The Energon Pub

Were you not satisfied with the first Best-Toy Upgrade kit. Did you believe that even with the head the arms looked fumy. Well Now New company Gear4Toys has you covered. They are releasing their versions of upgrades of these classic characters, including a chrome gun, and a new chest assembly with new arms and a new head with built in L.E.D. There are no reviews as of yet, and each upgrade costs $19.90 USD.








Their Website is located here

Me likey gonna order an ironhide and buy a g1 ironhide just for it.

These indeed look cool, it would be better if the upgrade could transform with the alt mode. That's the beauty of the earlier upgrade.

The head sculpts could be better but otherwise these are the best Ironhide/Ratchet upgrades yet.

You can probably still get the reissued Ratchet and Ironhide at a fairly decent price.

Should have stuck to light piping instead of LED. Otherwise, nice effort.

I personally think they look awful. They seem way to top heavy, I can imagine they will full over backwards when you try to display them. I also don't like the way Ironhide's chest is black, I think it would look a hundred times better if it were red.

You own G1 Ratchet and/or Ironhide? You think the custom head you bought for greater cartoon accuracy just isn't doing it for you any more? Well you're in luck!

A brand new custom toy company by the name of Gear4Toys has announced its first products - Cartoon accurate upgrade sets for G1 Ironhide and Ratchet.

the sets go by the name of GT-01R for Ratchet and GT-01I for Ironhide. The sets consist of a chrome handgun, a new upper torso with arms and heads, and an LED in the head to light up the eyes.






You can visit Gear4Toys' website by clicking here.

Thanks to seibertron.com member Stixx for the heads up!

@ MiniMagnus

In the G1 cartoon, Ironhide's back was black so the kit makes it sort of accurate. Only wish they ditched the LED to lessen the price.

I wonder what possesed the original G1 artists to come up with Ironhide and Ratchets original animated body rather than using his Diaclone robot mode in the cartoons ??? Probally cause it sucked. but then again what was Diaclone thinking when they made this wacky robot mode in the first place ???

fenrir72 wrote:@ MiniMagnus

In the G1 cartoon, Ironhide's back was black so the kit makes it sort of accurate. Only wish they ditched the LED to lessen the price.

I had realised that, I just think the black looks a bit weird that's all, red would almost certainly suite the mold better in my opinion.

Has any one attempted to order them through their site yet? I would be interested in these, but I would prefer to buy them through an online store like BBTS or TFsource.

Wow these are really fantastic!

Someone (Fansproject, are you listening?) needs to make a new Ratchet/ironhide mold. Simple, square transformation, (head drops into chest, arms and legs fold back to make the sides of the van) and good old blockly bot mode. I would be ever so happy with that.

This upgrade would make a nice starting point, just add the rest.

Rated X wrote:I wonder what possesed the original G1 artists to come up with Ironhide and Ratchets original animated body rather than using his Diaclone robot mode in the cartoons ??? Probally cause it sucked. but then again what was Diaclone thinking when they made this wacky robot mode in the first place ???

I believe the original Diaclone bots came with little figures. Each vehicle was actually a transforming armored suit. In the G1 Ironhide and Ratchet toys, the seat for the little guy can be seen behind the wind shield. Hasbro just put a weird face sticker on the seat to be the robot head. (I think one of the more recent comic incarnations of Ironhide paid tribute by placing Ironhide's windscreen over his face in bot mode.)

I'm actually grateful for the G1 cartoon animators. They took what were pretty cool transforming toys and made them into awesome visual characters. There have been very, very few ugly cartoon models, with the few I can think of being ugly on purpose. It really helped me expand my imagination as a kid.

At any rate, the previous head scheme is all I need for my Ironhide and Ratchet. Still, these look cool and would be grateful if I got them for Christmas or something.

I might have ordered these, except I strongly agree with an earlier statement saying that these parts should be incorporated into the transformation. That was the beauty of the previous Ironhide and Ratchet heads.

I would be tempted to pick one up for my Ratchet but I just had the visual of placing these brand new, pristine white parts on my 25 year old, purchased second hand, more-than-somewhat-yellowed Ratchet, and it made me shudder. The contrast would be so hideous as to offset any potential coolness gained by the new additions. I very much love the concept but I think I'll stick with hunting down a Classics/Generations version instead.

So no one thought of this earlier why...??

Agamemnon wrote:

Rated X wrote:I wonder what possesed the original G1 artists to come up with Ironhide and Ratchets original animated body rather than using his Diaclone robot mode in the cartoons ??? Probally cause it sucked. but then again what was Diaclone thinking when they made this wacky robot mode in the first place ???

I believe the original Diaclone bots came with little figures. Each vehicle was actually a transforming armored suit. In the G1 Ironhide and Ratchet toys, the seat for the little guy can be seen behind the wind shield. Hasbro just put a weird face sticker on the seat to be the robot head. (I think one of the more recent comic incarnations of Ironhide paid tribute by placing Ironhide's windscreen over his face in bot mode.)

Yep, they were piloted transforming mecha, originally.

Counterpunch wrote:I might have ordered these, except I strongly agree with an earlier statement saying that these parts should be incorporated into the transformation. That was the beauty of the previous Ironhide and Ratchet heads.

Agreed. These look absolutely amazing (could do without the LED), but it's just not the same if you can't transform it. I WANT to buy these, but can't justify it.

WOW! Those are better than the "Classics" versions! Too bad I don't own either G1 Ironhide or Ratchet, or I'd grab these instantly.

Seeing that I own both the G1 toys, I will stick with just the old head add on. This is just too much. If I wanted to kitbash and make a better Ironhide, I would have. Too much bulk, and gimmicky. Who is the led for anyways? LEDs and shooting missiles are gimmicks for mainly the children that play with transformers. How many "kids" do you know that have G1 Ironhide and Ratchet? Dont get me wrong, it looks good as a concept, but I will not be buying.

Rated X wrote:I wonder what possesed the original G1 artists to come up with Ironhide and Ratchets original animated body rather than using his Diaclone robot mode in the cartoons ??? Probally cause it sucked. but then again what was Diaclone thinking when they made this wacky robot mode in the first place ???

In Diaclone all robots were piloted mechs, including Ironhide and Ratchet. Both were more like exo-suits with a chair behind the windshield.

A small Fansproject type upgrades for these figures would be nice. Where the new head, arms and leg attachments could transform and replace the back base part completely.

If someone could come up with something that was like this, but could transform (replacing the "base" section maybe) it would be cool, as is, I don't really see the point. Better off just buy a statue or PVC of the character or something.

I like them. There were actually 2 previous head attachments for the vans but the second, more popular one is the one we all know that still sells on Ebay, often with the Encores themselves, for quite reasonable prices.

I have both sets myself. It's amazing the difference these sets make. G1/Encore Ironhide is now one of my favourite Transformers. He's got some nice arm articulation despite being an overall brick. If this new set sells reasonably, I'll probably pick it up. Ironhide along with Prowl and Rodimus Prime are my 3 favourite Autobots.

As a 34 old collector, I have to say I like the LED eyes. I also agree with the earlier poster about colour matching these new sets with 25 year old, yellowed toys. I had an old Ratchet but ended up buying an Encore as the yellowing does indeed impact negatively on the overall aesthetic.

Slag it, I wouldn't touch a G1 Ironhide toy until I chanced the head sets to try on my old Ratchet. They really do make a difference. If you're not a fan of the set in this thread, the other one can be gotten very reasonably. It's definitely worth buying one of the upgrades.

On a sidenote, I've even gotten the green and black versions of the previous head set as I fully intend to pick up those vans as well. That black Ironhide will make a nice Motormouth.