THOUGHTS:
A pretty impressive poor man's MP Ironhide.It should not be taken for granted what a marvellous feat of design and engineering it is to be able to create a cartoon-like G1 Ironhide toy with the unenviable challenge of having the bulk of the toy be incorporated into the robot. Universe/Henkei Ironhide was the first to do this, but there was a trade-off with the alt mode being an SUV instead of a van. Masterpiece finally achieved this goal, but at the cost and budget of a Masterpiece toy. Siege Ironhide also aimed to achieve this, but at the cost of having a gap in the vehicle mode and the feet being exposed out the back. Earthrise Ironhide closes the gap but does so by cheating with a removable part (which is what the G1 toy does; though not at the same level); plus the feet remain exposed out back.
Studio Series 86 Ironhide is the first non-MP Ironhide toy to achieve a G1 cartoon-like Ironhide toy that doesn't compromise with gaps, exposed robot parts or partsforming. This is not an easy task, made even trickier by being restricted to a Voyager price point/budget. Okay, this toy is the size of a Deluxe, but the engineering level is far beyond a Deluxe, as you can see when comparing him with Univ/Henkei, Siege and Earthrise Ironhide. Yeah, it does have two big hinges behind the front doors plus two transparent blue pegs on the roof (which is probably where Ratchet's strobe will plug into); but given that this is just a Voyager, I'm fine with that.
There is one issue with this toy that does slightly irritate me and that's the lack of yellow stripes. I cannot think of any reason why they couldn't have given this toy yellow stripes. Not a deal breaker for me, but it is weird.
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