Quickswitch

Quickswitch is an Autobot Six Changer from the Generation 1 continuity family.

All the best cowboys have daddy issues.

"Chaotic" and "unpredictable" are the best words to describe Quickswitch. His rapidly alternating form is echoed by his moods changing just as wildly. Whether you find him happy or sad, angry or upset depends mostly on the occasion you happen to run into him. If you find Quickswitch during a bad mood, the best advice is to simply suffer a moment longer.

He is the son of Sixshot. Sometimes he is partnered with the Titan Master Dynamus.

Fiction

The Transformers cartoon

Quickswitch was in charge of Cybertron's new security system. Optimus Prime had to cut one of his meetings with Tommy Kennedy short to aid Quickswitch with testing out the security system. Season 5: FFOD, Part 2

Marvel The Transformers comics

UK comics Quickswitch really wanted to be Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Quickswitch was supposed to meet an informant at Maccadam's Old Oil House, but ran afoul of a couple of Mecannibals who had come looking for revenge on Dreadwind and Darkwing. It took some showy transforming into each of his modes to stop the beasts. The two drunken ingrates, however, never even noticed. Out to Lunch!

Ladybird Books continuity

Quickswitch was seen flying over the Autobot base on Nebulos. Autobot Hostage

When the Decepticons went to ground on Nebulos, Quickswitch was sent with Quickmix and Scoop to locate them. He was the only one able to cross the Nebulos Triangle's mercury lake due to his hovercraft mode, and he managed to locate the Decepticons' secret underground city. Hearing Decepticons, he knocked over some fuel canisters and bravely fled to the surface. With Scoop and Quickmix's help, he sealed up the only exit with concrete made from Nebulite so the Decepticons remained trapped, and the Nebulos campaign, possibly the war itself, was ended. Decepticons Underground

Kre-O online comic

He'd say, "I'm gonna be like you, dad
You know I'm gonna be like you."

During Christmas Day, Quickswitch stood guard outside Autobot City. Two Giant Bases! Everybody Getting Along, Come On, Fight!

TransTech

In Axiom Nexus, Quickswitch was a contestant on Cybertron's Got Talent, which his father Sixshot had previously appeared on, and had a healthy fanbase thanks to hailing from the Primax cluster. Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/05/14

2005 IDW continuity

When the Talisman threatened to end all life on Cybertron, Quickswitch was recruited by Wheeljack. Using his recently acquired driller mode, Quickswitch agreed to transport Wheeljack's anti-Talisman bomb to the planet's underground, where it would counteract the energies of the alien artifact before it reached Vector Sigma. Much to Quickswitch's concern, this involved installing the explosive in his chest.

The bomb primed and ready, Quickswitch and his passengers began to drill down to the core, only to be confronted by the magical energies of the Talisman, anathema to Transformer life. Accepting his fate, Quickswitch pushed himself as far as he could go and made it to just outside Vector Sigma's core before his body fatally crumbled to dust. The bomb survived the trip; while priming it, Wheeljack thanked Quickswitch for his efforts. Good Men

Legacy VS500 Collection Special Comic

Quickswitch was one of many spectators for the Speedia 500 race on Velocitron. Velocitron Speedia 500 Part 2

Commercial appearances

Who ate all the pies? Quickswitch did!

Quickswitch was Sixshot's "son", burdened with the task of making up for his "father's" mistakes. Though Getaway mistook him for a Decepticon upon first seeing him, Quickswitch displayed his true loyalties by making short work of both Horri-Bull and Snaptrap. Quickswitch commercial

When Optimus Prime returned as a Powermaster, he used Quickswitch in handgun mode against some Decepticon aggressors. Powermaster Optimus Prime commercial

Toys

The Transformers

When we were kids, we'd flip out that white nosecone bit in robot mode so he had a big flat shovel-like... yeah. We were kinda dumb.

