Sixliner
Review by Scarfang_The_Slayer
Sixliner is a Japanese exclusive character that appeared in the manga "Battlestars: The Return of Convoy." He's a Micromaster combiner made of six members: D Go (leader), Alan, Leaf, Spark, Joe, and Night. All of the members transform into trains and they all have to same exact articulation. Their arms swivel up and down and they bend at the knees due to transformation. Assuming if you want to count that. Well, let's get started!
First up we have Spark! He transforms into a Tokaido 100 line Bullet Train. He's white in this mode with silver windows and blue trim going along his side and the front bumper.
In robot mode we see some red which his head and the wheels peeking out from the sides of his "knees" and dark grey on his torso and legs.
His head is completely red. It would've been ice if they added some silver to the face to keep everything from bleeding together. However, if you have the figure in had and look very close, the details are very sharp for a bootleg so it's not a total miss. Since spark forms the head and main body of Sixliner, you'd think he would be the leader, but online sources say otherwise...
Next we have Leaf who transforms into a Tohoku Bullet Train. His colors in this mode are exactly the same as Spark's. Upon closer inspection the trains have different details. Leaf can form either the left or right arm of Sixliner.
Again, very similar to Spark, red and dark grey are brought into the mix except this time, it's Leaf's torso is red and only his upper legs are dark grey. There's also some silver on his chest as well.
His head is red like Spark's but the only difference is that his face is silver. Besides the visor, the head reminds me of G1 Octane's.
Number three is Alan, who transforms into a TGV Express Train. The front part is red and the rear is white. In between we have some silver lining. Also note that the letters "TGV" are in silver on the rear part of the train. Very nice touch. Alan can form either the left or right arm of Sixliner.
In robot mode we see some dark grey for the entire main body and silver highlights on the "trunk" region.
Again, the head sculpt has sharp detail (in person if the photo doesn't do it justice) and the silver does a good job of breaking up the face from the helmet.
Here we have Joe, who transforms into a Super Hitachi Train. He's completely yellow with dark grey on the front (which is a connection tab for combining), silver windows, and silver going along the bottom. "Twinky" would've been a more appropriate name because that's what he looks like. Joe can form either the left or right leg of Sixliner.
In robot mode Joe is completely yellow with red upper legs, a blue crotch, and a blue "crown" on his head. With all of these primary colors maybe his name should be "Ronald" instead?
Joe's face completely blends in with the rest of his body. From a distance you would assume that the blue crown was his actual face. That's the piece I want to talk about. Even though his face is washed out, Joe has the most unique head sculpt of all the Sixliner members. All because of the crown. Are those lights? Maybe lasers/missile launchers? Only your imagination can tell...
Next up is Night, who has a completely opposite colour scheme as Joe. He's blue with a with a white stripe on his side and silver windows. There's also a white connection tab on the front end of his train mode. Night can form either the left or right leg of Sixliner.
In robot mode we see a lot more white which is his torso and red is brought into the mix, which is his upper legs and wheels. On my sample he and D Go are the most solid out of the group.
His head is completely white but again, even though the photo doesn't do him justice, the head is very well sculpted.
Last, but not least we have the leader of the group D Go! His alternate mode is a steam engine. Retro, but it works. He's dark grey with white trim, some yellow on the front end, and a tiny speck of red on the top. There are unpainted details such as windows and sculpted non-rolling wheels.
In robot mode D Go is dark grey with a red torso. There's silver wrapped around his mid section and a tiny speck of sliver on his face. Like Night, he's very sturdy both for his size and for a KO.
Here's a group shot of everybody in their robot modes and vehicle modes.
Set includes:
1x Sixliner head
1x upper body piece.
1x lower body piece
1x laser gun
2x fists
2x feet
In combined form Sixliner is just a hair over six inches tall which is a good size considering he's a Micromaster. I'm one of those folks who don't care about scale but just for fun I put another Micromaster beside him for size comparison and the scale is almost perfect (at least robot wise anyway...) Seriously, a normal Micromaster comes up to just a little below his knee which should be the same way for normal sized-Transformers figures but I'm not getting into that right now. When doing a size comparison with other Micromasters it seems that the Sixliner crew are a little taller, but that's not true. It's just the extra train kibble.
Would I recommend this set? Individually, the Sixliner crew has one or two loose arms and the paint is a little sloppy but that's about it. The combined form is very light, but holds together very well. Nothing floppy or falling off and he's just as good as when I bought him back in 2008. The few stickers he has show absolutely no signs of peeling/falling off. If you don't have the time or money to track the real one down, this one will do you just fine. He's has no trouble standing on his own, but just be careful that you don't miss and knock him from off of a high shelf.
Posted 6 October, 2014 - 11:00 by Scarfang_The_Slayer |