Transformers: Titans Return Sixshot

 

 Leader class Sixshot is a figure that I had a hard time figuring out my feelings on. The first Leader class toy from the Titans Return line that I purchased, Sixshot is a six changer: a robot with five alt modes. The issue with Transformers that possess more than two modes is that the more things a figure is asked to do, the worse it tends to do them. This is something that is a real characteristic of triple changers: they are good robots with one generally strong alt mode, and a second alt mode that is what it purports to be if you squint at it just right. Sixshot is asked to do a whole lot.

Sixshot has a somewhat complex history in the Transformers mythology. Introduced in G1 cartoon form in the US in the Rebirth miniseries and in the Japanese Headmasters series as an actual character, Sixshot would later show up in the IDW *-ation sequence of comics, and would be referenced in the later More Than Meets the Eye series as a Phase Sixer, the walking planet killers that Megatron keeps in reserve to appear at the end of a campaign and burn the ashes left in the wake of a Decepticon military action. This list of Phase Sixers includes Sixshot, Black Shadow and Overlord, presumably amongst others. Sixshot has also been a ninja of some kind in Headmasters.

Sixshot’s alt modes include a tank, a space fighter, an armored personnel carrier, a wolf, and a blaster or, as it is known these days, a submarine. In the Headmasters cartoon Sixshot masters a seventh (!!!!) form, the deadly winged wolf mode. Each of these modes will be passably realized in this figure, but none of them are particularly good. Again, the more things you ask a Transformer to do, the fewer things it will do well.

I guess let’s start with the robot mode. It’s pretty ok, looking like G1 Sixshot all the way. The Titanmaster is Revolver, who is a plain white face plated face that is clearly Sixshots’ face, and Revolver fits into a helmet that folds out of Sixshots’ chest. The robot has some fairly basic articulation: elbows, shoulders, hips. Knees, but the knees are problematic, as they are joints necessary for the various transformations, and they move both forwards and backwards, relying on friction to keep them in place in the robot form. There is no conceivable way that they do not wear out, leaving a floppy Sixshot who can’t stand up under his own power. As it is, still in his incredibly new state, Sixshot tends to lean forwards or back, shifting under his own weight, and I know that this is just going to worsen with time and age. Nothing clicks into place or anything, and it’s kind of a baffling design choice to have not provided any kind of stabilizing or locking part in a place so in need of one such as knees. There’s no waist joint, also because of transformation and the need for the torso to be one solid chunk. The final result is that Sixshot is a real brick of a robot, just like his G1 toy. In fact, Titans Return Sixshot is basically G1 Sixshot with elbows and bad knees, and that’s essentially it. While a number of the Titans Return figures have been more or less updated and more poseable versions of their G1 counterparts, Sixshot basically IS G1 Sixshot with a few extra pin joints. While this is at first a real let down, as I was expecting a modern version of Sixshot on par with, say, Weirdwolf in terms of G1 update, what I got was a $40-some dollar G1 Sixshot. Which, honestly, is great, because have you seen the prices on vintage Sixshots these days? The $40 Target price is an absolute steal compared to what a MISB vintage or even reissue Sixshot would run.  Sixshots’ weapons once again combine to allow a Titanmaster to sit in them, but once again, these weapons are much better than the initial Titanmaster weapons.

Tank.

APC. I think.

Tank mode and APC mode are virtually the same, so it is possible to lump them together for review purposes. Each one is a competent vehicle, although non-distinct and “Cybertronian” enough to be forgiven their fairly abstract appearances. The biggest differences come in the seating for the Titanmaster (in an enclosed cockpit for tank mode, and an open top, jeep seating arrangement for the APC) and the wheels. The APC mode uses the robot legs to form the front end, while the same legs form the weapon array of the tank. Both modes are ok, and again, since they are futuristic or Cybertronian vehicle modes, one kind of has to wonder if it even matters that the vehicles are as vague as they end up being.

 

The same can be said for the jet mode. Sure, it’s a jet or a spaceship if you use your imagination, but it’s not even as strong as Titans Return Astrotrains’ spaceship mode, and that isn’t really the strongest alt mode out there. It works, and in truth, it’s probably Sixshots’ best alt mode, and it’s probably my favorite to boot. The only true drawback to the jet mode is that the wings look too short, and I feel that compromises the overall profile of the vehicle. If they were longer, the jet mode would be the clear winner of alt modes here; but they can’t be longer, because then they wouldn’t peg into place for the other modes, or would stick out too far in those modes. The more things you try to get a figure to do, the less it will do right. But, Sixshot does seem to get it right with the jet mode, as the Cybertronian vehicle comes with a built in suspension of disbelief and its status as alien take on an earth vehicle grants a lot of leeway in the believability department. It’s also obvious that this mode is something, as opposed to the majority of the Cybertronian alt modes that are just folded up robots with one or two visual cues that the pile of parts is a tank or a car. I’m glaring at you, movie toylines, or hideous Fall of Cybertron Combaticons. The jet mode even gets tailfins courtesy of the little chest wings Sixshot sports, and again, this is just the most complete alt mode, too short wings and protruding robot arms notwithstanding.

