Titans Return: Six Shot and Quickswitch Comparisons

[New and Improved Zobovor]

Even though Titans Return Quickswitch is essentially a redeco of Six Shot, the original G1 Quickswitch from 1988 was a completely different toy design than Sixshot from 1987. They both turned into six different things, but that's about all they had in common.

I knew that as soon as I owned both toys, I was going to try to figure out if it was possible to use the toys' multiple moving parts to create transformations that were distinct and at least somewhat different from each other. (I used to do this quite a bit with the Alternators in a more limited way. If I had two of them that I was displaying in robot mode that were based on the same mold, I would always try to adjust the car doors or wheels or something so that the robot configurations were a little different-looking from each other.)

So, here's what I came up with:

http://www.mediafire.com/?5su9kuckn6sss

For the jet modes, you can create a fairly different-looking jet for Quickswitch just by flipping it upside-down. It uses the cockpit for the armored car mode, and I think it's actually more jet-like than Six Shot's official transformation.

For the armored car configuration, there's not a whole lot I could do aside from changing where the guns are attached and creating a minor cosmetic change by flipping out the robot feet and knees to form claw-like appendages. Not a significantly different look, but what can you do.

I wanted to find a way to reconfigure Quickswitch into something more closely resembling his G1 drill tank mode. I tried keeping his robot head flipped out, but it just doesn't pass for a drill in any way, shape, or form. However, using the nosecone of the jet mode for tank mode creates a weird, futuristic-looking weapons array, allowing me to attach the guns in a different place. I also kept the wheels from car mode instead of using the treads, just to mix things up a little.

Where Sixshot was a winged wolf, Quickswitch was allegedly a puma. The wings ended up on G1 Quickswitch's belly in this mode, so I flipped out the stabilizer fins to try to emulate that. Since the new Six Shot uses the guns as his wolf tail (that was originally Quickswitch's trick), I mounted the guns to Quickswitch's back this time.

There is no official gun mode for either of these toys, but both G1 toys turned into guns, and the toys are clearly designed with this in mind (but no allusion is made to it by Hasbro for legal reasons). You can get two pretty different-looking gun configurations if you play around with the positions of the robot arms and the jet nose. Putting the pistols in Quickswitch's robot fists enables you to lock the robot arms to the body and create a really stable gun configuration. (My nine-year-old son was the hand model for these photos, incidentally.)

I thought about coming up with two separate submarine modes, but honestly it's not a very customizable configuration. Also, it's not at all authentic to the G1 characters in the first place. So, if Sixshot is going to just have a random seventh mode, I just went crazy and invented one for Quickswitch. In the grand tradition of other Leader-class Titans Return toys, he's got a base mode. The ramp connectors are, unfortunately, in the wrong place to link up to any other toys. But, half the other toys don't really have the functional connectivity as advertised, so it's all good.

And, finally, we have robot mode. There's virtually nothing I can do from the waist down, so it's all about the positioning of the wings and guns. G1 Quickswitch had a huge assembly attached to his head (the jet mode's wings were actually connected to his helmet) but there was no way to replicate that without just positioning the wings behind his head, which is what Six Shot already does. Turning the wheels on his shoulders with the red hubcaps facing forward sort of mirrors the round, red peg holes on the G1 toy's shoulders, so there's that.

Obviously, I could customize the hell out of Quickswitch if I really wanted to make him look more like his G1 self, but it was fun to try to come up with some different transformations without making physical modifications to the toy. Comments and suggestions are welcome!


Zob (as long as you're nice to me, that is... had a horrible encounter with a customer yesterday and I'm still upset about it)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

1. I consider both of your gun modes incorrect. The little barrels on Six Shot are folded in!
2. If the beast head is between the wings in gun mode, then you also lose the beast mouth trigger.
3. You didn't mention tank mode, but from the pictures it looks like Quickswitch doesn't get to use treads in any mode.

[New and Improved Zobovor]

On Tuesday, September 26, 2017 at 1:42:07 PM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> 1. I consider both of your gun modes incorrect. The little barrels on Six
> Shot are folded in!

Oops! Well, it's not like there were instructions I could follow...

> 2. If the beast head is between the wings in gun mode, then you also lose the
> beast mouth trigger.

This is true. However, you can use the landing gear from the jet mode as a substitute trigger. Unfolding the cockpit on the wolf's neck also works, sort of. I admit it's a little ungainly.

