As we all know, the original G1 Ironhide and Ratchet toys have detachable mobile platforms. These platforms were featured in their G1 cartoon model guides, and Ratchet's was seen in More Than Meets The Eye Part 1. Both Ratchet and Ironhide were seen standing on their platforms in the early G1 comics, which featured more toy-accurate art. Even after switching to cartoon-model art, Ratchet's platform was seen again in #3 when repairing Gears. Ratchet's platform was also used in the IDW comics when Ratchet was repairing Broadside and Jetfire. Ratchet's Repair Bay has had more canonical appearances than some other MP accessories, such as Wheeljack's anti-hypnochip lunchbox or Red Alert's kuh-razy head sparks etc. And MP Rodimus Convoy came w/ a detachable platform, and that thing never made a canonical appearance (other than in the Commodore 64 game ). Although Ironhide's platform was never seen in canon, we did see him use his platform's cannon/launcher, in More Than Meets The Eye Part 2, and More Than Meets The Eye Part 3. So perhaps another neat feature would be to make the launcher detachable and attachable to the robot's back.

Another advantage of making the platform detachable, is that it should make engineering the rest of the vehicle into the robot mode relatively easier, as designers don't have to worry about making all that caboose kibble "disappear" into the robot mode. Universe/Henkei Deluxe Ironhide/Ratchet already does this, and I think they did a reasonably good job for what they are, but simply removing the platform from the equation would make things easier for designers. It'd be something similar to what they did w/ MP Rodimus, only on a smaller MP Car scale/price point.

So I'm personally in favour of having MP Ironhide/Ratchet having detachable mobile platforms, but I wonder what others think. Also, due to cost-cutting measures, TakaraTOMY would definitely use the same base design for both Ironhide and Ratchet. For this reason, I haven't included any options to indicate having the platform for Ratchet only but not for Ironhide -- either they both come w/ the platform or they both don't.

Related poll: Which heads would you like to see for MP Ratchet & Ironhide?