Toy review - MPM-6 Movie Masterpiece Ironhide

[MayzaPrime]

I opened mine up this week. He's so beastly in robot mode, has a really nice weight to it. I'm less concerned with playability so can accept its flaws.

Have watched a couple videos on the transformation to pick up truck mode and it looks like it will frustrate me similar to MPM-7 Bumblebee. Will give it a go on the weekend.

It is frustrating... I did it, never again.

[DaptoDog]

It is frustrating... I did it, never again.

Well done, I gave it a go this avo while watching a video review and got stuck on getting the front two hood pieces to connect to the centre bit. Magnus wasn't joking on that, must have to use more force.

I've never been unable to transform a figure so I will persevere but don't want to break it in the process. Will try again once I'm able to concentrate and be patient. This is where I find the G1 Masterpiece figures to be far superior, the transformations are more enjoyable.

[DaptoDog]

Finally got it close enough after another hour plus of fiddling trying to get everything to tab together. Only bit that still wasn't right was one of the front hood parts not tabbing in. Great looking figure, but not a good Transformer.

[FruitBuyer]

Finally got it close enough after another hour plus of fiddling trying to get everything to tab together. Only bit that still wasn't right was one of the front hood parts not tabbing in. Great looking figure, but not a good Transformer.

Yeah, this describes him to a T for me. He looks very impressive and screen-accurate but is a bit funky to pose and transform.

[Magnus]

This is what kills it for me. Playability is the core function of a toy. A toy that sucks to be played with is like having nice looking but inedible food. Even as a display piece the hindered shoulder articulation greatly limits this appeal because there are a lot of dynamic poses that you can't put Ironhide in, like say having his arms reaching straight ahead.

That's why I specified that Ironhide was very much a display piece rather than a plaything; then again, one could make the argument that any Transformer that takes more than a minute or two to transform isn't a good toy anyway because the transformation interrupts play.

I find that with Ironhide, the articulation isn't hindered so much as it's different, because the axis of motion of the shoulders is different to that of a human; the rotator moves the arm out to the sides rather than forward and backward. It's still possible to orient the arms so that the forearms (and therefore cannons) are facing forward, but it won't look natural for a human.

Finally got it close enough after another hour plus of fiddling trying to get everything to tab together. Only bit that still wasn't right was one of the front hood parts not tabbing in. Great looking figure, but not a good Transformer.

I just transformed it again. One thing that I find helps with getting the bonnet together is to not push the outer parts straight in to the centre piece, but rather to push them in at an angle; angle the pieces down so the wheel arches are up (from the front, the bonnet should have a shallow V shape), and then push the bonnet pieces down and in.