Bot Reviews: Transformers: Studio Series Deluxe Ironhide (Bumblebee Version)

Rise of the Beasts is out in a few months, there’s a fancy new Studio Series 86 Voyager Ironhide, and here I am buying and writing about the previous figure, from the previous movie. To be fair, it took until this month for me to actually see one in stores. Anywho, despite his importance to the franchise in general, I’ve never been as big on Ironhide as a lot of people. I think a part of it is his frequent mold-mate, Ratchet, has always been more interesting to me, and seems to show up a lot more these days. Even in the Bumblebee movie, amongst the cameos, Ratchet got to take center stage and get dialogue. Meanwhile, Ironhide literally ran by in the background and climbed into an escape pod while the Main Characters were having a Plot Conversation.

But, the figure’s an easy Ratchet retool, just like he’s often been, I’m determined to finish my Bumblebee Movie Shelf off, and Studio Series Ratchet was already a good figure, so why not that, but redder? Maybe it’s time to give the big, red, tough-but-kind bruiser a little more respect. He hasn’t been the same since his first death in ‘86.

Robot Mode

Ironhide’s a headswapped repaint of Ratchet, so I’ll run through this a bit more quickly. Back when I looked at Ratchet, I noted how interestingly person-shaped his silhouette was, something helped by the way his design seems to emphasize diagonal lines, instead of straight lines and boxes. The other thing about it is that it’s the shape of a bulky, beefy person. And, since being a Stout, Tough Bruiser is Ironhide’s whole deal as a character, this bulky silhouette feels like it works better here than it did on Ratchet.

And like Ratchet, while it’s not an exact match, a number of design cues on him seem to have been sculpted to match his appearance in High Moon Studio’s War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron games, a design that never got an official figure.

So, yes, uptop, he’s got a totally new head, as opposed to just “Ratchet without the crest.” His helmet’s got a kind of metallic mohawk, as is tradition, while his face follows the really specific Bee Movie Prequeller Design Cue of resembling a ton of shards of metal in the shape of a mostly human-looking face.

And it’s a kid of aged, weary-looking face, making me think of how Kup was occasionally drawn in the IDW comics.

More importantly, the head’s got working lightpiping!

Ironhide’s colors are extremely G1, a cherry red, with gray. He’s got a clear blue chest, and some black and silver accents. One thing I like is that it’s not a palette swap of Ratchet, nearly every bit of his layout is different, save for the Autobrand on his chest, and a few other tiny things.

I will say his lower legs and feet look a bit plain in unbroken red, though. It’s also really hard and kind of pointless to gauge screen-accuracy when he was in the background and often blurry, but I do wish his back wasn’t solid red, we did get a clear look in the movie, and he had dark colors on his back panels.

He’s pretty close to the CGI render at the top of the review, though, with the big difference being his upper thighs, which were unbroken gray, instead of split between gray and red. Still, considering he only existed onscreen for a few blurry frames, it’s not really important. What’s important is that he looks good.

The build quality on this guy is a bit of a problem, though. In what I presume is mold decay, his hips are noticeably looser than Ratchet’s, as is his waist. It’s not bad to the point where he can’t stand, but it doesn’t feel good in your hands, and he can and will do the splits and flop over if you get too ambitious with your poses.

At least the rest of him is decently solid.

Ironhide’s got the same good articulation as Ratchet. To recap (and shamelessly copy-paste), that includes omni-directional ankles, thigh swivels, a balljointed head, plus all the other expected joints for a figure of this scale. It combines with the sculpt to give him a kind of heavy weight and presence, which, again, suits Ironhide better as a character.

For accessories, Ironhide has the same long, Optimus-esque gun as Ratchet, in a noticeably darker, more flat black. He can hold it well, and it pegs on his back nicely, though I question how he grabs it from that angle.

He’s also got pegs beneath his feet for 5MM accessories, if you want to give him, like, fancy boots or something.

Transformation

You know, I thought I had this memorized, and wouldn’t need the instructions, but it turns out this was harder than I remembered. Let me save you a tip: You do not need to rotate his waist at all. His thighs, yes, and some stuff his waist is connected to, but not the waist. It’s a clever transformation, though, that sees you compress and reduce him into a tiny rectangular prism, and eventually everything snaps in, but there’s definitely a moment of fiddling with panels, hoping everything lines up.

Vehicle Mode

Back in Ratchet’s review, I talked about how this alternate mode reminded me of some kind of lunar crawler. Well, this one’s red, so it makes me think of something you’d see on Mars instead. And while it doesn’t actually really look much like the APC from Aliens, the fact that it’s this armored rolling vehicle automatically makes me associate Ironhide with it.

This is a surprisingly small vehicle, a result of the clever transformation, and it’s one that mostly holds together well, though the front wheel wells always feel like they’re on the verge of untabbing from the middle panels of the vehicle. They never do, though.

In terms of colors, this mode again manages to have an almost completely different layout from Ratchet, and we’ve now got the addition of yellow striping around the middle, in a way that references his G1 deco.

I do wish the back end of his vehicle had some deco, but as a completely made up design, it’s not inaccurate to anything.

For features, Ironhide’s got enough ground clearance to roll nicely, and you can mount his weapon on a 5MM port on top of him, with enough wiggle to swivel it like a turret.

And, of course, if you’ve got any Weaponizers or other 5MM accessories around, you can always put something else up there.

Overall

On his own merits, this is a good figure, albeit not a spectacular one. He’s got a nice sense of personality in robot mode, a sculpt that feels like it fits him better than his mold-mate, and a clever vehicle mode.

All the strong points of Ratchet are here, but so is the sense that he’s almost a bit too plain and straightforward, like he needed a few extra features, or something more happening with him. And with multiple other Ironhides either out or on their way, it’s hard to argue for this one, specifically, unless you’re like me, and determined to get all the Bumblebee Movie Guys, even the one who ran by in the background. But I still had fun with him (and had a busy week where I carried him around in my bag a lot, and messed with him a bunch at random intervals), and if you’re into the design, or completing the cast, you’re getting a good figure as part of the deal.

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