Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 13, 2010 10:25:33 GMT
Ironhide
Now you can make an argument that Ratchet is the original of the two Van toys in the Transformers line. In the UK the 11 original Autobot cars are split into two sets with Ratchet appearing in the first six and Ironhide in the second set of five. If we go and look at Transformer's ancestor Diaclone which provided all the authentic looking Autobot cars we see that Ironhide is a very early Diaclone toy, in this case the Onebox Cherry Vanette that was numbered 2 in the Diaclone Car range. He and Diaclone's version of Sunstreaker were the first two Diaclone cars revealed on a 1982 leaflet. So for the purposes of this review Ironhide is the original. Like Sunstreaker, Ironhide gets a make over for his Transformers release becoming an all red van, though as you'll see from Ironhide's Diaclone.net entry there's a red pre Transformers version sold through Gigi in Italy.
Transformation: Pull the top half of the van away from the bottom and set to one side. Remove the silver drive shaft and put with the top of the van. Put your fingers into the gap in the middle of the front of the vehicle pushing the front wheels and front half of the base out to the sides to form the arms. Fold the van's windscreen forward 90 degrees. Fold the back on the van's base down 90 degrees to form the feet and stand. Swing the arms down to the sides and rotate each hand through 180 degrees. Set the robot to one side and return to the van's top. From the underside fold a track down from the centre and a pair of tracks from the side. Position the pair of tracks so that the connector between them is slanted diagonally towards what was the front of the van. Split the top of the van in two down the middle and fold out to the sides. Fold the back of the van down to form the front of Ironhide's weapons bay. Fold the missile launcher and it's arm up and point forward, inserting one of the three missiles which come with the toy. Take the red gun post, peg into the front of the weapons bay and plug the middle of the drive shaft into it to form a gun. Stand Ironhide on the back of the weapons bay with his legs clipped either side of the base of the missile launcher.
Ironhide's robot mode will come as a shock to anyone who's ever read the comics or soon the cartoon. The head doesn't stick up over the shoulders, instead it's a flat panel behind the windscreen forming the back of what would have been a seat for a Diaclone driver to sit in. This has annoyed a great many people over the years leading to the official Transformers Universe version and a release of add-on heads for both Ironhide & Ratchet. If you had any Diaclone drivers there's two more places for them to interact with Ironhide: sat at the base of the missile launcher or stood in the back of the missile launcher itself. The robot's articulation is non existent bellow the shoulders, but the shoulders swing backwards and forwards as do the arms which can turn at the shoulders and we've already seen the hands - no peg hole sadly - turn at the wrists. The missile launcher is attached to the weapons bay and pivots up & down. While western versions of the missile launcher are somewhat neutered the Japanese ones are rather powerful. If you look carefully on the inside of the sides of Ironhide's weapons bay you can see the holes that Ratchet's Lightbar is attached through on that version of the toy, but I'm unable to tell if the same holes are present on the original Diaclone version of the toy. The top of these holes is covered by a 2 part square black sticker on the outside preventing the holes from being seen in vehicle mode.
Ironhide as a toy is different to all the other Autobots. He was difficult to accept back 1984 when he didn't match his appearances in other media. But there's a good fun toy in here, albeit one that probably works better if you've got the little Diaclone men to play with with him.
Ironhide was available in the US from 1984. He's part of the second wave of Autobot cars that didn't reach the UK until early 1985. He was released as a mail-order toy in Japan in 1985 and as such has not had a Japanese release number for many years, although latterly he was retroactively numbered 98. He was re-released as part of the European Transformers Classics line in 1990. He was reissued with Ratchet as Set B of the 2001 reissues which was available from E-Hobby. He was reissued again as Transformers Encore #5 in December 2007 where he was once again accompanied by Ratchet who was Encore #6. This version of Ironhide has the black square on the roof painted which means you cam see Ratchet's lightbar holes from the outside of the vehicle. Ironhide has never been re-released in the USA.
