Turtler

Turtler is a Decepticon Seacon from the Super-God Masterforce portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Decidedly not a friend to all children.

Turtler (タートラー Tātorā) is the only Seacon who possesses sentience, but he hates his monstrous appearance, and often takes out his frustration over it upon the legion of Seacon drones that he commands. That's no great loss to the Decepticons, though, given the infamous expendability of the mindless creatures, which means that there's always a fresh supply of them to combine with Turtler to form King Poseidon. Turtler is still a powerful foe on his own, though, with the ability to generate a sonic shockwave underwater, and a shell so durable that it can withstand the force of a hydrogen bomb.

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Super-God Masterforce cartoon

Voice actor: Masato Hirano (Japanese)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

After numerous failures on the part of the individual Seacons and their other underlings, Giga and Mega decided that it was time for Turtler to enter the fray. Summoning up the other Seacons with a cackling, dolphin-like shriek, Turtler dramatically combined with the drones into King Poseidon, before doing absolutely nothing, since they were all just standing in Decepticon Base at the time. Eliminate the Godmaster Ginrai

Turtler was dispatched to aid the Decepticon Pretenders and Headmaster Juniors when they kidnapped a group of children and held them prisoner on an island off the coast of America. Wilder and Bullhorn were both rather surprised to see the little-seen Turtler patrolling the waters around the island, but not nearly as surprised as the Autobot Godmaster Ginrai was when he arrived to save the children and was confronted with a Seacon that spoke!

Turtler is epic in defeat.

At Turtler's instruction, the other Seacons combined with him into King Poseidon, but after a fierce battle, Ginrai performed a combination of his own, merging with his trailer to become "Super Ginrai" and defeating King Poseidon. Although the ever-fragile Seacons forming his limbs exploded, Turtler survived and escaped into the ocean. Heroism!! The Birth of Super Ginrai

Turtler later accompanied the Decepticon Pretenders in tracking down Ginrai, who was meeting with the new Autobot Godmaster Lightfoot, but was again defeated by Super Ginrai. Lightfoot: A Dramatic Encounter His next foray into the field of battle was even less successful, when he and his Seacons reinforced the Headmaster Juniors in a battle with the Autobots in the French town of Dagneux, only for the Seacon drones to be wiped out before he could even combine with them! Assemble! The Four Godmaster Gunmen Later still, Turtler led a squad of Seacons in backing up Hydra and Buster when they targeted Lightfoot, but when the other Autobots Godmasters arrived to aid their team-mate, Turtler opted to flee by burrowing underground rather than trying to fight back. Life? Death? The Desperate Lightfoot

When the Decepticons began construction of an advance base off the coast of Australia, the blasting Turtler as the Seacons performed led to the reactivation of a sub-sea volcano that caused an earthquake in Sydney. Lightfoot arrived on the scene to investigate, but his approach was observed by Turtler, who had the Seacons attack the Autobot and entomb him in a crevasse. By the time Ginrai came searching for his teammate, Gilmer had joined Turtler, and instructed him to become King Poseidon to engage the Autobot leader. Predictably, King Poseidon suffered yet another defeat at Ginrai's hands when he was thrown into the volcano. Escape!! The Underwater Volcano Erupts

Not long thereafter, the Decepticons were joined by the final Godmaster, Clouder, and Turtler was instructed by Hydra and Buster to put him through his paces as King Poseidon. Appearance!! The Final Godmaster Clouder was soon installed as a double agent within the Autobot ranks, and the Decepticon used the information he gathered to initiate an all-out assault on the heroes' base. Turtler led the Seacons in invading the base and destroying the magma energy converter that powered it, and then sealed off all the entrances, trapping the Autobots within to await their destruction. The Autobots were subsequently rescued by Ginrai, but that wasn't the worst of it for the villains: Turtler had left Clouder to die in the base. It didn't appear that Turtler did this on purpose—it just seems nobody bothered to explicitly tell him to get Clouder out—but that didn't stop Clouder turning on the Decepticons and joining up with the Autobots. Disaster! The Autobot Base Explodes

Awwww!

Turtler formed King Poseidon again to serve as warden when the Decepticons captured the Autobot Headmaster Junior Shūta Gō, only for the Decepticon Junior Cancer to see the error of his ways and turn his weapons on King Poseidon. Autobot drone Godbomber delivered the final blow, blasting King Poseidon to bits once more. God Ginrai: Showdown at the Decepticon Base Turtler was similarly luckless when Cancer helped the Autobots orchestrate a decisive strike on the Decepticon base, becoming King Poseidon in the opening stages of the fight, only to be immediately blown apart by heavy fire from Grand Maximus. The Ultimate Combination!! BlackZarak, the New Lifeform

When the Decepticons relocated to the Alps in preparation for their final strike against the Earth, Turtler and a contingent of Seacons hid themselves underground, lurking in wait for the inevitable arrival of the Autobots. The unfortunate Metalhawk and the Autobot Headmaster Juniors proved to be the ones who chanced upon Turtler and his drones, and they were soon faced with King Poseidon. The fight went badly for the Autobots, but Ginrai soon arrived to help, knocking the Seacon combiner apart with a "God Punch" attack. The Seacon drones actually managed to remain intact after this separation, so Turtler quickly ordered them to recombine, forcing Ginrai to step up his game and unleash his God Cannon, blasting King Poseidon to cinders in mid-air. As ever, Turtler was the only Seacon to survive the explosion, crashing to Earth badly scorched and swearing revenge on Ginrai. Malevolent and Inhuman! The True Form of Devil Z

Turtler never did manage to claim his revenge, however, and his final fate was unrevealed. After Ginrai subsequently destroyed the Decepticon emperor Devil Z, the Godmasters' and Headmaster Juniors' Transtectors came to life and departed Earth to rejoin their respective factions in space, A Battle... and Then... but Turtler was not shown heading for space with them.

