I've been dealing with so many problems and disasters lately that getting new toys has quickly gone from a fun hobby to a much-needed respite from the reality of adulting. So I am going to eat as much pizza as my stomach can comfortably accommodate while I talk about this delightfully wonderful little ball of sharkness I got today.

I knew this was going to be an armybuilder toy which, much like Studio Series Scourge, would be potentially hard to find. So I did some pre-ordering from a few different online stores, reasoning that I could always cancel if I found them at retail in abundance. I got the package from Big Bad Toy Store today, and to the best of my knowledge there still hasn't been a retail sighting for this guy yet. So, I'll take it.

I ordered a bunch of this toy without knowing for sure whether it was going to be good or not. In the past I've gobbled up a quantity of Titans Return Sharkticons (on the small side, but workable) and even Cyberverse Sharkticons (bigger, but not better) in an effort to quell my desire for a school of Sharkticons. I think I've finally found my neo-G1 Sharkticon. This is the one.

So, let's start with robot mode. He's smallish for a Deluxe, only about four and a half inches at the head (the shark head parts add maybe another quarter inch of height). A bit of assembly is required—the shark head comes in the package separately, and slides into place for a one-time assembly. The shark fin is also detachable. The fit on my first copy is quite loose (haven't opened the other ones yet) and the fin tends to fall right off. That's maybe one of two complaints I have about the toy as a whole. I'm not even sure why it comes off; his shark toes get in the way of his robot hands and he cannot really equip it as a knife or whatever.

Of course, he's large and rotund as a robot, as he's supposed to be, with big, fat boots. Where the smaller Titans Return version had the shark head split apart to form the feet, this version has a bit more authenticity and puts the shark head on his back, where it belongs. It still can't split in half to form the wing-like appendages he's got in animation, but that's fine. And, like Wreck-Gar, they remembered not to put a symbol on him (the G1 toy was marketed as a Decepticon named Gnaw and wore the badge, but this was not screen accurate).

The articulation is pretty good. The range of his hips is limited a bit due to the rotund shape of his body. Also, the ankle tilts make zero effort to appear like they're robotic or mechanical joints. The legs just break open to the side. There wasn't much room for additional parts to suggest the presence of a functional mechanical part, due to the way his other joints work. The existing ankle tilt is awful, though, and nobody is going to use it for display. It would have honestly been better not to include the ankle tilts at all in this case. (This is my only other complaint about the toy, incidentally.)

He comes with his maceration laser (actually a bit bigger than the G1 equivalent) and of course the tail mace, which is articulated at the base so it is hinged in one spot. (I think Lenny said in one of the Fan First Friday reveals that they knew he didn't have his gun in the movie, but they knew the G1 toy had one so they wanted to include it. I do have a memory of the Sharkticons carrying guns in robot mode in one or two cartoon episodes, though, like "Money is Everything.")

So, in animaton the Sharkticon transforms to shark mode essentially by laying down, with the shark mouth closing around the robot head. This is accomplished on the G1 toy by legs that could retract partially into the robot body and arms that could slide back to form the shark legs. This time, the robot legs tuck completely into the shark body, and there's an assembly that rotates so that the robot arms end up in a totally different spot to become the shark legs. The robot boots actually become part of the shark's body, and as such there are spots where the blue boots are plainly visible in contrast to the rest of the body, in grey. It's not an awful solution, and even though it doesn't hide the boots at all, it's a neat way of tucking them out of the way.

In shark monster mode, his body is like four inches long, or about six and a half inches with the tail. So, smaller than G1, certainly, bigger than Titans Return, and a bit smaller than Cyberverse. His forearms are long and spindly, with joints at the shoulders and elbows, so he can prop himself up on his arms a bit, or stand unsupported on the hind legs. The gun is designed to mount on the side of his shark body, and is present in all the promotional photos, but it's not a requirement and frankly he looks better with it off.

The shark's upper jaw moves a bit, and the lower jaw moves a LOT. It can open far enough to plainly reveal the robot head, which presents itself as a serrated blade in the center of the gullet, and which surely cuts into anything this guy stuffs into his maw. The lower jaw is hollow, a bit like G1 Divebomb, so it never really conceals the robot face at all. But, that's not really his job. His job is to eat you.

As an aside, I think that people who are accustomed to the size of the G1 toy may judge this toy to be disappointingly small. But, just remember that the G1 Sharkticon was only made that size so he could be sold at the same price point as the G1 Predacons. If you look at the scenes from The Transformers: the Movie where Hot Rod and Kup are plowing through the Sharkticons in their car modes, the guys just aren't huge.

At this scale and price point, they've managed to hit a sweet spot on the paint applications and colors that evokes his animation appearance more strongly than any official Sharkticon release to date. The only two things I don't like are his awful ankle tilts and how loosely his dorsal fin connects.. Aside from that, he's exceptional. At about twenty bucks a pop, it's a little pricy, but not impossible, to amass a substantial Sharkticon army. That is, in my estimation, the true purpose of this toy as amn armybuilder. (I mean, yeah, in theory you can just buy one Stormtrooper or one Foot Soldier, but why would you want to?)

Zob (might take a family photo later of all my Sharkticons if I can remember what boxes they're all in)