Seacon (G1)
| The name or term "Seacon" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Seacon (disambiguation). |
- The Seacons are a Decepticon subgroup from the Generation 1 continuity family.
The six Seacons are the Decepticons' undersea combat specialists. They all transform into mechanical beasts resembling (more or less) aquatic life forms from Earth. The six combine into the super warrior Piranacon (also spelt 'Pirranacon').
The team consists of:
- The cruel and calculating Snaptrap, their team leader. He transforms into a snapper turtle (sort of).
- The clumsy and insecure Nautilator, who transforms into a lobster-monster.
- The vicious Overbite (also known as Jawbreaker in the Marvel UK comic continuity). He becomes a shark with extra limbs. Truly.
- The sneaky Seawing, a manta ray. With legs.
- The unhygenic and polluting Skalor, a coelacanth with arms and legs.
- The sadistic and strong Tentakil, an upright walking squid. Walking with... yep, you've got it.
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
The Seacons were created primarily for off-world combat on planets with water-based oceans. #163's Grim Grams
The Seacons were summoned to Earth by Shockwave, who had them put their undersea abilities to use fortifying the Decepticons’ sub-aquatic island headquarters. Outfitted with Earth modes by Shockwave, the Seacons were going about their task when they met with their first challenge, which also proved to be one of their greatest—they were ordered to defend the island against the insane, time-travelling future Decepticon, Galvatron. The Seacons gave a good account of themselves, merging into Piranacon for extra power, but ultimately, the team was defeated by their stronger adversary, only for Galvatron to reveal that he had not planned an attack at all, merely wishing to talk. Now, however, he claimed that Shockwave had made an enemy of him—although it was all part of a plan to destabilise his leadership. Enemy Action! Seeking a weapon that could truly combat Galvatron, Shockwave sought out the former Decepticon leader, Megatron, who had been missing in action for some time. When what was believed to be his body (but was, in actuality, a clone of him) was located in the Thames river by entrepreneur Richard Branson, Overbite was dispatched with some of the Decepticon jets to bring the body to Shockwave. Snaptrap subsequently repaired the clone’s physical damage, and aided Shockwave in using the psycho-probe to brainwash it into his service. Salvage!
Following this, the Seacons departed Shockwave’s service and joined with Ratbat, the leader of the primary Earth-based Decepticon force. Ratbat had relocated the Decepticons’ island base to the Florida Keys, disguising it as a holiday resort named "Club Con" to allow the Seacons to search the seabed for a sunken pirate ship, the treasure chest of which contained two Autobot tapes, Grand Slam and Raindance. The recovery mission was successful, but the tapes were then stolen by the Autobot Blaster, and the holidaymakers on the island had their peace and quiet rudely interrupted as the Seacons erupted from the ocean and attacked, searching for Blaster. In the ensuing battle, Blaster sent the tapes back to the depths of the oceans, encouraging the Seacons to call off the attack and head after them. Club Con!
The tapes, it was revealed, were sent to Earth centuries ago to warn the Autobots there of the approaching threat posed by the Underbase, a massive space-born information storehouse that could convey infinite power. Unfortunately, it was the Decepticon, Starscream, who managed to attain the Underbase’s power, turning on Autobot and Decepticon alike and attempting to conquer Earth. The Seacons were part of the attempted defence of New York City, striking at Starscream from the East River, but were all deactivated by the cosmically-powered villain. Dark Star
Earthforce
A few years later, in the Earthforce era, Megatron found himself lacking in troops during Decepticon civil war. Seeking to acquire more warriors, he projected his mind back in time to Starscream's attack on New York, taking possession of Snaptrap in hopes of saving the Seacons from destruction so that they might serve him in the future. He was pursued by Prowl, who prevented his scheme. Flashback!
G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers
Some time after the Decepticons were driven back to Cybertron's Gladiator Zone, Nautilator got into trouble with the Predacons. The other Seacons helped him out by forming Piranacon, but the giant was defeated by Predaking and would have been killed if not for Serpent O.R. interrupting the battle. The Art of War issue 2 The Seacons had no problem with Serpent O.R. taking control of the Decepticon army, and helped capture a number of Autobots and Joes who were after their new leader. The Art of War issue 3 Nautilator later guarded some of the captured humans, but being Nautilator, he failed miserably with this task. The Art of War issue 4
Toys
Generation 1
- The Seacons are a Scramble City-style combiner, combining to form Piranacon, but with a twist. The leader, Snaptrap, was sold boxed at the $12 price point, along with the combiner kibble. Instead of the usual four smaller carded $5-price point robots, however, the Seacons feature five smaller bots.
- The smaller Seacons can become not only one of Piranacon's limbs, but also a hand weapon for the giant. It is for this reason that the five smaller toys also have a free-standing "weapon mode" (essentially their sea-creature mode on a stand with a gun clicked on). This makes Piranacon not only a combiner, but a Targetmaster.
- Much like the Terrorcons before them, the Seacons are extraordinarily chunky in both modes. The team is unified by its color scheme of aqua, fuschia, lavender, purple and blue, with grey, black and chromed highlights. Eh, what can we tell ya, it was 1988.
Energon
- A proposed Wal-Mart Energon exclusive redeco of the Seacons would have been called the Piranhacons. The toys were not taken by Wal-Mart and eventually made their way to the Transformers Collectors' Club, who made the toys into their original characters.
Timelines
- The unreleased Energon redecos of the Seacons were finally released as a giftset in 2008 by the Official Transformers Collectors' Club under Fun Publications.
- Fans report that some mold degradation is in evidence in this latest release.
Trivia
- Although the sub-group's name is pronounced "see-cons" in commercials for the toys, some fans occasionally (incorrectly) opt to pronounce it "see-a-cons", in keeping with the "three-or-more-syllables" naming convention of the "-con" subgroups before them.
- In addition to the fairly well-known renaming of Overbite to 'Jawbreaker' in "Enemy Action!", the UK comic stories also give all six Seacons, and Piranacon, an early, abandoned color scheme (blue, orange, and silver) versus the final teal, purple, and pink of the final production version. This color scheme was also seen in the first commercial featuring the Seacons, in both animation and the physical toys advertised. [1]
- In addition to the different colors, the UK art also sometimes omitted extraneous and intrusive arms and legs added to Seawing, Skalor, and Overbite/Jawbreaker's toy designs. The end result is that the fairly toy-accurate Seacons who turn up in "Club Con!" look markedly different to their UK predecessors... but since everyone's fantasizing over Jessie in a bikini and trying to ignore the plot in that issue anyway, who cares?
