Ironhide
(Cannon Force) [DotM]
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to the original DotM voyager Ironhide toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original DotM voyager Ironhide toy here.)
A more "G1" color scheme
for movie Ironhide has been done on other toys, but despite all the various
versions of this design over the years, it's never been done on a "mainline"
movie toy before. And I have to say, the G1 color scheme in movie Ironhide
looks very good. I initially didn't think the Ironhide design would look
all that great in red, but it does. This is likely due to all the colors
that contrast against it-- yes, there's some dark gray and black that you'd
expect from a G1 homage, as well as a fair amount of silver on his taillights,
chest, face, and front bumper. The black contrasts extremely well against
the red and gives the color scheme a bit more "dark" to it so it doesn't
look too out-of-place for a movieverse toy, but what really knocks this
toy up from a "good" repaint to an "excellent" one is the addition of something
to the G1 homage color scheme that wasn't actually on the original G1 toy--
namely, the light orange. He's got stripes of it along the sides of his
vehicle mode, as well as a bit on his upper legs in robot mode. This is
just SUCH an eye-catching color, not only adding more to Ironhide's overall
color scheme, but it also contrasts very nicely against the gray and black
while also complementing the red excellently. On a lesser note, Ironhide's
sky-blue eyes-- while the norm for a movieverse Autobot-- really pop well
against the red plastic, though it's only used for the eyes and thus doesn't
contribute to the overall color scheme much. I also like that the windows
are now a flat black-- it doesn't look out of place for the toy, and has
the added bonus of hiding all those robot bits in vehicle mode inside the
windows that were visible on the original release of this mold.
No mold changes have
been made to Cannon Force Ironhide (he also has the same Mechtech weapon
that his original DotM voyager has-- which is fitting, considering how
much it fits movie Ironhide).
Cannon Force Ironhide
is a top-notch redeco of the mold, not just being a slavish G1 redeco but
putting in a bit more to spice things up a little, like more black to offset
the light red with a darker color and a FANTASTIC shade of orange along
the sides of his vehicle mode and on parts of his upper robot legs. This
all comes together to form a very eye-catching package, and as such I'd
highly recommend this toy if you're at all into the movie aesthetic and
don't mind getting toys of the movie characters that aren't in their "default"
movie colors.
Review by Beastbot