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.

Prime - Ironhide (CV)

"Ironhide is always ready for anything, as long as "anything" involves a fight. Surly, tough and spoiling for battle, Ironhide has made a career out of blasting Decepticons to pieces. His laser-proof armour makes him a tough opponent for even the most powerful warriors."
Faction: Autobot

Function: Heavy Munitions

Size Class: Cyberverse Commander

Strength: 9

Speed: 4

Rank: 8

Firepower: 7

Intelligence: 5

Endurance: 10

Courage: 8

Skill: 6

Robot Mode

Ironhide's robot mode is a black and red masculine bi-pedal form with clear blue parts as well. His body is sculpted with some faux interior parts from his vehicle mode and also features various parts from his vehicle mode too, as per usual.

Ironhide's torso part is pretty standard for a smaller figure. His abdomen area features a tiny Autobot insignia (so small in fact that you probably won't see it in most pictures here). Above that is a windshield chest. His head is attached to the torso and cannot move as such (again, common for smaller figures). The head is mostly a red, mohawked helmet with a forehead chevron, side rounded panels and other smaller details. Ironhide's face is silver with sculpted mouth, nose and red eyes (the eyes may have just been left unpainted by accident however). 

Surrounding Ironhide's head are the front lights from his vehicle mode acting like haunched shoulders, these are used to hide his connectors for his arms. On his back is a peg suitable for storing his weapons (or at least one weapon anyway).

Ironhide's upper arms are connected to his torso by a long connector that is able to move via a hinge (located under the lights) and a ball-joint in the actual arm. The shoulder is made from his vehicle mode grill split in half and with a large bolt visible on each one. Ironhide's upper arms are connected by a hinge, which lead to his lower arms via a ball joint that gives him quite a lot of articulation for his size class. Ironhide's upper arm features his front wheels hanging on a loose joint that can be removed if needed without damaging it. His lower arms feature a sculpted pair of hands, featuring fingers. He also has peg holes on his outer forearms and in his hands as well for him to hold or wield any smaller scale figure's weapons.

Ironhide's legs are created from the entire rear of his vehicle mode basically. The upper legs are connected to the groin area of the torso by ball joints, whilst his knees are formed with hinges that allow them to bend back and forth as needed. Ironhide's feet are formed by the cover of the vehicle mode's rear being folded out using a pivot joint and a hinge, allowing him to be re-posed as needed for whatever surface you needed, within reason. The lower legs also feature his rear wheels, just for decoration.

Vehicle Mode

Ironhide's vehicle mode is a red and black pick-up truck with a covered up haulage area in the back. This mode also features several sculpted pieces of truck detailing, such as headlights, front grill, roof lights, side windows, bumpers and other such things and small detailing.

Ironhide's front windows are made with clear blue plastic, whilst the side windows are made using silver painted plastic. His wheels are fully functional and allow him to roll along a smooth surface as needed without obstruction (a common feature in recent years of toys of course).

On his hood is a large black mark that looks like it's loosely based on the Autobot insignia, which could mean that he was originally going to have one there, but it was changed late in the process.

Ironhide features small peg holes for his supplied cannons on either door and in the boot.

Accessories

Ironhide comes with two small clear blue plastic cannons which feature 3 pegs and 2 peg holes. The pegs can be placed in any small peg holes to combine with smaller weapons if wanted, or in the configurations shown on this page. The most commonly used configuration would be the arm cannon format shown in the robot mode section or the combined weapon below, rather than being used as hand held cannons.

My Final Thoughts

I really like this Ironhide figure, despite him not being an in-show character (yet) he's been very well designed, especially considering that he's a smaller scale figure as well!

This figure is mostly impressive to me because it seems to homage most older incarnations of Ironhide all in one figure the weapons of the Movie version, colours and head of the G1 version, alternate mode of the RID version (and Movie as well I guess), but more than all of those, he even seems to be based somewhat on the designs for Animated Ironhide's Earth mode (seen in the Allspark Almanac II), albeit modified for the Prime aesthetic as well.

The only real issues I have with this toy are that in his vehicle mode he can't have the "cover" for his rear removed, this is because of his transformation sequence, but I'm sure that'll be fixed by the time his larger Deluxe toy version comes out.