Wolf mode, I don’t know. I’ve never understood the purpose of this. The original Sixshot came along in that wonderful post-1986 animated movie time when Transformers were getting both more adventurous and more abstract. Sixshot was marketed as the Solo Transformer Assualt Unit, the One Man Gang if you will, of the Decepticon military, and so the army of one idea was served by giving him multiple options. The wolf one just never made much sense. To be fair, at the time, Transformers were Headmasters and Powermasters and Targetmasters and Pretenders and even had animal forms beyond the “normal” ones like dinosaurs and bugs, so a wolf fits into that universe perfectly well. I just never got it. Wolf mode may be the worst one here. The wolf head, for starters, is on the end of a long, swing out neck piece, but it is long and slender and stupid looking. The Titanmaster can sit inside the wolf head, right behind the eyes, as one generally does when riding a wolf. Duh. The robot weapons form a tail in theory, and the robot arms and legs turn into wolf legs, but horribly so. The result is a wolf that is very tall, and very awkward looking. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it just sucks. The big improvement on the G1 wolf mode is that the forelegs are poseable, thanks to the robot elbows, but this makes very, very little difference or improvement. I’ve seen fanmodes for the lynx mode of Combiner Wars Sky Lynx that look much better than this official and planned for mode. The wolf head doesn’t move at all, but does have an opening mouth. All in all, this is just a terrible mode.

Yeah, I see a submarine.

The final alt mode was a blaster, following in the grand tradition of other Transformers who turned into weapons that a child could wield. Megatron, Galvatron, Shockwave, Sixshot, horrific Autobot six changer Quickswitch, all proud members of the We Turn Into Weapons Club. But now, it’s 2017, or 2016 when this figure was being developed, and toy guns are not the popular draw they once were. Submarine mode is Sixshot’s blaster mode turned upside down, and it requires some imagination, but I like it. The wings, which in blaster mode would serve as the handle, do resemble a conning tower on a sub, and the illusion is really only broken by the open seats for Titanmasters. If they had an enclosed cockpit, the submarine mode would be totally legitimate, and believable in that Cybertronian alt mode way. And besides, we could always use more seafaring alt modes, and how feasible is a giant flight capable blaster anyway? And, if your ass damage is so severe from submarine mode, turn the damn thing over and there’s your blaster, you big baby. Geez. Sub mode is more imaginative and gives Sixshot a true all terrain, all situation mission profile, as a master of land, sea and air. 

Problem solved, nerds.

All in all, I feel kind of bad saying that Sixshot is a bad figure, so I have to settle on him being a “bad” figure. He does the thing that I am perhaps happiest with the entire toyline doing, and that is presenting a brand new figure in an as close to G1 upgrade as possible, in Sixshot’s case perhaps more so than any other figure in the line. Figures like Skullcruncher and Weirdwolf do the same general thing, and they made me happy; but Sixshot is a letdown, mainly because it is the G1 figure with like three new joints. It’s a byproduct of the things the toy needs to do that there is so little improvement on the overall toy: the more things you ask a Transformer to do and all that. In the late 1980’s, Sixshot was a marvel of engineering, and in my memory at least, a toy that I never handled but thought to be a nearly impossible masterwork in the franchise. I can remember seeing pictures of Sixshot in the little product catalog that came with Transformers, completely unable to conceive of how one robot could change into so many things. Years ago, I got a junker Sixshot in a lot I’d won on eBay, and wasn’t all that impressed. It was missing the weapons, which I’d heard were pretty vital to the enjoyment of the figure, and I eventually sold it off myself. With this new Sixshot in my collection, I feel that I’ve filled at the Sixshot shaped holes my collection could ever possess, and for the relatively low price of a modern day Leader class figure. I’ve been trying to mentally place Sixshot among the other Leader class figures I’ve bought over the last couple years, and I think, honestly, he’d come in last place among the Seeker mold, the Megatrons and Ultra Magnus. Sixshot is not bad, and there’s nothing at all wrong with the toy. It’s capable and functional and everything. But there’s nothing really special about it either, and for me, that’s what sucks the positives out of it. I really liked the previously mentioned Leader class figures pretty much immediately, and even though I have not messed around with them at length recently, if I pick one of them up and start transforming it, I feel satisfied and rewarded. Sixshot does not provide that type of feeling. Again, a moderately upgraded G1 Sixshot for $40+ is awesome, compared to the results of a very fast eBay search that has worn out looking and incomplete G1 Sixshots going for over $50. But Sixshot feels strange, being the first new figure in a current (non movie) toy line in quite some time that left me feeling disappointed.