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The TR-6, with its unique design and complex transformation system, offers a rather fresh hands-on experience. The entire product, with the exception of the "instruction manual," is quite well-made!
Unique Design, Excellent Paint Job
The mobile suit's design can be described as highly unconventional. A pair of long, slender legs capped with high heels—looking at the legs alone, it is indeed very "alluring." The mobile suit has a narrow chest, a slim waist, and powerful thighs, which is very distinctive. The feet are like "three-inch golden lotuses," but thankfully, there's an extendable "sole" behind the heel to help the figure stand. I initially thought it would be precarious, but it stands surprisingly stable, which was unexpected.
As for the paint application, it's fully painted with no major issues. However, during transformation, some collisions are inevitable, so be mentally prepared for potential damage.
Unique Weaponry, A New Play Experience
The weapon count isn't high this time: a long rifle connected to the arm, and a wire-guided weapon that can be detached from the rifle. For the long rifle, you need to first secure it to the shoulder, then have the hand grip it, and there's also a part that connects to the forearm. This is a very secure arrangement; it basically won't fall off. However, the initial installation isn't easy and requires patience and a few tries. As for the connecting piece on the forearm, it's actually optional. However, holding it on the arm significantly reduces the arm's articulation and can easily collide with the head's antennae, so be extremely careful. Since the long rifle is held quite securely, it can be posed without a display stand.
As for the wire-guided weapon, you detach the rear half of the long rifle. It has four legs that can be moved. It feels like a small robot. However, this accessory is unplayable without being attached to a stand. It inevitably takes some effort to handle and pose.
Good Articulation
For a mobile suit with such a design, how is its articulation? It's actually quite good. The head can turn left and right, but you need to be careful of the shoulder armor. The neck design is good, allowing the head to tilt in several ways. The waist has a wide range of motion, but handle it with care as parts fall off easily. Due to the transformation design, it doesn't seem to have much side-to-side movement. As for the arms, the articulation is decent. It's just that the hands fall off very easily. The thighs can do a 180-degree split, and the beautiful legs can be bent. The "three-inch golden lotus" feet themselves have almost no articulation. The tail's articulation is good, which is one of this unit's signature features.
After all this praise, where are the problems? The first thing to mention isn't the transformation system, but the stand connector.
The Stand Connector is Not Secure and Falls Off Easily
In humanoid mode, the connector is on the back, but the insertion angle is very hard to gauge, and the manual doesn't explain it clearly. Basically, once you've plugged it in and it seems secure without falling off, you can consider the installation complete. Posing it in standard stances is not a big problem, but it becomes very troublesome once you want to adjust the angle.
Even after transformation, attaching it to the stand isn't very secure, and it falls off easily. This really needs to be addressed; otherwise, with the transformation already being very arduous, having the figure constantly fall off and needing to be reattached is extremely frustrating.
Transformation Issues
An issue that almost everyone complains about. As someone who struggles with transformations, like myself, looking at the instruction manual, I really couldn't figure out what to do at all. Because the manual is only 2D, but to transform this figure, 2D is insufficient as too many parts need to be twisted and turned. Fortunately, some masters online have already filmed transformation videos, which finally allowed me to complete the task.
The figure's design is intricate, but not all parts of the transformation structure are difficult to handle. For example, the legs and arms are very simple, with no issues. But the truly difficult parts are:
- Handling the Gundam head and chest: This requires significant twisting, making it the first major hurdle in the transformation. The main body for the transformation is the metal structure composed of the chest, waist, and pelvis. However, the manual doesn't clearly show the optimal position for these parts.
- The most difficult part—how to close the tail's nosecone cover over the Gundam's torso and nose section: This is the most painful part because the manual truly fails to demonstrate how to handle it. To manage this, you need to close the tail cover, which requires the chest and tail components to be perfectly aligned to complete the task. I hope some of the photos I took can help everyone figure out the transformation. However, I might not have done it perfectly myself, so it's better to consult the masters who have filmed transformation videos!
- Constantly falling parts: Some parts fall off very easily; you're basically picking them up constantly. The chest armor pieces are particularly troublesome.
- The Gundam's head antennae are prone to collision: Honestly, to avoid accidents during transformation, you should remove the head first. Otherwise, problems can easily occur. Sometimes, when a collector is transforming it, they might slowly test if a step works, and that's when the head's antennae cause many tragedies. A head like this should have come with an extra part.
- The instruction manual's problem: The biggest issue this time is that it doesn't clearly explain "how to transform." The diagrams for each step are not very clear. You could truly say, "It's better to have no book than to believe everything in it." Just giving me a diagram and letting me explore might have been better.
- After transformation, mounting the figure on the stand for photography is also not easy, and it's prone to accidents, falling off the stand.
Overall, a lot of thought went into the figure's design, which is worthy of appreciation. While its internal structure might not be described as "masterfully engineered," it is genuinely quite clever how a few adjustments result in a "perfect transformation"! It is still highly recommended.