I do recommend this toy for most fans, he works as a stand-in for Ironhide in pretty much any continuity that you want, or just as a currently non-show character for your Prime shelf.

T is for Terrorsaur

The Winning Toy


Toyline: Armada

Generation: Unicron Trilogy

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Decepticon


Robot Mode



Terrorsaur's robot mode is different to most other Armada toys, mostly because he was modified from a Beast Wars toy, he shares this trait with Airazor, Cheetor, Rhinox and Predacon. Because of him being originally in a different toyline he has the aesthetic feel of the other line, in this case meaning that he has smooth lines, organic feel and musculature rather than being mostly boxy in appearance. His colour scheme is of course different to that of the original usage of the mold and is now orange and two shades of green along with some silver highlights, such as on his VTOL parts, screws and teeth.

Terrorsaur's upper arms are connected to the torso by a ball joint enabling it to have full articulation (as long as the arm kibble doesn't get in the way). The lower arm is connected to the upper arm by a hinge that enables it to bend forwards by about 90 degrees. His hands aren't articulated at all, but has three sculpted fingers. The wings on Terrorsaur's lower arms are able to be removed by folding them inwards and then slotting them out. These wings can be used as blade weapons by inserting the handle-like section in between the thumb and middle claw and then slotting a small clip into a small socket on his palms. The blades have the word "Terrorsaur" emblazoned on them (I guess so if they get lost then he can have them returned to him)

The upper leg is connected to the lower torso by a ball joint and pivot joint combination, giving it amazing articulation. The lower and upper leg are connected by a knee joint created by two hinges, this enables him to bend his knees fully backwards, to an extent where he could easily tuck his knees up against his chest. His feet are created by flattening out his beast mode feet-claws, however the entirety of the support for these feet is from a circular point between them, so the claws are just for aesthetic purposes.

In this mode Terrorsaur has a Mini-Con hard point on both shoulders and well as on the folded down panel on his back (which has to be lifted upwards to reveal the hard-point.

Terrorsaur's head is sculpted with a snarling expression revealing his teeth. He has a nose and two red eyes sculpted as well. Terrorsaur also has a Mohawk on top of his head.


Alternate Mode



Flip a chest backwards here, and fold some legs away there, and you can turn Terrorsaur into his alternate mode, a Mechanical Pteranodon (or Transmetal Pteranodon if you's prefer) This toy is of course the same colour scheme as his robot mode.

Luckily with this toy you can either have him in a flat on the ground or "flying" mode or have him in a perched mode (as I have photographed above). In his perched mode you can use the claws from his wings as an extra set of limbs to support him upright.

The wings are able to flap on a ball joint (as it is the same mechanism as his arms in robot mode). His legs aren't able to move, however the claws can be extended as needed, but don't actually affect anything.

The neck of this toy's beast mode enables him to bob it up and down for whatever pose you want him it, on top of that he has a beak that can be opened and closed, which reveals some hidden teeth (perfect for eating some fishes or small birdies). Terrorsaur also has a pair or orange eyes on either side of the head and ridges etc, and a small green piece at the back of the head balanced on a hinge.

The Mini-Con hard points are found on his back and the parts of his wings that are closest to his torso.



Because Terrorsaur is a slight remold of a Transmetal Beast Era toy, he does of course come with a third/power up mode. To convert to his jet mode you simple have to rotate the orange chest-connector pieces around to an upright position (and rotate his wings back to a spread out position of course) This enables you to open up the jet boosters at the back from the main rear torso of the beast mode to a full extent (you can leave the connector where it is, but you can't open the booster compartment up fully that way.

An extra thing you can do to make him different in this mode is opening up his VTOL jet cover, though that's totally up to you of course.


Ironhide



The Mini-Con that comes with Terrorsaur is Ironhide, whom is a repaint of the Adventure Team member Dune Runner (his team mates got repaints and were packaged with Cheetor and Rhinox). And to make things even more surprising, this Mini-Con is in fact a female....yeah...Ironhide's a girl....moving on!

Ironhide is a brown gun-mounted dune buggy with black wheels, seats, guns and guard rail. Her eyes are an orange colour, and she has silver hubcaps. The wheels are fully mobile and can allow her to roll along a floor unaided (yay!)

