Cliffbee.com Overbite Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Overbite
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Undersea Terminator
Alternate Mode: Shark Monster



SHARK MODE
Height: 8cm Length: 12cm Width: 8cm

   A purple, sea green and magenta shark with legs and arms (hence the "Shark Monster" tag). Overbite's probably got the most garish of the Seacons' colour schemes, but it's not terrible. He's the only Seacon with purple plastic, and this is a good thing since purple, pink and magenta probably won't work too well as a set of dominant colours. Anyway, his mid body, tailfins and feet are purple, his tail, head and lower legs green and his thighs, claws and lower jaw are magenta.

   His body is actually quite well shaped for a shark, nice & streamline. Of course, Sharks don't have feet or giant claws, but it's good they made sure he's clearly a shark. His tailfins and dorsal fin are convincing, and he even has exposed gills on his cheeks (although they look mechanical).

   His feet are large twin-clawed affairs, and he has poseable ankles, knees and hips, giving him a lot of poseability. All these joints are quite tight, and his feet are large enough that it's pretty had to overbalance Overbite. The front limbs, which are nothing more than claws pointing forward from behind his gills, are also twin-clawed and are poseable at the shoulders. His jaw also opens and shuts. I must say that I like the poseability in this mode. Sure, it effectively means he's a shark who can stand at different angles, but it's about all they could possibly have done, and it's certainly better than any small Terrorcon.

   There's yellow stickers on either side of the dorsal fin (which match his yellow eyes), each has a small Decepticon symbol, which is also a nice touch. The overall effect of the moulding in this mode is clearly mechanical, but with his teeth, claws and streamlined body (You can remove the front claws, by the way), he does look like an undersea hunter. It's worth mentioning that losing Overbite's claws isn't as much of a pain as if you lose one of Nautilator's, since a shark without front claws makes more sense than a lobster with no claws.

   Despite the colours, Overbite's probably got the best animal mode of the small Seacons. It works _really_ well as a shark monster and the poseability is great for what it is.

WEAPON MODE
   Essentially a shark on a stick with it's head flipped back and a gun attached to his lower jaw. But it works, thanks to the fact that he's got a long slender body, making it look like a long barrelled cannon.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Pull the head forward and flip it up. Fold the dorsal fin to one side, fold the tail up onto his back and rotate the tailfin 90°. Stand him up, level out the claws attached to his ankles, fold in the shark feet and position the arms.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 7.5cm Width: 7.5cm

   Purple dominates in this mode, now that he has a purple chest, purple legs and purple hands. His lower arms, head and feet are green and his upper arms magenta. As is common for the Seacons, he has a lemon yellow face. The colours work better in this mode, it has to be said, mainly due to the fact it's based around one colour, instead of having three bright colours competing for dominance.

   You may like to remove the shark mode claws, since they're the reason he's as wide as he is tall. I don't mind since they're flush with the ground (ok, table). His shoulders are also quite broad, and his arms are longer than they should be, for me it makes him look rather thuggish, which makes sense - he hunts down victims in shark mode, but beats them in robot mode. Still, shorter arms would be nice, since they don't really combine well with the claws on his feet.

   Poseability is limited to his arms, but both elbows and shoulders swing, and his shoulders can do a full 360°. There's not really much more in terms of play value, though.

   The shark mode is the better mode, but this one's still okay. The colours work better here, and if not for the proportion problems it'd be a great mode.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of.

OVERALL

   Rating behind only Tentakil as small Seacons go, Overbite has a great shark mode, let down a little by a robot mode with some proportion problems. Even if you don't want Piranacon, I'd still recommend him since the shark mode is so cool. He's meant to be Piranacon's gun, and he does have a good gun mode - 7.5/10

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