Snaptrap (G1)

Snaptrap is a Decepticon Seacon from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Snaptrap leads, Donatello does machines!

If asked what three words would best describe himself, Snaptrap (also Snap Trap) would likely answer "unstoppable killing machine" and then try to eat your brains. He truly earned his nickname of "Butcher of the Bogs" when he massacred an Autobot regiment in the Toxic Sludge Swamps on Cybertron. As powerful as he is deranged, escaping Snaptrap is impossible and defeating him is even harder. While his Seacon underlings all share a unanimous love of the hunt, Snaptrap prefers the capture and gutting of the prey. Fueled by an unquenchable bloodlust, even his fellow Seacons know to tread lightly in his presence, as even the slightest offense can invoke Snaptrap's psychotic brutality.

Snaptrap can combine with his Seacon warriors to form Piranacon.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

When Shockwave's Earthbound Decepticons established their new undersea base, Seawing and the Seacons were summoned from Cybertron to work on the base's fortifications, as they were uniquely suited for underwater activity. They got more than they bargained for when the super-Decepticon Galvatron came a'calling. Despite their new Earth-forms being largely untested, Snaptrap urged his teammates to do their best against their opponent. He quickly realized that their best simply wasn't good enough, and so called his troops back so they could combine into Piranacon. Even in this form, however, they were trounced by Galvatron's seemingly-infinite might. Enemy Action!

At some point, the Aerialbots shot down Dreadwing over the ocean while he was carrying a vital power source. Optimus Prime and the Autobot Powermasters descended to retrieve it but were ambushed by Snaptrap and the Seacons, who had the upper hand in their home environment. Snaptrap chose Slapdash as an easy target during the skirmish, blasting away at the unarmed Autobot. Prime then ordered Hi-Q and the other Nebulans to take the power source and return to the surface, but with that gone the Seacons decided that rather than press their advantage against the Autobots, they couldn't afford to let Hi-Test and Throttle drown and rescued them instead. Dreadwing Down!

After Shockwave was deposed, he set up shop in Fortress Sinister—Snaptrap, for reasons unknown, stuck with him and helped recover Megatron's body (well, a clone Megatron's) from the Thames. Snaptrap showed previously unknown mechanical skills by repairing Megatron's body to full working capacity. Salvage! Whatever it was that caused Snaptrap to stick with Shockwave, it didn't last long - shortly after, they joined the new commander Ratbat.

Life can be better / down where it's wetter / take it from me

The Seacons were commissioned to hunt down a sunken shipwreck in the water around the Decepticon undersea base, a wreck which supposedly contained two Autobot cassettes with valuable information encoded on them. They successfully obtained the treasure chest containing the cassettes and, despite a brief theft by the Autobot Blaster, managed to recapture the prize and return it to their leader. Club Con!

Unfortunately for them, this led to a sequence of events whereby the treacherous Starscream acquired the power of the Underbase for himself. Starscream summoned the Decepticons of Scorponok and the Semper Tyrannis to Ratbat's base without first warning him. Snaptrap nearly destroyed their fellow Decepticons when the Seacons formed Piranacon to confront this unexpected visitor. Both sides were wary of each other after that, eventually leading to a Decepticon Civil War just as Starscream planned. The Seacons protected their leader Ratbat from the fuel-supping fangs of Bomb-Burst during the skirmish. Cold War! The Autobots and Decepticons of Earth were ultimately forced to unite in order to stop Starscream from seizing ultimate power. Their forces were scattered to several key cities they knew Starscream planned to attack, with the Seacons being stationed in Manhattan. When their target was pushed into the waters underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, Snaptrap and his teammates attempted to swarm him, only to be destroyed in a single energy discharge. Dark Star

Earthforce

When they say Snaptrap is Megatron's puppet, they mean that literally.

Sometime later, Megatron traveled back in time through a Flashback Doorway and possessed the body of Seacon leader Snaptrap during the Underbase incident, in an attempt to save them in the past to bolster his troops in the present. He failed due to the intervention of Prowl, and the Seacons met their fate as before. Flashback!

