The Energon Pub

Greetings All,
As most of you know I am a fan of combiners. There are several bots left that are still in need of modern updates, but recently I have been trying to obtain the Takara Micromaster Combiners that are each made up of six team members and form a larger robot. (although because they are made up of Micromasters and kibble, their combined form is about the same size as a modern-day Voyager, but with almost zero articulation.

The first one released as part of Return of Convoy/Battlestars in 1991 was Sixliner
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Sixliner

The Other Four were released as part of Operation Combination in 1992
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Sixturbo
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Sixwing
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Sixbuilder
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Sixtrain

Of course, to obtain all these originals would cost quite a bit. Fortunately, Takara re-released them between 2002 and 2003:
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Transformers:_Micromaster

Additionally, Hasbro released some of these toys as KB Exclusive as part of the “Universe” line. However, while Turbo’s release as “Defensor”, and Train’s release as “Rail Racer” had minimal differences, Builder was recolored as a Decepticon in the tradition of the Original Constructicons, and Wing’s deco as “Superion” was quite different as well.

I’m content to get all the newer versions, in fact I have obtained 4 so far. However, I just realized, to my horror that in 2003, when Takara released Sixwing, they only did it as a Decepticon (as an homage to SG Superion). So basically, there is NO “reissue” of the original Cybertron/Autobot Sixwing…. Also, the Hasbro Universe deco being so different it will not suit my needs….

I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet and try to obtain an original 1992 Sixwing unfortunately, unless someone happens to know of another release, I am not aware of?

I got the Japanese reissued Sixturbo, Sixwing, Sixbuilder, and Decepticon Sixbuilder back in '04 and '05 from an online store called Snarl's Shop or Snarl's Homepage (he seemed to use those interchangeably) for I think $25 a set. Really wanted Sixtrain and Landcross from the same release, but never got around to getting them.

I did have some really good luck a few years ago on Mandarake. For a while they were doing these 1 yen and 100 yen auction lots where they just tossed a bunch of random things from the store together to get rid of them. This was what I saw in one of the auctions:



That was the only picture (I had to blow it up, the only picture in my account is a thumbnail) so it was hard to tell exactly what was in the lot, but two Sixturbo boxes were clearly visible (plus that AM Driver box I was curious about). Decided to take a chance and won the auction for less than a $1 (plus shipping so it was more like $10)!



And as luck would have it, it was indeed a complete set! I have no idea why they weren't able to sell it on the store. So now I have two Sixturbos, not sure what I'll be doing with the second set, probably trade fodder if I think of anything I really want to trade it for.

Emerje

Yeah my history with these is a little odd. I got all of the Hasbro Kay Bee exclusive Universe ones when they initially came out on 2003/04. Of course they were all included when I sold my whole collection at the time in 2007.

Then at Botcon 2013, I saw a vendor had some of the Takara 02/03 re-releases dirt cheap, they were just trying to get rid of then. Since I wasn't back into toys yet, It was just a nice inexpensive item to get for my son. Even though they were "blind boxed" the merchant assured me the 6 boxes were a complete set (it was for Sixturbo, was like $30). Unfortunately we discovered we got only 5 of 6. The 6th was a duplicate of the right arm (Yellow Car), and we were missing the motorcycle which also happened to come with the leg connector, so we couldn't even finish it.

I got the 6th one of ebay a while later...and that was it for a long time. Then a few years later I was doing some random searching with regard to the Manga series and discovered THIS:



It was so amazing and ridiculous, but I love these types of things. I just filed it back away in my mind somewhere. Then late last year when the 3rd volume of the Viz manga was published in English I was reminded of it again, and it inspired me to try to get the other Six-Teams to actually attempt this with my Inferno PotP Combiner (as a stand-in until if/when ever TT makes a new Guard City). I was actually able to get Sixbuilder, Sixtrain, and Sixliner pretty quickly in the last month or so... But had issues with Sixwing.

I just discovered that there was no Autobot reissue in 2003. It was only released as a Decepticon in the TT sets, and the White Chase Variant. The Hasbro Universe "Superion" version is also radically different. So of the 3 different decos released in the early 2000's NONE of them are even close to the original Autobot version. I've seen images of a couple of KO's, but I am very weary of these. I believe they are not the same size, and still not the same coloration, which leaves the ONLY option for me to complete this project, is to purchase an Original 1992 Takara Sixwing, which is needless to say, way too expensive for such a simple toy. Still with no reason for TT to ever reissue them again, I am weighing my options...