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-

[SharkyMcShark]

This looks very... meh? I dislike the arms (the way it looks like there are panels flapping about off them is displeasing).

Grab Leader Starscream if you're looking for a good leader class toy. It's on sale right now at various outlets (Toyworld notably

[kaiden]

This looks very... meh? I dislike the arms (the way it looks like there are panels flapping about off them is displeasing).

Grab Leader Starscream if you're looking for a good leader class toy. It's on sale right now at various outlets (Toyworld notably

Yeah, I forgot to mention the flappy arm panels and also the shoulder panels have a tendency to pop out when Transforming to and from

As for Leader Starscream... I hear everyone raving about him, but I can't get past how ugly he looks in robot mode.

[FFN]

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.

If you are referring to why only one area lights up as opposed to all of them, I presume it's intentional to mimic what such rotary weapons do (one barrel firing at a time as it spins, that is).

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.

I think you might be going a little bit overboard there.

[STL]

I'm a massive fan of this.

It has a few points that I would have quibbles with but there's a lot of good execution in this figure.

The electronics and gimmicks are one of the best implemented in a figure for a long time. The gimmick is fun and unintrusive and shows an innovative flair. The chest cannon has a lot of nuance to it and it's very understated how well thought out it has been implemented. Compare it to the other gimmicks you've seen in Leaders, this one is by far superior.

The robot mode as well is something that is a lot better in person than it is in pictures. For instance, the teal on the lower legs actually is very overstated. Once you have the figure, the texture gives different shades and layers and it's very nice. The headsculpt is really strong and well done sans the faceplate. The alt mode is just as nice.

And remember with Battle Ops, it's scale does fit in nicely with the other figures across the movie line. It also had 3 chances to get it right.

Also, the head does articulate. Don't be afraid to give it a bit of force. Once you have that sorted out, I think you'll enjoy the figure a lot more. I initially thought you couldn't either and was a bit annoyed by that as it limited poseability and playability. However, it's there.

[Pipesqueak]

Overall I like it, particularly the ease of transformation for a leader-class figure. No wasted minutes trying to align every panel just right here.

The range of weapons is awesome - knife and missile launcher stowed in the leg compartments and pop-out guns on each arm, plus the chest cannon. Awesome. The way the weapons pop out of the roof in truck mode is lots of fun too.

However, I have some gripes:
- There should be an option to keep the face plate permanently down (why make a dull hasbro grey plate cover a cool painted face sculpt all the time?) and to keep the chest cannon open. That way all weapons could be displayed at once.
- There is only one way to position each leg joint to make him stand up. Put any joint at any other angle and he will fall over.
- A number of QC issues on mine: The weapon compartment in the right leg doesn't close properly; the right shoulder joint is loose; the need to use excessive force to get the head to turn; loose ball joints for the 'shoulder-pad' pieces.

[kaiden]

I think you might be going a little bit overboard there.

I just watched the video reviews for both bumblebee and sentinel prime and I think all three have really sucky lights and sound effects.

Bumblebee's are all inside the mechtech backpack (weapon sounds and transformation)
Sentinel Prime has a siren, a weapon sound and one phrase "I am Sentinel Prime."

I also watched RotF Leader Starscream's video and he has 2 phrases
-Decepticons will crush the Autobots.
-No one can defeat Starscream.

Much better than "Ironhide here" and "Weapons ready" and really, it should be better being this is their third movie toyline.

[GoktimusPrime]

Look at the neck wires... makes Ironhide feel kinda G2ish...

[jaydisc]

I'm another fan of this toy. I thought it was initially OK, but it's been growing on me the more I play with it.

I, too, think is one of the best set of gimmicks I've seen in a Leader:

* The way the weapons come out of the thighs
* The chest gattling gun gimmick
* The flip forearms weapons that also work in alt mode

These are much better than the standard "I am <insert name>" that every previous Leader seams limited to doing.

I finally gave the head the necessary force to rotate it, but before I did, on close examination, it really seems like it's glued in… as if it was initially supposed to rotate during the design phase, but they changed their mind in production… OR… something nearby has to be glued in the mfg process and it's accidentally reaching the neck.

I got the faceplate to hide completely out of view. You just need a thin long object (I used a key), and pushed it down until it tucked under the top torso. Perfect!

The faceplate wouldn't be so bad if it was painted, but that gray doesn't cut it. There is a general lack of paint apps on this fig, but the choice of colors is better than the Hasbro Gray™ and Allspark Blue™ we've endured in the past.

I love the transformation. It's a bit simple, but quite enjoyable. And I loved the complexity of the original movie Ironhide.

Alt mode is great too. Solid. Rolls well. I wish the smokestacks were painted, but c'est la vie.

[Stompy]

I agree with STL and jaydisc with this one.

Besides the mentioned gimmicks, I'm really adoring the action figure feel of the robot mode. The missile launcher and dagger stored on the lower legs are great for playability and gives Ironhide a full arsenal of offensive weaponry (weapons on arms, legs and torso).

The alt mode looks excellent with all panels creating a solid frame in all angles of this vehicle mode. Working the guns for the roof and arms is a stroke of genius, ditto with using the smoke stacks as the lever.

Conversion is pretty easy for a Leader but by no means boring or unworthy., with special props for engineering the arm conversion to the dev team.

If I was to critcize this figure, it will have to be the kibble under the arm, back and also the robot kibble visible underneath the truck. Otherwise I'm in love with this figure.