Cliffbee.com Armorhide Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Armorhide
Series: Robots in Disguise
Allegiance: Decepticon
(Recolour of Brawl, Dangar)



TANK MODE
Height: 3cm (6 if you add his extra guns Length: 9cm Width: 4.5cm

   A blue tank with black camo patterns and white speckles over it, this is one very cool colour scheme - although it's not a colour scheme you're ever likely to see on a tank. I already have both G1 and G2 Brawl, as well as Dangar, so the mould was nothing new, but the colour scheme made this toy fun when I got it. It's basically Dangar in blue, but it's nice blue. He's got a black turret and grey treads (they're plastic, unlike the first issue of Brawl). He's also got a G1 Decepticon symbol on the front - a refreshing sight for fans of G1 like myself.

   His turret spins freely around 360 degrees, although if you add the extra guns it can't point backwards. The extra guns make the attack mode - not that tanks can't attack anyway - and can point forwards or up to around 85 degrees. The small handguns fits into a hole atop the large extra guns, a feature added to the mould for Dangar, and carried over to Armorhide, removing the handgun lets him point the twin-barrels of the large add-on gun swing a little further back.

   The movements of the turret and the attack guns is complimented by the wheels on the bottom of the treads, allowing a rather well armed tank to roll into battle.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Remove the attack guns if present, pull forward the front section, pull up the turret, swing the rear section down to form the legs. Swing the front section down to reveal the head and keep swinging the sides down to form arms. Push the turret back in and give him back his handgun.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 9cm, 11.5cm to tip of turret Width: 4cm

   The camo pattern is continued into this mode, although he has grey thighs, a grey groin and a grey head, with orange eyes. He's a fairly good square-peg combiner in this mode, very stocky & blocky.

   The arms swing at the shoulders, and there are moulded fists on the insides of his arms - although you have to look to see them. He has holes on the fronts of the arms anyway to accommodate the gun, and these do an OK job for hands anyway. The knees bend, though this is actually part of the transform it still does allow him two more joints. The turret can still swivel in this mode, though I can't see any reason why it would have to.


VARIATIONS

   Well this is now the sixth incarnation of this mold (Brawl, Classic Brawl, Sandstorm of Battle Gaia, G2 Brawl and Dangar being the others). Like most of his cousins he lacks the rubsign indent of the original Brawl. He could be counted as a variation on Dangar - he's one of the few RiD toys to be significantly recoloured from the Car Robots line.

   There are Arctic and desert camo versions, from the respective Ruination giftsets.

OVERALL

   Hardly anything new in the mould, only the addition of a place to stow his handgun in tank mode. Still, the mould change is for the better. Some people will prefer the somewhat more "natural" colours of Dangar, but Armorhide's certainly easier and cheaper to get - Dangar cost me twice the price of Armorhide. If you plan to get Ruination then you him, of course. I'm a fan of Brawl, and I've always liked this mould, so I was always going to get this guy. Not the most poseable toy nowadays, but about average for a 1986 mould. I'd recommend him, the colour scheme is nice, but I wouldn't recommend him too heavily to those with G1 Brawl. 7/10

"Transformers" and other indica trademarks of Hasbro and/or Takara.