Sixliner, a Combiner of Greatness
It's deep dive time! I should come up with a name for these little articles? What do you guys think?
Today we're looking at Universe Rail Racer, AKA Sixliner, AKA Sixtrain. This figure/mold goes back to the end of the G1 era in Japan with the "Return of Convoy" toyline. This was the second to last era for G1 in Japan. It was a very small run and interestingly had ZERO Decepticons!
What makes Rail Racer fun, along with any of the other Micromaster combiners, is their ability to do so much with so very little. These figures are tiny and feature basic vehicle-to-robot transformations, but with the addition of extra parts, they become very cool-looking robots.
A unique option of these toys was the ability to combine all extra parts and bits to the toys for storage when not in robot mode. These extra bits would attach to three of the trains and become impressive weapon arrays.
The combined mode is pretty neat, though it heavily underutilizes Overload, reducing him to a hidden back piece. It does, however, have a classic 1980s/90s robot look to him with an amazing head sculpt.
This toy has seen several releases and in a lot of color variations. A hard-to-find version is in all red and was offered as a chase release. They would come in blind boxes, so you didn't know if you'd get a regular figure or a red figure!
These figures were never released in America during the G1 era and fans would have to wait an agonizing 12 years to finally see them released under the "Universe" series of toys. In total there were four Micromaster sets to get, all were exclusive to KB Toy Stores. The sets included Rail Racer, Defensor (G1 Sixturbo), Devastator (G1 Sixbuilder), and Superion (Sixwing). If you look them up, you'll see they are essentially the exact same combiner, and their accessories are more or less the same as well. Yet, despite this heavy retooling, they all are unique in their own ways. One major difference between Rail Racer and the other Micromaster combiners is that the others allow their combiner parts to form a spaceship, whereas Rail Racers can only become weapon arrays attached to the trains.
Today this set will set you back $100-$200 and few will be available for sale due to their very limited release and high demand. An original G1 era set will be $200+ with the chase set of red figures going for much higher.
A final side note, you'll notice we didn't cover the Micromaster combiners of Dinoking, Monstructor, or Raiden. These three deserve their own little writes ups since they followed their own paths and are much harder to find.
Want to see a certain topic or figure covered, let me know. I hope to have an awesome write-up for you guys sometime in October that I'm super excited for.
