Transformers Reviews

Armorhide

June 16, 2008 1:25 pm Ryan Movie Toys, Scout, Toy Reviews

Go big or go home! Wait, no, nevermind. This week’s desktop guardian is Movie Scout Armorhide (I will refrain from calling him Armourhide, no matter how much I want to).

Like all of the Movie Scouts, Armorhide is a redeco, in this case of Cybertron Armorhide (who dreamed that one up?). His altmode is a teensy weensy flatnosed semi truck with a tow truck attachment on the back. he’s got a nice black and yellow colour scheme that I think is going to look nice alongside Stealth Bumblebee when I get around to opening him up. He seems nicely proportioned, and is well detailed in vehicle mode, but I do have a bit of a beef with how flexible his back end is. The arm joints aren’t loose, necessarily, but there’s nothing but the friction in the ball joints keeping him from bending. It’s particularly troublesome when putting the gun/tow truck attachment in. Inserting his key into the back of the cab (this requires removing the tow truck attachment) will open the front of the truck up, and eight non-firing missiles stick out.

Transformation from Tow Truck to Robot

Lift the top of the cab (windshield and up) up and back, then turn it so that the back of the cab points up. The windshield panels will pop out to accommodate.
Rotate the feet out from the back of the cab and separate the legs.
Split the rear of the truck and swing the two halves around using the double swivels. Rotate the forearms so that the wheels are on the outside.
Pull the head out.

Holy crow, these Scouts are simple to transform. He’s just as tiny in robot mode as we was in truck mode, and there’s not a

whole lot of “new parts” exposed. He’s a bit clunky, but it’s nice and works well with a smaller ‘bot like this. His tow truck attachment can be fit into either hand as a blaster (the firing projectile promised on the instructions is not really there), and his key gimmick works in this mode as well. He’s got a nice layout, and I’m starting to wonder why the upside down bumper-chest isn’t used more often. I’m really fond of that head sculpt, and the paint applications there and elsewhere really make this figure shine. For some reason, I really like the tiny ones. He’s got a reasonable

level of articulation, and it’s making me again rethink skipping the Unicron Trilogy toys (and look forward to opening up the rest of my movie scouts).

Articulation Breakdown

Head - ball joint
Arms - double swivel (that looks like a ball joint) shoulders, ball joint elbows
Legs - ball joint hips, swivel knees, swivel ankles (if you’re generous).

Score

Deco: Rating: . I like the sharp contrast (black and yellow just go together!), and there’s a suprising number of paint applications for such a small toy. The paint applied to the head is spot on, and the paint on the cab is well placed.
Posability: Rating: . There’s not much you can do for posability in a toy at this scale, but he’s got a lot of potential expressiveness here.
Transformation: Rating: . I like the scheme, at no point does it go poorly, and it’s fun to do again and again.
Badassery: Rating: . He’s got a gun as big as he is, and his Key has the enemy’s logo on it, presumably to indicate that he took it by force. He’s got as many missiles in his chest cavity as I do fingers, really, he looks like he could make someone’s day turn ugly real fast. Provided that they aren’t, you know, very big or anything.
Vehicle Mode: Rating: . It’s a nice truck, and it’s well detailed, but those loose bits in the rear drive me nuts.
Robot Mode: Rating: . I like his robot mode. It’s dynamic enough that I usually forget that his torso is basically a cube, and the headsculpt is oh-so-nice. Almost every bit of the vehicle winds up integrated into the robot mode somehow, creating a very clean appearance (almost no bits just hanging there, yay!)

Overall, Overall Rating: . I like him, and he gets me enthused about the Scout figures. This might even make me break down and start buying Legends. There’s a frightening thought!

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