Six Shot My girlfriend asked me which one I like better Transformers Generations Titans Return Leader Item No.: Asst. B4697 No. C0286 Manufacturer: Hasbro Includes: Decepticon Revolver, 2 blasters Action Feature: Transforms from robot to car to wolf to jet to tank to "submarine" (laser gun) Retail: $44.99 Availability: February 2017 Other: I hope the answer won't upset her
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Despite being reissued numerous times in Japan to varying (decreasing) levels of interest, Six Shot hasn't had a lot of time on US store shelves since the original toy nearly 30 years ago. The character is famous for having six modes - seven if you could "wingwolf," or eight if you see the submarine mode as the laser pistol when you flip it over - and is something of a good bad guy on the Transformers Headmasters anime. Basically, he's a ninja robot who is sort of your "Dinobot" character in that he holds some sort of respect with the good guys. If you didn't deep dive into the international fandom, you probably don't give a rip about him beyond the fact that it's a big, impressive toy that does a lot of things.

Takara-Tomy and Hasbro did a bang-up job translating the toy to modern standards. At first glance he looks like the original toy was just given more joints, but you'll notice changes to the color layout, pre-applied labels, and abundant articulation< The head sculpt - even with the head gimmick - has been changed so the forehead crest looks more like a bandanna than the "V" shape that was very, very popular on Japanese robot toys of the late 1980s. (Go look at the head of some of your Micromasters Combiners. I'll wait.) The hands perfectly grip 5mm pegs for weapons, meaning the two included blasters work just fine and dandy. The head turns well, and can collapse inside the body for transformation - you may wish to remove the "face" part so the vehicle modes have a pilot. The sheer amount of articulation and moving panels makes this one of those rare $50 toys that feels like you're getting $50 worth of engineering and plastic - it's big, and it does a lot of things. And it has a tiny buddy.

The 1.5-inch robot Titan Master Decepticon Revolver is green and looks a lot like Jack from the Headmasters anime. Jack is someone Six Shot killed, so go figure. Hw was more blue, while this one is greener - perhaps we'll see a Japanese deco variant for the purists. Revolver is largely unpainted, but his detailing shows up well. Articulation is the same as the entire rest of the line - you've got 5 joints on a robot who can stand, sit, and be a head like the best of them.

Of particular note, the tiny head/face mode has kanji on the forehead that is for the number "six." I'm sure you can guess why.

There are many modes - the big robot is as good as (let's be honest, better than) most of the Leader-class toys out of Hasbro, thanks in part due to a dedication to preserving what originally made the toy from the 1980s great - functionality. Fans generally lose sight of "fun" when "super-posable" becomes available, gleefully trading away thunder-punches or firing rockets when they could instead have sixteen points of articulated evil. The instructions start off with the tank mode, which I found to be a little wobbly - the wheels don't quite snap into place, but at least it looks good. It looks like it could shoot down some planes, fore sure. It can roll, but in my findings if you try to move it around the pieces will start to adjust and shuffle out of place. It's still a fine mode, but it could be more stable.

The jet is a lot like various starfighters you've seen over the years, looking a bit like an X-Wing fighter if you squint. It also looks a bit like Energon Mirage/Dreadwing. Everything fits in place nicely and it's quite stable, although I do have some concern that the silver painted wings might get scraped up over time if you pop the cannons on and off them repeatedly. I can't really go into too much detail about the sculpt and it being cohesive, because it's not particularly cohesive. With six modes, it's going to look a little jumbled - and it does. You can see kibble from other modes hanging out, but not as much as I might expect given how some recent triple-changers have been carried off.

A car mode feels like a bit of a stretch - it's sturdy, solid, and compacted in nicely. It does not look like any car you've likely driven in over the years, but it does have seating for Titan Masters figures and rolls well enough on my desk. The wings "snap" into place loudly, which has me worried about long-term durability and paint-scraping thanks to the silver paint. It's nifty, it's fun, your kids will love it. It just doesn't look like a real-world automobile at all, although I guess there's an unlimited quantity of that to be had in the various movie lines.

The wolf mode is more of a winged wolf, and it's chunky. The robot arms and legs become the wolf's arms and legs, with the fold-out head coming with a giant cavity in it which you can plug with Decepticon Revolver. Why? I have no idea - there are lots of places in which you could hide the little guy, but they went for the neck. It works. The wolf's head opens and closes, but I found getting the rear legs extended properly to be a little tricky. It's very much a G1 mode in that it's blocky and stiff, awkward and inelegant, green and purple. You wouldn't have it any other way.

Rounding out the modes is a submarine, because it's 2017 toy guns make people squeamish. The original toy's final mode was a laser gun not unlike Shockwave, with the wings of the vehicles acting as a grip for the weapon. You'll notice that the submarine is just the laser gun flipped upside-down with no other changes, so the mode is totally still there. It's not a remotely convincing submarine, but it's a nicely sized roleplay blaster weapon.

This feels like a toy where they started with a robot and built in as many features as humanly possible, and it not only worked but it worked so well they reused the tooling to make other toys like Quickswitch (who's getting a new toy shortly) and Greatshot - as far as I know, he is not. If you enjoyed the whole concept of "Phase Sixers" in the comics, you'll be super pumped to get Six Shot. Heck, if you liked the Japanese cartoons you should be double-pumped. From where I sit, none of the fiction appearances made a huge impact so I'm just happy to pick up the toy and futz with it. It offers a lot of stuff to do if you're fidgety, so consider giving it a shot when you see it in store shelves. Or just order it online.

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