Arms Microns Ironhide

Prelude: Remember how the weapons of all the various Transformers characters from the Prime series turned out to be Mini-Cons / Microns in disguise and got up to all sorts of shenanigans whenever their bigger counterparts weren’t looking? No? Me, neither, but apparently that was the main plot of the Takara Arms Microns line, which was even given its own TV segment called Arms Micron Theater. Still better than Kiss Players. Anyway, among the various no-show toy characters in Prime, the most famous name is probably Ironhide, whose Deluxe figure was exclusive to the Takara Prime Arms Microns line. He’s missing his Micron, sadly, but we won’t let that stop us, will we? Let’s say go!

Robot Mode: Ironhide here is the Takara Arms Micron version of Sergeant Kup, whom I have previously reviewed. It’s been more than a decade, though, so I think we can give this guy a full review.

Ironhide is on the smaller side for a Deluxe class figure from that time, but still makes for a nice, imposing figure with his broad shoulders and deeply-set head. In comparison with Sergeant Kup I must say he does look a bit better in red (as Ironhide) than in green (as Kup), but that is entirely subjective, of course. He carries the front window of his truck mode on his chest, or rather a fake part that is supposed to look like it. A lot of nice detailing on his torso and arms, too.

Now I remember that in the 2010s there was a certain movement where fans complained about modern-day Transformers no longer having stickers (this was the heyday of Reprolabels aka Toyhax). Then Takara released their versions of the Prime line with stickers and, entirely predictably, multitudes of fans complained that they had to put stickers on their figures. So anyway, Ironhide (like all Arms Microns figures) comes with stickers that you need to apply. See the last three pictures in the gallery for how he looks without them.

Ironhide is very nicely articulated. No twisting hip or wrists, but he does have articulated feet, which gives him a very solid stance for a multitude of poses. The lower legs are hollow when you look at them from the inner sides, but that is not really something that bothers me. What does bother me a bit, however, is the hood of the car mode. It flips onto Ironhide’s back, but stands off rather awkwardly (see upper half of eight picture in the gallery). Now if you simply turn the hood around, it nicely fits onto the figure’s rucksack (the driver’s cabine) and you barely notice it (see lower half of the eight picture). Sadly you have to unclip the hood to turn it around. Here is where a single extra part to make the hood turn around without the need to unclip it would really have made a great difference.

Finally we have the weapons. Ironhide doesn’t have any. Or rather, his weapon is his Mini-Con partner (see below), which I don’t have. Thankfully Ironhide can easily use the two cannons that came with Sergeant Kup (who got a Battlemaster in return), thereby completing the homage to Movie Ironhide. Just be aware that, out of the box, he will only have his Mini-Con partner as a single gun.

So bottom line for the robot mode: pretty nice. The hood thing is a bit of a bother and personally I would have preferred him having the same guns as Kup instead of a Mini-Con, but otherwise I really like this guy.

Alternate Mode: Ironhide transforms into a Ford F-150 SVT Raptor pickup truck, not quite the same truck he became in the live-action movies, but similar in look. The transformation is pretty straight-forward and not terribly complicated, though unplugging the front of the car from the robot’s chest does take a bit of force. The resulting truck is mostly red, of course, with the stickers adding a grey door and an orange stripe on each side. He has sculpted details at the front and on the roof and sculpted rims, only the back is a bit plain (the grey parts are stickers again).

Ironhide has two 5mm ports on his flatbed, where can plug in his cannons (either the Hasbro ones or his Mini-Con partner), plus additional 5mm ports on each door for extra weapons. And… yeah, that’s pretty much it. A good, solid car mode with some nice details, but nothing extraordinary beyond that.

Partner: As mentioned above, I am missing Ironhide’s Arms Micron partner, whose name is Iro (last name Nhide, possibly?). Iro originally came in parts and had to be assembled and stickered. He transformed into a weapon somewhat resembling the arm guns that came with Hasbro Sergeant Kup. Would have been nice to get him for completeness’ sake, but I can’t say I really miss him.

Remarks: Now we all know that Ironhide was not a part of the Prime TV series. What you might or might not know is that he was originally intended to be. Given Ironhide’s big role in the first two live-action movies, he was originally intended to be on the Autobot core team. At some point, however, the Prime designers realized that the bot they had designed was actually Bulkhead from Animated, not Ironhide, so they renamed him. Thus Ironhide was restricted to be a no-show toy and even got a new paintjob and name for his Western release as Sergeant Kup (though he was originally solicited as Ironhide here, too). The Western world only had a small Cyberverse figure of Ironhide in their stores.

I really liked the Sergeant Kup figure in Prime, so when I had the chance to get Ironhide on a small budget, I immediately snatched him up. He is not an all-time classic or anything, but he is a good, solid Deluxe-Class figure from the 2010s and a nice mixture of the more stylized Prime aesthetic with the live-action movie look. I am not saying you need him, but if you get him for a good price, he is a fun figure to own. Recommended to Transformers Prime and Ironhide fans.

Rating: B