Ironhide's vehicle mode is a black GMC Topkick pickup truck-- you know the drill by now. Proportionally he's pretty much perfect in this mode, as you'd expect from a TF with a licensed vehicle mode, particularly one at this large scale. There's a fair bit of robot parts sticking out below the bottom, though, which is made a bit more obvious by the fact that these robot parts are dark greenish blue compared to Ironhide's almost entirely black truck mode. Even from a somewhat top-down diagonal view, you can still see the heels and bits of the knees hanging down below. They don't interfere with rolling, but just barely so. Ironhide has clear front and front-side windows, though his rear-side and rear windows are unfortunately just details on plastic. You can see some of the robot parts through the clear windows-- namely parts of his weapons and fists-- but nothing that's particularly distracting, thankfully. Although Ironhide has most of the "necessary" paint apps in this mode-- like the front grill, GMC logo, 4x4 logos, and the head and taillights-- there are definitely some parts that still should have been painted, like his rear side window details, step rails on the sides, and the like. His wheels may not look painted, but they actually are upon closer examination-- they're a rather rich metallic shade of black, which makes them look a bit "oiled up" and honestly quite cool. Although he doesn't appear to have weaponry in this mode, he actually does, and they're both pretty cool reveals. Pull back on his left smokestack, and a copper-tipped blaster pops up through that side of the roof; pull back on his right smokestack, and a rotary blaster pops up on that side of said roof (both can be deployed at once); very nifty! If you press down on a small button near the rear window, Ironhide will also emit a "truck idling/driving slowly" noise.
    Ironhide's transformation to robot mode-- while not exactly basic-- is more simple than you'd expect from a Leader-class toy, particularly given how relatively complex his Voyager-class toys have been. What you end up with has some definite pluses and definite minuses. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. For one, a fair amount of vehicle mode bits (like his windshield and front bumper) simply hang behind his back-- and though they don't flop around, they don't peg in anywhere and can be a bit distracting from a side view, as well. There's also quite large chunks of his roof hanging off the bottom of his arms, and although they do have a place to peg in, they come un-pegged QUITE easily and tend to flop around during play-- this is definitely the most annoying aspect of this toy. He also doesn't really have heels to his feet, and although you can bend him forward a bit, he falls backwards a bit more easily than I'd like. His gimmick-cannons are now on his lower arms in this mode, and though they can be deployed just as easily, they're a bit under-sized proportionally in this mode and thus not as impressive. On the plus side, Ironhide has some GREAT molded detailing in this mode, particularly on his legs, where all manner of "greebly bits" like springs, pistons, and the like are visible everywhere. (This is made even more obvious by how relatively "bare bones" his vehicle mode is in this department.) The fact that his lower body is mostly dark greenish blue-- while not really movie accurate-- does give him some needed color variety in this mode, and you can definitely tell that this mode is where most of the paint apps were focused. Little bronze and silver paint apps abound, with no one area being too one-tone in this mode. His chest and head assembly is also VERY accurate to his movie model, feels solid, and looks great. (It should be noted here, though, that during transformation, the ball joints that the sides of his chest are on can pop off extremely easily-- a bit of annoyance, but only during said transformation.) Both of Ironhide's legs contain hidden weaponry, which you can unveil by opening up the sides of said legs as the weaponry itself turns/lifts itself out of the widening gap in a rather nifty manner. His right leg contains a hidden spring-loaded missile launcher gun (which he can detach and hold in his hands, if you so choose, or it can be fired right from his leg, as opening up the panel it's concealed in makes it face forwards), while his right leg contains a knife that can also obviously be attached and held. Now THAT'S making some good use out of "empty" space! Ironhide's central electronic-based gimmicks are also quite cool-- press in on the silver bit on the upper part of his chest, and his eyes will flash green and his mouthpiece lowers a bit while he says either "Ironhide here!" or "Weapons Ready!" in a close-but-not-quite Ironhide imitation voice. Best of all, if you press down again and again on the large gray tab behind the right side of his head in a "revving" motion his whole STOMACH opens up to reveal a big rotating chain gun! His eyes flash green and the top barrel of the gun flash red while this gimmick is activated, and a "chain gun firing" sound is emitted as he does this. Talk about an awesome hidden weapon! As for articulation, Ironhide can move at the shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), hips (at two points), knees (at two points), and at the ankles and at the mid-point on each foot. It's certainly servicable, but at this scale I'd appreciate things like waist articulation or at least head movement. His wrists should also be able to swivel-- there's no transformation reason why they couldn't.
    Dark of the Moon Leader class Ironhide is an Ironhide for Transfans with a specific taste. If you like big, (relatively) simple transformations with a ton of fun gimmicks, this is definitely the Ironhide for you. However, if you like more complicated transformations, less kibble, and/or lots of posabliity, you're better off sticking with one of the various releases of the orignal voyager class version of this character (which, admittedly, I find to be a better deal as a voyager than this Ironhide is as a leader).

Review by Beastbot

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