Six-Speed

Six-Speed Tech Specs

Bio
JOLT -- the leader of the team, and the only one able to speak a human language - is a great lover of human culture, addicted to television, music and the Internet. On more than one occasion he has caused difficulty for the AUTOBOTS by forgetting he's not a human being. Six-Speed and Reverb, though sometimes frustrated by their leader's tendency to become distracted by cartoons and web-comics, love the excitement of missions with their human partners, working as a fast response strike and rescue team on away missions on the Lost Planets.

Six-Speed Images

More Images: Toy Gallery

Six-Speed Toy Information

Six-Speed Parts List

Six-Speed Review

-Submitted by: Omegus Prime

As Hasbro has discovered, Minicons are popular. Personally I love little transformers and Minicons were the highlight of Armada. They took a backseat in Energon with just one new set released, but they come back in Cybertron. Just like in Armada, Basic Wave 2 includes the first new Minicons, this time in the much more diverse team of Jolt, Reverb, and Six-Speed.

Vehicle Modes
Jolt's vehicle mode is a basic helicopter. He uses red for the main section, with black for the three-blade rotor, landing struts/skis, and tail. A blue-ish grey plastic makes up parts on the top of the copter with gold to detail while white paint details the clear plastic of the cockpit. While simple, Jolt has plenty of detail to him. The paintjob on the cockpit is rather dynamic and inside it's easy to make out the sculpted interior complete with to chairs. The body has some mechanical detailing but remains rather simple, going back to the tail with molded rear rotor and tailfin. While he looks nothing like Armada Jolt, this Jolt looks appropriately cute and very nice, a nice change of pace in Minicon design.

Reverb is a beefy pickup truck. His main color is pure blue, with silver and yellow detailing. The same blue-ish grey makes up his wheels and the truck bed has orange. Keeping colors simple on Reverb was a good call as it keeps his tough appearance intact. He's molded fairly simply, with a raised hood where the engine would be and all the right lines for a pickup truck. The front is painted with grill and headlights, a yellow light bar decorates the top while the rear has molding for the bumper, exhaust, and even the license plate. The rear is also where I take some issue with the design as the molded robot arms are very easy to see here in the truck bed, especially being painted in orange. While he's a good looking truck, his transformation parts are easily seen and it subtracts a bit from his appearance.

Six-Speed is a sleek race car. His primary color is emerald green with dark silver paint as well as blue-ish grey for his wheels and front section. The toy also makes good use of clear plastic in front and for the cab. In this mode, Six-Speed lives up to his name as he looks very sleek and fast. While not painted, he does have headlights molded in at the front as well as a nice multi-layered hood section with clear plastic and dark silver. The sides and top have groove lines that give him a techno look and the car's shape flows all the way to the back spoiler, also painted with the dark silver. Two arrow stripes pointed forward break up the vibrant green on top of the car. While the cab has clear plastic, looking inside just shows you the back of the robot mode head, not much can be done for that. Six-Speed does make a very nice race car though, a much nicer one than the previous attempt in Armada Downshift.

This variety in the set makes up for the lack of a mutual gimmick most Minicon Teams share. No matter what you should get a vehicle that suits your tastes.

Robot Modes
Before beginning, I'll point out something. If you notice inside the arm sockets on Jolt, you'll see green plastic. Yes, his entire body is painted red and the parts were from the same mold as Six-Speed. In fact, between the black, clear plastic, and blue-ish grey, Jolt has no original plastic colors. While it gives some insight to how Hasbro handles molds for Minicon teams, it also unifies the team somewhat.

Jolt's transformation is rather simple, and as such is his robot mode. Red makes up most of his body now, while black is used for his arms and upper legs. Grey with gold paint is used for his legs, while silver joins his color scheme on his belly and face. More mechanical detail, as well as his robot hand and head, are revealed now, but most of the other details carry over from his vehicle mode. His head has a good mechanical design to it, though it is covered in the cockpit bubble, giving him a "spaceman" appearance. The way his transformation works, he comes out very good in proportions. Function-wise, he has 6 points of articulation, all forward-only, and somewhat limited. Nothing unexpected from a Minicon, though.

Reverb comes out just as beefy in his robot mode. The orange now makes up his chest and lower arms, while black is introduced for his upper legs and arms. Thanks to a rather unique transformation, he gets shoulder guards and large feet made from the front half of his truck mode. Small, yes, but he means business. Not many new details are revealed in this mode, though his torso does succeed in looking techno with the few details it has, and his head sculpt with silver paint is nicely done. While it could stand to be a bit bigger, it makes his proportions look all the bigger, good in the case of a Minicon. He comes with 8 points of articulation, all limited but he can accomplish a few decent poses.

Six-Speed's transformation is probably the most typical of the group. Rear becomes the legs, sides become arms, hood becomes chest. Grey joins his colors on his arms, as well as black on his upper legs. Silver also appears on his face, which has a unique look to it like an open mouthplate. The hood looks good as Six-Speed's chest, and the clear windshield becomes the front of his chest which looks good, especially with the green paint that blended into the vehicle mode previously. Form-wise, he looks good, despite the very tall shoulders with the vehicle's front section. He's also the only one in the team with a real backpack, but he carries it well enough. Six-Speed has 7 points of articulation, the same 6 Jolt had plus his head can move back and forth, oddly enough.

From a designer's point of view, this team for recon work makes a lot of sense. Reverb for strength, Jolt for intelligence, and Six-Speed for... well, speed. A good mix of designs for the team.

Changes
This team's Galaxy Force counterparts actually have numerous changes to them for Cybertron, most for the better in my opinion. Jolt's GF counterpart, Hop, had red feet which let his legs blend into his vehicle mode a lot better. The top piece holding his rotor blades was white, as well, which broke up the black a bit. Bumper had a slightly lighter shade of blue, and in robot mode his chest had a lot less orange, opting for a nicely painted orange Minicon symbol. While Reverb's seems cheaper, it's actually much closer to the show's version. Six-Speed got the most changes though. The green used for Blit in GF is much brighter, annoyingly bright actually. His vehicle mode didn't have the two stripes on top to break up the green, and his hood used white instead of grey which didn't look as good as it didn't blend into the rest of his greys and defeated the clear plastic on top of it.

Overall
TF series these days always have one lead Minicon group, and despite having no uniform gimmick, this is my favorite of the three so far. The variety of forms, colors, and designs keeps the team from being boring, but subtle similarities keeps them united as well. A very nice job and a good set to pick up if you like Minicons.

Additional Six-Speed Resources