TFA - Armorhide (Japan)

Faction: Autobot

Function: Local Combatant

Size Class: Deluxe

Strength: 8

Speed: 5

Rank: 6

Firepower: 6

Intelligence: 6

Endurance: 10

Courage: 9

Skill: 9

Robot Mode

Armorhide's robot mode is a mostly red masculine bi-pedal form, parts of his limbs are dark grey and he also features some black and blue highlights as well.

Armorhide's torso is made up of pretty much all of the bulk of his vehicle mode, and his front treads. The treads and very front of his vehicle form his abdominal area, whilst the top of the front is his chest,a nd his rood forms a back-pack of sorts. His head is connected to the torso by a neck-shaped connector, which can be folded back into his torso if needed for transformation or just so he can look upwards. The head itself is connected by a ball joint that allows it to rotate as needed in pretty much any direction. His face is grey with a red helmet surrounding it. The most prominent features of the head are a forehead chevron, nose ridge, a sculpted smirk for a mouth and a pair of light-piped eyes that glow pale blue in appropriate lighting.

His hand held weapons can be kept on the same clips that he uses in vehicle mode for storage in this mode as well (as shown above).

Armorhide's arms are connected to the upper torso by a ball-joint connection that enables them to move as much as needed (perfect for a fighter like this guy!). The upper arms feature some shoulder pads that can be rotated full if needed. His elbows are created by a combination of a hinge and a pivot joint that allows them to rotate and bend as needed once again.

The lower arms are different on each arm, although physically similar. The right arm features a button behind it that allows Armorhide to use a punching gimmick, whilst his left arm features a plug hole that you can insert the EMP weapon that comes with Lockdown into (since this is a Ratchet retool remember).

Armorhide's hands feature sculpted fingers with a peg hole between them, this peg hole can be used to hold weapons, including his own ones to act as punching weapons.

His upper legs are connected to his groin area by a ball joint like his arms. His knees are created by a pivot and hinge joint like the arms again. Unlike the arms however his lower legs are both the same, and don't really do anything important (except for helping him stand up). The feet are folded out from his treads, which also reveals a heel as well, giving him a good amount of support.

Vehicle Mode

Armorhide turns into a Cybertronian...thing...I'm not sure what it is exactly, but I like to call it a truck with legged-treads. The vehicle is mostly red, with with a black roof, treads and some other small panel areas. His front windows are made with clear light blue plastic.

This mode also features sculpted friction marks on the treads, sculpted headlights, which have been painted black and yellow and other smaller details on the roof, like lights and ridges etc. The rear features a couple of clips for his hand-held weapons on to act as bumpers of sorts (as I tend to keep them as, as shown in my pictures above.

This mode features some small wheels under the treads (as usual on tanks and similar vehicles) so they can actually roll on the surface.

My Final Thoughts

You may have noticed how I've been calling Ironhide "Armorhide" during this review, this is intentional due to this version actually being the Japanese version, which was called Armorhide (because Bulkhead was called Ironhide in Japan). This version has a much more metallic colourscheme than his Hasbro release, which oddly works despite the cartoon-feel of the toyline itself.

I really like this toy, not just because it's the "rarer" Japanese version, but because it just looks and feels good in general (not to mention one of my few Japanese figures in general).

If you can find this toy, either version, I do recommend that you get him, he makes a good addition to any Animated shelf, despite him only appearing in a few episodes of the series. I managed to get my copy of this figure from Auto Assembly last year, and I'm still very happy with the buy, as I'm sure you will be as well.