Black - Plastic - Life: Unique Toys G-02 Sharkies

One of the things that I love about 3rd party releases is that most of them are random! Yes, there's a pattern where they focus more on releasing combiners (not to mention, the Headmasters and the Wreckers) but aside from that, fans mostly are surprised with their offering. And the fact that they are producing some obscure characters for the fans is most welcomed. Wonder how long would it take for Hasbro to release a PROPER Reflector?

After the release of the first 4 figures from their War Lord Beasticons set, Unique Toys, the successor of CHMS, decided to take a detour and release an obscure character (which previously was teased by iGear) from the famous 1986's Transformers The Movie, the Sharticons, dubbed UT-G02 Sharkies.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Made their debut in 1986, Sharkticons are a group of shark-like (well, land-cyber-shark, if you will) soldiers for the Quintessons. Although, despite their name, I myself see more piranha in them rather than sharks. From the picture above, your first impression might not be too far off. The Sharkticons are basically fierce killing machine with almost zero intelligence. And they are big and round. In short, aside from their numbers and also giant razor-sharp teeth paired with those empty eyes, they are just walking potatoes.

The Sharkticons served as the executors for the Quintessons, killing any being sentenced by their masters. However, when it's Kup and Hot Rod's turn, the Sharkticons failed their mission. Making things worst, the Dinobots came to the duo's rescue and by Grimlock's order, turned against their master simply due to their nature of obeying the strongest one.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

Despite the name, Sharkticons were released under the Gnaw which kind of confused me. I can understand that maybe Hasbro wanted a character name for the toys instead of using 'Sharkticons' in general but I can't seem to find any reference to the name Gnaw until Dreamwave's 2003 Cold War comics, giving back story to Gnaw as one of the Sharkticons, who became attached to a young Autobots, Wheelie.

Pic Credit : TFWiki

In Package

Unique Toys G02 Sharkies come in a rather big box with a nice artwork at the front of the box. Having experienced Unique Toys's Maniaking before, the box kinda disappointing me a bit; but to be fair, Sharkies were released way before Maniaking. As the name implied, Sharkies come in a set of 3.

Side View

There was some problem during the shipping to my supplier and my Sharkies arrived with dented (but intact) boxes, am currently waiting for a replacement box.

Sharkies's Bio
Back of the box

Sharkies come in a simple packaging with all 3 figures in one tray together with their guns and flails, aside from the usual tech spec and instruction sheet.

Tech Spec : Front View

Tech Spec : Back View

Instruction Sheet

Alt Mode

I must say, I like them a lot. The sight of this really makes me thinking of getting few more sets just for army-building. But with all the future releases, that might not be a good idea.

*sorry that you can see my reflection through their eyes. such a nice chrome*

Transforming Sharkies from Robot to Alt Mode (and vice-versa) is fairly simple but not boring as I've been transforming all 3 for quite a few times already and I'm still enjoying it.

The plastics used are slightly thinner than that of Maniaking but when you compare the price, I think it's sufficient. Here in Malaysia, each Sharky is roughly the same price as an ordinary Hasbro Deluxe figure.

The detailing on them were nicely done, not at all plain even at the back. Sharky's tail, hands and horns are made out of rubbery plastic, a good choice if you're worried about breaking his hands and horns.

Not all 3 Sharkies are the same, one of them has pinkish purple-colored lips while the other two have light purple-colored lips, with the purpose of making the pinkish purple one as the 'leader', while the other two as the henchmen. Looking back, G1 Gnaw/Sharkticons also comes in the same color as the leader, hence maybe it was Unique Toys' intention of making that as the Not-Gnaw while the other two as the generic Sharkticons.

From the design, there's not much of articulations to be expected. Sharkies' legs and knees are on ball joints, however the knees can't be bend forward as it is using the robot mode's elbow joints which face inwards in alt mode.

The jaws can be opened up to 90° downwards. Inside, the back of the robot's head looks like 2 mini blasters inside of Sharkies's mouth.

Lastly, the hands are on swivel joints and thus allow 360° rotations.

Most people that I know of prefer to have Sharkies in their Masterpiece line in which when compared to MP-08 Grimlock, the size differences tallied with the characters in 1986's Movie. I however, feel that Sharkies fit perfectly in my CHURGs collection as I believe having them in Deluxe size is more logical. As an army, they must be intimidating! And they are not if they are as small as a potato to Grimlock.

Side View

You're not as fierce as when you're 10 times bigger than us, huh?

Robot Mode

As I said previously, I like Sharkies a lot! Kudos to Unique Toys (and iGear for their own version of Sharkticons) for tackling such obscure character. It's hard to re-create G1 characters that has 'weird' design but still make it works without losing the original aesthetic.

The 'Rounded' Bad**ses

Sharkies come in black, light blue, and silver colors with Not-Gnaw having pinkish purple on the chest while the generic Not-Sharkticons has light purple on the chest.

Side View

Back View

Sharkies have a clean design overall aside from the alt mode's hands positioned at the back. However, they are nicely placed and don't interfere with the the posebility.

As you can see, aside from the different chest color, Not-Gnaw and the others have different facial expressions. Finishing wise, both head sculpts are well-done but they do have some paint smudges (in my case, on Not-Gnaw). Aside from that, am quite satisfied with UT's end products.

Each Sharkies comes with a gun and a flail (which is the alt mode's tail). The gun can't be stored in alt mode (or I'm the one that haven't find a way). There's no specific way of storing the alt mode's hands other than rotating and hiding them at the back.

Sharkies come with a ball jointed head, shoulders, elbows, and feet with double jointed thighs. Sharkies however don't have wrist and waist swivel. Despite that, you can still find good way of posing them once you're familiar with them.

Despite being top-heavy, Sharkies are quite stable and easy to pose. Just to make it better, tightening the ball joints on the thighs can make posing them a lot easier.

Despite having a normal deluxe size alt mode, Sharkies are quite small in robot mode. They're roughly around the waist level of Classics Grimlock.

I do have 2 complaints in terms of the design and QC.

The horns are quite loose where they will easily fall off whenever they bump into something. Which is quite often; when you try to transform them between modes.