> 3. You didn't mention tank mode, but from the pictures it looks like
> Quickswitch doesn't get to use treads in any mode.

Call it a vestigial part of the toy's design that goes unused.


Zob (sort of like half the features on Fortress Maximus! Zing!)

[Gustavo Wombat]

New and Improved Zobovor <zobo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Even though Titans Return Quickswitch is essentially a redeco of Six
> Shot, the original G1 Quickswitch from 1988 was a completely different
> toy design than Sixshot from 1987. They both turned into six different
> things, but that's about all they had in common.
>
> I knew that as soon as I owned both toys, I was going to try to figure
> out if it was possible to use the toys' multiple moving parts to create
> transformations that were distinct and at least somewhat different from
> each other. (I used to do this quite a bit with the Alternators in a
> more limited way. If I had two of them that I was displaying in robot
> mode that were based on the same mold, I would always try to adjust the
> car doors or wheels or something so that the robot configurations were a
> little different-looking from each other.)

In my collection, a lot of redecos lose their accessories, and they are
given to other toys to change their appearance.

Octane doesn’t need an Optimus gun, and if I am willing to make Titans
Return Optimus do without too, then Quickswitch can get shoulder cannons
like Powermaster Optimus Prime, to change his profile a bit.

And the gattling guns from WFC Seekers always end up on a toy in the main
toybox... They really are great weapons, and look great on Twintwist.

But, adding some new accessories to the alternate transformations might
give Quickswitch just a bit more difference. The Optimus guns fit nicely
onto the tank mode to become manned gun turrets, for instance.



--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Tuesday, September 26, 2017 at 6:24:20 PM UTC-5, New and Improved Zobovor wrote:
> On Tuesday, September 26, 2017 at 1:42:07 PM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:
>
> > 1. I consider both of your gun modes incorrect. The little barrels on Six
> > Shot are folded in!
>
> Oops! Well, it's not like there were instructions I could follow...
>
> > 2. If the beast head is between the wings in gun mode, then you also lose the
> > beast mouth trigger.
>
> This is true. However, you can use the landing gear from the jet mode as a substitute trigger. Unfolding the cockpit on the wolf's neck also works, sort of. I admit it's a little ungainly.
>

too far forward, hard to reach while holding the gun.

Also,your submarine and gun are remarkably similar. could mount the guns seperated to the holes in gun mode as one way to differentiate.

> > 3. You didn't mention tank mode, but from the pictures it looks like
> > Quickswitch doesn't get to use treads in any mode.
>
> Call it a vestigial part of the toy's design that goes unused.
>

Poor Quickswitch with those horrible vestigial parts, the other Autobots must think he's some weird freak.

>
> Zob (sort of like half the features on Fortress Maximus! Zing!)

Fortress what? Who? There hasn't been a toy by that name since the 80's

[New and Improved Zobovor]

On Wednesday, September 27, 2017 at 2:39:59 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> In my collection, a lot of redecos lose their accessories, and they are
> given to other toys to change their appearance.

I think that maybe I am a little too anal-retentive to do that. I have a hard enough time remembering which guns and things actually came with which toys, let alone a second, arbitrary pairing of my own choosing!

> But, adding some new accessories to the alternate transformations might
> give Quickswitch just a bit more difference. The Optimus guns fit nicely
> onto the tank mode to become manned gun turrets, for instance.

I really wish there were some red guns with huge wings on them, because that's what a Quickswich toy would really need. Your Octane/Optimus gun idea isn't a bad one, though.


Zob (gonna go dig through the toy boxes, I guess)

[New and Improved Zobovor]

On Saturday, September 30, 2017 at 5:21:52 PM UTC-6, New and Improved Zobovor wrote:

> I really wish there were some red guns with huge wings on them, because that's
> what a Quickswich toy would really need.

Yeah, nothing else I found digging through the boxes will work as well as Quickswitch's existing guns. His guns are such a fundamental part of so many transformations that they really need to exhibit the correct color profile.

On a mostly-irrelevant note, it's weird to possess the foreknowledge that Slugslinger is the last Titans Return toy I'm ever going to buy.


Zob (assuming I can snag Arcee in the next few days, that is)

[banzait...@gmail.com]

I really like your quick switch base mode. It's actually better than some official base modes.

-Banzaitron