Ironhide: The Cartoon, The Toy.

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Auntie Slag
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Ironhide: The Cartoon, The Toy.

Post by Auntie Slag »

For some reason, Ironhide became a central and 'well loved'* character in the G1 cartoons. Back in the 80's, were you one of those kids who enjoyed his antics in the TV show and badgered your parents for an Ironhide toy for your birthday/christmas?

What was your reaction if you got the toy and he turned out to be nothing like his cartoon character?

This can apply to other characters as well. Were you ever really annoyed that your toy bore only a passing reseblance to your heroes cartoon form?

I can think of Springer as a good example. Perhaps the only similarity was his head, and the fact that he was mostly green.






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Post by MegaConvoy »

Yes, I honestly thought that the Ironhide and Ratchet toys were pretty friggen aweful. Didnt really even come close to looking like the actual cartoon character itself. There was a few others that I had that didnt resemble the character, but I cant remember which ones they were. But some of the toys back then really disappointed me when it came to looking like the actual character. Oh well, atleast my mom paid for that toy and not me. lol.

*gets the feeling that this topic maybe moved pretty soon to "Toy Discussion"*
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Post by Nevermore »

Concerning Ironhide and Ratchet, You have to keep in mind that it was actually the other way round. The Diaclone toys were only lifeless mechas controlled by human pilots, in Ratchet's and Ironhide's case, their seats were behind the vehicle's window. When the toys became Transformers, the seats became "heads".
And for the cartoon the redesigned some characters to look more "humanoid".

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Post by Mirage »

In the show I never really liked characters like Ironhide, I thought of him as boring and uninteresting, I preferred characters with a bit of personality, or some sort of edge.

As for the toy, in 'van' mode I alwauys thought Ironhide looked cool but when it came to show him in his robot mode it was like, uhhh, is that it?
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Post by DrSpengler »

I remember how disappointed I was when I first got my Starscream toy.

So chunky and inarticulated.

Man...
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Post by Reflector »

My only complaint was that I couldn't transform them as fast as they did on the set...
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Aye... I think that's why I liked simple toys like Sizzle or Wideload as a kid... in those days, it got you the jump on, say, Scorponok, meaning you could bang the Bot down on the head of the Con, and gain an easy victory...
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Post by dead robot »

... Brawn's hands ...
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Post by never again »

how could you not know that the toy versions would be different? they are blatantly pictured on the boxes, in the catalogs, and in the toy commercials.

i personaly always have prefered the toy versions of all characters to their cartoon counterparts, especially ironhide, rachet, optimus prime, megatron, brawn, cliffjumper, bumblebee, gears, huffer, and the planes. there were way too many unnecesary changes made to some of those characters.
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Post by The Green Knight »

Most of the toys had a vague resemblence to their character, or some other problem. Either their character versions were much different; Megatron bulked up and lost his crotch trigger, or they had very little articulation; all the Decepticon jets were basically statues, except for some arm wiggling.
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Post by Darth Shrapnel »

I was kinda disapointed when I got Motormoaster, I was hoping he´d be as big as prime in vehicle mode, mode.
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Post by Sir Auros »

Originally posted by DrSpengler
So chunky and inarticulated.


Congratulations! You've just described nearly all of G1 and a fair chunk of Armada too.

I think that the Ironhide and Ratchet Diaclone molds should never have been turned into Transformers, but I suppose Hasbro had to make their money somehow...

I actually tallied up my G1 Tranformers today and realized that I only have 3 if you don't count my Japanese reissue of God Ginrai...Some micromaster Autobot rocket base, pretender Grimlock, and Powermaster Prime. I did get some G2's to help with my lack of G1...
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Post by Starscreamsghost »

Ironhide and Ratchet were definitely a letdown...

To avoid all-out negativity, I'd say there were a great many guys that I loved as a kid because they looked so damn close to their cartoon counterparts...Soundwave, the Insecticons, the Constructicons, Optimus, and Scorponok were all pretty damn close to the animated versions...
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Post by DrSpengler »

Originally posted by Starscreamsghost
Ironhide and Ratchet were definitely a letdown...

To avoid all-out negativity, I'd say there were a great many guys that I loved as a kid because they looked so damn close to their cartoon counterparts...Soundwave, the Insecticons, the Constructicons, Optimus, and Scorponok were all pretty damn close to the animated versions...


The Insecticons are great, IMO.

They look better in their toy form then they do in their tv form. But those compartments where the Diaclone drivers were supposed to go are kind of weird...
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Post by Cliffjumper »

I like Kickback and Shrapnel, bioth very good toys, and quite cheap to pick up... I'm very robot-mode orientated, so I don't really mind that the Insect modes are robot-lying-down and truncated-robot-with-no-face. Bombshell's a bit Rubbish, though, what with those silly legs and all...
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Post by Auntie Slag »

Yeah, Shrapnel was my first ever Transformer. I saved up ages for him. When the big day came, I think I'd saved four pounds in a little matchbox and took it to tesco's where all the TF's were. I picked out Shrapnel because I was fascinated by his silvery pointy ear/antennae things, his wrap around shade-eyes, and his gun.

When I got home I had to get my Dad to transform him for me (I was about six or seven at the time). Prior to Shrapnel, I had a gobot called 'Jeeper Creeper', which may explain my slight obsession with Hound. To me, the Gobots were always like the 'wannbe' line, whereas the Transformers were the real, full on shiny big gun toting things!

I didn't want to break him, as I'd paid for him and he was kind of precious. Then I spent ages wondering what that 'door' was for on his chest. Later wondered the same thing with Optimus Prime and Grimlock. Very shocked when I found out many many thousands of breems later.

I still have Shrapnel now, but his legs aren't stellar, and his shiny gun is a little worn. I only ever saw one advert for the insecticons on the back of the TF comics, but they looked the height of coolness for Decepticons.:cool:
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Post by nmathew »

Well, while I loved IHide in the cartoon, I never asked for him as a toy.

I think that it was because it looked nothing like he did in the cartoon. I remember when I first saw Ratchet, and I thought, what is that junk?
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Post by Quick Switch »

I enjoyed Ironhide on the cartoon. A great Southern accent, loyal to the core, and an all around good Bot. And he gets replaced with Kup? Please.

I never owned the toy...
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Post by Edo »

I liked Ironhide in the cartoon, but I didn't own the toy as a kid either.

I always thought Grimlock was a good toy. Same with Shrapnal. I hated my Megatron though because I could never get him to stand up properly.
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Post by never again »

nobody likes ironhide and rachet's toy forms? man. i'd think at least a few people would appreciate a couple of robots being a little different and driving water gun tanks around.
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