Victory Greatshot

Prelude: Greatshot, available only in Japan, is an extensive retool of Sixshot, whom I've previously reviewed. It's been a while, though, so Greatshot gets the full treatment. Just so you know, though, my Greatshot is somewhat incomplete. He's missing his two white guns, so I've replaced them with the guns of my Sixshot, who are not Sixshot's real guns, either. Greatshot actually has white rifles. He's also missing two kibble parts that usually hang off his knees, but you only really notice that in jet mode (more on that below). So he's incomplete, his white parts have yellowed. How about the rest of him?

Robot Mode: Cramming six different modes into one toy inevitably leads to compromises. In the case of Greatshot it gives us a robot mode that's huge, but little more than a brick. He can swivel his arms at the shoulders (if you move those chest wings out of the way, that is) and bend his knees (both of them together, since they're connected), that's it. Interestingly enough my Sixshot has independent legs, though that’s only because the connecting piece between the legs apparently broke. It doesn’t hurt the figure, though, so I’m thinking about removing it on my Greatshot as well to give him independent legs.

Compared to Sixshot there are numerous differences here. First is the color, of course, as Greatshot has pretty much the typical Autobot colors (white, red, blue) instead of Sixshot's green and purple. He also comes with a new head, complete with fold-out horns, a different chest plate, and different shoulder pieces. His weapons have apparently also been altered slightly (couldn't tell you since I don't have them). The rest of the figure remains the same, lack of articulation and all.

Not much else to write here. Greatshot’s robot mode suffers a bit from the requirements of having five more modes that need to fit into the figure, but it does look very cool and personally I like him better than Sixshot in terms of looks. That’s entirely subjective, of course. Oh, you can change his appearance somewhat by how you position the wings on his back. The official version has both wings stick up straight (second picture), but I like him better with the wings spread out sideways (first picture).

Alternate Modes: Being a Sixchanger, Greatshot has five more modes beside the robot mode. Okay, to a certain extent they all look alike, so the whole disguise thing doesn’t really enter here, but the engineering is pretty great and quite a few of the modes actually look cool, too. Side note: all of Greatshot’s modes can attach his guns, but since I don’t own the real ones, I’ve left them aside for all but the jet mode. Just so you know.

For no particular reason, let’s start with the jet mode. Here’s where the aforementioned missing parts come into play, as they would usually form the nose of the jet mode. As they’re missing, Greatshot’s jet mode has a very blunt nose, but otherwise the jet looks pretty cool. There is a cockpit in the center, vertical fins near the rear, and the guns can be mounted on the wing tips. It’s actually Greatshot’s most wholesome-looking mode and among his best, too.

Where Sixshot become a wolf, Greatshot has swapped the animal head for... well, something with a horn. I’d say a rhino, but considering that the rest of the body doesn’t really look very rhino-like, let’s just say it’s a four-legged animal with a big silver horn. And no, it’s not a unicorn, unless it’s one on serious steroids and with claws instead of hooves. Anyway, the horned animal looks pretty good for all that his limbs are somewhat out of proportion and it can extend the wings, too, giving Greatshot a sixth-and-a-half mode as a winged horned-animal-that-might-be-a-rhino.

Mode number four is a kind of futuristic artillery vehicle or tank. It drives on (sculpted) treads and extends gun barrels from Greatshot’s legs. It’s more heavily armed than Sixshot’s tank mode, seeing as the changed shoulder pieces actually have two barrels each and they really come into play here, making this one heavily-armed monstrosity. Resemblance to any kind of real military vehicle is pretty much zero, of course, but it does look pretty cool and is easily recognizable as something that will momentarily unleash lots and lots of firepower, so mission accomplished. Strong candidate for my favourite among Greatshot’s modes.

The fifth mode is a car. Let’s leave aside the question what you need a car mode for when you already got a tank for a ground-based alternate mode. The vehicle looks like a mixture between a Jeep and a Hummer, but suffers a bit from having the red shoulder pieces / barrels sticking out back and the jet wings forming the roof (while still being very recognisable wings). A functional, but not very pretty and hardly necessary car mode.

Finally there is the gun mode. Now there is a reason we haven’t really seen many gun Transformers since G1 ended (unless you’re counting Targetmasters / Arm Microns). The long and short is, it doesn’t really make much sense for a big robot to become a gun (be it full-size or mass-shifted to fit into another Transformer’s or even a human’s hand). Megatron could pull it off because he’s Megatron and Shockwave is actually more a space craft than a gun, but the gun mode of Greatshot is just useless. He can turn into a tank, people, so why a gun? Well, at least the gun is of the right scale to fit into a human hand and even features a trigger you can pull and release. Still, it’s basically just a long box with small barrels at one end, so I’d easily call this Greatshot’s worst alternate mode.

Remarks: Greatshot appeared in several episodes of Victory. A former mercenary who joined the Cybertrons/Autobots, he fought his former comrades Guyhawk, Blue Bacchus and Black Shadow alongside Star Saber and was also present for the final battle against Deathsaurus' huge space fortress. He was portrayed as the stereotypical ninja-loner for the most part. Some people consider him an upgraded version of Sixshot, who switched sides to join the Cybertrons in the Headmasters series, but there is no evidence to support that other than the two of them sharing the same voice actor in Japan.

The Victory series contained quite a few extensively retooled figures from earlier in Generation 1. Personally I like Greatshot better than Sixshot, mostly because of the colors and the (to me) superior head and shoulder pieces. Objectively the two really don’t differ that much and Sixshot is certainly much easier to get. I wouldn’t have coughed up the money necessary for a pristine MISB Greatshot (380 dollars was the cheapest I saw on eBay), but I got him as part of a lot and I’m happy with that. Recommended to fans of Japanese exclusive figures and rarities.

Rating: A-