Cliffbee.com Snaptrap Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Snaptrap
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Seacon
Alternate Mode: Turtle



TURTLE MODE
Height: 7.5cm Length: 15cm Width: 7cm

   A green turtle with a magenta underside and pink legs, Snaptrap has a pretty unified colour scheme. The shell, head and feet are all sea green, the lower jaw is pink. he has twin black cannons sticking out of his shell, and chrome silver wings sticking out the back. Like most Seacons, he has yellow eyes.

   He's turtle enough in shape - basically his body is a large oval with a dome on the top, which is about what you'd expect. He's got claws on his feet, which are conspicuously not flippers - I guess this turtle walks around the seafloor (or shoreline). Of course, it's hard to make a toy with flippers stand - even in Beast Wars the fish toys just sort of sat there balancing on their fins. The wings sticking out the back aren't especially turtle-like, but they could be defence so they don't really work against this mode. The cannons are of course purely robotic, but they look pretty cool, so I can easily live with them.

   There's play value here. He has a lower jaw that opens and shuts, as do all the Seacons except Tentakil (who has no jaw). He has teeth and a menacing looking expression when you open his mouth. There's a pink post sticking out of his shell, which moves from side to side. Doing this causes the cannons to slide in and out, out of sync, so that one is in and one is out at any given moment. All four legs move at the hips, and the head can look up and down. It can't retract, which is fine since he's a turtle and not a tortoise. You can mount his gun onto a hole on his back, to.

   Overall this is a pretty good turtle mode. The colours are well combined, he _looks_ like a turtle, there's enough play value to keep me happy and the detailing in the mould is pretty good. The only real flaw is that the post that moves his cannons is rather stiff and can be difficult to move.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Remove the back half of the shell, fold the rear legs up onto his back. Swing out his robot legs and fold down the heelspurs. Fold his turtle head down to form the robot chest and reveal the robot head. Rotate the front feet forward to reveal the hands, and bring his arms down (which causes his hands to automatically push out, a feature I really like). You can swing out a post form underneath the shell piece to form a shield that can attach to his shoulder. This is a very elegant transformation that reduces kibble very well.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 17cm Width: 10.5cm

   That magenta belly of the turtle mode is now very much dominant here. The thighs and upper arms are pink, the centre of the chest, forearms and shield are sea green, the hands and head are black (yellow eyes), otherwise he's magenta. Still, it works, although less Magenta would have been nice (which probably goes without saying).

   As mentioned above, the transformation is quite clever and results in little kibble. The front half of the shell and rear legs are on his back, but they sit there minding their own business. The cannons stick out from behind his shoulders, and look good there. There is a magenta plate visible behind his torso onto which his shell-shield attaches, and while this does qualify as kibble the fact it's the same colour as most of the toy (and to the back) makes it blend into the background. The heelspurs, which are clearly a deliberate addition, make him very stable - the junk on his back isn't noticeable as a result. The turtle head actually slots into a hole on the belly, forming a central section rather than a lump on the chest.

   For an animal with so many curves, Snaptrap has a very angular robot mode. His torso and legs are dominated by angles and flat surfaces. He has wide shoulders, making him look tough and powerful. This illusion is helped by the cannons and giant shield. The cannons are obviously stuck on his back, but he's got his gun and Piranacon's sword, so he's pretty well armed. The yellow eyes on an otherwise black head make this guy look evil (c8

   Play value's reasonably good, with the shoulders swinging, and the elbows able to swing up (part of the transform, but it works all the same). The sword, gun and shield give him battle options. While the play value's not fantastic, it's better than most combiner team leader's robot modes.

   While the prominence of Magenta's not fantastic, the colour scheme still works. He looks nice and evil and has decent play value. What I like most about this mode is that Snaptrap's evil, powerful and armed to the teeth.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of.

OVERALL

   The colours are used quite well, both modes are cool and rather evil looking, and Snaptrap has a very well designed transformation, with some really thoughtful aspects. Even if you're not planning on getting Piranacon, I'd recommend Snaptrap. Of course, if you do want Piranacon, he's the one Seacon you can't skip - so in that case I'd recommend him even more - 8.5/10

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