MP-27 Ironhide

Sometime last year, Takara started showing off pictures of their Masterpiece Ironhide.  The fandom seemed split on the figure, with most of the negative comments directed towards the flaps on Ironhide's waist.  Flaps.  On.  His.  Waist.  I could've cared less about the flaps and was happy when he was released.  Now that he's in my possession, does he live up to the hype, or is he really the disgusting figure the naysayers thought he was?

The first thing that I noticed when I opened Ironhide's box was just how heavy he was in his van mode.  He felt as heavy as Masterpiece Prime!  I checked him out thoroughly to make sure that there weren't any diecast parts.  Amazingly, he's just plastic, I think.  I thought that his feet might have been metal, but I think that it's just really strong plastic.  Still, the van is amazing and a very faithful reproduction of both the original Nissan Vannette and his animated appearance.

Here's a shot of what I wanted my collection to look like in 1984, but I only owned Bluestreak at the time.  It's nice to have more the other Autobots now.  I could have dragged out the rest of the Masterpiece figures for a gorgeous shot, but everyone seems to do that nowadays.  Besides, it's nice to just focus on the Season One figures from time to time.  Without them, we wouldn't even be here, so to speak.

During transformation, the top of the van comes off to form a battle sled!  It's 1984 all over again!  Seriously, the battle sled is included as an accessory, and it is fabulous.  All of Ironhide's accessories can be stored on this thing, and the extra included face can be stored on the bottom.  In keeping with the 1984 figure's look, I'm only keeping the two weapons pictured above on the sled.  The rest can stay in the tackle boxes that I use for parts storage.

Regrettably, Ironhide cannot stand on the battle sled.  If he could, man - that would be the greatest thing ever.

As I mentioned earlier, Ironhide comes with an extra face.  Here's the stern face.

And here's the "screaming" face.  I personally can't think of a reason for using this face, so I doubt I'll ever use it after this.

Once in robot mode, Ironhide is impressive.  He's shorter than Optimus Prime, but taller than Bluestreak, so he's sitting in a nice place, scale-wise.  Takara really knocked this mode out of the park.  Ironhide has long legs!  Feet!  Elbows!  A head!  I can't help but stare in awe at even pictures of Ironhide because he looks like he jumped off the television screen and into my damn hands.  Gorgeous. 

My favorite accessories are the two pistols that Ironhide comes with.  You know, so he can shoot at Megatron before being shot repeatedly in the chest by a barrage of Decepticon fire.  Those pistols are just the bee's knees to me.  With his photo, you can see the waist flaps a little better.  I don't think that they're so bad, really.  Nor am I upset about the wheels on the back.  Ironhide is just spectacular.

I think that Ironhide set a record for the amount of included accessories.  I don't think the G1 Piranacon gift set had as many accessories as Masterpiece Ironhide.  There are so many things included that were given brief screen time on the show and I'm not even sure if I took pictures of them all.  Certainly, I didn't include the chest picture that goes with the radar dish.  I'm going to go with some quick bullet points on the rest of the accessories.

You know, a lot was made during the "More Than Meets the Eye" 5-part mini that introduced us the the Transformers about how the Autobots couldn't fly.  And yet, here's the second Masterpiece Autobot to come with a jet-pack. 

I forgot that Ironhide could shoot things out of his fingers.

I had no what these were referencing until I read the TFWiki and discovered that these are based on the connector peg from the 1984 release.  That's...that's obscure.

For when you need to shoot out even more liquid...

The Static Laser Gun can be wielded by Ironhide in robot mode, but I think I'll leave it on the battle sled.

Finally, there's this back mounted missile launcher, which will also stay on the battle sled.  It does look cool.

I think that with the next Masterpiece release, I may have to switch to a white background.  I tried to fit all of my Masterpiece Autobots in one picture, but I couldn't frame it without showing the sides of the light box I use.  And that thing it four feet tall.  There's a lot of Masterpiece figures now, is what I'm getting at.

Hey!  It's Orion Pax and Dion!

You know what I have found the greatest joy in since I received Ironhide?  Seeing how all of the people decrying this figure have bought him and now love him.  That just goes to show that assumptions can't be made based off of a few pictures.  Everything changes with 3-D.  Man, now I can't wait for Ratchet...