Ironhide (G1)

Ironhide is an Autobot in the Generation 1 continuity.



Ironhide is one of the oldest and toughest Autobots on Optimus Prime's team. "They don't make them like they used to" is an apt description of Ironhide -- he's yesterday's model, but he's built to last.

Gruff and ornery, he prefers actions to words, and dislikes talk for talk's sake. (He wouldn't enjoy being paired up with Bluestreak.) But though he may be rough around the edges, he's still optimistic and upbeat. The upside to being through more than your share of trouble means trouble ain't so big a scare anymore.

Ironhide's most distinctive ability is the power to generate and shoot a liquid of virtually any type. Liquid nitrogen is historically a favourite, but there have been acids, mortar, and more.

Animated continuity
Voice Actor: Peter Cullen (US), Shô Hayami (Japan)

Ironhide was part of the bridge crew of the Ark when it embarked on its fateful voyage to seek out new sources of energy beyond Cybertron four million years ago. It crashed on Earth, and all aboard were in stasis until 1984, when a volcanic eruption awakened the dormant Transformers. Ironhide was reformatted by Teletraan-1 so that his alt-mode was a terrestrial Nissan van. In addition to his role in maintaining the security of the Autobot headquarters on Earth, Ironhide would embark on numerous missions to stop the Decepticons on their energy-raiding strikes around the planet. When the Decepticons churned the currents of the river blocked by Sherman Dam to raise its energy output, it resulted in high tides that threatened the surrounding neighborhoods. Ironhide, with the help of Bumblebee used his built-in laser cannon in van mode to cut a new series of tributaries for the raging river to flow into.

Later, when the Decepticons escaped being buried in the Burma ruby mines, a flustered Ironhide took to the air in pursuit. He even managed to score a rocket strike against Skywarp, which only earned him a similar strike in return. Ironhide crash-landed into a lake, where he suffered back-end damage to his linkages. The immobilized Ironhide was fished out of the lake by Bluestreak and Jazz, and he recovered under the administrations of Doc Ratchet.

In Transformers: The Movie, Ironhide was on a shuttle along with a group of other Autobots headed for earth when the shuttle was attacked by Megatron and a team of Decepticons. Ironhide bravely fought off the Decepticons, but was not powerful enough to stop the enemy, and he was mercilessly killed by Megatron.

IDW Comics continuity
Ironhide is second-in-command (under Prowl) is the leader of a detachment of Autobots that has operated covertly on Earth for at least four years, attempting to foil a Decepticon insurgency. He is an experienced tactician whom Prowl consults for advice. Although more bound to the regulations than Ratchet, he's still willing to bend the chain of command for the right reasons, sending a pulsewave to Optimus Prime behind Prowl's back.

Timelines: Descent into Evil
Years after the Decepticon and Autobot Wars have ended, Ratchet and five other Autobots were sent to Ceti Alpha Seven to destroy General Deathsaurus' Insecticon clone lab and stop his planned Decepticon uprising. After a team of four (consisting of Fallback, Chromia, Flareup, and Ricochet) failed, Ironhide and Ratchet followed to help. After battling swarms of Virulent Clones and Buzzclaw, they finally met up with Deathsaurus himself. Ironhide stayed to fight the general, and Ratchet separated to find their fallen friends, however, Ironhide was shot in the back by Flamewar and he went into stasis lock. Ironhide woke up restrained inside Deathsaurus' lab with Ratchet, while Deathsaurus appeared to them on a monitor and told them he planned to destroy the lab by remote. Before the lab could detonate, Ricochet snuck in and freed them, allowing them to gather their fallen and escape.

Generation 1

 * Ironhide was part of the original assortment of Autobot cars released in 1984. His mold was originally used to create a Diaclone Nissan Onebox Cherry Vanette. The Diaclone line of toys were not meant to depict sentient robots, but rather human-controlled machines; the Ironhide and Ratchet-predecessor toys are the ones that most clearly show evidence of this. Rather than a head, these toy robots had chairs behind windscreens where the human rider would control the robot. When ported into the Transformer toyline, it was both the Ratchet and Ironhide figures that differed the most from their animated incarnations, as theh cartoon versions did away with all traces of the human-controlled design to give the robots proper faces and heads.
 * e-Hobby Ironhide
 * Japanese ID number: 98

Generation 2

 * Go-bot Ironhide
 * Power Master Ironhide