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Leader-class Autobot Ironhide

Comments

16 comments posted
The head's glued in place to

The head's glued in place to protect the wires running into it. Apparently, blasting the back of the head for ~20 - 30 seconds with a blow-drier on the highest setting, and then trying to twist the head left and right immediately after is enough to free up the head from the glue keeping it stuck in place. (taking a knife to it works too I guess...) The wires should be fine as long as one doesn't try twisting the head around past 180 degrees either way. (though why one would need to turn it that far to begin with is beyond me)

Of course, since I live in Canada, I'll end up getting the international version which will only say its name... -.-

Detective Barricade's picture
Posted by Detective Barricade on 10 August, 2011 - 11:23
impressive

Very though and impressive descriptions, your review shows a lot of effort and care. Not a fan of this series, but good show!

AJProDie-Cast's picture
Posted by AJProDie-Cast on 10 August, 2011 - 09:38
Nice Review

You did a great job covering both the good and bad of this figure. As a collector and builder of ~1/24 TF figures, I was interested in this primarily for the vehicle mode. Fortunately, it only suffers slightly from the undercarriage junk, so I was thrilled to finally get this one (it didn't hurt that between a sale and a coupon at TRU, I ended up getting a Deluxe-Class Sideswipe for free).

spencer1984's picture
Posted by spencer1984 on 10 August, 2011 - 20:32
Thank you. I'm pleased to

Thank you. I'm pleased to hear you found my review was balanced well.

Oh, so in your opinion, this would be 1/24-scale?

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 10 August, 2011 - 21:04
He's a little smaller than

He's a little smaller than 1/24...depending on which dimension you want to use (overall length, wheelbase, width), he's about 1/28 - 1/30 scale. Just about perfect to fit with the Human Alliance figures, which average about 1/27 - 1/28 scale.

spencer1984's picture
Posted by spencer1984 on 15 August, 2011 - 05:39
Articulation on recent Transformers toys

I agree with you about the articulation. What annoys me is so many TF figures lacks waist articulation, which adds so much to dynamic posing.

I am not sure if they limit the articulations to simplify the transformation process and create a stiffer more durable toy.

It is a shame because I thought the sculpt details on this piece was strong in both modes.

silver1spider's picture
Posted by silver1spider on 11 August, 2011 - 00:05
I consider waist joints among

I consider waist joints among 'advanced articulation'- wrists and fingers, dual-axis ankles and shoulder- and when it comes to TFs specifically, I don't let it bother me because they're not aimed primarily at collectors.

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 11 August, 2011 - 02:33
I've never been a fan of the

I've never been a fan of the Bayformers... I have four in my collection, but I've always considered them sort of "meh" in terms of design. The MechTech features are almost enough to interest me, because I LOVE pop-out weaponry, but judging by your review the negatives far outweigh the positives here... so I'm gonna pass and save my money for the rest of the Karakuri Balls from Hurricanger.

Very nicely done review, as always!

Fringe Benefits's picture
Posted by Fringe Benefits on 11 August, 2011 - 11:18
I'm gonna pass and save my

I'm gonna pass and save my money for the rest of the Karakuri Balls from Hurricanger.

LoL Good call!

I've got all the KBs I need/want, so I'm good there. ;)

Thanks for the support!

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 11 August, 2011 - 13:09
takara, show me your

takara, show me your re-painting magic :P

i'll see later if i need to pick this thing up

wilcosu35's picture
Posted by wilcosu35 on 12 August, 2011 - 10:52
Okay, now that I have one of

Okay, now that I have one of these on hand, I can say that the blue on the legs isn't so bad in person. What was needed was more black and such to break it up more. The legs' stance actually seems to be correct. The shin armor sticks up a little, and the ankles may be a little thinner than the actual model has them, but it seems natural enough to me. (I'm not an expert on the design, mind you) Also, I was able to free up my toy's head with a little elbow grease after a ~15 minute ride in a hot car on the way home from the store.

But why the heck is that bar behind his right knee there for? The door opens almost exactly the same way as the left, the launcher doesn't go near there, so WHY is it there blocking the knee from bending more than it otherwise clearly has room to?! And that switch to the right of his head. It does (less than) NOTHING! And here's why: the design of the chest cannon gimmick is such that the two panels below the silver button, along with the cannon itself, are to swing back in all at the same time. But, it can only do this when the third panel was pulled down first. So using the switch in the back will cause the thing to get caught. Every. Single. Time. Oh yeah, and the Canadian/International version gets a generic firing noise instead of "Weapons, ready!" to go along with just saying his name... -.-

And does anyone else have one where the hips are weak between the ratchet points, particularly for the outwards movement?

