[The perfect camouflage is you were hiding out in an 80s party]Does anyone actually know how many Transformers were actually conceived in the entire Generation 1 spiral? It's more of a rhetorical question actually, but if you do happen to know, you're a larger fan than I am and deserve adoration.
But, in any case, an acceptable answer is: alot.
There were so many characters - Autobot and Decepticon - that its easy for one to lose track and totally forget about the existence of some. One bunch of characters I'm going to address in this entry have been out of original production for almost 20 years ! I can just barely remember playing with these awesome figures: the Seacons (pronounced See-cons).
The Seacons are a team of Decepticons named for their sea-animal alternate modes. The team is able to merge their bodies and minds to form the gigantic Piranacon. The team members are:
Snaptrap is the team leader. He rules the other Seacons through fear of force rather than any sort of inspirational leadership qualities. He is, however, very good at what he does - brutally and efficiently taking apart Autobots.
Nautilator possesses a rather unfortunate weakness - for supposedly an underwater specialist, he's no good at underwater operations whatsoever. Due to this, when formed as Piranacon the other Seacons let him form Piranacon's weapon rather than anything else in combined mode.
Overbite is interested in only one thing - hunting prey, be it Autobot or luckless human ships that happen to get in his way. Oddly for having a shark alternate mode, he possesses extra limbs to help function on land.
Seawing is the team's stealth specialist, gliding silently through the water and attacking without warning. He also has designs on being the leader of the group; likened to the Starscream of the group.
Skalor is disgusting even by Seacon standards: always leaking oil, lubricants and various other fluids is so disgusting that even the other Seacons try to avoid him. Skalor doesn't seem that bothered about getting it fixed - even when it causes him to seize up in battle.
[The most tentacle-est Decepticon ever]
Tentakil is the cruelest of all the Seacons. He'll lure opponents to their doom by complimenting them on their battle prowess, letting them think he is an honorable foe - then he'll strike and take them apart. He enjoys tricking them more than actually destroying them.
Although the Seacons' personalities are wildly disparate, their combined mode of Piranacon is a successful combination of their minds. But as all the Seacons love hunting their prey, Piranacon (known in Japan as King Poseidon) is also dedicated to this without the personality conflicts that paralyse other combiners.
[The awesome complete Piranacon]
As the incarnation of the six feuding Seacon personalities, Piranacon finds and destroys one hapless victim after another in great succession. He will continue this course of behavior until he runs out of fuel (which he inevitably will do since he never pauses to re-energize) or until he is stopped (which considering his awesome power, rarely happens).
Piranacon is so single-minded about his task that he will brush aside any Decepticon who tries to talk to him about anything else.
[The always cool Energon card]
Piranacon's strength is immense. He can hold up. to 4,000,000 tons, making him ideal for lifting freighters and various warships from the sea. He is fully operational up to a depth of 30,000 feet below sea level. He only walks at a maximum speed of 15 mph on land and 10 mph undersea, but since he is virtually impervious to weapons-fire, his need for speed in order to evade enemy attack is negligible. He wields a jawbreaker cannon (which is actually the weapons-base' mode of Overbite), which shoots powerful metal-eating, salt-based corrosives.
That being said, the group is known 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 - which lends logic to the fact that the Seacons possess a sixth member).
When later packaged together as a giftset, however, Nautilator was not included, making him the rarest and most sought after of the group among collectors.
The composition of Piranacon's limbs differs from show to show. Seawing and Tentakil are the constants, always forming the left arm and leg, respectively. Piranacon's box art 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.
A point of note is that the Seacons were released too late in the toyline to make an appearance in the US Transformers animated series: their Japanese counterparts, however made it to the small screen in 1988’s Japanese-exclusive series, Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, where they demonstrated a noticeable behavioral difference from their comic depictions.
Hasbro has exclusively release a Generation 1 Commemorative Seacons line in their original colors for the first since their initial release in 1988 - and they're amazing, just looking at them.
This limited edition set is only available in North America.
[True retro packaging]
The commemorative exclusive comes packaged in an awesome collector gift-box, includes collector cards, includes all 6 figures needed to form Piranacon, and each figure comes with individual weapons. This is the first time Piranacon has ever been reissued with the G1 color scheme.
