Name: Ironhide
Series: "European" Generation 2
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Military Strategist
Alternate Mode: Humvee
TRUCK MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 8cm Width: 4cm
A khaki Hummer with black underside, black plastic wheels with rubberised rear tyres, light green windows and some dark green camouflage on the sides. It's not quite the Cartoon Ironhide, but then neither is the Gobot released the same year - and the hummer's a better fit for the character. The colours are fairly good, although why they went for light green windows I have no idea. There have been many military vehicle Transformers with inappropriate colours (and G2 has it's fair share!).
The detailing here is somewhat sporadic. The front sports a winch, headlights and an air vent on the bonnet. There are distinctly moulded doors and taillight, there are even petrolcaps on either side. None of these details are painted and with the exception of the taillights, none are in themselves detailed. Still, There's more detail here than on the other G2 Powermasters. There's a camouflaged sticker just in front of the windshield with his name in yellow and "PM2" in blue, along with a yellow Autobot logo and G2 Autobot symbol on his roof - just in case there was any doubt.
If you're curious what "PM2" means, Ironhide one of four G2 Powermasters. No relation to the G1 Powermasters, this quartet have pull back motors in them. The idea is that you pull him back and then place one of his guns into one of the holes above the doors, releasing the catch and sending Ironhide scurrying along your floor. I recommend the floor over the table, since this pullback mechanism is actually quite powerful. And that's really all there is to the play value of the toy - so I'm glad it works well. If you lose the guns of course, you'll need to jimmy something else in there. For some reason mine only releases if you use the left side hole - but I have no guns anyway so I guess that evens it up somehow.
With the holes, yellow stampings and rather poorly hidden transformation joints, the roof is a bit of a mess. It looks better _with_ the guns attached, purely because they distract you from everything else on the roof. Of course, guns aren't out of place on a military truck (c8
This is Ironhide's better mode and it's one of the better vehicles in this line, but it's really only mediocre. It's on par with the Throttlebot vehicle modes and the pullback mechanism is quite effective, so Ironhide does what he has to here.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Remove the guns, flip up the front to form the torso, flip out his head, lift up the arms and place the guns in his hands or the holes on his ankles (the roofholes).
ROBOT MODE
Height: 9.5cm Width: 4cm
The black underside is now more prevalent, since his torso, arms and face are black. The legs, feet and head are khaki while his eyes are painted gold. There is a moulded nose but no mouth. The colours are dull and uninspiring, and while they look nothing like those of the red van, he's managed to avoid the fluorescent colours the Gobot has in robot mode. Of course, colours are the least of this toy's problems.
This is barely a robot mode. The feet are simply the back half of the vehicle, a solid block with the pullback mechanism inside. The legs are sloping piece of khaki plastic with a seam down the middle that does not even look like a gap between the legs. The torso is a black block with a moulded axle and two screw holes as detail while the arms are stubbly things - although they have moulded thumbs. If you thought the Throttlebot robot modes were bad, you're gunna hate this robot mode - at least the Throttlebots have a sloping feet and separate legs. There's no real attempt at making this thing appealing as far as I can see - the lack of a mouth is inexcusable.
The good news is that the pullback mechanism is also available in this mode. Again it works quite well and there's a black wheel underneath his foot to stabilise him. It's hardly enough to compensate for the negatives here, but at least there's a reason why his feet are a single piece. Articulation is limited to his arms lifting at the shoulders.
The pullback motor is the only plus here, and they've been built into better robot modes already. This is a truly awful robot mode that bears no resemblance to the G1 toy - if anything it's an insult to the character. The scariest thing is that it's better than Staxx's robot mode.
VARIATIONS
None thankfully, although along with the other G2 Powermasters, Ironhide was not sold in North America. In Australia they sold with full tech specs (and the cards listed Hasbro's Rhode Island address) while in Europe they had single line bios (and listed Hasbro's Welsh address).
OVERALL
This seems to be the most desirable of this group - mainly because of the G1 homage, but it's not the best - I'll give that honour to the fairly inventive Bulletbike). One is really enough - they're only good for novelty value, and I'd recommend Bulletbike over Ironhide (having said that, Ironhide is the next best of the group). Unless you get really excited by Hummers or find him for a dollar or two, you can safely skip this thing - 1.5/10
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