Transformers Comic-Magazin

When Megatron made peaceful gestures to Humanity in New York City, he gave a "statue" of Snaptrap as a gift to the city. Just what they always wanted. Unsurprisingly, this statue turned out to be Snaptrap in disguise. Once night fell, Snaptrap transformed into Piranacon (on his own apparently) and went on a rampage. He was eventually stopped by the mighty force of the Sparkabots, Scoop, and Quickmix. The Troy Principle Optimus Prime would later review footage of this incident to uncover another Decepticon plot. Wanderer Between the Worlds Those events were also recorded on a videotape that was later found and watched by Autobots on Cybertron after a nuclear disaster in Kalis. In Memory of Earth

The characteristics of Snap Trap and the "Small Targetmaster Seacons" under his command were reviewed by Optimus Prime and Bumblebee in a simulation watched by Goldbug.Memories of Bumblebee

Classics

Snaptrap and the Seacons were eventually reconstructed, and came to serve under Bludgeon's command. Snaptrap rose in the Decepticon ranks to become one of Bludgeon's top lieutenants. As the conflict between Bludgeon and the re-emerging rival faction led by Megatron reached its peak, Snaptrap was attending to his leader's battle plans on a distant planet in preparation for an attack from space. Once Bludgeon learned that a member of his own team had compromised their strategies to the enemy, he ordered Snaptrap to assemble the Seacons so that might confront the betrayer. They located the alleged traitor, Hun-Grrr, and a fight broke out. Snaptrap traded blows with Hun-Grrr until the Terrorcon leader summoned his fellow combiners and merged into Abominus.

Undaunted, Snaptrap directed the Seacons to blast at Abominus's joint linkages, the weakest part of any combination robot, but to no avail—the savage warrior was too far gone to notice the pain. Snaptrap therefore ordered his comrades to combine into Piranacon. Taking advantage of his interchanging limbs and extra Targetmaster components, Piranacon levelled the mighty Abominus. Luckily for the other Decepticons, Snaptrap had retained the foresight to set Piranacon's internal timer, forcing him to disassemble just as the battle concluded before his hunter's instinct led him to attack the other Decepticons.

As Bludgeon's men prepared for the coming attack by Megatron's vessels, Snaptrap directed his men to their stations. Once Bludgeon was engrossed in the tactical display, however, Snaptrap showed his true colors. It was the Seacons, not the Terrorcons, who had betrayed Bludgeon to Megatron. A fact he may have recognized nanoclicks before Piranacon's mass compression cannon obliterated him. At Fight's End

As the universe was obliterated, Snaptrap was aboard the Talon which was pulled into an alternate universe. The Talon crashed on prehistoric Earth where the ambient energon radiation required the Seacons to adopt experimental energon-absorbing armor. Shattered Time Snaptrap was with Megatron when the Decepticon leader activated three new Decepticons from stasis pods. He and the others were blasted by Ultra Magnus after the newcomers failed to terminate the Autobots. Shattered Expectations

The Decepticons pursued the Autobots to a chasm, where they watched Megatron take on Ultra Magnus and be defeated. They climbed to the bottom of the chasm to retrieve their fallen leader and found a giant face hewn into the rock. It cheered Megatron up immensely once they dug him out of the rubble. Shattered Paths As Megatron manipulated the equipment in the cavern they found, Snaptrap reflected that whatever he was working on, it was going to be big. The Seacons later attempted to retrieve the "Maximal" energy purifier and merged into God Neptune, so they could fight off Magnaboss. Shattered Hope Snaptrap and the others accompanied Megatron as he used the giant mech he'd built to try and claim the matrix the Maximals had found. Shattered Balance Combining into God Neptune once more, the Seacons battled the Maximals until they were all sucked into a dimensional rift thanks to Ultra Mammoth. Shattered Destiny

Regeneration One

After awaking in 1994 Megatron retrieved the bodies of the Underbase victims from the Ark, including Snaptrap, and formed them into a lobotomized zombie army to conquer the Earth. Following Megatron's defeat in 2012, the Autobots gathered up the inactive zombies and threw them into a big pit in West Virginia where they would be vaporised from orbit. Natural Selection, Part One

Transformers '84

Snaptrap was present at the Presidium when Megatron announced his plans to invade Stanix. Secrets & Lies #1

G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers

In the form of Piranacon, Snaptrap and the Seacons battled Predaking in the Gladiator Zone before joining Serpent O.R.'s new army of Decepticons. The Art of War #2 Still combined, the Seacons subsequently helped their new leader capture a few Autobots and Joes before attacking an Autobot peace ceremony. The Art of War #3 Although Piranacon helped take down Omega Supreme, he was defeated when Optimus Prime rammed Sixshot into his face. The Art of War #4

Hearts of Steel

Like his fellow Seacons, Snaptrap was woke from his slumber on the bottom of the ocean by an Elder God's servants and brought to their underground city. Infestation 2: The Transformers #1

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: Megatron Origin #3

Before the war was in full swing, Snaptrap was one of the many bots that came from distant regions of Cybertron to attend demonstrations of power performed by Megatron. Megatron Origin #3

