, though?  Toss it in a drawer, I guess.

Articulation... Well, his head is on a swivel, but there's no tilt.  His arms can rotate on the ratcheted combiner pegs, and move laterally (also ratcheted) a little over 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and if you have the arms turned right Kraken and Lobclaw's hips and knees give King Poseidon double-jointed elbows with enough articulation to bump this forearms into his shoulders.  The wrists are, of course, just pegged on, and can rotate on their pegs.  The peg is also hinged with the kind of hinge that has detents but isn't a true ratchet, and that allows him to bend his fists in and out.  The thumb is hinged, with 90 degrees of motion, and the fingers are individually-articulated, molded into curl with a hinge at the base.  Unlike the Combiner Wars hands, which had one thumb in the middle of the palm, or the the Power of the Primes hands, which had a ball-jointed thumb on both sides of the hand, the thumb is tabbed into place on one side of the hand.  Untabbing it will free a second hinge to flip the entire thumb over the palm to the other side, so any of the five hands can be either a left or right hand without looking anatomically-weird or sporting extra digits.  King Poseidon doesn't have a waist swivel.  His hips are ratcheted and can go forward or backward over 90 degrees, and 90 degrees laterally.  His knees use the ratcheted combiner pegs to bend 90 degrees.  His feet do not tilt up or down, but they have the same detented-but-not-really-ratcheted hinges on the pegs that the wrists do, so he does sport some ankle pivots.

As mentioned before, the thumbs have 5mm peg holes molded into their curls.  He can use them to hold his sword, a combined gun, an uncombined-gun, or really almost any weapon with a 5mm peg for a handle.

I touched upon this briefly when I reviewed Gulf, but I'll go over it again.  King Poseidon is designed to hold weapons with 5mm pegs for handles.  Overbite and the other Seacons do not come with anything to give their gun modes a 5mm peg handle.  Instead, what you're supposed to do is remove the back from one of King Poseidon's hands, very much like you could with the old Power of the Primes-style hands.  Except this time, instead of jamming a Prime Master or Enigma (or even a Titan Master) into the cavity you jam the combiner peg from the gun-mode Seacon of your choice into it.  

At this point you might be thinking to yourself that with double-jointed elbows, ratcheted hips and knees, and detented ankle pivots that King Poseidon actually has pretty decent articulation, but I've now posted three pictures of this guy in super static poses.  And this is the part where I tell you that you're probably not going to actually get this guy into any dynamic poses, and there's a number of reasons for it.  For starters, the friction hinge knees and ball joint hips on whatever your decide to use for arms are not strong enough to support a lot of weight... like, say, the weight of a Deluxe-class figure turned into a gun.  His combined-mode hips go from stock straight to a very wide A-stance on just one click, the feet don't have any kind of non-slip tread, and the weight of the figure pushing down on the joints will continue to force his hips into the splits.

You can try to lighten the load and have him stand stock straight.  Leave the gun-mode guy off.  Give him his sword, and maybe just Turtler's gun.  You can store Gulf and Tentakil's guns in their usual alt mode spots (just be careful not to push Gulf's in all the way, as one of them will be sharing a peg hole with his tail).  Kraken's can plug into his tail on King Poseidon's forearm.  Lobclaw already has his tail-gun attached to his head on King Poseidon's shoulder.  And unless you're planning on using them for gun mode you're probably safe putting the other rifles that came with Kraken and Lobclaw in that drawer with the fifth hand; Kraken's already got dual pistols and Lobclaw's tail-gun is perfectly adequate.  But after all that, you're still probably going to have issues.  See, it's not just his hip ratchets that could stand to be tighter.  The ratchets in the combiner pegs that form his knees could be a little tighter, and there's too much play in all those ratchets between clicks.   The actual connection between those pegs and the ports on Turtler is too loose.  His thigh swivels are loose.  With all this going on he wants to lean.  And if you're like me and insist on using Tentakil for a leg the issues I detailed with his leg mode in his review are going to make matters worse.

Even after you lighten the load, even after you accept a static pose, and honestly even if you swap Tentakil out for Overbite you still might have some stability issues.  Like I said, he wants to lean.  And remember that articulated foot?  That's where the real problem is.  See, that joint that gives him ankle pivots?  The peg and hinge are set into a cavity that is quite a bit bigger than the hinge, leaving a lot of empty space around the peg.  And, even though it's not supposed to tilt forward or backward the assembly isn't tight enough.  Play in the connection between parts means that the peg will lean forward, on a bot that's already starting to lean forward, on joints that simply aren't tight enough, and you get the picture.  The best solution I could come up with for keeping him upright while holding his sword and Turtler's rifle was to take the covers off the backs of the hands that are plugged into his heels, then wedge them into the gaps in front of the pegs on the feet before plugging the legs into them.  Those covers will then prop up the front edge of the legs and help them stay straight, so the only lean is from the play in the hips and knees.  It's not pretty, it's not super solid, but it'll do until someone like DNA Design, Perfect Effect, or Transform Dreamwave comes up with some kind of upgrade kit for this combiner (while they're at it maybe they can throw in some new arms and tentacle tails for Tentakil to fix him like I described).

So... yeah.  After paying Takara import prices to get six characters shoehorned onto five existing molds that already felt dated compared to more recent Siege and Earthrise figures it's safe to say that King Poseidon is pretty disappointing.  If an upgrade kit comes out for it I might look into it, and hopefully salvage things a bit.  Otherwise, though, it's one good figure, four ok ones, and one bad one, all overpriced, that combine into a robot that can't hold his Targetmaster gun (so you really only need five) and can barely stand even when he's not.  I do not recommend this set.

[lechuck]

I now belong to an elite group of people that is a proud owner a Lamborghini.

Sunstreaker is a great MP - aesthetics, proportions, articulation and engaging transformation, it is all there.

A stark contrast for me, because prior to this I picked up some of the older MP+ carbots to round out the collection. The earlier era of MPs are far too simplistic and compromised in many departments and so the experience quickly becomes boring and leaves one wanting. I hope we eventually get a v2 of Sideswipe, the current one looks to outdated to be placed next to Sunstreaker.

[David Hingtgen]

Mike--you commented on Tentankil's headsculpt, but said nothing about his teeny-tiny eyes?  I still wonder if it's just me, or what, since nobody at TFW has ever mentioned it either (besides myself).   Am I missing something, or is Tentakil having eyes like 1/4 the size of any other character just not an issue? 

[mikeszekely]

18 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

Mike--you commented on Tentankil's headsculpt, but said nothing about his teeny-tiny eyes?  I still wonder if it's just me, or what, since nobody at TFW has ever mentioned it either (besides myself).   Am I missing something, or is Tentakil having eyes like 1/4 the size of any other character just not an issue? 

I think its not as bad in person as it looks in pictures, like his forehead is adding some extra shading or something.  But yes, they're smallish.

[sqidd]

2 hours ago, lechuck said:

I now belong to an elite group of people that is a proud owner a Lamborghini.

 

Well, that one is far more likely to get you where you're going than a real Countach! 

A buddy of mine got one a few years ago because of nostalgia (he has all sorts of exotics). After 6mo he gave up on it. It never came back to his warehouse under its own power.

[danth]

21 hours ago, lechuck said:

I now belong to an elite group of people that is a proud owner a Lamborghini.

That grid needs more neon, and the wall needs more sunset & palm trees.