The Energon Pub

A fellow collector sold me the BBTS-exclusive G1 Piranacon re-issue, MISB. I think I got a great deal at $40 shipped. Yeah, I'm late to the review party on this guy, but here I am.

This is my first real G1 combiner, since the KO Devastator I have doesn’t count. Not as tall as I thought, but still large and in charge. Piranacon is vividly, almost gaudily, colored, but it works with his sea theme. The individual critters are interesting mash-ups of real animals, both present and historical, with lots of imagination thrown in. The separate robot modes are bare-bones simplistic, but still entertaining. This set comes with tons of weapons and parts, and the individual stands are a great touch. The fact that the posts on those stands can be used as a gun is genius. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the quad-changing ability or each individual figure: beast, robot, limb, or weapon- awesome!

True to the reviews I read, this version of the Seacons suffers from pronounced mold and material weaknesses. There is lots of mold flash and rough edges, with misaligned seams aplenty. The plastic itself feels thin and cheap in places. The head on the shark figure would not rotate back into its beast mode position, had to open it up and trim some plastic. The posts on a couple of the stands wouldn’t fit because the holes in the bases were undersized. The pre-applied stickers are pretty well done mostly, a few are slightly lifted or crooked. Honestly though, I would not have enjoyed putting on so many of them; I’m an old guy, and applying stickers, as my generation would say, is fer young’uns.

Overall I’m really happy with this guy. Not perfect, but super-versatile and fun. As is my nature, I’m modding him. I had an old Snaptrap w/ the black robot head, so I swapped the head onto the new set, trimming some plastic so it can turn now. Looking for more little things like that to do.

FWIW, a great quote from an old thread about this guy: "I love the set, but I acknowledge the fandom in general is powered by broke-ass movie noobs and casuals that don't recognize the power of the freaky fishbots."

Side note: I don’t need the collectors’ cards, PM me if you want them, cheap. All 6 Seacon cards plus the Piranacon card, factory-perfect and almost literally untouched. Bam.