Generations Selects Turtler

Prelude: He is Turtler, the villain in a half-shell. The grown-up alien robot turtle. Possibly a ninja, too, he did star in a Japanese anime, after all. He leads, while his fellows are machines. Non-sentinent ones at that. Anyway, he is Turtler, the leader in green, doing anything he can to be extra mean. Okay, enough turtle references. He is Turtler, leader of the Seacons, torso of King Poseidon. Let’s see what he’s made of. Tonight we dine on turtle soup!

Robot Mode: Turtler is a remold of Power of the Primes Hun-Gurrr (who is an very extensive remold of Combiner Wars Silverbolt). He is a very nicely articulated robot in general, though his knees are a bit strange and take getting used to. His chest is comprised of the front legs and head of his turtle mode and he has got two big cannons on his back, which can also be removed and used as hand weapons.

Speaking of weapons, unlike Hun-Gurrr, Turtler comes with a whole bunch of them. Apart from the aforementioned back cannons he comes with a big rifle, a sword, and a shield, the latter being the rear half of his turtle shell. He can also use the feet of the combiner mode as guns if you want. He is a very good likeless to his G1 incarnation Snap Trap (the Western name of Turtler), the two are clearly meant to be the same guy.

While there is nothing objectively wrong with this robot mode, I can’t really warm up to it properly. The robot is a bit too lean compared to the far bulkier G1 toy in my mind and while the load of weapons offers quite a bit of playability, I just find it boring somehow. So to sum it up, an average robot mode overall. Sadly it’s Turtler’s best mode.

Alternate Mode: Now in theory Turtler becomes a robotic turtle. In practice, though, he becomes a combiner torso with tiny little front legs and a tiny little turtle had. Seriously, the 30 years older Snap Trap looks so much better in turtle mode, it boggles the mind. Turtler’s turtle mode looks more like an afterthought on this figure, not a designed beast mode. It would probably have worked better if they had used the robot arms as forelegs and given him some extra hind legs… maybe. I am not sure. Anyway, the turtle mode basically looks like a block on four legs, the forelegs being vastly smaller than the hind legs.

The turtle can be given pretty much all of Turtler’s extra weapons, more or less turning it into a tank, but it still doesn’t look all that great. The only way to make this turtle mode somewhat cool is to give him extra limbs (basically turning him into a four-legged combiner). He still doesn’t look like a turtle, mind you, but at least he looks cool and scary then (see last picture in gallery). So overall: forget about the turtle mode. The designers did, too, I fear.

Combiner Mode: Turtler becomes the torso of King Poseidon (aka Piranacno). More on that once I’ve completed the combiner.

Remarks: The Seacons were the red shirts of the Masterforce cartoon, endless hordes of non-sentient robot drones that were regularly destroyed by the good guys. Led by Turtler, the only sentient robot among them. He never did transform into robot mode in the anime, but he was actually among the more menacing of the Destrons.

Sadly the Generations Selects figure representing him is not particularly great. The robot mode is okay, if nothing more than that, but the turtle mode is rather bad and doesn’t really stand up to the over 30 years older G1 figure. You do need him as the torso of King Poseidon, of course, which is pretty much the only reason to get him. So bottom line: buy him to complete King Poseidon, but don’t expect much from him as a stand-alone figure.

Rating: C-