TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:

Alternate Mode:

Box Art:

Blackjack's review: Offroad Ironhide

Name: Offroad Ironhide
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Weapons Expert; Tooth fairy
Scale: 1/40

"Feelin' lucky, punk?" – Ironhide to Sam Witwicky.
"Are you the tooth fairy?" – A little girl sees Ironhide.
"You have a rodent infestation. Shall I terminate?" – Ironhide doesn't like being urinated on.

Ironhide is a fan favourite, from G1 up to now. However, until the Movie, there has never been a good iteration of Ironhide as a toy. Here Ironhide is a trigger happy war veteran, hinting at killing both Sam's parents and Mojo the dog in the ten minutes after his introduction. Prime exasperatedly said "What is with you?" Ironhide later participated upfront in the big final battle, taking on Devastator and later being blasted by Starscream. Ironhide survived the battle, and later escorted the human, Captain Lennox, home. This leaves him free to appear again in Transformers 2.

Like practically all toy molds of the movie characters, Ironhide got re-released with a new colour scheme. However, while some of the redecos got new names and characters (i.e. Cliffjumper and Evac), most just received an extra something attached to their names (Jungle Bonecrusher, Recon Barricade), as is the case for Ironhide – now dubbed 'Offroad Ironhide'. The big question is, ‘Why can't they paint him red? Like G1? What’s with the blue?’

Being a redeco, and not intended to be a new character, the only reason I bought this is because... I missed the original release, who got a lot of flak because of its needlessly complicated transformation. Considering this to be a simple redeco, you can expect this review to be short.

History time, fanboys and girls. Ironhide first appeared in Generation 1 as Prime's tough bodyguard, and his character became known and popular worldwide, appearing in all incarnations of the G1 comics. Ironhide was killed by Megatron "Such heroic nonsense." in the first few minutes of the G1 Transformers the Movie. G1 Ironhide transforms into a red Nissan Onebox cherry vanette, and had an unconvincing toy. G1 Ironhide gots a simple Power Masters toy in G2. In the Beast Wars line, an elephant Maximal was released under the name Ironhide, and was meant to be the same character as the original. Then comes Energon, where – not intended to be the same character as the previous namesakes – Ironhide is, horrors upon horrors, a young annoying emo rookie. Another Ironhide, this time more similar to G1 Cliffjumper and Ironhide, appeared in the 2007 live action Movie, and is the one we're talking about. The most recent Ironhide is the Animated version, where he is a bloody young rookie again, along with Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Wasp and others. Ratchet is old and Ironhide is young?! Preposterous. Ironhide is slated to appear in Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, in 2009.


Alternate Mode:

Ironhide is a GMC Topkick. As I see it, it looks like an outback kind of vehicle. Before you notice anything, basically this is just a repaint of the original black version, so I suggest that you read the expert's (Knightdramon’s) review for it here.

I've said it once in my review of the original Movie molds (Payload) and I'm gonna say it again. The detailing achieved with the mold is very, very impressive. Headlights... The front grill with GMC... Unpainted 'Road Armor' on the bumper... Nicely proportioned vehicle... Heavily detailed wheels... 4x4 tampographed on the side... Splotches on top of the wheels to resemble mud... In short, heavy detailing.

Realistic vehicles, or at least show-accurate ones, always get me reeled in. Ironhide has a dark blue paint job, with black, gray and brown to liven it up. The headlights are neon blue, signifying the juicy AllSpark power cruising through him.

One quick question: Just who is being referenced with this paint job? All the same-name repaints reference G1 paint jobs. Nightwatch Prime is an Ultra Magnus, Recon Barricade is a Prowl, while Rescue Ratchet and First Strike Prime resemble their original G1 toys. I was half-hoping for a red Ironhide repaint. However... The blue. Who can it be? Skids? Maybe, their robot modes look similar. But the vehicle modes do not. Gears? More likely, he's also a blue pickup. But then, there's no red. Might be Kup but he's more green/turquoise. The closest one I can see is the G1 Micromaster Mudslinger, so that makes Muddy one of the few Micros to get a repaint reference. When will Blackjack get one?

And the cannons hanging at the bottom. Don't get me started on that. Sufficient to say, the cannons make Ironhide officially a Movie transformer that doesn't cover up well.


Transformation:

The transformation is fun, but it is very tricky to get everything back into vehicle mode.

Tips: remove the cannons and the whole roof and windshield assembly to reduce the pain. The transformation is made more complicated than it should be, and the instructions make things worse by missing many steps!


Robot Mode:

As with the truck, the robot mode is also very detailed. Transforming with the best Automorph feature at the legs, Ironhide stands as tall as Voyager Starscream and Ratchet.

His two cannons sure look badass. They can combine into a single large cannon, but two seems more imposing than one. Regardless, the cannons are true weapons, unlike the sorry excuses of weaponry Movie Ratchet and half of the Animated Autobots are using.

Ironhide's 'minotaur' head and chest are busy parts, heavily detailed with sculpted and painted details. Although the eyes creep me out. The head is too busy for my liking, but then, this is the Michael Bay stuff, so I don't care to rant too much.

The poseability is rather solid, with the arms being the most poseable of all. It is not possible not to have fun with Ironhide. He is rather thick in the legs, making
him sturdy.

Ironhide is nice for playing, but for display the black original is much better. Neon blue sucks.

Overall, a great toy by himself. But he's a repaint and that's the thing that puts people off buying him. If you own the original, give this guy a wide berth.


Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation: 6 – Very needlessly complicated. The joints are a bit hard to manipulate – especially the shoulders.
Durability: 8 – No stress points that I can find, though you should be careful around the Automorph and the vehicle top.
Fun: 7 – BOOM!!
Price: X – Depends on how much you like the new paint job.
Overall: If you own another Ironhide – 0. If you don't – 7. Not a figure that I would strongly recommend, mostly due to the paint job. If you already own an Ironhide, give this guy a big pass. Otherwise the new Universe Deluxe toy is much better... And cheaper to boot.