Following the end of the Autobot/Decepticon war, Snap Trap [sic] joined forces with Hun-Gar, and their combined team invaded Temptoria in search of resources. Conquering the capital Sensensica, they set up "The Battery" and started using pink alchemy to convert the natives into energon. It wasn't long before the Autobots on the Lost Light got wind of this operation and, assuming that the Decepticons had kidnapped the Circle of Light, attacked. Snap Trap grappled with Rodimus while insisting that the Decepticons were well within their rights. His argument was cut short when Drift stuck a sword through his head. Before & After He survived and was placed in the Lost Light's brig, where Rewind filmed him demanding to be let out. The Gloaming

Once Snap Trap and his crew were released, however, they went on to prove that old habits died hard, storming Megatron's trial and attempting to spirit their leader away via orbital jump. However, the Decepticon leader declined to do so, and Snap Trap was presumably defeated and recaptured with the rest of the Seacons and Terrorcons. Predestination: A Beginner's Guide

2019 IDW continuity

Snaptrap was allied with the Ascenticons as the coup against the Senate went down. He joined the Great General Strika Heavies as an elite commando unit opposing Autobot attacks on the occupied Senate. Prime The Heavies took to the field again when the Autobots surfaced at the Forge Pyramid. Titans

Snaptrap and Strika's Heavies assembled with the Decepticon army to attack the Autobot-occupied Crystal City. Their heavy firepower helped to breach the outer defenses. A Dust of Crystals Later, at the battle of Darkmount, Snaptrap fought to bring down the Autobot combiner, Computron. Fate of Cybertron

Commercial appearances

• Snaptrap ran afoul of Quickswitch out at sea. A couple of blasts from the Autobot's hovercraft mode sent Snaptrap fleeing. Quickswitch commercial
• Snaptrap and the Seacons attacked a M.A.R.S. Industries submarine deep underwater. They then combined into Piranacon to wreck havoc in a city. Seacons commercial

Games

Transformers Legends

Using a storm as cover, Snaptrap and the other Seacons attempted to steal oil from an off-shore oil platform. Upon arrival, they were confronted by Waverider and Seaspray. Once the weather subsided, the Seacons were forced to retreat as Autobot reinforcements could now come to aid defend the platform. Deadly Depths

Transformers: Battle Tactics

Snaptrap participated in battles against a variety of opponents, both Autobots and Decepticons. Sometimes there were many of him! He was an Epic character available as a reward in the "Piranacon Hunt" event. Transformers: Battle Tactics

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Snaptrap was a member of the Seacons. Decepticon Directive

Toys

The Transformers

Blastoise, I choose you!

• Snaptrap (Seacon, 1988)

• Team ID number: SE6
• Accessories: atom-smasher rifle, incendiary sword, half-shell shield/chestplate, 2 footplates, left & right combiner fists, super robot head

Released in the fifth year of the original Transformers toyline (fourth year in the European line), Snaptrap transforms into a mechanical land tortoise, which is odd considering the aquatic theme of the Seacons. A lever on his back makes the large cannons over his beast mode head move back and forth in a "pom-pom" reciprocating motion. His large black rifle can be mounted on the rear half of the shell. All four of his legs are articulated, the beast mode head is articulated at the neck and has an opening jaw. In robot mode he is armed with his rifle and large sword. The rear half of the turtle shell can be fitted on his shoulders as a shield.

He forms the torso of the combined mode Piranacon; since the mold uses the "Scramble City" style of combination, he can use any limb-robot of similar construction. The rear of the shell/shield becomes Piranacon's chest. The Piranacon fists that come with Snaptrap allow the combiner to hold any Season in their artillery cannon mode, being designed to hold both a combiner square-peg and a standard 5 mm post accessory.

This toy was concurrently sold in Takara's Super-God Masterforce line as Turtler.

• More information on Snaptrap at TFU.info

• Piranacon (Giftset, 1988)

• Accessories: atom-smasher rifle, incendiary sword, half-shell shield/chestplate, 2 footplates, left & right combiner fists, super robot head

Snaptrap was also available in the Seacon box set, along with his teammates Overbite, Seawing, Skalor, and Tentakil. Nautilator was not included. All of the toys are identical to their individual releases.

Beast Wars

Blastoise, use Hydro Pump!

• God Neptune (Multi-pack, 1998)

• ID number: D-21
• Accessories: sword, shell-shield

A redeco of the Generation 1 Seacon Snaptrap, Halfshell transforms into a mechanical tortoise. Halfshell lacks the large rifle from the original release of the mold, however. A lever on his back makes the large cannons over his beast mode head move back and forth in a "pom-pom" reciprocating motion. He forms the torso of the combined mode God Neptune, and as the mold uses the "Scramble City" style of combination, he can use any limb-robot of similar construction.

He was available only as part of the God Neptune gift set with his teammates Coelagon, Scylla, Sea Phantom, and Terrormander.

