Ironhide (Movie)


 * Ironhide is a faction-confused Decepticon and an Autobot from the Movie continuity family, also sometimes known as the "Tooth Fairy".



Ironhide is the Autobots' resident weapons specialist and Optimus Prime's old friend. He is old because he is hard. He's probably had enough replacement parts to build a small army, but Ironhide doggedly refuses to roll over and die for anyone. He'll fight to the bitter end and take down more than his fair share of Decepticons in the process.

Ironhide doesn't always see optic to optic with Prime, despite their friendship. He's perhaps the more practical of the two, and more than a little trigger happy, so he can be more willing to push the Autobot code to the limit if he thinks it will get the job done faster.

He has more guns than a smaller third-world country, and he may or may not have blown up a planet with said guns.

"I'm just saying we could. It's an option."

- Ironhide on taking out Sam's parents, Transformers


 * Hungarian name: Acélfej ("Steel-head")
 * Chinese name (Taiwan): Tǐeh Pí (鐵皮, "Iron Hide" or "Iron Skin")

Defiance prequel comic
Before the war, Ironhide served as a Captain in the Cybertronian Defense Forces. In this role he seemed to serve a post between Lord Protector Megatron and Commander Starscream (see notes). He attended planetary security meetings and led ground troops against an invading alien species, but generally was uninvolved with rise of Optimus Prime and the betrayl of Megatron. But hearing Megatron speak of conquest at the tower in Trypticon he couldn't reconcil these words with his own conscience. He began to wander, looking for answers, and in his muddled state ended up inside the Autobots defense perimeter under the guns of his own former troops. He convinced them of his peaceful intent and petitioned to join Optimus' group to defend the innocent. When the Nemesis began to take shape, Ironhide was the one who suggested refitting an older transport craft instead of spending the extra time to build a new ship from scratch.

Titan Magazines
"What's the first rule of soldiering?"

- Ironhide

"Never leave a man behind."

- Troops

During the war, Ironhide ran training missions for the younger Autobot recruits. These missions would often have the recruits thrown into the sharp end: one, involving Signal Flare, Strongarm and Skyblast, abruptly turned into a raid on a Decepticon base and rescuing a prisoner. He also developed skills at resisting psychic interrogation techniques.

He would later be one of three Autobots who tried to prevent Megatron from reaching the All Spark. They hadn't, however, expected for Brawl to be demented enough to set off a foldspace warhead at pointblank range - a weapon that warped everyone to different parts of the galaxy.

After spending some time planet-hopping, Ironhide detected Ratchet's homing signal and headed for it. En route, he was captured by an alien spacecraft, one that appeared to belong to immense entities that created the All Spark and wanted it back. Ironhide, shrugging off a psychic probe, worked out these entities were an illusion - the ship was a derelict that had been salvaged by a group of aquatic aliens who wanted to find & exploit the All Spark. Ironhide removed their ability to do so by taking the derelict's device that tracked down All Spark energy. While he then went on his way, he was left wondering what race had originally owned this vessel and what their connection to the All Spark was...

After meeting up with Ratchet, the two began searching for Jazz. They found he was the prisoner of a living, predatory planet; Ironhide reasoned with the planet to let their friend go (i.e. shot it repeatedly with his slag-off great cannon) and they took him back to Cybertron with them.



Following the Mission City battle, he worked with a US Special Forces team to track down Scorponok. The Decepticon led them into a trap and took control of Ironhide's motor functions, causing him to attack the humans. They attempted to fight back - oh, you know those sabot rounds that are suppose to harm Transformers? They had no effect. Luckily, one of the soldiers was able to sever Scorponok's connection before he killed them all, and Ironhide killed the Decepticon the old-fashioned way: brutally.

