Grey suit, better guns.

When the ROTF line was released, Hasbro had a bit of a problem on their hands. All 4 of the returning Autobots had the same character designs in ROTF as they did in the first movie.

So what were they gonna do about the toys of those 4 characters? Redesign them from the ground up to be more accurate? Release the same toys but with different colors? Release the same toys but with different weapons?

Hasbro picked all 3 for the ROTF line. For Ironhide in particular, they picked 2.

Vehicle mode

Ironhide is still a big honking truck, a big honking GMC Topkick. But now he is grey, not black. Is it because this mold got older? Conspiracies.

The painted detail is plentiful though and makes me miss when retail figures were affordable and well painted.

His weapons attach differently than the original Voyager Ironhide. They attach on the back like a turret. Nice. If you have the old weapons you can still attach them on his arms at the bottom of the vehicle.

Yes, that means you can load him up.

Explosions!

One last thing. Ironhide is a truck with lots of ground clearance. This means his wheels roll exceptionally well.

Transformation

The transformation is quite complex but not frustrating. I actually think it’s better than the DOTM Voyager. The automorph in his legs is also really cool and is the best part of the transformation.

Robot mode

It’s the Autobot weapons specialist himself, Ironhide! Ironhide’s a got a new more screen accurate head this time around. And he’s grey!

While the paintjob is decidedly less than screen accurate, the sculpt itself is impressive for a first pass. The on-screen details are there even if the proportions are not.

His posability was pretty good for his time, but it’s only average by today’s standards. He’s got a swiveling head that can look down, universal shoulders, bicep swivels, bending elbows, wrist swivels, a waisg swivel, universal hips, thigh swivels and bending knees. He has no posable feet.

And that brings me to my biggest gripe with Ironhide. His balance is bad. His feet are big and can hold static poses just fine. But try and get him into more action-y poses and you’re out of luck.

Gimmicks

He’s a mold from the first movie line, so he has a pair of Automorph gimmicks on his lower legs. Pulling down on his foot automatically transforms the lower leg sections of either leg. It’s impressive to watch so many parts move in unison. Although it means he has no posability in his feet, I think it’s a fair trade off.

Now the next and most important thing, his cannons. They got a significant upgrade over the original Voyager figure. They’re more show accurate and do more than the original one’s cannons. The bigger one revolves when the back is pushed in. Pushing it in far enough fires a launching missile. The smaller one can lengthen out and retract.

Also, as mentioned earlier, they can combine and become a turret for truck mode. The turret is posable. It rotates 360° and can move up and down.

Honestly, Ironhide here is worth the purchase just for the cannons.

Toy or collectible?

This mold has been used many times and can be had for a variety of prices. As of this writing, this Ironhide and Recon Ironhide are the most expensive versions of this mold. They also seem to be the hardest versions to find.

The cost, rarity and complexity of the figure put this straight into collectible territory. While I think this mold would give a 10 year old a lot of good memories, I would not get them this version. The first release is available for like half the price. I’d get a 10 year old that instead.

Closing

I don’t know how to feel about this. This Ironhide mold is great. It’s just that there are quite a few Movie Ironhide molds that I prefer. The DOTM Leader, the HFTD Deluxe and obviously the MPM are better than this guy. So do you really need him? For people like me who collect multiples of the same character, there’s no problem. For people who collect one definitive version of every character, it’s a conundrum.

But here’s the good thing about this repaint. He’s coloured different than Ironhide. You can use him as a different character.

You can call him Leader 1!

P.S: Movie 2007 Voyager Ironhide with ROTF Voyager Ironhide cannons.