For unknown reasons, a great number of unboxed God Neptune sets—lacking all of their accessories, including combiner parts—ended up available on the secondary market. These went for considerably less than the "complete" releases, naturally.

• More information on Halfshell at TFU.info

Timelines

The yellow stands for "danger."

• Piranacon (Multi-pack, 2008)

• Accessories: rifle, sword, half-shell shield/chestplate, 2 footplates, left & right combiner fists, super robot head

A redeco of the Generation 1 mold above, Timelines Snap Trap [sic] was available exclusively as part of a Transformers Collectors' Club-exclusive giftset containing all six Seacons in new color schemes.

This toy was originally intended as a Walmart exclusive set of Energon-series Terrorcons, but was shelved due to a lack of retailer interest. The team was to be called the "Piranhacons", with their combined form "Piranhaking", but this other Snaptrap's name would have remained "Snaptrap" (or maybe "Snap Trap").

• More information on Timelines Snaptrap at TFU.info

Transformers (2010)

• Decepticon Piranacon (Multi-pack, 2010)

• Accessories: rifle, sword, half-shell shield/chestplate, 2 footplates, left & right combiner fists, super robot head

All six Seacons were released as a "shared exclusive" for several online toy merchants (BigBadToyStore in particular), in... well, close to its original colors. Unlike the previous 1988 version gift set, the set now includes all the Seacons: Snaptrap, Overbite, Seawing, Skalor, Tentakil, and Nautilator.

Most of the aqua-blue plastics have been changed to a more greenish seafoam color, and Snaptrap's robot head is now bizarrely enough the same seafoam color (the original being black plastic). The stickers, now pre-applied, also appear to have been remastered after a fashion, as new highlights and gradients have been added to almost all stickers, as well as just being remarkably crisp and vibrant in general. Previous screwed-on connectors have been changed to riveted points.

Just like the previous use of the mold set, certain degradations of the mold are very obvious, although the 5mm holes and pegs have been readjusted somewhat from the much degraded state they were in on the Timelines release. The pegs and holes on all figures still are not exact fits in all cases, however.

The set is packaged in a way reminiscent of the Hasbro Masterpiece-style transparent display box. The toys are fully combined in Piranacon mode, holding Overbite's Targetmaster mode in his right hand and Snaptrap's newly-chromed incendiary sword in the left. The set also includes seven metallic-finish bio cards (the seventh being for Piranacon).

• More information on 2010 "Decepticon Snap Trap" at TFU.info

Kre-O

• Decepticon Piranacon (Micro-Changer Combiner, 2013)

• Set number: A4475
• Pieces: 95
• Known designers: Ed Masiello (Hasbro)

Kre-O Micro-Changer Kreon Snaptrap can be rebuilt from a robot into a turtle with cannons on his shell. He can also contribute his bricks to form Piranacon: his torso forms the super robot's upper torso, plus his helmet inexplicably ends up as the right kneecap.

For some reason, he uses the "human" Kreon style arms with smaller and rounder shoulders, rather than the blockier-shouldered arms that most Transformer Kreons use.

Snaptrap was only available as part of the Piranacon combiner set, along with Overbite, Nautilator, and Tentakil, sold in the second wave of Combiner sets.

• More information on Snaptrap at TFU.info

Generations Selects

どんなトラ？ No no, I'm the American guy.

• Seacons Turtler (Voyager, 2020)

• Release date: January 25, 2020
• Hasbro ID number: TT-GS03
• Accessories: Laser gun, sword, 2 combiner feet/gatling guns, 2 combiner feet claws/knuckles, shield/combiner chestplate, 2 small blades, 2 large cannons

A TakaraTomy-initiated addition to the Generations Selects series, "Seacons Turtler" is an extensive retooling of Power of the Primes Voyager Class Terrorcon Hun-Gurrr, sharing the arms, thighs and many internal workings, transforming into... a valiant attempt at turning that mold into a robotic turtle. While the shell-cannons have lost the pom-pom action, they are now detachable at the base and can be hand-held thanks to using the nigh-universal 5 mm post attachment, plus they can accommodate C.O.M.B.A.T. System Fire Blast effects.

He is also able to form a torso mode for any Combiner Wars-style super robot, but is obviously meant to be the core of King Poseidon. He comes with a pair of newly-tooled combiner feet that resemble the original 1988 Piranacon feet, but actually consist of multiple parts - a core foot component, detachable "talon" toe pieces, and cannons on both sides that can be flipped around, turning the whole assembly into a weapon.

Turtler was released as a TakaraTomy Mall exclusive in Japan. The Seacons were also available via Hasbro Pulse and other online retailers in the U.S. and Canada.

This mold was later redecoed to make Halfshell.

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Snap Trap (スナップトラップ Sunappu Torappu)
• French: Traquenard (Canada, "Trap")