Sixshot

Through the annals of Transformers toys, there has been only one toy dubbed the Ultimate Transformers Challenge. Sixshot was a legend at the playground. For a kid, a robot that turned into something was always awesome (or radical), but a robot that turned into five different vehicles was an impossible dream. To this day Sixshot has remained largely unchanged through his myriad of appearances in Transformers media. There is something about this figure that many people find prolific. Does Sixshot deliver the goods? Let’s find out. One thing I must point out is I got this figure secondhand and I he did not come with his twin rifles, but the figure is perfectly fine without them.

Sixshot is a large toy. Around a foot in height, he looks and feels like a solid toy. Unlike his Autobot counterpart, Quickswitch, Sixshot is almost completely devoid on articulation. He can only rotate his arms at the shoulders, and even then you have to move his chest wings out of the way to allow his arms to rest parallel to the ground. This figures combination of colors and stoic stance make for a toy that successfully straddles the line between looking cool and being functional. That is to say the solid blocks of plastic he is comprised of work well together without the need for painted details.

The details of this figure are surprisingly good. The paper stickers are well crafted with lots of complementary colors and designs to the bare plastic.

In laser pistol mode, Sixshot is fairly sizable toy gun. The handle is more than adequate even for adult hands. This figure comes with a pair of dual flip out guns in each leg so that without the rifles, the gun mode still looks like a weapon.

Sixshot’s next mode is a space fighter. Drawing heavily from what was contemporary sci-fi designs, the whole thing has a very Star Wars or Buck Rogers feel to it. Despite its blocky look, it still looks sleek enough and the small cockpit completes the effect.

As you could probably tell from his robot mode, Sixshot’s familiar car-front shins allow form the front of his “armored carrier” mode. In this form, Sixshot looks right at home with the sci-fi cars that would come to dominate the late Generation 1 era of Transformers. It rolls along on a total of seven plastic wheels.

One of Sixshot’s more infamous modes is the Winged wolf. Looking like one of Generation 1 Predacons, Sixshot takes the form of a mechanical beast with his robot mode limbs serving as as his wolf form’s haunches. He looks somewhat fierce, but I can’t shake the feeling that his big blocky feet and large form makes him kind of cuddly.

The wolf head is nicely sculpted although it doesn’t appear to be very canine like. Its sort of just a generic robot animal. Still the moving jaw is a cool feature. The lower jaw forms the cockpit of Sixshot’s next mode.

A shot from behind shows that Sixshot even has a small tail, which was re-purposed from the “radar dish” from armored carrier mode.

Sixshot’s final mode is a tank. This is the only mode where you make use of his double jointed knees to fold his shins up and over his thighs. The wolf’s jaw forms the cockpit of this mode while the dual leg guns point upward which makes the toy look like a futuristic anti-aircraft tank. I like the use of the green intakes on the front. Makes the tank look like it has a pair of nasty cowcatchers.

For the Headmasters television series, Sixshot used this extra seventh mode called “WINGWOLF” to subdue Ultra Magnus. This is one of the many examples of the Japanese series using additional transformations created by just playing around with the toy.

So is Sixshot deserving of all the love? I think so. While it is true that Sixshot ultimately does the same thing as Quickswitch in where the same limbs are used as different parts, Sixshot has just enough transformation involved with each limb and just enough extra detail that each mode feels complete and well thought out. It is true that most of his modes are cloaked heavily in that “futuristic design” mentality, but here I think it works. I am no ninja consultant, but I think Sixshot is worth a look. He was re-issued once before and he may make another appearance in the Encore line. Be vigilante, the ninja moves quickly and silently.