G1 Quickswitch

Robot Mode: As a robot Quickswitch looks stocky and powerful, but his relatively small size (especially compared to his Decepticon counterpart Sixshot), combined with his conical grey torso does not flatter him much. He carries twin red guns which are important for his other modes. His posability is average (arms and legs can move and bend). All in all he doesn't look bad, but not particularly good, either.

Alternate Mode: Quickswitch can transform into five different alternae modes. The first of them (in no particular order) is a drilltank with top-mounted guns. This mode looks quite good and like what's it supposed to be.

The second mode is a panther (or maybe a lynx, not quite sure). This doesn't look very realistic and suffers from a distinct lack of posability. The tail, composed of the two guns, looks a bit ridiulous.

In hovercraft mode looks nearly identical to the drill tank except for the foils detaching from the underside. This mode is mostly to blame for the strange conical torse Quickswitch has in robot mode.

In jetmode Quickswitch looks pretty good, though this mode is heavily dependent on the twin guns to function as wings. Without them this mode would look pretty ridiculous.

Finally the laser gun mode looks pretty stupid and won't appeal to anyone except maybe a three-year old wanting to play around and not having a more realistic-looking gun lying around. Forget about this mode!

Remarks: After the success of the Decepticon sixchanger Sixshot Hasbro issued an Autobot version as well. For unknown reasons this Autobot sixchanger is little more than half the size of his Decepticon cousin. And when it comes to wanting to cram six different transformation modes into one figure, size matters.

Quickswitch suffers from its creators wanting too much and investing too little. Of his six different modes, only the drill tank and the jet look halfway decent, the rest are pretty much crap. Still, the toy does hold some appeal as it takes quite a bit of experimentation to figure out all the different transformations.

The character never appeared in the American cartoon or comic books, only in the Japanese spin-off Masterforce. There he got a completely new, mostly blue colour scheme and was called Sixknight. All in all, I bought this toy mostly to have the Autobot counterpart to Sixshot.

Rating: C-