Name: Nautilator
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Underwater Excavations
Alternate Mode: Lobster
LOBSTER MODE
Height: 5cm Length: 11.5cm Width: 10.5cm
A green, grey and black lobster, with yellow eyes. Nautilator's head and tail are green, his mid section and claws grey and his legs are black. The tail's not quite as long as it should be, and since it's the robot legs has only a token fan on the back - but then he'd be propelling himself through the water with a jet of some sort anyway. His green robot arms are visible on the sides of his grey mid-section, but blend into the look of this mode quite well.
The head is proportionally too big, but this is mainly since his tail's short, rather than the head being out of proportion with the rest of him (it is, though only slightly). It has a ridge sticking up from the back of it, which makes it's relative size noticeably. He doesn't have antennae or mouthparts, though there are non-functional eye stalks on the front of this mode (the eyes are painted onto the sides of his head).
Considering it's a robotic lobster-monster, I can deal with most the deficiencies of this mode for the most part. He has some nice features - a bottom jaw that opens and shuts, teeth moulded onto both jaws, the tail even has that curl that real lobsters' do. His claws look pretty cool, and they can swing up and down. Unfortunately, his gun can't really attach to this mode properly. It can sit in a fist hole, but it's so lopsided I'd leave it off.
The jaw and claws give Nautilator some poseability. His legs don't move, but he's very stable since he's got eight flat feet. Overall this is a fairly good mode, with both good and bad aspects. It gets points for being the first crustacean in the Transformers.
WEAPON MODE
His lobster mode on a stick with the handgun attached to the flipped over tail. It's okay, but nothing spectacular.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Fold the tail over to form the robot feet. Fold the lobster head down onto his back, rotate the claws so they point straight back. Fold the leg sets onto his back.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 8cm Width: 7cm
Nautilator's more grey in this mode. Basically his torso and thighs are grey, his lower legs and arms green and his head is black with a yellow face. Unlike some Seacons, Nautilator's facial sculpt has a low level of detailing, which is a shame. This colour scheme works quite well, although I'm not sure about the yellow face.
Nautilator has lots of problems in this mode, and I'm struggling to find positives. His head, like all square-peg combiners, is small, but it's also set right back - well behind the line of his shoulders. The thighs are a single piece, without even a dividing groove down the middle. The legs flip out from the front, so his shins are hollow. More accurately, they attach to the outside of his thigh stalk. They're formed from the underside of his tail, it's one piece with a huge gap, basically. His feet don't actually make contact with the floor, since they have to taper for his transform, but he stands fine. I suspect the reason for this reverse flip is so that the tail can act as a stabiliser for the huge backpack..
Nautilator's backpack is made up of his lobster head, legs and claws. It's bigger than his torso, arms and head combined. It's also fairly noticeable - there's no elegance, just a bunch of stuff sitting on his back. The upside is he can stand ok, but this is at the expense of the legs.
As you can tell, I'm not really a fan of this robot mode. His shoulders rotate, and he stands okay - probably the only good points, which are overtaken by some distance by the backpack, bad leg design and head fading off into the horizon.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
The animal mode's reasonably good, but Nautilator has the worst of the Seacon robot modes. If you skip a Seacon, Nautilator's the one to miss. Having said that, he makes a great gun for Piranacon, so I'd recommend grabbing him if you're planning to get Piranacon. As a standalone toy - forget it - 3/10
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