Thunderhoof's tractor alternate mode is done up... decently... for his 3-step version. The main body is pretty solid, though Thunderhoof's... hooves... are pretty obvious right there in the front, especially since they're painted. The little tractor cockpit section looks pretty nice up top, but there's a light blue stripe down the center that's accurate to the robot mode, but not to this mode-- it makes no sense why there'd be a big raised stripe down the center in this mode. The treaded wheels are big and honkin' and look quite nice with their wheel covers (though the charcoal black on the wheel covers would've looked better as a solid black like the wheels themselves). The best-looking part is the front, with really thick sections that look pretty decently like the front of a harvester (though they're a bit curved, unlike the threshers on a real one). The weakest part of this mode, though, is defintely the rear-sides and the back, which are essentially revealed inner bits because of the transformation. There's some obvious light blue rectangular pieces on the sides that are used in the transformation and poke through underneath the main cockpit. By themselves they're not that bad, but having faux tractor windows and door hinges instead down in front of the rear tires is a real eyesore and was just a bad idea. (There seriously wasn't a better way to get those out of the way, even on a simple toy like this? Really?) There also isn't a real back end to this toy, as it's just the core section of what becomes the center portion of the main robot mode that everything else pivots around, surrounded by some blah light milky gray hinges (thankfully, this color isn't used elsewhere on the toy). It's also a bit of an eyesore, though not as bad as the faux tractor sides, that's for sure. Thunderhoof's general color scheme is what you'd expect, being mostly a slightly dark shade of blue, with some lighter blue paint on the roof, some milky teal plastic on some inner rectangular parts, and some dark metallic teal on the top of the front section of the mode. This latter shade is a nice color, but is too close to the blue plastic so it doesn't stick out as much as it should. There's some black on the windows (both "real" and "faux") beyond what I've already mentioned, and that's it as far as major colors on the toy. It's a decent color scheme, though I wish the blue was a titch lighter to help the other colors contrast against it better. The mold detailing is the usual for a RID2015 toy-- fairly sparse overall, with a few stylistic details on the top of the mode, along with angular windows. There's also molded smokestacks and even ridiculously undersized side doors on the cockpit, though they aren't painted. Oddly there's "door handles" molded into the faux sides near the bottom, but not on the actual doors. Weird.
    You transform the 3-step version of Thunderhoof just like the 1-step version-- take the front harvester section, rotate it back behind the tractor, and slot it in above the cockpit, and everything else auto-transforms. The end result looks much better than the tractor mode and is definitely the focus of this toy. That said, there still are a few proportional maladies. For one, Thunderhoof has a real barrel of a chest, which sticks out way too far and looks kinda odd. The shoulders are also oversized even for "buff shoulders"-- it's pretty ridiculous-looking, especially if you have the arms pointing forward. Pointing downwards the arms look a little longer and more proportional, but facing forward they just barely stick out beyond the front of the chest. (The shoulders moving forward-and-back at the elbows is the only articulation this toy has-- of course I wish he had more, but articulation isn't the point of these simpified toys.) The face and antlers, though, look VERY good-- great mold detailing with a silver face and bulky neck, a black "helmet" around the face, and dark red eyes. Unlike most Thunderhoof toys, the antlers are actually the same as that used for the thresher bits on the tractor mode as opposed to him having a separate "set" of antlers for this mode, which I love. The antlers are nice and thick too, so he looks like he could do some real damage with them. The legs are pretty solid (although a bit stiff-looking because of a lack of articulation), though the wheels go back behind his lower legs a bit far. Because so many parts are shared between this mode and the tractor mode, there's not much new mold or paint detailing to talk about here beyond the aforementioned head. The waist and upper legs are nice with some more angular detailing, and the hands are nicely sculpted poking out from the lower arms. The lower hands are painted black, while the abs are a nice combo of black, silver, and light blue, with some silver on the upper legs. Overall the color scheme is definitely more varied and catches the eye more easily in this mode.
    The 3-step changer version of Thunderhoof is only a bit better than his 1-step changer, unfortunately, despite the larger size. His robot mode looks pretty decent for a simplistic toy-- the arms and chest look a bit funny, but the rest is nice, and the headsculpt is aces-- but his tractor mode is fairly weak, with robot extras and obvious "holes" in the sides and back of the mode. Only recommended if you want to get a larger, simplified toy of him for a kid. Or you're just a Thunderhoof completist, of course.
 

Review by Beastbot

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