Transformers Titans Return Sixshot on Amazon for $35

Skritz wrote:Sixshot is pretty hit and miss but I'd say he's worth it while on any kind of sale if you are remotely interested in the character or his concept. His articulation is a bit lacking but that's in part because he is a rather slavish update of the G1 figure to the point of crippling it a little bit. His lack of waist and wrist swivel as well as melee weapon is a real bummer for a guy associated with ninja stuff. He may yet be one of the least flexible ninjas to ever exist. That said, he has a plus in that you can transform him to all mode without ever touching his head titanmaster gimmick.

Are there better Sixshot out there? Yes, but they are all third party. At the very least one could enjoy all his fanmode potential.

I really only got him because I need places to put Titan Masters.

bodrock wrote:I got Sixshot by pure impulse -- I had to know how he compared to the original and was hoping for max poseability! It ain't bad.

I really liked Alpha Trion and Lione -- I see a fair amount of surplus for the former, but I hope others enjoyed him too.

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Your ability to make toys that I don't think look good, look good, never ceases to amaze me. Guess I'm gonna have to bust out Alpha Trion again when I get home


Having never experienced G1 Sixshot I have to admit I was a little let-down by how incredibly abstract most of his modes were (I mean what car, sci-fi or otherwise, has 1/3 of its mass in front of its front wheels). On the other hand, his relative super-chunkiness, slightly-limited articulation and semi-realistic-at-best alt-modes gave me shades of the UT toys, so I guess he managed to somehow squeeze a bit of nostalgia out of me as well.

I wouldn't say he's the best Leader of TR (though admittedly I haven't been incredibly wowed by any of TR's Leaders either, good as they all are), but in my opinion he's pretty much worth the price of admission even without a significant price-drop. I bought mine at the standard slight-TRU-markup since that was the only B&M I could find him at, and I'm still pretty satisfied, so make of that what you will.

Skritz wrote:I'm not gonna lie that my enjoyment of Alpha Trion come solely out of the fact of 1) having an AT figure to begin with and 2) his Beast mode and design reminding me of a Transmetal, down to the derpy half-formed 'vehicle' mode.

A Space Age Carrier is still more of a vehicle than most Transmetals have ever been

Thanks Qwan! I try to give any bot I've spent money on some love -- especially if one of their modes fit some theme in my head.

But yeah, as much fun as AT can be, I've never bothered with his craft-type thang. I like him as a barbarian sage and liocorn, though!

Skritz wrote:To me, his lion-mode and large armored look remind me of a wizened yet-still-badass king, like some sort of aged King Arthur. While he may be generally remembered as an 'old sage' in the modern era, it is worth remembering that back in the cartoon Alpha Trion (or rather A3, as he was known) was part of the rebellion against the Quintesson. So it's not implausible to see him as some old badass who is equally an intellectual and a powerful warrior.

It is worth noting that due to molding, TR Alpha Trion has a shorter beard than his actual depiction. Maybe that's just Alpha Trion in his robot fifties rather than eighties? /headcanon-ing the hell out of one toy....

The Titans Return version made me think of him as Master Bra’tac from Stargate SG-1.

See, it does require a bit of headcanon to explain what the hell this Alpha Trion is supposed to repesent: while his design clearly harken to G1 cartoon Alpha Trion in head and color, the lion body is a clear homage to the 3H comic Leobreaker recolor which got scrapped.

So, okay, it's a meta homage which is damn cool. However it still beg the question where or how this guy's design fit into continuity...and the answer is problably 'nowhere' because he's just a toy in the Generations toyline. But speculating on such minute details is certainly something the fandom does, especially given that nowadays we can be assured pretty much everything is 'canon' to some degree in that it exist somewhere in the multiverse. Generally, we can assume design changes to a character are just artistic license in the engineering but that they still nonetheless 'represent' that character, such as how Generations Armada Starscream can be officially seen as an Armada figure inside the Generations line, even if the design was used in comics.

So is he a form of the (a?) G1 A3/Alpha Trion? He appears in some promotional material and there have been universal clusters named for far less. Is he Aligned Alpha Trion? Is he 'Alpha Trizer' from the Wing universe? Or am I simply overthinking a single figure? Probably.

Kurona wrote:He's based on both his previous Botcon toys -- the Vector Prime repaint (hence the alt-mode and the chest thingy) and the planned BW lion repaint. It's honestly pretty interesting to behold, especially in a line that is so incredibly G1-orientated.

I know, which is why his amalgamated design make me speculate all the more! He's the only retail Alpha Trion figure to exist and he's a big pile of crazy Botcon homages to boot, where you'd think that had they wanted a G1-accurate Alpha Trion figure they could have just retooled Scourge given that it is semi-canon that G1 Alpha Trion is some sort of space car and/or hovercraft.

Mind you I'm not complaining, he's certainly one of the most unique and unexpected releases in recent years.

No wait, we both got it wrong: it's a Beast Machine lion figure called Snarl.

Sabrblade wrote:Fun Pub gave the TR Alpha Trion toy a place in fiction by using it as SG Alpha Trion's upgraded form, lion mode and all, as many of their final prose stories of 2016 were giving heavy advertisement attention to mass retail toys (Combiner Wars in particular) from both Hasbro and Takara.

Huh, guess I must have missed that detail. Oh well now I know. And kno- well you know how that saying goes.

Personally I'd be all in favor of more of these unmade concepts being revisited later in toylines.