In a reality where the Decepticons won, Ironhide was part of the Autobot resistance on Earth and was in contact with reinforcements from Cybertron. He and Ratchet were in a mission in Savannah, Georgia, the site of the Decepticon's cyberforming process. Using Payload disguises, they sneaked in and Ironhide worked out how to destroy the facility and save the planet, only to find Bonecrusher let them in to kill them! Ironhide got the slag kicked out of him until Ratchet saved him,

But he made up for it in keeping the Decepticons distracted while Ratchet finally took out the All Spark.

He was stationed near a refugee shelter in Savannah following the liberation of America. When Decepticons attacked the shelter, a position with no strategic value, Ironhide suspected it was a trap—which it was, an attempt to keep the Autobots in a position where a manipulated NATO could kill them all. Ironhide showed annoyance that the humans couldn't see the Autobots were just trying to help, and he replied with a curt "fine" when he was ordered not to return fire on any human tanks.

Alongside Longarm, he protected San Diego from a Decepticon raid, talking the younger Autobot through how to best drive off the attackers.

Transformers (2007) movie

 * Voice actor: Jess Harnell (English); Katsuhiro Kitagawa (Japanese); Oliver Siebeck (German)



Responding to Bumblebee's call for assistance, Ironhide and the other Autobots under Optimus Prime's direct command came to Earth, with the old soldier landing in a suburban pool. As he climbed out of the water, a little human girl asked him if he was (of all things) the tooth fairy before he quickly hid behind some trees when the child's parents exited the house. He scanned their GMC Topkick truck and transformed, leaving the residence. He linked up with Jazz and Ratchet, and they proceeded to the rendezvous point, where they met up with Optimus and Bumblebee. After meeting Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes, Ironhide displayed an eagerness to show off his cannons, and made a classic Clint Eastwood impression to show it by saying "You feeling lucky, punk?" (which earned him an instant reproof from Optimus).

Going to the Witwicky residence, Ironhide had lubricant released upon him by a rodent. This unpleasant situation was made worse by Sam Witwicky's frantic refusal to let him shoot it. Ironhide relented, despite the fact that it would cause rust. He also suggested shooting the parents, as they were interfering with Sam's search for Captain Witwicky's glasses. Optimus reminded him that they don't hurt humans and scolded his weapons expert, to which Ironhide meekly responded that he merely thought it should remain an option.

After Sam, Mikaela and his parents were captured by Sector Seven, Ironhide got a real good chance to show off his cannons when he and the other Autobots totally outclassed the S7 agents by instantly disarming them of their weapons, then rescuing the boy and his girl. Unfortunately, their escape was to be short-lived, as Bumblebee was captured by the mysterious agents after saving Sam and Mikaela's lives. The next morning, when Optimus Prime was pondering their next move, Ironhide asked why they had to save the humans, prompting Prime to go into one of his long speeches about freedom and sacrifice, concluding that the humans need not pay for the mistakes of Cybertron-kind, and if need be, he would destroy the All Spark by fusing it with his own spark. Inspired by his words, Ironhide debated no further, and the Autobots set out for the location of the All Spark, Hoover Dam. Halfway there, to their surprise, they saw Bumblebee leading a column of Sector Seven assault vehicles, so Ironhide and the rest of the Autobots joined the unit.



During the final battle at Mission City, Ironhide realized that the F-22 Raptor that appeared to be providing Captain Lennox's troops with air cover was in fact Starscream. Ordering the others to take cover, Ironhide and Bumblebee lifted a discarded truck full of Furby toys to protect the humans against Starscream's strafing run. It worked, but the explosion threw Ironhide back and crippled Bumblebee. Soon afterwards, Devastator attacked, forcing Ironhide to do several somersaults to avoid the Decepticon's missiles, thus totally scaring the crap out of a lady sitting in the middle of the street.



Ironhide and Ratchet took it upon themselves to protect Sam from Starscream and Blackout as he made his way to a rooftop where he could pass the All Spark to a military helicopter. Unfortunately, Starscream blocked off Sam's path, prompting the Autobot guardians to engage the more powerful Decepticon immediately. After taking several missiles in the gut, Ironhide implored Sam to keep running.

