Phil's
Cybertron & Movie Armorhide
and
Botcon Huffer
Review


Armorhide

Armorhide is I think the third toy to bear the name following it's use on the Combaticon Tank during RID and as a Blue Minicon Snowplough with Armada Rhinox.

The vehicle mode is a truck cab. I can't remember the last time there was a small vehicle truck - one of the MM ? Or do we have to go as far back as Pipes ? He's mainly Blue - like pipes and his previous Minicon namesake - with a grey truck latch at the back which includes some white & lighter grey where in joins the cab. He comes with a crane arm ending in a tow hook that attaches to the back which looks a little odd - I'm used to seeing trailers on the back. The crane arm is at a fixed angle, and has a square peg so you can't turn it. There's a round peg on the arm - for use later - which doesn't quite fit into the hole - it forces the back halves of the truck apart - so you have to settle for using one of the fist holes which are to either side of the very back of the truck. The crane arm has a slot in the side for storing his force key in. To use the gimmick remove the crane arm and insert the Earth key (#s645) along the truck's back into the base of the cab - not the easiest key slot to engage. Down pops his radiator grill revealing an array of eight embedded missiles.

To transform separate the halves of the rear of the truck and then fold them to the sides of the cab - there's a ball joint half way back along each piece which needs to swivel 180 degrees so the arms are the right way round. Pull up on the top of the cab - and this bit is reasonably novel with TF trucks - to form the legs, and straighten out what comes out with them to form the waist. The back of the cab flips round to form feet, and the cab halves separate and slide to the side of the upper legs. Flip the entire toy over and pop the head up from what was under the cab.

Robot mode is short but looks powerfully built. Key slot is now in his back and still works the gimmick - the chest plate grill flipping up to reveal the missiles. He's reasonably posable - knees, hips, shoulders and elbows + his neck. Crane arm becomes his gun.

Not too bad at all while being nothing special, a bit of fun. I predict an orange Huffer repaint.


Huffer

Which actually took longer than I thought - for quite some while Armorhide was a one shot toy in the Cybertron line. Then in late 2006 came the Classics line with it's three Decepticon jets. When Botcon 2007 snagged the remaining three (see the Classics Starscream review for more on this) they bulked the rest of the set out with other Classics & Cybertron toys repainted as Generation One characters. Armorhide was an obvious choice to be reused as Huffer. Armorhide's blue becomes a yellowy orange with the white becoming light blue, the grey dark blue and the dark grey black. This is one too many colours of blue used - probably the lighter one should have been dark blue too - but overall it's about as good as you could have wished for from an Armorhide to Huffer repaint.

Armorhide

Armorhide is a Wave 2 Sector 7 Movie basic repaint exclusive to Target in the USA and released through Woolworths in the UK.

This toy's cab is black, with the truck bed in shades of grey. Highlights on the vehicle are provided by yellow paint, especially (and very effectively) on the missiles. The yellow helps both modes avoid being an obvious Nemesis Prime/Scourge black repaint but it ain't far off.

I should like it more but somehow it's not as good as the other Sector Seven repaints in the wave, possibly due to the quite monchrome colouring on the toy.


Future Repaints

I'm slightly surprised not to have seen Armorhide back as Optimus Prime or Ultra Magnus !


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