iGear PP05W Weapon Specialist – Iron Hide is ready to bust some Decepti-chops!

Well let’s right into it – PP05W “Weapon Specialist” – otherwise know as our old ornery buddy: Iron Hide

Properly pronounced: “Ahrn Haad”

I have to say, I like Iron Hide a touch more than Ratchet.  That’s not saying I don’t like Ratchet, believe me, it’s more like saying I’d like being filthy rich more than just really rich.  Both are great!

Now – a couple of things to note:  1.) Sorry for the cruddy pictures.  I was swamped with work today and had to try and fit Iron Hide in.  2.) I need a proper photo booth.  3.) Because the molds are nearly identical, I’m going to avoid doing a lot of “repeat” stuff where I can.   And finally 4.) I’ve learned of a step in the transformation that isn’t really noted in the instructions but helps a great deal, we’ll get to that.

Now, onto the first part – the packaging –

Identical box art, except its Iron Hide this time, but you’ll notice the art faces the other direction, so that when side by side, they sort of taper away from each other.  Very nice touch.

Another great ‘bio’ from iGear on Iron Hide as well.

He comes in his double tray with his tons of accessories –

Layer one is the unique weapons, heads and visor –

Layer two is the same set of items Ratchet comes with (Fusion cannon, sniper rifle, combat knife, buzz saws, etc…)  I’ll skip going over these, you can refer to Rachet’s post if you want to see them.

Now, of the three heads, I’m sticking with the most “IDW-ish” – the scowl:

“Bustin’ Decepti-punks is what ah do best…”

(Yes, those are reprolabels – I had a set for classics Prime and they seem to work well though the red is too bright).

Then there’s the “Smirk/Grin” face  (sorry for the fat sausage fingers again!)

A little too “chipper” for ‘Red’…

And of course, the classic, G1 Head-

Man iGear did a good job with these.

Okay, here’s a big issue: apparently I didn’t realize you can fold the front end of the van’s  lower panels inward when they’re in robot mode, I neglected to do this with Ratchet:

See how they’re folded in?

That being said, its not a necessary step, and it might not even be something iGear meant to include as folding them back feels…awkward.  However, doing so really, REALLY helps the appearance with that last little touch of perfection –

Also – as a side note: this is how you’re supposed to equip the missile weapon, it pegs into his forearm in a slot under the comm screen panel.

Folding the panels back doesn’t really add to any flexibility, but as you can see, he’s still capable of looking awesome:

Now, as for weapons – he comes with the same fold-able blaster, but for Iron Hide, I store it on his back, seems he has…well…bigger guns to use.

He comes with two, very Bay-former-esque massive Gatling cannons:

He also comes with this chrome-plated (GEE-WUN BABY!) Rocket launcher:

Both are really awesome, so I prefer to do one cannon and the rocket launcher:

“You ‘cons are gonna get it!”

As for Alt-mode: its as awesome as ever – but I have to admit, I like Iron Hide’s red better than Ratchet’s white.

My cat Jasmine (yes, we totally call her Jazz, lol) apparently wanted to photo bomb the shoot, and then I couldn’t get her to leave so…..

She’s had enough of this…

G1 Bee, in case you missed it on Ratchet’s review

Now, I wanted to also showcase some more size comparisons in robot mode too – so:

Obviously Iron Hide and Ratchet are the same size.  Here’s a good group shot of some G1 classics:

MP-10 Prime, RTS Jazz, Iron Hide, Ratchet and Classics Bumble Bee

That should give you a good sense of where these two fit in the size scale.  I’ll be interested to see how MP Side Swipe measures up.  I guess MP Iron Hide and Ratchet would have to be maybe a head shorter than MP10 Prime if they’re all supposed to be in scale now, but meh, who cares, these guys ARE my MP Iron Hide and Ratchet.

Finally, as promised, I wanted to show the instructions, again, in my opinion, they seem a bit vague, but I think I’m in the minority in thinking that.  It just seems that for the price of these guys, a booklet like instruction wouldn’t have been terrible.

On the other hand, check out the back of the sheet!

Oh GOD iGear Swerve! YES PLEASE!!!

Rager and Spray are already available, but seems I have the “other” new Sea Spray and don’t really care about Huffer one way or another, I’m not going to bother with them.  Brawn and Cosmos are coming out very soon, and I’ll for sure pick up Brawn, I’ve always been “meh” about Cosmos so again, I’ll probably pass.   Beachcomber and OH GOD SWERVE! I’ll for sure get.  Gears, maybe, Outback, maybe….maybe.  G1 Outback is so godawful ugly, I wouldn’t mind getting a better version for sure.

So there we are, two really amazing figures.  So worth it if you can afford even one!

For the time being, I don’t really anticipate any “new” figures coming in until MP Side Swipe and Soundwave, but I do have many other items, mostly upgrades pre-ordered and then the Deluxe Retail Combaticons as well to look forward too.

Fall of Cybertron is really making me want to buy an old Metroplex and fix him up with some reprolabels.  I had him as a kid, and I’d like to get him back, but we’ll see.  That’s easily a 100$ project and I’d like to stop my wallet from hemorrhaging for a while.

I have a few other posts I’m working on as well that are more “general” topics.  I’m excited to get them done too.

I also have Fall of Cybertron stealing plenty of my time and right now, I’m going to finish reading IDW’s More than Meets the Eye No. 9!

Stay tuned, so much more to come!