Shipments from the Hasbro factory will arrive in two (2) batches, in Late July and in Late August.
But, in any case, an acceptable answer is: alot.
There were so many characters - Autobot and Decepticon - that its easy for one to lose track and totally forget about the existence of some. One bunch of characters I'm going to address in this entry have been out of original production for almost 20 years ! I can just barely remember playing with these awesome figures: the Seacons (pronounced See-cons).
The Seacons are a team of Decepticons named for their sea-animal alternate modes. The team is able to merge their bodies and minds to form the gigantic Piranacon. The team members are:
Snaptrap is the team leader. He rules the other Seacons through fear of force rather than any sort of inspirational leadership qualities. He is, however, very good at what he does - brutally and efficiently taking apart Autobots.
Nautilator possesses a rather unfortunate weakness - for supposedly an underwater specialist, he's no good at underwater operations whatsoever. Due to this, when formed as Piranacon the other Seacons let him form Piranacon's weapon rather than anything else in combined mode.
Overbite is interested in only one thing - hunting prey, be it Autobot or luckless human ships that happen to get in his way. Oddly for having a shark alternate mode, he possesses extra limbs to help function on land.
Seawing is the team's stealth specialist, gliding silently through the water and attacking without warning. He also has designs on being the leader of the group; likened to the Starscream of the group.
Skalor is disgusting even by Seacon standards: always leaking oil, lubricants and various other fluids is so disgusting that even the other Seacons try to avoid him. Skalor doesn't seem that bothered about getting it fixed - even when it causes him to seize up in battle.
[The most tentacle-est Decepticon ever]Tentakil is the cruelest of all the Seacons. He'll lure opponents to their doom by complimenting them on their battle prowess, letting them think he is an honorable foe - then he'll strike and take them apart. He enjoys tricking them more than actually destroying them.
Although the Seacons' personalities are wildly disparate, their combined mode of Piranacon is a successful combination of their minds. But as all the Seacons love hunting their prey, Piranacon (known in Japan as King Poseidon) is also dedicated to this without the personality conflicts that paralyse other combiners.
[The awesome complete Piranacon]As the incarnation of the six feuding Seacon personalities, Piranacon finds and destroys one hapless victim after another in great succession. He will continue this course of behavior until he runs out of fuel (which he inevitably will do since he never pauses to re-energize) or until he is stopped (which considering his awesome power, rarely happens).
Piranacon is so single-minded about his task that he will brush aside any Decepticon who tries to talk to him about anything else.
[The always cool Energon card]Piranacon's strength is immense. He can hold up. to 4,000,000 tons, making him ideal for lifting freighters and various warships from the sea. He is fully operational up to a depth of 30,000 feet below sea level. He only walks at a maximum speed of 15 mph on land and 10 mph undersea, but since he is virtually impervious to weapons-fire, his need for speed in order to evade enemy attack is negligible. He wields a jawbreaker cannon (which is actually the weapons-base' mode of Overbite), which shoots powerful metal-eating, salt-based corrosives.
That being said, the group is known 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 - which lends logic to the fact that the Seacons possess a sixth member).
When later packaged together as a giftset, however, Nautilator was not included, making him the rarest and most sought after of the group among collectors.
The composition of Piranacon's limbs differs from show to show. Seawing and Tentakil are the constants, always forming the left arm and leg, respectively. Piranacon's box art 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.
A point of note is that the Seacons were released too late in the toyline to make an appearance in the US Transformers animated series: their Japanese counterparts, however made it to the small screen in 1988’s Japanese-exclusive series, Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, where they demonstrated a noticeable behavioral difference from their comic depictions.
Hasbro has exclusively release a Generation 1 Commemorative Seacons line in their original colors for the first since their initial release in 1988 - and they're amazing, just looking at them.
This limited edition set is only available in North America.
[True retro packaging]The commemorative exclusive comes packaged in an awesome collector gift-box, includes collector cards, includes all 6 figures needed to form Piranacon, and each figure comes with individual weapons. This is the first time Piranacon has ever been reissued with the G1 color scheme.
Shipments from the Hasbro factory will arrive in two (2) batches, in Late July and in Late August.
