Mine is fine.

 

<grumble>

I'm considering opening his legs up, but unlike blackout's chest, it looks like the second I do anything there will be pieces-a-flyin'. I'm not sure what I'd be able to do with it anyway, as it seems like the problem is with wear on the gearing itself thanks to my efforts to give him more heel support. A lot of these figures could benefit from repro'd metal gears to keep them from stripping and slipping.

I suppose if I open his leg up and take a peek and everything DOES explode in a shower of springs, cogs, and plastic, it'll give me an excuse to buy another Ironhide and use my current one for kitbashes or something.

 

Ok, I just scanned all 27 pages of this thread and I think this is something new:

Over at the german site www.thetransformers.de , Alec77 posted on their messageboard what seems to be another "lost transformation step" that was not shown in the manual sheet.

In fact, Ironhides "shoulders" to not need to be loose and in extreme v-shape.
It may be a bit closer to the movie design with the extreme v-shape, but it's flabbery and in reality would restrict Ironhides view.

Just look at the images in this thread over there:

http://www.thetransformers.de/include.php?path=forum/showthread.php&threadid=843

The doors attach to the roof part. There is some kind of rails on one of the three roof parts.

Result: The shoulders are firmly attached and don't flabber, they are still at a slight angle and they aren't too far apart as with other solutions.

In my case the result looked like this:



Judging from the construction, the photos on the box and so on, I'm pretty sure this is how Ironhide is supposed to be transformed correctly.

It works a treat and looks great in my opinion.

 

Someone mentioned that earlier in the thread, but it's worth repeating. If the shoulder pads were supposed to stay in the "V" form, there'd be no reason for them to lock to the sides like they do.

 

Say, can anyone with a camera and Lerader Op, Voyager Ratchet, Voyager Ironhide and Deluxe Jazz post a pic of them all in vehicle mode please? Doesn't need to be lined up, just collected. I tried other sites like seibertron.com, but there images are all at weird angles and are no good.

If you can, that'd be great, thanks! If you can't, thanks anyways.

 

Thanks man! Now I have a better idea of what I'm getting into. Unfortunatly, now I also see how small BB is. Which, after much doubt, has convinced me to wait for the '08 version, as he looks too out of place with everyone else.

 

The '08 version is just as small.

 

The reason the shoulders lock to the side the way they do when popped outward is because of tolerances and seams in the design; if you look on the inside of his shoulders, the teal pieces that the hood/shoulders swing on have a curved edge and a straight edge. The straight edge is supposed to keep the shoulders from moving any further outward than they do when his shoulders are in V formation, while the curved part allows them to swing down inward to form his truck mode.

What's happening when you pop his shoulder pieces out and lay them flat is you're pushing that teal peg over its stop and into a part seam, which makes it lock into place again. This is slowly wearing both the teal swivel bar and the peg it's on, and with time transforming him this way may result in this mode no longer locking down as well, and his shoulders really going crazy with the bouncy-bouncy. So no, I don't think it's intended to be transformed that way, especially with the huge gap that's left in his chest and the inconsistency with the movie design.

In fact, looking at his shoulders now that I've tried transforming him that way a few times, it's already worn the right peg a bit so that both bars don't stay at the same position in unlocked mode anymore, making his right shoulder swing out a little farther than his left, which for someone with a touch of OCD, is a bad, bad thing.  

I've found the best way to keep his shoulders from springing wildly is to take advantage of the second bend in them at the driver's side door, pushing them inward to press against his front windshield. This stabilizes them quite nicely, even if it doesn't lock them down.

TheJedi- I tried as best I could to follow the pictures in there, but found that the backpack had to be rather bizarrely oriented to do it and the hold was not at all secure, making his shoulder spring loose and fly up without too much jostling. Maybe I'm missing something, and I definitely see the "tracks" that you're referring to, but I can't imagine this being the right way to do it since it seems less stable than leaving his shoulders up and braced as I described earlier.

<-- still pondering opening Ironhide's lower legs open for a look-see, considering his shoulders are already driving me crazy and I might have to get another one anyway.

 

Ah, but it doesn't look as small. Becuase it's fatter, much like Jazz.

 

http://www.cybph.com/archives/309

Actually, '08 bee is a little bigger, as you can see in the photos here.

