Age of the Primes Fisitron (Wreck'n Doom Collection)

Prelude: Ironfist… eh, I mean Fisitron, is a fan boy, a collector of all things relating to the Wreckers, and he willingly pays a lot of Shanix for a metal plate signed by … dear Primus, he is us, isn’t he? Anyway, like quite a few other Transformers from the Euro-G1 days, barely anyone remembered him before he came back in the IDW comics pages. And now he gets a new toy, too. Is it worth a collector’s price? Let’s say go!

Robot Mode: Fisitron is an extensive retool of Selects Hound, who was an extensive retool of Siege Hound, whom I have previously reviewed. Due to the sheer number of changes, however, I consider this pretty much a new figure and it’ll get a full review.

At first glance Fisitron is a pretty basic hood-as-chest car Transformer with the vehicle roof on his back and tires on his legs. He clearly transforms into some kind of jeep or SUV, given the shape of his chest, and while his vehicle chassis is mostly grey, his limbs are yellow and blue. The head is mostly blue, too, and is a very close match to Ironfist’s look in the comics. The comics are also where the colors hail from, as the original Ironfist (not! Fisitron) toy had a mostly orange vehicle shell instead.

What is very accurate in terms of both comics and the original toy is the weapons Fisitron comes with. Fisitron has a backpack with a gun and a shield attached to it. He can either wield the entire module as one weapon or separate it, thus wielding a rifle and a shield. With 5mm ports on upper and lower arms, there are many different ways you can attach his weapons. Given his excellent articulation, he can adopt any given shooting or shield-slinging pose with ease. 

The only slight flaw of the robot mode is that there is a noticeable gap between his torso and the backpack, so from the side, you can see right through him. Also, when looked at from the back, his lower legs are hollow. Not something I mind, but I know a few people aren’t fans of that.

So bottom line: an excellent robot mode, nicely capturing the look of this rather obscure toy and character.

Alternate Mode: Fisitron transforms into a car that kind of looks like the love child between a Jeep and a Humvee. Mostly grey now, it features quite a few sculpted features, such as headlights and a winch. The robot feet are on the sides, but you don’t really recognize them as such. The wheels have sculpted rims, very nice, and the only slight downside here is that you can kind of see Fisitron’s robot arms hanging out underneath. Well, it’s also a bit open from the back. Mostly, though, a nice-looking car.

Fisitron’s signature weapons module is on top of the car now with the gun and round shield and everything. The module can swivel around to provide a 360 degree field of fire, but cannot swivel upwards. The module can also be removed if you want, but then you see the big hole on top where the module plugs in, which makes the car look a bit unfinished. So better leave it in.

Bottom line: an excellent car mode from most angles.

Remarks: Ironfist started out as a “Lightformer” in the Europe-exclusive tail-end of the G1 line in 1993, a figure that was reissued in the G2 line in 1994. No media appearances, nothing. A quarter century later, however, Ironfist made not just one comeback, but two. James Roberts and Nick Roche had him appear in IDW’s “Last Stand of the Wreckers”, while Pete Sinclair made him appear in the Timelines Wings of Honor stories in the TF Collectors Club magazine, both of which happened in 2010, apparently without the two parties being aware of each other’s usage of the character. Wings of Honor Ironfist didn’t last long, but the IDW version, despite dying in the finale of the Wreckers mini-series, had a much more lasting impact and kept reappearing in flashbacks and callbacks during the original IDW run.

This isn’t the first new version of Ironfist, as we had two previous Fisitron figures, which was Ironfist’s alias (it’s an anagram, just in case you didn’t immediately notice) in the Wreckers comics. This here, however, is the first that actually looks like Ironfist did in the comics. Why is it also called Fisitron then? I can only assume that to call him Ironfist might lead to some copyright problems with Marvel Comics.

The toy, which came in a two-pack together with Carnivac (whom Ironfist never once met in any comic I’m aware of) and is probably the best toy representation of the fan-favorite character we have so far. It’s not perfect, but pretty close. So if you’re in any way a fan of the comic book character or simply enjoy good car Transformers with unusual weapons, Ironfist (which is his real name!) is worth a look.

Rating: B+