Piranhacon is a late-end combiner in the US history of G1 combiners. So late, in fact, that he never showed up in the actual show. Only the Headmasters cartoon in Japan. That didn’t stop Hasbro from releasing the team, and while I never bought any of them, Big Bad Toy Store later re-issued the whole set – here’s what we got:
Yikes. I mean, he’s not terrible, but with that giant head, squat appearance and super-weird waist, he’s one goofy looking Gestalt.
Enter Crazy Devy – the 3rd party Aces, specializing in upgrade parts for G1 Transformer combiners. With a few of these little packages:
Things start to look better for ol’ Piranhacon – Starting with that giant, dis-proportioned head and those puny little cannons on his back:
Crazy Devy updated the head to a more normal-sized (for a combiner) version that even lights up (though, that feature is a little touchy) and some massive cannon add-ons!
Then they released the sword upgrade:
I don’t know why combiners always need to use swords, but if you’re gonna wield a blade, at least make it a big honkin’ super-chopping blade, amirite?
Finally, and most recently, they addressed that goofy looking waist assembly. Now, even though the stock photo is what I consider, mis-transformed (Snap Trap’s thighs should be at an angle, not horizontal), even if it was correctly positioned, he still had a goofy, puny waist. So…
The end result is quite amazing:
Now THIS is how Piranhacon is supposed to look! Proportions are fixed, weapons upgraded, and repro-lables applied! Yes, that’s right, Reprolables makes a (somewhat hard to find) X-8 upgrade for the set, not to be confused with the regular replacement set, the upgrade mainly adds stylized Seacon Decepticon logos, which are very nice. You can find the set here.
BBTS’s Piranhacon is still considerably cheap, so its worth while to pick up the Crazy Devy upgrades and really make him stand out.
Up next – Unbeknownst to Sunstreaker and Inferno, apparently Sideswipe and Red Alert are a duo? Who knew?!
Stay tuned!
Pax Cybertron 
I guess I never realized just how oversized his original head was. I like the cannon add-ons, but I’m still not too sure about that HUGE sword.
Yeah, its big….too big. lol. Yeah, the sword is just kinda…meh. If he’s gonna have one, it might as well be big, but I’m more of a “combiners use brute strength not weapons” kinda guy.
Excellent! Should give me a clearer picture of how my still-goofy piranhacon will turn out to be with the upgrades. $$ is an issue though.sigh
I’m waiting on the feet upgrade too, so stay tuned, because he’s not done yet! Yeah, money can be an issue, bu the parts run relatively cheap these days, like 20-25 bucks, which isn’t bad at all.
You should see the leg extenders they made for Predaking…he’s taller than TFC Hercules!
Hey, those CD upgrades actually make Piranacon look good!
They’re so expensive though. Where do you get yours?
Wait till you see the feet upgrade. Ankle Tilts and some more height (just a little) will really make him shine!