Death's Head
03-10-11, 08:50 AM
Like a lot of the onscreen characters translated to toys, I’d found Ironhide somewhat lacking. Although popular opinion suggests you have to go a long way to beat his 2007 Voyager toy, I was never that impressed with it. The movie toys seem more successful when they’re working from Hasbro’s own designs, which perhaps explains why I like the ancillary characters so much more than the on screen toys. I’ve always found points of dissatisfaction with them, be it a lack of detailing or small areas of detail that could have used some improvement. Being a smaller scale, the Hunt For Decepticons Deluxe version of Ironhide therefore represents an improvement over his earlier Voyager toy.
The vehicle mode is a nice pick up truck. It looks very sleek in those glossy black plastics. There’s some splashes of paint to pick out the headlights and taillights, plus the Chevrolet logo on the grill. The windows are nicely rendered in translucent blue which prevents the smoothing in black of most movie based toys that tend to have balc windows to match the black wheels and bodywork. Having the black broken up by those cheerful blues and the nice muddy brown wheels stops the toy looking boring. It rolls nice and freely too. The only real criticism I have is the slightly monster-truck like proportions – it feels like there should be those foot rail things running under the doors or something to fill the huge gap between the floor and the doors. The visible robot feet poking out are also unfortunate. The figure comes with a small ‘drone’ that is actually a canon for the robot mode. Undocumented in the instructions, it can actually attach the vehicle mode as shown.
Transforming Ironhide to robot mode is a fun, if slightly fiddly process. I really like the way the rear wheels fold under his feet and the process of forming the chest, with everything collapsing and folding up. It’s a really clever design and very faithful to the CGI model. The resulting robot is a very colourful little fellow. Perhaps not hugely accurate to his onscreen appearance, but I’ll take the lively blue over some more black any day. As with the vehicle mode, there are some nice flecks of paint to pick out various details that really bring the figure to life. Ironhide looks cool. The only real bother is that the chest doesn’t really lock into place leaving his whole upper body quite loose and easily knocked out of position. Likewise, his proportions aren’t so great. The arms are a little short and stubby, but make up for this with a fair range of movement, rotating fists and a good representation of his arm cannon. With his left one substituted for his new pulse weapon (at least that’s what it looks like to me). The feet are also particularly huge. In fact his whole lower body is so big he looks like a triangle from a distance. However, those big feet give him great stability which is great.
Despite the above mentioned flaws, such as they are, these do not stop Ironhide being a great fun toy that looks great and works well as an action figure, which is what its all about. Another solid entry in the Hunt For The Decepticons line.
940941
The vehicle mode is a nice pick up truck. It looks very sleek in those glossy black plastics. There’s some splashes of paint to pick out the headlights and taillights, plus the Chevrolet logo on the grill. The windows are nicely rendered in translucent blue which prevents the smoothing in black of most movie based toys that tend to have balc windows to match the black wheels and bodywork. Having the black broken up by those cheerful blues and the nice muddy brown wheels stops the toy looking boring. It rolls nice and freely too. The only real criticism I have is the slightly monster-truck like proportions – it feels like there should be those foot rail things running under the doors or something to fill the huge gap between the floor and the doors. The visible robot feet poking out are also unfortunate. The figure comes with a small ‘drone’ that is actually a canon for the robot mode. Undocumented in the instructions, it can actually attach the vehicle mode as shown.
Transforming Ironhide to robot mode is a fun, if slightly fiddly process. I really like the way the rear wheels fold under his feet and the process of forming the chest, with everything collapsing and folding up. It’s a really clever design and very faithful to the CGI model. The resulting robot is a very colourful little fellow. Perhaps not hugely accurate to his onscreen appearance, but I’ll take the lively blue over some more black any day. As with the vehicle mode, there are some nice flecks of paint to pick out various details that really bring the figure to life. Ironhide looks cool. The only real bother is that the chest doesn’t really lock into place leaving his whole upper body quite loose and easily knocked out of position. Likewise, his proportions aren’t so great. The arms are a little short and stubby, but make up for this with a fair range of movement, rotating fists and a good representation of his arm cannon. With his left one substituted for his new pulse weapon (at least that’s what it looks like to me). The feet are also particularly huge. In fact his whole lower body is so big he looks like a triangle from a distance. However, those big feet give him great stability which is great.
Despite the above mentioned flaws, such as they are, these do not stop Ironhide being a great fun toy that looks great and works well as an action figure, which is what its all about. Another solid entry in the Hunt For The Decepticons line.
940941