TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

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Kupimus (aka Clocker)'s review: Sixliner

Name: Sixliner (Alan, Deego, Joe, Leaf, Night and Spark)
Faction: Cybertrons
Sub-group: Micromaster combiner

Sixliner is the combined form of the Liner Team and the younger brother of Sixtrain. Though still considered a rookie, he's been thrust into positions of great importance among the Autobots; both being the de facto leader of the Micromasters based on Earth in the early 1980's (before Optimus Prime, Megatron and their forces would awaken from their crash-induced slumber), and as a member of the elite Battlestars group.

You can find the full fictional history of Sixliner on transformers wiki. I haven't read the Battlestars comic so it wouldn't be right for me to give a synopsis of it. There are five versions of this mold this one, the original Sixliner, Sixtrain, reissue Sixtrain and red Sixtrain. I would say that Sixtrain has the better colors, but Sixliner was more easily available to me.

Each was sold separately and you could only tell who was in the box by the number on the lower left-hand side of the box. 1=Deego, 2=Spark, 3=Alan, 4=Leaf, 5=Joe and 6=Night.

Deego (D-go)

Deego is the leader of the team and transforms into a black and gold steam engine. He has quite a lot of good detailing which puts the legends Devastator to shame, the Autobot symbol in a good predominant position. His only articulation is at the shoulders (they move up and down) and he is capable of sitting and that's it. This is one of the Micromasters whose head is buried in the underside of the vehicle mode, so his head might move. Strangely for a leader of a combiner team, he is practically unimportant to the combiner. He fixes on the backside and is supposed to form the back of Sixliner, but it doesn't matter if you leave him on or off, Sixliner still looks stupid from the back. However you have to buy him because he comes with Sixliner's gun and more importantly his head.

Spark

Spark transforms into an Okaido 100 line bullet train, which is white and blue and very nice looking. In robot mode his arms move up and down like Deego's did. Spark is the only one on the team whose head is free to be moved and it can be moved back and forth. He can't sit. Spark comes packaged with one of Sixliner's feet and Spark himself forms the chest and if you have Deego that means spark also technically forms the insides.

Alan

Alan transforms into a TGV Express train and is orange and grey and his train mode ties with Deego as the best looking. His arms move and buying him grants you Sixliner's pelvis and upper legs. Alan becomes one of the arms.

Leaf

Leaf transforms into a Tohoku bullet train which is really similar to Spark's alternate mode but green (maybe that's why he's called Leaf) and white and he too can move his arms up and down. Leaf becomes the other arm and he also comes with Sixliner's other foot.

Joe

Joe transformers into a Super Hitachi train which is white with black windows. He comes with both fists and Joe himself forms one of the lower legs. His train mode is sort of similar to the last of the liner team.

Night

If you have noticed the paragraphs for each Micromaster getting shorter, it's because they are all quite similar. Night transforms into a EF66 "Blue" train which is well blue. He forms the other lower leg and comes with the rest of the torso which is shaped like two wings, well exactly like Superion/Sixwing's torso really which is a bit lazy and it doesn't combine with all the accessories to form a jet like there's did either.

Each of the Micromasters have connectors so they can combine with one another to form one half of a train so the 6 become 3.

Sixliner

Combining all the above together grants you Sixliner who has all the above colors plus the red on the head, orange and gold on the Sixwing torso, silver on the upper legs and the black on his fists and feet. That's a lot of colors. Sixliner is about the size of a deluxe and has some surprising posability features. From the waist down he can't move at all, but his arms can move outwards, up and down, can bend at the elbows and hold his gun as well (and his fists have little guns on the end of them as well). His head is the most impressive thing though. It fixes on top of Spark's head and is more movable than a ball joint, because spark's head can still move back, you can move it into quite a few different positions. Possibly the most posable head from the G1 era. The only negative apart from the legs not being able to move are that the screws are visible from the front on one of the legs and one of the arms, because the screws for the right are on the same side of the train as the left.

The differences from this reissue and the original Sixliner are that the stickers on the original are omitted here, which I think actually improves them.

Transformation: 1/10. almost non-existent really the Micromasters just generally stretch to transform.
Durability: 7/10. The individuals are bricks, and the shoulder connectors look too small and stumpy to snap, but the torso and upper legs are hollow.
Fun: 8/10. Its always fun to have a decent combiner and the arms' and heads' posability allow for some cool poses on the shelf. I find moving the head fun.
Price:9/10. £1.99 brand new for each one and they must have made loads because they came out in 2002 and they still are fully stocked in my town centre's comic shop.
Overall:7/10. Sixliner isn't the most impressive transformer ever, but it's nice to have a Japanese exclusive G1 TF on the shelf. I like him.