Any old iron, any old iron, any any any old iron (Transformers)

Leaking Lubricant!

Episode 5

Way back in the good old days of late 1985 a friend gave me a little Transformers red van!  This was Ironhide rough and tumble mumble grumble Ironhide!  The figure i got was pretty beaten up and well played with and was gotten rid of by my friend as he was moving onto Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (I believe). Now is the time to get out this old boy and to let him have his 5 minutes of fame!

looks ok from this view....

G1 style its not just one Transformer

The front half turns into the robot .....

and the trailer turns into a repair bay!

For a funny looking Robot he did have a face....

And this was his full Robot Form

Now forward the clock on about 20 years and Besttoys decided to release an upgrade for the reissue Encore versions of good old G1 Ironhide.  These were to give the robot "bodies" heads to try and improve their appearance.

Encore reissues... The black was a homage to the Ironhide from Michael Bays film

The picture looks ok right?

Easy to install right?

This was inside that small box!

Well what the ....

Well looks fine.... something still seems off....

And there you have it..... Arms at waist height just wrong!

After this add on kit their were others released some attempted to correct a bit further by having shoulders and new arms.... but I had already spent enough on this..... was thinking that's enough with trying to upgrade my old G1.  

And this was that upgrade that I mentioned above..... 

 

And finally Bot mode with the Gear4Toy addon!

Moving on....

Voodoo's take on Ironhide

Floating back pack but looks great!

We had other Ironhides released over the years, Hasbro attempted to bring us a generations update which wasn't the G1 interpretation, Third party Igear hit closest to the picture below with an all in one figure, and a few years on, other company's like TFC delivered theirs to the collectors market!  But the giants of Takara busily worked away and were soon to announce that theirs would hit the stores for February 2016!  Would we finally get the cartoon accurate version that we dreamed of from the G1 cartoon series after all these years...

"But Primeeeeeeeee"

And then a few days ago I got a package from those brilliant people at Masterforce!  I won't lie, I opened him and first impressions I was not happy..... this was far from the Ironhide of all Ironhides in my opinion. I didn't like the hip flaps and the chest seemed wrong. Things tho as they say are not always as they seem as I was to discover.

Nissan licensed very nice!

Back of the box..... who wants to read that get it opened!

Nice Size...... and a little bit of heft!

Nice and tidy underneath!

Front...

Back...

Next to his Grandaddy!

Look the old face is still in the Masterpiece Windscreen!

Ok Ok heres the first step but I'm not helping you to do the rest :P

In many cultures his clean back has forced him to adopt the name MP TyreButt

Them flaps don't seem so noticeable now

Yea I am happy

For those that miss the table background

Shy but handsome!

Anguish of the Decepticon Boarding party of the "Real Movie" face!

Heyyyy he did get a repair bay.... or weapons bay.... glad its not Michael Bay!

Well we used to see these back in series 1 of the G1 cartoon..

And then we got the nozzle fingers

Superman! (note arms reversed and hands turned around too to make this pose!)

"I'll get him" "Bluestreak Noooo!" 

With some excellent retailers you get the exclusive coin!

G1 its time you went home!

 As the minutes and hours moved on something tho happened......I came to like this fine beast  Takara had released for us collectors.  Ironhide transformed magnificently and fluidly (after the first attempt has seemed a bit wrong I went to look at Ben's Collectables review for fine tuning!)  The articulation is second to none, the box came filled with additional parts, and the plastic quality of the actual Robot ..... outstanding! Add to that an amazing paint scheme and fun toy and you have something a bit special!  Your question is he worth it?  My answer to you would be that you need to have him for a short amount of time to see if he affected you like he did me! 

I still have niggles about things i believe can be improved and look forward to what those clever third party chaps come up with to improve this Masterpiece.  

Hope you enjoyed this blog and until next time look after yourselves!

Special Thanks

Morgan of Masterforce for keeping the toy for my payday

My Mentors for their amazing blogs

Hasbro and Takara for any references to their products

Bens Collectables for his youtube reviews

Matt Dobie and James White because I can

And Katy for allowing me the time to use her workroom to snap you lots of photos!

http://www.masterforce.co.uk/