Dark Of The Moon Cannon Force Ironhide

Here are a few pictures of my newest acquisition.

Couple of box shots, before opening



Here's his robot mode. He looks good, though I feel the red's a little too bright.


I know the flash is on but, even with flash off, it looks a little light


Some nice chrome on the abdomen and forearm pieces/bumper.


Now for comparisons, with the black version


As you can see there is contrast in detail. Where red is lacking some of the detail that black has, red makes up for this with some details, where black would be lacking.



Red's face, I think, is better. The black has more minor details, but the face is still predominantly black. The red version, however, has a chrome face, which helps to seperate face from helmet.
As mentioned earlier red Hide has the chrome abs, whereas black Hide has plain grey abs. Red Hide also has a...um...thong effect on his crotch. His chest and abs don't connect as well as black's, but it gets there eventually.
While not easily identifiable in these pictures is the lack of detail on red's cannon. Black's is superior, paint wise.

Vehicle mode. A lot more detailed than black. I like the colour break down here, with the yellow stripe splitting the red from the black. It also prevents the issue black has, a bland colour scheme.


From this angle we can see the Autobot symbol on the bonnet/hood. A nice touch, I think. The chrome bumper's cool too.


A side by side, with black. Due to the flash the head is visible through black's window, but not through red's. As much. Red's lights seem blacked out, which would make night driving hard. Silly Hasbro. More effort could've been made on the side mirror paint, on red as well. Even so the colour sceme's a lot more vibrant than black's.


One issue, that I'll get to later, is the hood/bonnet doesn't fit together properly in vehicle mode. Black isn't perfect, don't get me wrong, but it's less obvious. Other than that he looks good, and goes brum brum really well.


Final thoughts: This review may seem negative, but I actually really love this toy. The negative view is me outlining the bad points. Other than the transformation issues (red can be troublesome to position properly, in both modes) this is one of my favourite Ironhide toys. The plastics feel different though, and red can be tighter in places, as opposed to black. However this isn't all good, as transforming can be awkward. Often times I'll worry about breaking it, because the pieces don't slot together as good as I'd like. I still prefer Shockwave and Skyhammer, but these figures are very good DOTM toys. The articulation's good, and both version's look great.

I'm liking the red version slightly better myself! Nice review Dez! I still need to purchase a decent Ironhide as just about any version I own of that character is extremely lacking in one way or another.

Thanks. Red just beats black, for me, because of the G1 homage.

the new TF movie should have all the characters go back in time to 1984. So then they can scan mid 80's cars for new alt mode.

Galvatron wrote:the new TF movie should have all the characters go back in time to 1984. So then they can scan mid 80's cars for new alt mode.

Michael Bay will NEVER allow THAT to happen...pffft.... ...no matter how many votes to contrary he might receive. I'd like to see it happen also, even if it's just a bonus featurette or short film.

One of the few things I'll agree with The Bay on is not using the G1 vehicles. Since they don't use mass shifting the robot modes would be smaller. I remember the "making of" for the first movie, saying Optimus would've been a good 5 feet shorter, had they used the flat nose truck.

Mass shifting, that was just an excuse to use larger vehicles and showcase GM's vehicles, they broke the rule when a certain cube went from the size of a building to a box that could be carried under one's arm! Anyway, I wasn't attracted to DOTM Ironhide toy, which why I got that Jungle one I think he is, the guy with all the extra weapons!