General Information: Images:
Figure comes with accessories.
Vehicle Mode: The biggest change to the figure is of course the color scheme. The primary plastic colors used on this figure are orange, black, translucent blue and silver. The orange may come as a surprise to those who traditionally see Ironhide as colored red (based on his G1 appearance). While this is a fair assessment in some respects (since so many other versions of Ironhide are all over the place in terms of color) I believe the designers were trying to do two things. First, they were trying to be accurate to Ironhide's appearance in the television show, which did skew a bit more to an orange color than a deeper red color (such as the one used for Optimus Prime). Second, Cybertron Mode Ratchet already had a significant amount of red on him and it may have seen as too repetitive from a design and sales perspective to have two figures based on the same sculpt using the same primary color so extensively. In this respect I'm totally fine with the orange color as it does border line on red. With respect to paint applications, they'll look quite familiar. With a combination of silver, black and yellow, Ironhide almost completely duplicates the paint scheme from Cybertron Mode Ratchet including having an Autobot symbol on the front, yellow and black headlights and a row of yellow lights outlined by black on the top of the vehicle. Where Ironhide differs is the top and the "legs" of the vehicle. On the top portion of Cybertron Mode Ratchet, only the raised, outer edge of the "rack" was painted. On Ironhide however, the entire top section inside the raised edges is painted black as well. On the "legs", the black color extends up the side of the treads more than it did on Cybertron Mode Ratchet. There are also some yellow vertical lines painted on the sides of the vehicle, near the headlights. One final difference is on the sides where there are six sided sections sticking out the sides. The insides are painted black like Cybertron Mode Ratchet, but unlike Ratchet there is no Autobot symbol inside of them. Overall, there's no doubting who the character is when you look at him. He's instantly recognizable as Ironhide, and looks nice. I find the black and yellow colors particularly effective against the orange plastic. Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode: Several paint applications match details found on the animation model as well. This includes black paint used on his legs going up to the knees and black lines on his upper arms, both of which you'll see from his cartoon model. There's some use of gunmetal silver paint here as well. The "Hammer Hand" accessories are actually cast in black, but painted silver. His upper legs are cast in orange, but also painted silver. But let's get to the part that's really interesting shall we? That's right, the new head sculpt! Ironhide features a new head sculpt based on his appearance in the Animated cartoon series, which in itself is a homage to his appearance in the G1 animated series. It features a "helmet" section with a high crest in the center that is so high it resembles ancient Roman helmets. The sides also have raised circles on them, another feature carried over form G1 Ironhide and the Animated model. His face is the real fun part of the design. His mouth is set to the side in a bit of an upturned grin, which matches his reputation as a good natured prankster perfectly. Offering such expressiveness in a robot figure in particular adds personality to the figure, which makes it all the more appealing. The head is cast in orange plastic with translucen blue plastic used for light piped eyes. The face itself is painted gunmetal silver, matching his appearance in the animated series. All of Ironhide's joints are still tight and the "punching" action of the right arm is intact and works great.
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Unlike the first wave of Toys R Us exclusive "Animated" figures, this one has one redeco/retool, Ironhide. Specifically, he is a retool/redeco of 
