Hunt for the Decepticons Ironhide

Robot Mode: In essence Ironhide here is a scaled-down version of the Voyager-Class Ironhide we’ve seen in both the original Movie line-up and later on in ROTF. He’s not just a smaller copy of the old figure, though, he’s a new mold with several notable differences. The general look of the figure is the same as it was in the Voyager-class, but Deluxe Ironhide is, for example, missing the car door wings of the larger figure. He’s also got bigger feet (relatively speaking) with one of the car mode tires flat on the ground. There is a bit less kibble in general and the chest assembly is more stable and a bit more streamlined than it was for the Voyager.

Deluxe Ironhide also has a big weapon on each arm, but only one resembles the big cannons the Voyager figure had. The other is a flat, box-shaped weapon resembling a missile launcher of some sort, which is also used in vehicle mode. Not entirely Movie-accurate, but it looks good, so no complaints on my part.

Posability is standard for current Deluxe figures, meaning pretty good. Ironhide’s rather monochrome color scheme sadly obscures many of the details this figure has, but that can’t be helped. So all in all we have a smaller, more stable, and still good-looking Ironhide figure here. No flaws worth mentioning.

Vehicle Mode: Ironhide still transforms into a black GM pick-up truck, no changes here. The vehicle is basically a miniature version of the Voyager vehicle mode, the only differences being that the cannons aren’t visible on the underside of the car and that the cargo area in the back actually has a little depth this time instead of being completely filled out. There are no robot parts visible except the feet, which stick out a little from underneath, but they’re not really recognizable as feet, so no big complaint. As stated above Ironhide can mount his boxy weapon on the back of the pickup truck, making it stick out above the car roof to give the vehicle some firepower.

Much like Movie Dropkick Ironhide’s vehicle mode can assume a sort of intermediate configuration, unfolding the robot legs from an otherwise unbroken vehicle shell. I doubt we’ll ever see anything like this in the movies or comics (the Robotech people might sue again), but it’s a nice little fan-mode. So overall a solid, no-nonsense vehicle mode.

Remarks: There seems to a class-shift going on in the Movieverse Transformers these days. Former Voyager-class figures like Ratchet and Ironhide become Deluxe-class toys, while on the other end of the spectrum former Voyager-figure Starscream is now Leader-class. Optimus Prime is, of course, still present in multiple classes and we’ve yet to see a Megatron in the TF2010 line-up (not counting the Activator), but generally speaking the Deluxe-class seems to enjoy a sort-of renaissance in 2010 (see also the Deluxe-only Generations line), after being very much outperformed by the Voyager-class in ROTF.

That said, this Deluxe Ironhide is a good figure, but I have a bit of a hard time seeing the point of it. It’s Ironhide, just smaller. Meaning he’s out of scale with most of the Movie and ROTF figures (at least those he was in scale with to begin with). So while he’s better than his Voyager version in some ways (more stable, more streamlined), for me that isn’t quite enough to justify its existence. A good figure, but no more than that.

Rating: B-