Nautilator

Nautilator is a Decepticon Seacon from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Doctor Zoidberg in Decepticon form.

Nautilator is a genuine card-carrying bungler in every conceivable way, shape and form. Anguished, rage-filled bellows of "Nautilatooooooooorrrr!!!" echo endlessly throughout the corridors of the Decepticon Headquarters, as both his peers and superiors struggle in vain to cope with his brand of oafish buffoonery. A total train-wreck of a soldier, Nautilator can hardly manage to swim, much less follow complicated instructions within an aquatic environment. It is often said that the only positive quality he brings to the table is his inexplicable ability to return from the ocean depths with objects of value... but only after he's sunk himself there and had to be rescued.

Of course, if one were to question Nautilator as to why he's such an incompetent doofus, he'd be quick to point a claw at anyone but himself. After all, it's certainly not his fault that the pencil-pushing eggheads at Decepticon Command chose to turn him into a lobster when he clearly had no deep sea combat training of any kind (or at the very least, they could have issued him some floaties).

When he isn't sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic, Nautilator can combine with his fellow Seacons to form Piranacon.

Fiction

Marvel Generation 1 comics

Events from the UK-only comic stories are in italics.

As performed by Joey Lawrence, apparently.

When Shockwave's Earthbound Decepticons established their new undersea base, Nautilator and the Seacons were summoned from Cybertron to work on the base's fortifications, as they were uniquely suited for underwater activity. They got more than they bargained for when the super-Decepticon Galvatron came a'calling. In the battle, Seawing and Jawbreaker managed to momentarily stun Galvatron, but in the end even the combined might of Piranacon couldn't beat him. Enemy Action!

After Shockwave was deposed, the new commander Ratbat kept the Seacons on retainer for another mission. The Seacons were commissioned to hunt down a sunken shipwreck in the water around the Decepticon undersea base, a wreck which supposedly contained two Autobot cassettes with valuable information encoded on them. They successfully obtained the treasure chest containing the cassettes and, despite a brief theft by the Autobot Blaster, managed to recapture the prize and return it to their leader. Unfortunately for them, this led to a sequence of events whereby the treacherous Starscream acquired the power of the Underbase for himself. The Autobots and Decepticons of Earth were forced to unite in order to stop him from seizing ultimate power. The Seacons attacked Starscream in unison in the waters around Manhattan, but were destroyed in a single energy discharge. Dark Star

Earthforce

These stories do not fit into the normal Marvel continuity. See Earthforce for details.

Sometime later, Megatron traveled back in time and possessed the body of Seacon leader Snaptrap during the Underbase Saga, in an attempt to save them in the past to bolster his troops in the present. He failed due to the intervention of Prowl, and the Seacons met their fate as before. Flashback!

Classics

When Bludgeon detected an apparent traitor in his organization, he assembled Snaptrap, Nautilator and the Seacons to face the betrayer. Unfortunately, their target was Hun-Grrr, leader of the Terrorcons, and Terrorcons stick together. Literally. As Abominus formed inside the Decepticon armory, Nautilator and the others took aim at the giant's weak points, but were unable to break up the combination robot. The Seacons then switched tactics, forming their own giant warrior, Piranacon. Overbite remained separate from his fellows and, after the initial bout of grappling and melee, lept into the fray in his stormsurge cannon mode, blasting Abominus in the face with a foot-wide blast of corrosive fluid.

The enraged behemoth continued fighting back, knocking Piranacon to the floor. Nautilator slipped free from the combination form and joined Overbite behind Abominus. The smaller warriors were beneath Abominus's notice until they concentrated their firepower on his lower leg, bringing him down. As Overbite and Nautilator reconnected with Piranacon, the latter shifted into weapons mode and further disabled Abominus with a blast from his torpedo cannon. One final swipe from Piranacon's coral blade, and Abominus was finished.