After the destruction of Megatron and the All Spark, Ironhide somberly cradled the body of the fallen Jazz while Ratchet informed Optimus Prime that there was nothing they could do. Ironhide then gave Captain Lennox a ride home and spent the remainder of the day observing Sam and Mikaela making out on the hood of Bumblebee's vehicle mode.

Transformers The Game

 * Voice actor: Mark Ryan

Autobot campaign
Ironhide arrived on Earth alongside the other Autobots upon Bumblebee's call. As Sector Seven forces closed in on them, Jazz was given the task of drawing the human authorities' attention away from the others. When Jazz soon found himself trapped by both human agents and Decepticons, Ironhide was sent to rescue him (without, Prime ordered him, another incident like that on Kaiba-5), a task that ended with his tangling with a Mixmaster unit in a construction lot.

A brief aside with Optimus Prime during the rescue revealed Ironhide's actions may have resulted in the destruction of a small planet at one point. Ironhide maintained that it was going to blow up anyway. Wondering how he became an Autobot in the first place.

In Mission City, Ironhide once again was called to the rescue, as Bumblebee was trapped by a massive swarm of Energon drones activated by the All Spark. Ironhide waded into the thick of them and destroyed every last one. Shortly afterwards, he responded to Jazz's S.O.S. call, but was too late; the warrior had been killed by Brawl. Enraged, Ironhide engaged the tank, smashing through the backup drone-units before finally taking down Brawl himself.

Decepticon campaign
As the Decepticons closed in on the All Spark within Mission City, Blackout was tasked with bringing down the mighty Ironhide. Ironhide's powerful cannons, force shielding and hordes of backup drones made this fight incredibly difficult for Blackout, but the mammoth Decepticon was finally able to take Ironhide out.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

 * Voice actor: Jess Harnell

Ironhide has never been happier. It's hard on a warrior to be on the defensive all the time, but that's what most of the war was - defensive action after defensive action. With Megatron defeated and the other Decepticons on the run everywhere, it was high time the Autobots went on the offensive. Working alongside the humans to hunt and destroy Decepticon hideouts around the world is the most fun he's had in ages. His accent seems more pronounced in the sequel.

Ironhide goes to Shanghai with NEST to hunt down the Decepticons Demolishor and Sideways. He is the first to transform in the sequel, and is with Optimus when they execute Demolishor. Later Ironhide provides cover fire for Sam's escape from Megatron and Starscream in the woods, and in the final battle he and the Arcee sisters are sent as an advance team to recover Sam. The purple and pink Arcees are shot by a Decepticon resembling Bonecrusher, and Ironhide returns fire while yelling at Sam to run. Ironhide makes it out of the Air Force's carpet bombardment and survives the film.

Transformers Autobots/Decepticons
As Brawl "Tears the City Apart" because of orders from megatron, Ironhide attempts to kill Brawl. They get into a huge fight, both equally strong. But in the end Brawl fires one last devastating shot, leaving a robotic corpse lying in the center of Tranquility. Brawl's final words to Ironhide were, "Aww, you don't want to play no more?" Then Brawl took off, continuing to look for Bumblebee A.K.A. the Allspark. Ironhide is amasingly dumb in this game. He says many quotes like, "I've been ichin' for a fighter!" "I'm sending you to the scrap heap" "You picked the wrong Autobot to mess with!"
 * Decepticon campaign

Legends Class toys

 * Ironhide Vs. Desert Blackout (Legends "Allspark Battles" two-pack, 2008)
 * An all-new Ironhide tooling that packs considerable accuracy into his small, simple design. Unlike the Voyager class toy, Legends Ironhide stores his cannons in the truck's bed. He comes with a desert scheme redeco of Legends class Blackout.


