I’ve never seen it at retail, it would be nice to get a reissue so he can be found for less than $40.

 

I’ve only seen him once. Never saw him again. Definitely hard to find, if you see him I’d nab him of the shelf ASAP. Nowadays he goes for like $60.

 

He is one of the most poorly distributed ss figures to date. For whatever reason that middle of summer voyager case seems very hard to find. Long Haul was also distributed poorly and he had the same slot. I've only seen IH on shelves once (I got mine online during one of the first sporadic availability windows), and he is hard to find for anywhere close to MSRP these days.

 

Also, if anybody somehow sees this guy at retail, nab him off the shelf ASAP. If your pass and never see him again that shit SUCKS.

 

That's what I did.  

 

I passed on Animated Black Arachnia & had to settle with a pre-owned copy - of course, without grapple.

 

I've only seen Ironhide TWICE - and the second time I wasn't expecting, so I grabbed him (as I was unable to the first time). Also ordered the DNA Design upgrade kit for him, which came about a week later. The kit makes robot mode look even better...at the cost of vehicle mode being a little worse, which doesn't bug me (the two halves of the truck bed won't tab in quite right with the new feet in place, but they didn't really do that in the first place). The transformation feels a lot like the old HftD Deluxe Ironhide (which was MY Movie Ironhide until now, as it scales perfectly with both the HftD Voyager Battle Blade Optimus Prime mold and the smaller SS05/SS32/SS44 mold), too.

 

I had the chance to got it from another collector with the DNA kit already installed. And for 50 euros. I can't thank him enought.
A very nice figure that solve all the "problems" the other voyagers got. A little bit small for its class, but the ingeniering makes up to that.



That 2007 mold is not accurate (the designers had so little clues) but it's not put to shame by the SS mold. I want to replace it with the "rage" blue remold as another character. It might be hard to find complete.
The "DOTM" mold on the other hand is... not at its best near the new SS version to say the least. Those arms... Even as another character I suffer by empathy when I see him.

And now, I can make an all size classes comparison shot with all of my movie Ironhides ! Finally !



I'm still amazed that we can get so many different transformation sheme to get the same result in altmode and almost the same silhouette in robot mode.
(And yeah, I choose to consider old and new voyagers as different size classes).

 

Nice comparison pictures with all the other Ironhides. It looks like you forgot to flip the wheels on his legs down though. Or is that intentional?

 

I did... I'll have to reshoot all this. At least, it's okay on the inter size classes shots ! I don't want to retransform this deluxe nightmare again T___T

 

The Deluxe version wasn't THAT bad!! And ol' SS14 feels pretty similar to it (especially with the feet & legs and the annoying way to tuck away the head for vehicle mode). But what about the MPM6 version of Ironhide? I've heard that thing was worse to deal with than the MPM Optimus...

 

Well... each time I come back to that deluxe version, I'm puzzled at how configure the torso for robot mode. Especially seeing how all the parts from the back and legs are in the way at the same time. And the feeling of the plastic, brittle and all, makes me affraid of breacking the core of the toy. SS14 has indeed a similar way to arrange itself, but in a way smoother way. I like the deluxe for the solutions it brings. But handling it is not pleasant for me.

And on MPM Ironhide, I saw him in store (in France ! I was surprised) but hearing all the bad feedback, I'm holding on a third party redo of this one. (It's not a thing I usually do. I tend to prefer the official product against a redo for moral reasons. But the frustration seems too strong with this one).

 

It can be counter-intuitive, but I feel my mod of taking off the top-most detail makes it look SO much better. That said, I feel the SS14 easily bests it & would have been perfect - had the bumper actually formed the chest armor, instead of turning into a WWE title belt.

 

This is a solid Studio Series figure and the sculpt is great. The head sculpt was nailed on this one. Would’ve been cool if the bumper folded at hinges and the articulation is great except it’s sorely lacking rocker ankles. That would’ve made a big difference.

 

And that's precisely where the upgrade kit by DNA Design comes in handy. The guns from DotM, the knives from either 2007 or RotF, a new bumper that does fold, and new feet with silver painted toes that can fold up a bit for vehicle mode...along with having actual ankle tilt.

 

MPM Optimus isn't bad to handle at all except the tabbing in truck mode and that's only in one small area.

He's actually one of my favorite MPMs, but the DNA kit is pretty important on that one just like on the SS. MPM6 at least is amazing to look at, although not so fun to transform and the arms are designed poorly. If you can get him for cheap I would still recommend him, especially for a huge Ironhide fan like you! He's also definitely the most accurate of all the Ironhides (I've owned all the ones you took pictures of except the red one).

 

Spiced up with some gold and silver paint for the details