First of all, I did do a search, so if someone has already started a thread for this, mods, please merge. I did find a thread for some of the members and the gestalt form, but none for this guy. This is a pretty big review, perhaps the largest I've done for a post. Also, it's been a largely overcast day, but naturally when I started taking pictures, the sun decided to come out, so sorry about the lighting in some of the pictures. As with all my reviews, click to enlarge the pictures. First of all, a little background, being a kid back in the day, my parents weren't well off; we weren't poor either, there was never anything that was an absolute no, but there were a lot of times that it was more of a triage, where bigger priced items like Transformers were more of a Birthday/Christmas gift rather then seeing it in the store and getting it. Sure, there were the occasional surprise smaller gifts, Rumble and Ravage for Easter, I was allowed one mid-sized guy after we saw Transformers: The Movie (I went with Cyclonus), but by and large, I didn't have that many Transformers. Which I look back on as a good thing; I had the toys I really wanted, but not so much as to not appreciate all that I had. And if they happened to break, either my dad or Grandfather (A former mechanic) would try to fix it, or they were now disabled veterans. I did have quite a few Go-bots and used them to supplement the factions, but real Transformers, I didn't have that many. Probably like most kids, via a combination of who you had and the rule of cool, you came up with your own story using your own toys. Or at least I did. It's probably not well known and was never used in fiction to my knowledge, but G1 Metroplex had sockets in his limbs for Scramble City connections. So occasionally when there was a big enough threat, my Transformers would team up, and part of that team-up was that Menasor (the first and only pre-movie combiner I had) would combine with Metroplex using those sockets. And one day, Drag Strips head stayed in Metroplex's leg socket while the rest of him came off. No fix worked. Drag Strip became a vehicle drone. In my toy fiction, since he died in a team-up, First Aid felt so guilty at not saving him that he joined the Stunticons as a replacement member. At least for a time. I was shopping with my mom at K-mart (which was infrequent) and happened to see a really cool Decepticon. Teal (one of my favorite colors), with vicious claws and a big armored monster head. He was totally up my alley. With him, Menasor had a substantial upgrade. A monsterous murder arm, with claws on either side of the fist and so thickly armored that most Autobot weapons bounced off it. A lobster from hell that had a triple barreled cannon in his mouth. In my imagination, he was a Lovecraftian horror, not just some take on a lobster. An armored head like a ceratopsian, legs like a spider, claws that could slice, tear, crush, burn, and shock. A tail to move through water (and space for some reason) quickly. He was a threat that took all the Technobots to stop. That was my Nautilator. Official fiction was far meaner. A loser who blamed others for his failings. A non-sentient mass produced drone. He was even omitted from the gift sets. When the Generations Selects version came up, I didn't buy it. I missed the entire window. I had gone into the ER Room on September third and didn't start living at home again until nearly Halloween. It wasn't until a later batch came up for order again on Hasbro Pulse on April 17th that I saw that it was available again, and I'll admit, nostalgia fueled this purchase. Then it took a while and last Thursday my order from Pulse arrived. So, spoiler alert, while this isn't an updated G1 figure almost slavishly so, it's something new and different, so how does it compare to a figure that largely lived in my imagination? Is it a blot on my memory? (Pun intended, since this is apparently a retool of Terrorcon Blot) Also, I may as well add that I didn't get any of the other Seacons, though I had windows to get most of them, I just didn't feel it; it wasn't any one thing, but a combination of factors, from price, to not really loving the Combiners as an adult, even perhaps waiting and getting the Beast Wars Seacons instead. Regardless of whether or not I ever get the others, I knew I didn't want to let Nautilator pass me by. First of all, you can't say you're getting shortchanged with what you get, compared to most Combiner Wars figures, the's plenty to like here. A hand, an axe, 2 guns, and the figure itself. Click to Enlarge At least the hand I got still has the defunct Power of the Primes "hidden gun" feature, though due to the way Nautilator's hands are formed, he doesn't hold it well. I'll add here, that probably due to some minor flash molding, my Nautilator's head has a slight cocking to it. I may work on it at some point in the future, but for now, he's just being acerbic. I'm not overly fond of what happens to the legs in the official robot mode. While they're less obtrusive from a straight on perspective, they don't look all that good from other angles, and they seem to throw off his balance, so I've come up with my own minor alternate form. Official: Mine (and probably others, I don't know, I haven't checked) Unlike the original figure, he doesn't have that mean triple barreled cannon, but he does have a surprisingly large single cannon. He also comes with a mean axe. Due to transformation, his tail has to come off, and it converts into it's own gun, which I have to say, I like a lot. As a modern deluxe, he's well articulated, lots of shoulder articulation due to transformation and it's all a good range of motion. Also as a holdover, his chest panel can lower, revealing another port, which this guy is chock full of. You can even stick either of his guns in there for triple weapon threat. Overall, I rather like robot mode. I like the various green/teals and I get what they were going for. He can also have Lobster Claw hands! The transformation is pretty straight forward and I'm reminded of several older CW figures transformations. I'll point out that going into robot mode, that big alt-mode head actually moves on several points, but the instructions provide how it should look when you're done. Going to alt-mode, it's key to make sure the legs are completely collapsed and tabbed in; with the halves of the legs to each other and the tops of the knees into the pelvist, otherwise the forwardmost part of the beast mode legs won't fit into the sockets in the chest and will instead flop about. It just fits on my copy and I'd certainly understand if others don't, just based on QC randomness. But the result is a pretty cool lobster-monster. Thanks to the transformation and articulation, there's multiple points of articulation in the arms, and you can even swing the claws somewhat shut as well (though go too far and you expose the hands.) He even can open his mouth, which is painted! For some reason, unlike the original feature, the socket for the peg is on the chin, rather then the inside of the mouth, so no open mouthed cannon action here. Lobster-monster mode is pretty substantial. Also, you can take some extra steps to further the underside alt-mode to better disguise the robot mode, by swiveling the head and lowering the chest, but you don't have to. There are plenty of post holes on the figure, so you can either load him up or store any of the weapons he's not using. Some more elegantly then others. Or all of them if you feel like it. He's fairly good sized, since he's a lobster and not a shrimp! Here I thought Hammerbyte was going to be the sea-farer of the year. Now I'm not so sure. It's kind of a shame that it can't do the murder arm that the original could do, but to be perfectly honest, it doesn't bother me much as I don't think I'll ever use him as a combiner limb. One thing I kind of realized with Combiner Wars is that as an adult fan, I don't think I care much for combiners, I prefer them as individuals. And IMHO, this is a pretty cool individual.
I'm glad I read your review. Your childhood fanfiction involving Drag Strip, First Aid, and Nautilator eventually serving as a replacement limb for Menasor is the coolest damned thing I've read all week! And it really warmed my heart. I wish I could remember any of the childhood stories I'd come up with in my head for my toys.
Thanks! Glad someone read it at the very least. I always wonder if it just gets skipped over for the pictures or not.
I'm glad someone did a nice thorough review of this figure. Well done! I also like hearing about peoples backstories regarding how they got their childhood figures. Thanks for sharing all of this!
Anyone else's Lobclaw have a really loose head? It just spins. They fell over on the table last night and I reassembled them and I don't remember his head being so loose.
Cyberverse Hammerbyte. I named him and included him in robot mode (and shark head mode) at the end there in comparisons.
Lobclaw's combiner port is showing a stress mark, what can I do to repair it before it completely cracks?
