Yup, pretty sure you're right about the belly flap. My bad.

I'd be delighted if they had removed the goatee, but it was quite understated anyway, so I won't be devastated if it's still there. Good work, by the way. By god, I'm excited about this one. Wasn't even that big a fan of Ironhide as a character and this was probably the one of the original Ark Crew that I was least looking forward to (excluding minibots), just because I didn't see any way of making a satisfying rendition of him. Boy was I wrong.

 

I'm right there with you. I wasn't an Ironhide fan. More into Starscream myself. I never imagined a masterpiece Ironhide though nevermind pull off an all in one. I love how good it looks. It's said a lot, but it's a good time to be a G1 fan.

 

Agreed, it looks terrible hanging that low

 

This guy is a mess.

 

Looks pretty awesome to me, and I can't wait for the inevitable Ratchet as well.

 

I have to be honest, I am torn on this figure. I would love to have an official MP Ironhide so I can have Peter Cullen sign it; however, I'm just not digging the design itself. Comparing it to Voodoo Robots' Animus figure, I'm liking the 3P option much more; however, I don't know if Peter Cullen would sign it since it's not officially from Hasbro or Takara-Tomy.

 

This thing is not looking good...  

 

How he supposed to side kicking if those hip side panels are not movable ?

 

i'll get this guy since he's the best [official] ironhide to date (3p versions are still questionable until released), but i'm definitely not feeling him as much as the other mp molds. super awkward looking in so many angles. he may just an extreme case of not being photogenic - i'm crossing my fingers he'll be way better in person, but from all the figures i have, the photos and my initial reaction upon opening them didn't stray too far from each other, so i'd be lying if i said i'm not a little nervous about this guy. anyways, he'll be in my display until something better comes along

 

Oh, just look at that angle. That's Ironhide yelling, "When are we gonna start bust'n Deceptichops?" Anyone who questions his Ironhide-ness please just look at that shot right there. Thanks UnexpectedPanda

Look at the side detail, that's some Tranformers origami goodness right there.

I can't wait to build Prime's Season 1 inner circle; We got Ironhide, Prowl, Wheejack(?), c'monnnnn Jazz.

 

That would look soooooooooooooo much better.

 

There's always 3P that will make you happy.  

TFC & Voodoo Dolls!

 

Nah. They're all pretty bad. Takara's is the best available unfortunately.

 

oh, THE TRUTH, finally (except for "unfortunately").

 

Wow what a couple of days! Haven't been able to follow very well as have been flying back from vacation (with a very nice pile of loot!).

Glad his head sculpt is in fact awesome. Really does look like it's changed to remove the goatee/chin protrusion as one eagle-eyed poster mentioned.

Gotta love the mistransformations and poor poses at the latest show. Takara still got those interns from Hasbro!

I absolutely am loving the engineering of this so far. I'm particularly impressed how much of a clean fitting solid block they have made from the torso panel origami. All the corners and edges lining up nicely and it's clean and slender too with as much black worked in as they can. It's a far cry from the Voodoo effort which has a badly positioned and floating front panel, overhanging at the top looking a bit like he's wearing a bib. And messy sides and back with the stack of panel parts visible and protruding backwards a bit far.

Nice to see the back of the legs - I think my guess on the transformation back in post #242 is still right. Again really impressed how they have turned most of the van panels inside out to create clean, very toon accurate lower legs. To me Voodoo's, apart from the detail mimicking a G1 toy sticker, are just bland generic bot legs - mostly external panels visible and a panel kibble stack at the back - nothing capturing G1 Ironhide. I even love the diaper crotch cos it's so accurate. If people don't like the G1 accuracy they may be collecting the wrong line - but fortunately they have options in Voodoo and TFC's efforts, so all good.

If the price for all that accuracy, cleanness and good proportion is the hip panels and butt wheels, it's all good with me.

Posted in two threads cos god knows which one we should use! I really think the MP-27 thread in toys discussion should be moved to here where the MP development 'master threads' usually are. Then we wont get a new thread started every time we get new images. Mods?

 

Oh Liam don't forget the pin neck of the Voodoo dolls version.

 

Oh yeah - and that. Quite horrible that - but hey it'll often be concealed by the overhanging front panel. I did see that they showed pics of that modified, but it seemed they only added a tiny base to the ball joint that wasn't as wide as a neck should be and really didn't seem to do the job. I hope they fix that for the guys who like that figure. That said, the pin neck of the MP seekers doesn't bother me greatly. As with Voodoo IH, you can only really see it when you have the neck at eye level.

 

And something else I just noticed - I love that they even copied the toon accurate vent detail on the bottom back of his torso block. That's one thing I love about the official MPs - these little details...





Edit: Hmmm maybe they need to paint the knee vent/grooves area black too? Might break up those clean legs a bit for those that find them a bit sparse. Then again although they are black in that animation model, seems they were never actually drawn black. Either just the lines drawn but the area remaining red, or just not drawn at all.

 

Good eye as always about that back detailing! That back knee detailing should definitely remain red, though - they were always red in the animation.

My only two criticisms/mild disappointments of the figure are that I'm starting to wish that front bumper folded up in bot mode and that as loaded up as he is with accessories, he doesn't have the triple pronged sprayer he had in "Quest for Survival", a beautifully animated episode and probably his coolest sprayer (I feel like he used this same sprayer another time or two, but I could be wrong). Minor gripes, though. The rest of the guy is pure win - pure G1 cartoon Ironhide. Like I and others have said before - I had low expectations for an all-in-one MP Ironhide before his reveal - I just couldn't imagine how they could achieve a cartoon G1 bot without a giant kibble backpack or without sacrificing articulation (kinda like Ultra Magnus - whom I love). I remember when he was revealed and I first took a look at him I assumed he was a partsformer with a sled - he looked too clean! What a challenging design this had to be, though. I love that to achieve a V shaped heroic torso out of the front of a minivan that actually fights that shape, they angled out the side torso panels. Great touch. One of many. I think it's telling that most of my artist/designer/engineer friends here are similarly impressed.

Get those preorders up!