Detective Barricade's picture
Posted by Detective Barricade on 12 August, 2011 - 17:28
I usually mention if there is

I usually mention if there is give between ratchet points in joints, but because I usually don't let it bother me that much I forgot to mention it in the review. Yes, there is a lot of give in his hips rotating them outwards/inwards; it's not just yours.

Again, I found nothing wrong with the color of the blue they used; as I said in the review I like that color! But what I was complaining about was the amount of it in his legs. Yes, additional paint on his legs would have helped tremendously (as no doubt it will be on Takara's repaint, IF they make one), but that the legs were molded PRIMARILY in metallic blue is what concerned me because it should have been a darker4 gray to match the rest of his color scheme.

The Canadian ver. LOST one of the SFX? How lame is that! WTH.

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 12 August, 2011 - 18:33
Lingo laws, I guess...

I guess due to the fact that we have two official languages in Canada, English and French, they must have really cracked down on laws concerning toys with electronic phrases or something. It was present since the HFTD Leaders, Forest Battle Optimus Prime and Starscream, but eventually versions marked with a red speech bubble that read, "I speak English!" near the Try Me! window did come out and had the proper SFX. (both say their full lines)

That doesn't seem like it's gonna be happening this time around. Of course, our toy bios get butchered into short, almost Engrish blurbs as well. That started when they shoved a FOURTH language translation onto the back starting in various waves of ROTF... (FYI, originally it was English, French, and Spanish I believe) Back to Ironhide, the chest cannon sound is almost exactly the same as the firing sound for Energon Megatron/Galvatron's tank drone thingy, except not quite as loud and annoying. But yeah, we lost one SFX, had another one butchered, and had the one lost replaced with an obviously generic sound effect from Bumblebee. Not even gonna mention the obnoxious sticker I immediately tore off of Ironhide's foot. Oh wait, I just did.

To give a bit of perspective as to how out of proportion the right arm cannon is, I have Recon Ironhide. The right arm cannon that comes with that set is considerably smaller than the original arm cannons, and looks to be nicely proportioned to the Voyager toy. That very same piece of plastic is just slightly BIGGER than the Leader's cannon for the same arm. Yeah, I have an Ironhide from all three movie lines. And a Deluxe Bumblebee from them too. Not quite sure how that happened...

Detective Barricade's picture
Posted by Detective Barricade on 12 August, 2011 - 21:46
Leg color

That's probably mold-making limitations for you. They only want to do so many sprues, and sometimes sprues run out of room, and sometimes parts of figures are gang-molded with others..

ZeldaTheSwordsman's picture
Posted by ZeldaTheSwordsman on 18 August, 2015 - 22:05
Sorry to see he didn't live up to your hopes

Sorry to see he didn't live up to your hopes. Well...neither did the DOTM movie to me * rant *.

In my humble opinion, you could have used those $45 to get DOTM voyager Megatron, DOTM deluxe Thundercracker
and DOTM deluxe Ratchet. These 3 molds totally deliver satisfaction. For their respective size class, they excell in accurate sculpt, articulation and funfactor.

Leader class figures remain to be a tricky hit & miss area.

knoted's picture
Posted by knoted on 15 August, 2011 - 13:50
EDIT: Remembered something that calmed me down

Having remembered the figure that I should be hating instead and had somehow blocked from my mind when originally commenting, I've calmed down about this and appropriately redirected the hate towards DOTM Leader-class Bumblee.

[s]This Ironhide is a very well-detailed figure and looks excellent, foot fail notwithstanding. However, I wish he had come with something, perhaps his big gun from DOTM like the same line's Voyager figure, or his turret from the ROTF game. Something just enough to bump him from 1/29 scale to 1/31 scale. Because this toy is taller than Leader Optimus' altmode in truck mode, and that ain't right :P[/s]

Edit again because I've read the review and refreshed my memory further:
Hooo, boy did HasTak goof this guy up. Poor knee articulation. Car kibble on his arms that should have been his shoulderpads instead (like it was on the SMALLER figures!). Kibble problems in other places too, again where smaller figures didn't have them! Inaccurate cannon on the left arm! Badly-implemented electronics that get in the way of the robot mode. Chest cannon that isn't in the movie and also got in the way. He's even too big compared to Optimus Prime!

There is no excuse for the inaccurate left arm cannon, or for the failure to deal with car kibble that the freakin' Deluxe version from HFTD dealt with properly. As for the dreaded Management-Mandated Electronics, there was a much better way to deal with that as well as the problem of him being too big. Instead of the non-canon cannon in his chest, they should have given him the giant cannon he was given in the movie and put the electronics in that! That would have kept them out of the way of stuff in the robot body, and used up enough mass to shrink the main robot a bit.

ZeldaTheSwordsman's picture
Posted by ZeldaTheSwordsman on 19 August, 2015 - 22:34