Studio Series Ironhide (SS-84)

Prelude: After a decade of people telling us that the classic Transformers designs would never work in live-action, the Bumblebee Movie used the classic Transformers designs in live-action and it worked. The opening sequence of the Bumblebee Movie, short as it was, has since become a rich source of Studio Series figures such as Ironhide here. So here he is, the Bumblebee Movie Ironhide. Let’s say go!

Many thanks to my buddy Reyjin for loaning me Ironhide here for pictures and review purposes.

Robot Mode: Ironhide is a Deluxe-sized robot and almost a spitting image of the character we saw in the opening scene of the Bumblebee Movie. He is basically the G1 Ironhide design (the animation character, not the toy) with some Bayverse elements, especially his face. While he clearly does not transform into an Earth vehicle, he still has something resembling a windshield on his chest, so the basic look remains intact.

Ironhide is nicely articulated, including ankle tilt and a hip swivel. He does have some empty spaces on his body, such as his forearms (where the fists fold in), his inner thighs, and the backs of his legs, but overall he looks very good. Sadly quite a few of his joints are pretty loose, so putting him into stable poses is not that easy. Apparently that’s a common problem for this figure.

In terms of arms, Ironhide carries the same rifle as his mold-mate Ratchet, which he can hold in hand or carry on his back. So bottom line for the robot mode: nothing terribly special here, but a nice Deluxe robot that captures the look of the character we (briefly) saw in that opening sequence.

Alternate Mode: Ironhide never transformed during his brief appearance in the Bumblebee Movie, so the designers had to make one up as they went along. The result is something that does somewhat resemble Ironhide’s classic Earth vehicle mode, but with a sci-fi twist. Nicely done. The transformation is rather simple, but the vehicle looks nice, especially with the big rifle mounted on top. The only thing I’m not too fond of are those clip-on wheels, especially since the clips are grey for the front wheels and red for the rear ones. They could have stuck to one color, at least.

So bottom line for the vehicle mode: much like the robot mode, not very spectacular, but nice.

Remarks: Some movies are mostly remembered for a single scene. The Vader hallway scene in Rogue One, the “On Your Left” scene in Avengers: Endgame, and for the Bumblebee Movie it’s the opening scene on Cybertron. After a decade of the live-action Transformers sporting the metal-shards-in-a-blender look, we finally had (mostly) cartoon accurate Transformers on the big screen. Ironhide was one of them. Sure, he did not really do much except fight a bit and then get into an escape pod, he never even transformed, but that was enough to get a toy. And while TFWiki lists him as being the same Ironhide as we saw in the first three live-action movies, I personally don’t see it that way.

By now you can assemble almost the entire cast of Transformers seen in that brief opening sequence and of course you need Ironhide for that. The figure is nothing too special, but it does what it’s supposed to do, namely portray the character we saw in the movie and make a nice toy out of him. So mission accomplished. Not a must have figure, but pretty good. Some stiffer joints would have been nice, though.

Rating: B-