Colt
Spy

Very dangerous. Can turn on anyone. Has no friends. Sells his services to both sides.

Like Focus, Colt is a Mark-originated design from the Gokin Robo series. Like the other figures in the line, he's obviously inspired by a Takara Microchange figure, in this case the Browning M1910 GunRobo (later released in the Japanese Transformers line as Browning), even possessing a much-simplified version of the transformation and a passable resemblance in robot mode.

Like the other Gokin Robo figures, Colt is about a quarter of the size of the real thing, translating to 2" long pistol - there's actually a little ring on the back, so the original might have been marketed as a keychain. There's a firing pin under the barrel that I assume used to hit caps (this was machined off the American release altogether - I believe the unchanged version was released in Italy by GiG, who handled a few Mark lines - which is probably where my example's made its' way from) - these would have protruded from the underside of the barrel and generally looked bad, but then that's no surprise, as Colt is an incredibly badly designed figure. The whole thing is fragile and fits together poorly. He doesn't even hang together in gun mode, the barrel and chamber above the handle flopping around.

The robot mode retains this instability, combining it with a barely-visible head (like Wilfred off the Bash Street Kids), a narrow waist and two stick-like legs that can barely support the slight weight of the torso even before the joints wore down in about 1984. No hands, either.

In theory it's a great little robot, cutting out a lot of complicated stuff and coming up with a nice, balanced configuration that really should work, but none of the good ideas are translated onto the final figure. Colt can barely stand, and he looks terrible as nothing quite locks into place.

With thanks to Denyer for the figure! =)