Sixliner
- Sixliner is a Micromaster-composed super robot from the Return of Convoy portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Sixliner (シックスライナー, shi-ku-su-ra-i-nā) is the combined form of the Liner Team and the younger brother of Sixtrain. Though still considered a rookie, he's been thrust into positions of great importance among the Autobots; both being the de facto leader of the Micromasters based on Earth in the early 1980's (before Optimus Prime, Megatron and their forces would awaken from their crash-induced slumber), and as a member of the elite Battlestars group.
His component robots are:
- Team leader D-Go the diesel engine
- Alan the TGV Express train
- Joe the Super Hitachi train
- Leaf the Tohoku bullet train
- Night the EF66 "Blue" train
- Spark Tokaido 100 line bullet train
Fiction
Micromaster Collection
The Liner Team were Cyberdroids who evolved into Micromasters thanks to a mysterious energy wave. Finding themselves on Earth in the early 1980's, they blended into human society and fought against those Micromasters who had evolved into Decepticons. A New Transformer Legend Begins!! When five of the Turbo Team had been turned into Decepticons by the Reverse Evolution virus, Sixliner stood ready in case Sireen's plan to install an antivirus by merging with his teammates failed. Thankfully, the installation was a success, and Sixliner and the once-again Autobot Sixturbo shared a hearty handshake. Enter the Urban Disaster Relief Specialists!! Shortly after, Sixliner rushed into battle against the Decepticon Sixwing brandishing the Vaccine Program Gun, a weaponized version of the antivirus used to cure Sixturbo. Unfortunately, Sixwing was able to subvert the program, giving him the "Berserker" mode with the powers of an evil Autobot (look, just go with us on this, alright?). Enter the Decepticon Sixwing!!
The Battlestars manga and story pages
Many years later, Sky Garry, temporary Supreme Commander of the Autobots, enlisted the youthful rookie Sixliner into the Battlestars after watching an impressive fight between him and a horde of energy-plundering Galaman warriors on Earth. The Battlestars Part 2
Aware of the mission of the Battlestars, Decepticon Emperor Dark Nova stole Optimus Prime's body and cloned it as the evil False Convoy. Sixliner was quickly taken hostage by False Convoy, but was saved by a unified attack from Sky Garry and Grandus. The Battlestars Part 3 After False Convoy's defeat, the Battlestars rescued the fallen Supreme Commander's corpse from the Great Novaroid forces on planet Lucifer. Using the power of the Zodiac, they brought Optimus Prime back to life and upgraded him into Star Convoy. The Battlestars Part 4
Sixliner then had the honor of fighting alongside his idol, Star Convoy, in a battle against a horde of Great Novaroid drones. With the help of Star Convoy's Microcarrier, they defeated their enemies. The Battlestars Part 5
Sixliner was the first to go up against the resurrected Super Megatron in a battle at the North Pole. His youth and inexperience made him a poor adversary, though, and Super Megatron swatted him aside with a single blow. Star Convoy quickly arrived to save the day and Sixliner swooned at how impressive the Supreme Commander was, desiring to be just like him some day. The Battlestars special
Sixliner then joined in battle against Dark Nova and the upgraded Ultra Megatron. The Battlestars Part 8 However, he did not join the other Battlestars when they journeyed into Star Giant's stomach and destroyed the enemy. The Battlestars Part 10
Toys
Return of Convoy
- Sixliner (Micromaster Sixteam, 1991)
- Japanese ID number: C-370
- Sold only as a complete set, Sixliner is composed of six Micromaster trains who attach to various pieces of combiner kibble to form a robot. These kibble pieces form three weapons/vehicles when the team is separated: the Giga-Techvolt cannon, the Gripper probe, and the Wingard booster. He has limited compatibility with the other six-team combiners, really only able to swap out arm and "back" components with the "kibble-jet" types thanks to the connecting methods used for the chest and legs.
- This mold-set was retooled to make Sixtrain and Universe Rail Racer.
Micromaster Collection
- D-Go (Micromaster, 2002)
- Spark (Micromaster, 2002)
- Alan (Micromaster, 2002)
- Leaf (Micromaster, 2002)
- Joe (Micromaster, 2002)
- Night (Micromaster, 2002)
- In 2002, the entire Sixliner team was re-released as the first wave of the Micromaster Collection, in individual boxes with a number visible to show which mold was inside each box. For this release, all of the decals from the original version were replaced with paint applications, plus several new bits of deco were added. Sixliner could only be assembled by buying all six components individually, he was never offered as a complete set.
- The Liner Team is the only wave of Micromaster Collection to not have any form of "chase" variant.
Notes
- Sixliner and Sixtrain being brothers comes from Sixtrain's original Operation Combination bio... and was completely ignored in the later Micromaster Collection story. That the combined modes are brothers raises some questions about the component robots... do they consider themselves the brothers of the entire rest of the other team? Or just of their counterparts/mold-partners?
- With the retconned shoehorning of Micromaster Collection into the same timeline as Return of Convoy/Operation Combination, Sixliner being the "younger" brother of the two looks like a continuity error at first. But thanks entirely to Collection being incredibly vague about when exactly both of the train-teams were created, it doesn't have to be. The first part of the story says virtually nothing about the Liner Team themselves (they might have been the first wave of toys, but that doesn't mean they were the first to be created in-fiction), and though Sixtrain doesn't appear until the fourth chapter, nothing in the story prevents him from having been around and simply "off-camera" elsewhere the whole time.
- The Giga-Techvolt, Gripper and Wingard were not given names in the original Return of Convoy series.
