Toy Review - DotM Leader Ironhide

[kaiden]

Toy Review - Ironhide
Series - Dark of the Moon
Size/class - Leader
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 2
Released here - June 2011
Approximate Retail Price - $70-100
Approximate Size - forgot to measure
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-modes - Topkick Truck
Main Features/Gimmicks - Lights and Sound! Spinning Chest cannon, Weapons stored inside arms and legs.
Main Colours - Black, blue, silver & bronze highlights
Main Accessories -



This is my first movie Ironhide! woo! There's a lot of detail in the mold and he is quite impressive in hand. I really like the head sculpt as it looks very Samurai/Ninja-ish. I mostly cannot get past the fact he looks like an angry little troll though...



The main thing you will notice are the deployed weapons from both arms - but they dont spin or light up which is disappointing. However they have a nice quick-draw effect from manipulating the smokestacks.

On the lower legs a missile launcher and commando-style knife are stored away and pop out manually. They can both be removed and held by any Transformer with 5mm peg holes.



This is his light and sound function - Cybertronian Blitz Cannon housed inside his chest. When you trigger it, the chest pops open and the cannon comes spinning out with sound similar to a spinning minigun but without the actual gunfire sounds - which was really odd to me. It has a flashing light above it which you can see as the red circles but this just looks really disappointing and half assed.



No head articulation but you can see the wires running down his neck which i thought was unintentionally cool.



Typical back kibble. The grey cylindrical lever operates his mouth guard up/down and triggers his 2 phrases -"Ironhide here" and "Weapons ready" ....pathetic and downright annoying.

The other lever triggers the Blitz Cannon.



The range of movement for his arms are severely limited by the fact that they are short and that his chest is very wide. So he cannot facepalm himself even if he wanted to.



Alternate mode is plain and boring. There is a button in between the smokestacks that triggers an engine idling sound. You can see his fists inside the cab and my first thought was that this would have been really good if they could have made it Human Alliance and made space for human figures but oh well.



Ironhide's weapons can deploy in his vehicle mode which pretty much saves this mode from being a total loss. I couldn't find a single mechtech hole or even anywhere for clip-on weapons. There are 2 circles (under the 4X4) on both sides of the truck which look to be where you would pour fuel into - like a typical car and after seeing the spring mechtech ports on the roof of deluxe vehicles like bumblebee and sideswipe - this would be the perfect place for them but sadly hasbro has screwed it.



This is my favourite alt mode! The running Truck. His legs have very little flexibility. He can raise his legs forward 90 degrees but the back kibble stops him from kicking backwards. His knees are terrible, his right knee only able to click down once - hampered by some plastic that i'm not even sure is supposed to be there. His feet can bend forwards and backwards a bit but that is mostly due to the transformation process. It also has a bit of left/right to help with stability. His toes also move up and down a bit but he has no heel to help him stand and I find that his feet slide due to the flat, smooth plastic.



Annoyingly, the rear of the truck forms the soles of Ironhide's feet and I noticed after posing him a bit on the table, the plastic had gotten some minor scratches already.







I tried playing around with various accessories and found them pleasing enough. I remember in Peaugh's review that he recommended HA Backfire in weapon mode for Ironhide but I found that Ironhide couldnt even hold onto Backfire as his peg was too short - unfortunately Ironhide's thumbs stick out and so he requires a longer peg to hold onto.

-Final Thoughts-

The packaging states

Electronic Lights and Sounds!

• Light-Up Weapons!
• Blaster and Missile Sounds!
• Automatic Conversion Sounds!

To which I say
-only one weapon lights up.
-huh? where? It sounded more like an engine stalling...
-never noticed this.

honestly I have to compare this to Battle Ops Bumblebee as that is the only other Transformer I have in a similar class.

• Bumblebee has better flashing lights
• Bumblebee has better phrases and actual gunfire sounds
• He has a proper Transformation sound

While it feels like I have only pointed out the negatives or concentrated on them moreso - Leader Class Ironhide is a pretty good toy. Just not $100 good. I paid $70 pricematched to Toyworld and I still feel I did not get enough bang for buck. He looks great! which is his saving grace but isnt as fun to play with compared to my voyager Megatron, Skyhammer and Shockwave.

My recommendation is to wait for a better sale price but definitely worth getting for your DotM collection.

-Better Luck Next Time-