 

I'd say he's not any bigger, but is beefier, which would put him more in line with Jazz and Barricade.

 

Mirrored from the "fix my movie toy!" thread, re: Securing Ironhide's backpack and shoulders in a V position.

Ironhide's Back kibble and shoulders -

For those taking issue with "floating" shoulders that spring loosely on their Ironhide, the shoulders can be secured so that they'll stay fairly solidly in the movie accurate "V" formation (though it doesn't peg or anything). It all relies on your getting the right backpack setup and using the front door hinges to press the doors inward.

The "backpack" should be oriented so that the roof is pointing straight upward, with its top hinge at a 90 degree angle from it. The rear window assembly should be folded under it and pushed up between the body and the front windshield; If aligned correctly it will "snap" into place snugly and line up flush with the windshield. Pulling back on the top of the roof and pressing in on the bottom will help solidify the fit.

Once you have this setup, you'll notice that his smokestacks are right by his bumper, you can actually press them inward slightly and pull his bumper up a few degrees, which will lock the stacks into it, giving him a 100% solid backpack assembly.

While this will give you not only a solid backpack connection, it also gives a solid base for his side chest window assemblies to press against and hold them in place. Once his backpack is locked in and his chest in the loose V orientation, grasp his swinging chestpiece in your thumb and the back of his head in your index finger and press them together firmly, this will push the shoulders into roughly the correct shoulder position. While still pressing the chest in, push his side doors in with your other hand so that they press against the backpack/rear window assembly.

When you release your grip, the shoulders should be based solidly against the front chest and rear backpack, making them nice and solid. They'll obviously come loose if you try to pick him up by the shoulders or chest or something (The only really good place to grip Ironhide is by his waist, thanks to all those leg panels and the loose chest pieces), but they'll hold and wont bounce around, plus the bent windows give his chest a smoother look, like he has a bit more vision room.

I wish I could find my blasted camera. Pictures speak volumes over words.

 

I was really looking forward to picking up this bad boy, after reading all the positive feedback of him as well as being one of the few movie designs I took a quick liking to.

Unfortunately, colour me disappointed. While the strength of his robot design still manages to shine through (LOVE the combining guns!), he just lacks so much colour. The excessive black washes out nearly all the detail on his legs, his body, and especially his face. Tiny things like the missing silver on his stacks also hurt him a bit.

Sure, I can paint all these myself, but it's still kinda disappointing since he DOES have silver and blue elsewhere on him, why couldn't they add it to these other areas? I might warm up to him more eventually, but as of now I'm slightly underwhelmed. At least he's not as big of a disappointment as Jazz...

 

Actually the BW toys were in scale, or pretty close to it, for what we saw in the cartoon (so yes, Rattrap was one HUGE rat), and I do believe the CR/RiD toys were also in scale (except the spychangers, of course). I do remember a lot of bitching back in those days when they stopped keeping toys in scale with each other. So... nothing new.

 

Is it just me, or is Ironhide impossibly awesome for a $20 toy. It seems like HasTak pulled Japan's top eggheads off of their top-secret project to build a real mecha-Godzilla, and got them all working on this toy. When that wasn't enough Zeus himself came down from Mt Olympus to put on the finishing touches.

Seriously, the world can just stop making $20 toys now. Every $20 made from this point forward will simply be "not Ironhide".

 

I got the backpack like you said, but I'm at a loss with how the chest attaches to it. I tried it how you described, but nothing is happening. It's not even remotely more stable. As soon as I let go, it springs back up all bouncing around and stuff.

 

It's not "attaches" to, precisely. Bending the doors inward enough that they push the front torso up creates a friction hold on the doors that holds them steady. Now, granted, if the door hinge on your own Ironhide is loose (it's possible, one of mine is quite stiff, the other much less so), this probably wont hold it.

At the very least, the backpack should stay put ><

There's not a lot that can be done about production tolerances in joint stiffness when it comes to home engineered remedies.

 

I just tried that and its PERFECT. you can still fold the backpack up tight too, unlike what the german guys shows in his pic. after snapping the doors into place, everything locks up nice and tight. excellent.

 

Trying to figure out how to do that....

EDIT: Got it! That works great!