Ratchet
If you think that Hasbro repaint quickly have a look at the First four toys shown on a 1982 Diaclone Leaflet:
1 Countach-LP500s/super Tuning
2 Onebox Cherry Vanette
3 Countach-LP500s/super Tuning Policecar Type
4 Onebox Cherry Vanette Ambulance
Yup both the first two Diaclone car toys were repainted straight away. Eat that Power Core Combiners ! Wave 1 Power Core Combiners was repainted with various Mini-cons and drones mixed and matched to make up Power Core Combiners Wave 3. Diaclone repaints it's wave 1 straight away. The red of Ironhide's vehicle body becomes white with a lightbar split in two over the top. Transforming to robot mode we find that most of the hidden robot parts are still the same colour red as before.
Your choice of a preference between Ratchet & Ironhide is probably not based on their toys but more on which media you followed back in the day. Ironhide is a prominent cartoon character while Ratchet appears more and is given a very prominent roll in the comics right from the initial four issue limited series appearing at regular intervals right through to the end of the comic where he's killed in issue 78. I'm a comics fan and yet the Encore version that arrived this week for me to write this review is the first time I've ever owned him - my brother had an Ironhide in the 1980s.
Ratchet was released in Japan as a mail-away toy costing 1700 yen and 4 robot points. He was latterly numbered 99 in Japan. Ratchet wasn't released in the European classics line like Ironhide was instead first reappearing as part of 2001's repaint Set B from E-Hobby and as Encore #6 in 2007.
"Protect Black" Ironhide
In conjunction with the Encore release of Ironhide, E-Hobby released a repaint. Essentially this release is the Diaclone version, with the panels that are repainted white for Ratchet painted black. As well as the Diaclone link there's some indication, especially when you put him with the Ratchet repaint released at the same time, that this is a homage to Movie Ironhide who is predominantly black too.
I like this version of Ironhide. The name and the colours work well together and I'm not 100% sure why they changed it for the Transformers version.
"Emergency Green" Ratchet
This ratchet is a Japanese mail-away exclusive available with a purchase of the book Transformers Visualworks. He swaps Ratchet's white for a lime green and becomes the first version of this mould to swap the red robot parts which become black here. He's an obvious homage to Movie Ratchet but AMBULANCES ARE NOT GREEN and THE GREEN LOOKS HORRID!. Hasbro: If you ever repaint Defensor, do not make First Aid green. Unless he's a Decepticon of course.... that'd work.
AVOID.
Now you can make an argument that Ratchet is the original of the two Van toys in the Transformers line. In the UK the 11 original Autobot cars are split into two sets with Ratchet appearing in the first six and Ironhide in the second set of five. If we go and look at Transformer's ancestor Diaclone which provided all the authentic looking Autobot cars we see that Ironhide is a very early Diaclone toy, in this case the Onebox Cherry Vanette that was numbered 2 in the Diaclone Car range. He and Diaclone's version of Sunstreaker were the first two Diaclone cars revealed on a 1982 leaflet. So for the purposes of this review Ironhide is the original. Like Sunstreaker, Ironhide gets a make over for his Transformers release becoming an all red van, though as you'll see from Ironhide's Diaclone.net entry there's a red pre Transformers version sold through Gigi in Italy.
Transformation: Pull the top half of the van away from the bottom and set to one side. Remove the silver drive shaft and put with the top of the van. Put your fingers into the gap in the middle of the front of the vehicle pushing the front wheels and front half of the base out to the sides to form the arms. Fold the van's windscreen forward 90 degrees. Fold the back on the van's base down 90 degrees to form the feet and stand. Swing the arms down to the sides and rotate each hand through 180 degrees. Set the robot to one side and return to the van's top. From the underside fold a track down from the centre and a pair of tracks from the side. Position the pair of tracks so that the connector between them is slanted diagonally towards what was the front of the van. Split the top of the van in two down the middle and fold out to the sides. Fold the back of the van down to form the front of Ironhide's weapons bay. Fold the missile launcher and it's arm up and point forward, inserting one of the three missiles which come with the toy. Take the red gun post, peg into the front of the weapons bay and plug the middle of the drive shaft into it to form a gun. Stand Ironhide on the back of the weapons bay with his legs clipped either side of the base of the missile launcher.