 * Amusingly, this version of Ironhide is the only American toy release that has full-length exhaust stacks. Also, there are many complaints about the fists sticking out of the back of the truck and the weird truck proportions.

Voyager Class toys

 * Ironhide (Voyager Class, 2007)
 * Japanese ID Number: MA-09
 * Accessories: 4 missiles




 * Ironhide transforms into a modified black 2006 GMC Topkick 4500 four-wheel drive pickup truck. Although Hasbro's official stock photos and early packaged samples featured two real-life accurate full length exhaust smokestacks behind the rear cabin, they have been slightly shortened for safety and durability reasons for the actual release of the toy. Otherwise, however, the vehicle mode is very accurate to the real prop truck... well, aside from the fact that Ironhide's massive missile launchers are quite visible underneath the vehicle. Despite rumors to the contrary, TakaraTomy's Japanese release of the toy features the same shortened smokestacks as the Hasbro version.


 * Ironhide features an Automorph gimmick in his legs during transformation: As the user swings down his feet, all of the panels that make up his legs automatically shift and fold into place. This gimmick does not affect Ironhide's articulation. Confusingly, the instructions omit the exact positioning of the roof panels and rear window on his back, though they can fold into a compact design for maximum articulation.


 * In robot mode, Ironhide is quite accurate to his CGI design, though obviously simplified for toy practicality. Contrary to appearances, he features full standard up-down and lateral shoulder articulation, as well as articulation in his elbows, hips and knees. His arm-mounted cannons are inactive while mounted on both arms. Of note, one peg is a standard peg( also mini-con coompatible, guess he's friends with Longarm) while the other is slightly larger, thus the cannons are not switchable. However, detaching the left arm cannon and combining it with the right arm creates a huge functional missile launcher that is almost as big as Ironhide himself. The missile-launching mechanism itself isn't the typical spring-loaded button design, instead relying on a pressure-launch system to fire the missiles from the four barrels.


 * Offroad Ironhide (Voyager Class, 2008)
 * Accessories: 4 missiles


 * Released as part of the "Allspark Power" refresh of the Movie toyline, Offroad Ironhide is a fairly extensive redeco of Voyager class Ironhide in colors reminiscent of the Generation 2 Go-Bot Motormouth. As he's now made of several colors of plastic, he's no longer the most monochromatic toy in the Movie line.


 * Ironhide ("Premium Series" Voyager Class, 2008)
 * Accessories: 4 missiles


 * Premium Ironhide is a redeco of the previous released Voyager class Ironhide, and a rather confused one at that. Though the Premium subline is meant to be redecos (and occasionally minor retools) of existing Movie toys in more Movie-accurate color schemes, Ironhide's vehicle mode ends up being less accurate than the initial release in an effort to make him appear less monochromatic and more obviously different to customers. Accurate changes include silver smokestacks, silver Road Armor winch and side turn signal detailing, but with them are several inaccurate deco additions including silver detailing to the rims, frosted windows, silver paint on the roof ridges and a large Autobot sigil tampographed onto the hood, and his light-piped eyes are painted over in allspark blue (However, these indecencies can be easily remedied with a Que-tip and a bottle of Nail polish remover).


 * Thankfully, in robot mode Ironhide is considerably more accurate as the original release's robot mode was missing much of his gold and gunmetal detailing colors. His large cannons are now molded in mostly black plastic, then painted metallic teal with gold detailing.

Fast Action Battlers

 * Cannon Blast Ironhide (Fast Action Battler, 2007)
 * Accessories: 1 missiles


 * Part of the Fast Action Battlers line, "Cannon Blast" Ironhide is a simpler version of the larger toy, geared more towards the younger set who might find the big toy too complicated to transform. He still transforms into the customized GMC Topkick. He features a spring-loaded missile launcher in his left cannon. But, thanks to the simpler transformation, the hood and wheels trap his arms below the wheel.  He can't punch or aim his cannon at all, and the elbows have no articulation but swiveling that knocks the arm off his body.