Believing the imminent battle with Megatron's Decepticon forces was compromised, Bludgeon summoned the Seacons to his command centre to prep for the attack. Bludgeon was so enthralled with analyzing the attack pattern of Megatron's incoming ships that he failed to notice the Seacons merge once more. The real traitors, they formed Piranacon and obliterated Bludgeon using their mass compression cannon before alerting Megatron's forces that the area was secure. At Fight's End

For some reason, Nautilator was depicted using his original weapons mode, a torpedo cannon, instead of his upgraded coral cannon.

G.I. Joe vs. The Transformers

And the judges say it's a 6.4

While making his way through the Gladiator Zone, Nautilator found himself under attack by the Predacons, who were none too happy about the Seacon intruding on their territory. Nautilator retreated to his comrades and combined with them, leading to a fight between Piranacon and Predaking. Piranacon was defeated, but before the Predacons could finish the Seacons off, they were interrupted by Serpent O.R. The Art of War #2

As Piranacon, the Seacons helped capture the Autobots and G.I. Joes that had followed Serpent O.R. to Cybertron, then fought Omega Supreme during an attack on an Autobot peace ceremony. The Art of War #3 Piranacon was defeated when Sixshot rammed into his face, and Nautilator and Breakdown were subsequently assigned to guard the humans. Unfortunately, while the two were curiously inspecting Snake-Eyes and Scarlett, the ninja prisoner hypnotized Breakdown into gunning down poor Nautilator. The Art of War #4

Hearts of Steel

Like his fellow Seacons, Nautilator was woke from his slumber on the bottom of the ocean by an Elder God's servants and brought to their underground city. Infestation 2: The Transformers #1

Toys

Generation 1

Tastes great with butter.

• Nautilator (Seacon, 1988)
  • Team ID number: SE3
  • Accessories: "Triple crusher cannon", "Tripod Rifle", connector, weapon stand base

Nautilator transforms into a robot lobster. He also has a third Targetmaster mode, a heat-seeking torpedo cannon that can be mounted on the weapon stand formed from the "Tripod Rifle" and other accessories, or held in the hand of the Seacons' combined robot. As a Scramble City-style combiner, he can form an arm or leg to any compatible robot combination; the instructions included with the individual Seacons depict Nautilator as the right leg of Piranacon, while most other art depicts him as the right arm. The instructions and boxart associated with the Piranacon giftset omit Nautilator entirely, since he himself was omitted from the set.

His beast-mode lobster-claws are not really meant to be separate accessories and are not listed as such in his instructions, but they are easily removable, and therefore often missing from loose samples.

This exact toy was released in Japan as the Lobclaw drone.

• More information on Nautilator at TFU.info

Timelines

For the seafood lover in you!

• Piranacon (Seacon giftset, 2008)

A redeco of the Generation 1 mold above, Timelines Nautilator was available exclusively as part of a Official Transformers Collectors' Club-exclusive giftset containing all six Seacons in new color schemes. He is once again depicted as the right arm of the combined super robot. He now transforms in his weapon mode into a Coral Cannon.

This toy was originally intended as an exclusive set of Energon-series Terrorcons, but was shelved due to a lack of retailer interest. The team were called the Piranhacons and their combined form was Piranhaking, but this other Nautilator's name would have remained Nautilator.

Transformers (2010)

• Decepticon Piranacon (Seacon giftset, 2010)
  • Accessories:

Notes

Look, Ma, no backpack!

• How big a screw-up is Nautilator? Well, he was left out of the US/UK Piranacon gift set and he's the only Seacon not to be redecoed for the Beast Wars II subgroup. He wasn't even drawn in the super-robot art.

• Poor Nautilator is so incompetent that his fellow Seacons prefer to relegate him into taking on the Targetmaster role when combining, since this means they don't have to mentally merge with him. They have discovered that when he does participate in the primary gestalt, Piranacon's effectiveness is noticeably impaired.

• Nautilator has the worst backpack kibble of the Seacons, but you wouldn't know it from reading the Marvel Comics. Artist José Delbo must have only had art of Nautilator's front, since he drew Nautilator from the back twice, and not only are his lobster head and claws not there, but it's a different set of details each time.

Foreign names

• French: Nautile (Canada)
• Italian: Medusa

External links

• Nautilator's Universe profile at NFTA.net