Ironhide's robot mode will come as a shock to anyone who's ever read the comics or soon the cartoon. The head doesn't stick up over the shoulders, instead it's a flat panel behind the windscreen forming the back of what would have been a seat for a Diaclone driver to sit in. This has annoyed a great many people over the years leading to the official Transformers Universe version and a release of add-on heads for both Ironhide & Ratchet. If you had any Diaclone drivers there's two more places for them to interact with Ironhide: sat at the base of the missile launcher or stood in the back of the missile launcher itself. The robot's articulation is non existent bellow the shoulders, but the shoulders swing backwards and forwards as do the arms which can turn at the shoulders and we've already seen the hands - no peg hole sadly - turn at the wrists. The missile launcher is attached to the weapons bay and pivots up & down. While western versions of the missile launcher are somewhat neutered the Japanese ones are rather powerful. If you look carefully on the inside of the sides of Ironhide's weapons bay you can see the holes that Ratchet's Lightbar is attached through on that version of the toy, but I'm unable to tell if the same holes are present on the original Diaclone version of the toy. The top of these holes is covered by a 2 part square black sticker on the outside preventing the holes from being seen in vehicle mode.
Ironhide as a toy is different to all the other Autobots. He was difficult to accept back 1984 when he didn't match his appearances in other media. But there's a good fun toy in here, albeit one that probably works better if you've got the little Diaclone men to play with with him.
Ironhide was available in the US from 1984. He's part of the second wave of Autobot cars that didn't reach the UK until early 1985. He was released as a mail-order toy in Japan in 1985 and as such has not had a Japanese release number for many years, although latterly he was retroactively numbered 98. He was re-released as part of the European Transformers Classics line in 1990. He was reissued with Ratchet as Set B of the 2001 reissues which was available from E-Hobby. He was reissued again as Transformers Encore #5 in December 2007 where he was once again accompanied by Ratchet who was Encore #6. This version of Ironhide has the black square on the roof painted which means you cam see Ratchet's lightbar holes from the outside of the vehicle. Ironhide has never been re-released in the USA.
Ratchet
If you think that Hasbro repaint quickly have a look at the First four toys shown on a 1982 Diaclone Leaflet:
1 Countach-LP500s/super Tuning
2 Onebox Cherry Vanette
3 Countach-LP500s/super Tuning Policecar Type
4 Onebox Cherry Vanette Ambulance
Yup both the first two Diaclone car toys were repainted straight away. Eat that Power Core Combiners ! Wave 1 Power Core Combiners was repainted with various Mini-cons and drones mixed and matched to make up Power Core Combiners Wave 3. Diaclone repaints it's wave 1 straight away. The red of Ironhide's vehicle body becomes white with a lightbar split in two over the top. Transforming to robot mode we find that most of the hidden robot parts are still the same colour red as before.
Your choice of a preference between Ratchet & Ironhide is probably not based on their toys but more on which media you followed back in the day. Ironhide is a prominent cartoon character while Ratchet appears more and is given a very prominent roll in the comics right from the initial four issue limited series appearing at regular intervals right through to the end of the comic where he's killed in issue 78. I'm a comics fan and yet the Encore version that arrived this week for me to write this review is the first time I've ever owned him - my brother had an Ironhide in the 1980s.
Ratchet was released in Japan as a mail-away toy costing 1700 yen and 4 robot points. He was latterly numbered 99 in Japan. Ratchet wasn't released in the European classics line like Ironhide was instead first reappearing as part of 2001's repaint Set B from E-Hobby and as Encore #6 in 2007.
"Protect Black" Ironhide
In conjunction with the Encore release of Ironhide, E-Hobby released a repaint. Essentially this release is the Diaclone version, with the panels that are repainted white for Ratchet painted black. As well as the Diaclone link there's some indication, especially when you put him with the Ratchet repaint released at the same time, that this is a homage to Movie Ironhide who is predominantly black too.
I like this version of Ironhide. The name and the colours work well together and I'm not 100% sure why they changed it for the Transformers version.
"Emergency Green" Ratchet
This ratchet is a Japanese mail-away exclusive available with a purchase of the book Transformers Visualworks. He swaps Ratchet's white for a lime green and becomes the first version of this mould to swap the red robot parts which become black here. He's an obvious homage to Movie Ratchet but AMBULANCES ARE NOT GREEN and THE GREEN LOOKS HORRID!. Hasbro: If you ever repaint Defensor, do not make First Aid green. Unless he's a Decepticon of course.... that'd work.
AVOID.