 * Pulse Cannon Ironhide (Fast Action Battler, 2008)
 * Accessories: 1 missiles


 * A redeco of the Fast Action Battler Ironhide, this version sports a silver and blue color scheme that is both a reversal of the "Offroad" Ironhide Voyager figure... and seemingly an homage to the Generation 2 Go-Bots version of Generation 1 Ironhide, a redeco of Motormouth (see above). Funky!

Cyber Slammers

 * Ironhide (Cyber Slammer, 2008)




 * Cyber Slammers Ironhide is an amazingly cute GMC Topkick that transforms into an amazingly cute trigger happy weapons specialist. 'Slam' his robot mode down into car mode and he rolls along, slowly transforming back up into robot mode. Like most Cyber Slammers, Ironhide manages to cram most of his vehicle mode's major details into a compact, super-deformed version of that mode. Interestingly enough, the figure has an asymmetrical face: One eye is the usual cyber slammer style, the other is "squinted".

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

 * Ironhide (Voyager Class, 2009)


 * The newest Ironhide figure features a more detailed transformation sculpt. He is updated as a special forces vehicle, complete with Autobot faction in a beret! Ooh la la!


 * There are two version of package: The missile is mounted in the weapon or not.

Titanium Series

 * Ironhide (3-inch Robot Masters, 2007)




 * Titanium Series Ironhide is a small, 3-inch-tall die-cast metal mini-statue of Ironhide's robot mode. He has swivel points at the shoulders and head, and comes with a clear plastic movie-style Autobot sigil stand.

Merchandise



 * Ironhide vs. Bonecrusher (Robot Heroes 2-pack, 2007)


 * Part of the Robot Heroes line, this incarnation of Ironhide is an adorable soft-plastic PVC figurine in a chunky, "super-deformed" style. He has swivel points at the shoulders and neck. He came in a two-pack with the Decepticon Bonecrusher.




 * Ironhide vs. Dispensor (Robot Heroes 2-pack, 2008)


 * Part of the Robot Heroes line, this incarnation of Ironhide is an adorable soft-plastic PVC figurine in a chunky, "super-deformed" style in his "somersaulting" pose from the Mission City battle. He came in a two-pack with Dispensor.

Bigger Toys


As reported at Edmunds and The Monroe Times, Monroe Truck Equipment, in association with Hasbro, released a GMC TopKick 4500 Ironhide special edition featuring most of the modifications made to the Ironhide vehicle props used in the movie, with the only difference being that the truck will retain its stock orange running lights (the movie used blue) and the large stock sideview mirrors.

Sadly, installing a grumpy trigger-happy alien robot and deadly high-tech weaponry into the works is not part of the included modifications.

Trivia

 * In the initial draft of the movie, Ironhide was not present among the Autobot cast. However, he replaced female Autobot Arcee in later drafts and the subsequent final script.


 * In the movie, Ironhide's guns alone have 10,000 CGI parts each. Yet this was somehow passed over in the Academy Awards for talking polar bears. And some people wonder why the Academy Awards seem to be losing their credibility as of recent.


 * There is actually a large scar over Ironhide's right eye. Also, in some shots while he's in alt-mode, his right orange running light appears to have the same scarring.


 * While he was scaring the crap out of that girl, Ironhide is actually "winking" at her right before he left. What a pervert... Interesting.


 * His left ankle appears to be broken when he is getting out of the pool, having a bit more give than the right.


 * In the IDW prequel Defiance, it appears that Ironhide outranks Starscream based upon the deferent tone employed by the later, and the overbearing attitude of the former. Starscream also seems to suggest courses of action to Ironhide, while Ironhide tells Starscream.  This could simply be aspects of their normal personalities, but with both presenting strong military minds and holding different ranks (Captain and Commander) it seems possible that one holds higher post than the other.