• Quickswitch (Six Changer, 1988)

• Accessories: Left & right "photon blasters"
• Known designers: Tetsuya Ikeda (TakaraTomy)

Released in the fifth year of the original Transformers toyline, Quickswitch is the second "Six Changer" in the series. Besides his basic form as a humanoid robot, he turns into a Cybertronic jet, drill tank, laser pistol, hovercraft and a flying puma. His armament of choice is a pair of (non-firing) photon blasters, which he uses in many of his modes. Despite being relatively well articulated due to his various transformations, all of his modes are kinda blocky. His robot mode suffers from odd proportions, making him look like he's wearing a full diaper.

Various sources disagree on where Quickswitch's Autobot sticker should go; it seems likely that the design intent was for it to be placed on the flat gray area on his midriff, as seen in his stock photography, package art, and the instructions for Takara's counterpart.^[1]

The same mold was used in Japan to make Sixknight.

• More information on Quickswitch at TFU.info
• Instruction booklet for Quickswitch at Botchthecrab.com

Titans Return

And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me
He'd grown up just like me
My boy was just like me

• Chaos on Velocitron (Multi-pack, 2017)

• Accessories: "Dynamus" Titan Master, 2 rifles

A redeco and minor retool of Titans Return Six Shot, Quickswitch is a Leader Class mold as part of the Titans Return subline imprint of Generations. He can transform between six different modes: robot, tank, car, jet, beast, and upside-down laser gun submarine. In robot mode, his Titan Master partner Dynamus forms the inner portion of his head, fitting inside the body's attached helmet; in the other five modes, he either rides in various compartments or stands on them via the numerous tiny pegs all over Quicksqitch's form.

In promotional CG renders, both his helmet and his face were retooled, but in production, only his Titan Master face was.

Unlike other Leader Class figures in this line, Quickswitch does not have an (official) base mode. However, his wings have clips on the edges that allow him to connect to other Leader Class figures' base modes when in certain modes; his instructions suggest the tank mode.

Dynamus and Quickswitch were only available in a box set named "Chaos on Velocitron" that includes Refractor & Laser Prime, Parsec & Autobot Nautica, Fastclash, and a Rodimus Prime Titan Master head. The set was officially announced by Hasbro to be a Toys"R"Us exclusive in the United States, Canada, and Hasbro's Asian markets (such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong). Despite this, it later became available via Amazon in the United States (but not in Canada) as well, actually sold by Amazon directly (as compared to a third-party seller).

This mold was also more extensively modified into Legends Greatshot.

Notes

• Like most manga-original Kreons, Quickswitch is made up of existing Kre-O parts. He wears the ever-popular Hound helmet and the Starscream wing backpack.
• Though Quickswitch had never showed up in the original IDW continuity until his truncated appearance in Transformers vs. Visionaries, both James Roberts and Nick Roche attempted to use the character in their comics, with each creating a wildly different origin story.
  • Nick Roche's story for Quickswitch was that he was an unaligned civilian who was critically wounded by Prowl's false-flag bombing operation in Carpessa, as seen in Sins of the Wreckers #3. His multi-changing body was a massive life-support machine built around his fatally wounded inner robot. A robot based on Quickswitch ultimately did make an appearance in the final scene of Requiem of the Wreckers, but owing to the discrepancy created by Visionaries, Nick Roche later decided it was Sixknight.
  • Before "season 3" of his comic was truncated to 25 issues, James Roberts' intent was that Quickswitch would be a Phase Sixer created by the marooned crew of the Lost Light with scavenged supplies of ununtrium, a Point One Percenter spark, and knowledge of the process gleaned from Chromedome's foray into Overlord's mind, as the culmination of Prowl's plan to create "Autobot Phase Sixers" as seen in the earliest issues of More than Meets the Eye.^[2] This Quickswitch would have been a pacifist.^[3]
• At one point, Hasbro had plans to redeco the original Quickswitch toy as a Decepticon in the Generation 1 toyline. This deco would eventually be revealed in Legacy: The Art of Transformers Packaging and inspire the character Killswitch.

Foreign names

• French: Interclic (Canada)
• Mandarin: Biànsèlóng (变色龙, "Chameleon")

References