In robot mode Ironhide has limited articulation (as you should realise by now with Mini-Cons) she can move her arms on a pivot at the shoulders. The legs are connected to the lower torso by a pivot again, which is then connected to his lower leg by another pivot, giving her the ability to sit down. Her head is able to move on a pivot to the left or right, which is quite uncommon for Mini-Cons, and is only possible due to her transformation sequence really.

Her Mini-Con socket s located on the back of her head, which enables her to connect to any Mini-Con hard point.

Ironhide and the other Adventure Tea repaints have quite a rare feature actually, they have a suqare peg system on the undersides of their vehicle modes which enable them to combine with Cyclonus in his Helicopter mode at the exposed gear section beneath his cockpit, which enables the gun on Ironhide's vehicle mode to move by just pushing the trigger on Cyclonus' tail. (This trait of also shared by the Destruction Team and Refute, plus any repaints).


Legacy

Terrorsaur appeared at the end of the Armada comic where he, along with Cheetor, Rhinox and Airazor were abducted by Unicron in the final moments of the war and he, along with the other abductees were twisted into Unicron's Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Terrorsaur was turned into "Famine" and helped in an attack on Cybertron during the start of the Energon comic series, until they were chased off by Optimus Prime in his new upgraded form, thanks to Cybertron itself. The Horsemen later retrieved the Terrorcons after they failed in a mission. The Horsemen remained inside Unicron after that until the series was cancelled due to Dreamwave's collapse, but were due to appear again. Most likely the group would have been destroyed by the end of the series. Terrorsaur never appeared in the Armada cartoon.

Ironhide never appeared in the comics or cartoons, but is mentioned as now missing Terrorsaur after he got abducted by Unicron, despite how Terrorsaur stole her a long time ago.

Terrorsaur's toy mold was of course originally used by Beast Wars Terrorsaur in his Transmetal body, which, whilst he only appeared in the series in his organic mode, upon his death he began to morph into his Transmetal body, but was never seen again (the only fictional appearance of this version of his body was in the Beast Wars Sourcebook. Obviously this toy had the Mini-Con hard points and Ironhide added especially for the Armada line.

This toy mold is also used for the beast Machines toy Terranotron (the pre-Mini-Con version obviously) and was also used for the fiction only bodies for Fractyl's Transmetal mode, and Ravenus' first body. Interestingly both of the latter two mold mates have had multiple bodies. Fractyl's was a physical toy and was a repaint of Terrorsaur's first body, his toy however was originally planned to be made as well. Meanwhile Ravenus' second body was actually based on G1 Swoop, using his Diaclone pre-Transformer colours. A version of Ravenus using this mold was considered for the Linkage series' exclusive figures as a mail-away toy, but this idea was cancelled after the original conception. (Though you could juts repaint an Armada Terrorsaur into Ravenus' colours honestly!)

As mentioned before Ironhide is a repaint of the Adventure team figure Dune Runner, and retains all the features from the original version. The name Ironhide is of course re-purposed from the G1 and Beast Wars character as well as being reused again for several newer characters in pretty much every continuity since.


Is he Cool?

Honestly, when I first put him up for an option I'd say no, but after reviewing him, and playing with the toy in the run up for the review itself, I have changed my mind. His articulation is quite high for an older figure, despite obviously having some signs of age compared to most of the newer figures (ie the general feel of the figure, colour scheme etc) but he still looks good regardless.

His robot mode looks like he's designed to emulate Starscream from the G1 series (cockpit on his chest, the general shape, the attitude of the character and the kibble on his shoulders).

My main complaint about the figure is that his hard points are added on as an extra feature, which doesn't activate any added features (totally understandable due to him being remolded from a previous toyline) And his Mini-Con doesn't really fit with Terrorsaur in terms of design, again because it was reassigned from another set, this is made even more obvious due to Ironhide's gear gimmick not being compatible with Terrorsaur at all.

All in all, I'd say the best reason to buy Terrorsaur would be to complete a set of the Four Horsemen, otherwise it's probably more worthwhile just getting the Beast Era toy. Of course, even saying that, if you like Mini-Cons like I do, then it's probably worth getting the toy purely for Ironhide, since she is one of the few female Mini-Cons available.