Zone cartoon

Years after the Masterforce War, Turtler and his Seacons were recruited by the supernatural new Emperor of Destruction, Violen Jiger. Although they never appeared individually, in their combined form of King Poseidon (decked out with some nifty new threads), they attacked Earth in search of the powerful Zodiac necessary for their leader's evil schemes, only to wind up being destroyed by the new Autobot leader, Dai Atlas. Enter the New Supreme Commander, Dai Atlas!

Comic continuity

Super-God Masterforce manga

Kamille Bidan no baka!

Turtler debuted among the Seacons who gathered at a shoreline along with the other Decepticons, where he was rather demeaningly fed energon cubes by Cancer. Enter on the Stage! The Name of the Savior Is Ginrai! Turtler went on to enter the battlefield for the first time when the Decepticons attempted to dupe the Autobots with holographic images of legendary Decepticons of years past. Turtler merged with his Seacons into King Poseidon and loomed over the holographic figures, but just in the nick of time, Autobot Godmasters Lightfoot, Ranger and Road King arrived with a new trailer unit for their leader Ginrai in tow. Ginrai merged with the trailer to become Super Ginrai, and promptly defeated King Poseidon with his mighty "Super Fire Guts" attack. The battered Turtler limped away to safety, reporting the failure of the plan to the Decepticon Pretenders. Burn, Super Soul! The New Commander Super Ginrai!

Soon afterward, Ginrai and the Autobots travelled to the planet Athenia, where they met with the space-based Autobot forces, and current Supreme Commander Fortress Maximus stepped down and appointed Ginrai in his place. That night, however, Turtler (making his only recorded appearance in robot mode) led a Decepticon attack on the planet, and merged with Blast Off, Brawl, Cutthroat and Dead End to become "Scramble 7". Chromedome and Raiden were bested by Scramble 7's power, but was overcome when Ranger and Road King channelled their Jinchōkon into Super Ginrai's Cannon Craft weapons, creating the "Magma Vulcan" attack, which blasted Scramble 7 to bits. Although Turtler apparently survived, as he was seen hurtling away from the explosion in torso-mode, he did not appear again. The Battle Begins! The United Earth-Space Troops

Zone comic and story pages

Years after the Masterforce War, Turtler and his Seacons were recruited by the supernatural new Emperor of Destruction, Violen Jiger. Although they never appeared individually, in their newly caped combined form of King Poseidon, they accompanied Trypticon in an attack on the ocean planet Wall, where they lay in wait for Autobot Commander Star Saber. When the Autobot hero arrived, they attempted to drag him beneath the waves, only to be driven off by a combined attack from the Micromaster warriors Overload, Erector, Missile Bull and Skywave. Zone story page #3 Subsequently, they attacked Earth in search of the powerful "Zodiac" that Violen Jiger required for his evil schemes, but were defeated by Dai Atlas. Zone

It is unclear if Turtler and the Seacons survived their clash with Dai Atlas; they did not reappear, suggesting they may have been destroyed, but Predaking and Trypticon, who were also blasted by Dai Atlas, were both shown to have survived the experience. Zone story page #6

Toys

Super-God Masterforce

• Turtler (Seacon, 1988)
  • Japanese ID number: D-312

    

    ...and to think he was once a cute little Squirtle.

  • Accessories: Laser gun, sword, shield/chestplate, 2 super robot feet, left and right super robot fists, super robot head

Turtler transforms into a turquoise and magenta robotic turtle, armed with a pair of back-mounted twin reciprocating cannons activated by moving a small lever. His black laser rifle mounts in a hole in the middle of his shell. Turtler features one of the earliest uses of what is known today as automorph technology; when his turtle forelegs are rotated into place to become his robot mode arms, his fists automatically emerge, ready to grip onto his laser rifle, and his large purple sword. The rear half of his turtle shell disconnects for transformation, and can be mounted on either of Turtler's shoulders as a shield. The shell also becomes a chestplate when Turtler combines with his fellow Seacons to form the super-robot King Poseidon. The team uses the Scramble City-style of combination, meaning that Turtler can interact with any of the limb robots from other teams of the same design.

The toy was released concurrently in Hasbro markets as Snaptrap, with no discernable changes between the two. The mold was later redecoed as the Beast Wars II Predacon Halfshell, and then back into Snaptrap again, with a new coloration for the Transformers Collectors' Club exclusive Piranacon giftset.

• More information on Turtler (well, Snaptrap) at TFU.info

• King Poseidon (Gift-set, 1988)
  • Japanese ID number: D-318

Unlike the Hasbro Seacon box-set, which excludes Nautilator, the Takara King Poseidon box-set comes with all six members of the team; Turtler, Gulf, Kraken, Lobclaw, Overbite and Tentakil . The individuals are identical to their individually boxed releases.

Notes

Zombie kids like me.

• Turtler is the only Super-God Masterforce Seacon to ever show up in humanoid mode in-fiction—but only in the manga. And only in a single panel, where he led the Scramble City-type combiners and ordered them to form into Scramble 7 in "The Battle Begins! The United Earth-Space Troops".

Foreign names

• English: Snaptrap (Omni Productions dub, Shout! Factory sub)
• Italian: Tortuga
• Russian: Akula (Акула, "Shark")