The Energon Pub

Carded images of Henkei Ironhide have appeared on Yahoo Japan Auctions, revealing the box art. This figure will be released tomorrow along with the previously seen Henkei Galvatron.

Click here to see the original page.

Galvatron can be seen here.

Yup, picking these up tomorrow.

Very, very nice. One more to my colection. That design art is great.
All hail Henkei line!

Finally I'll be able to get my hands on what is, in my opinion, the best Ironhide figure ever made.

I know that's not hard to achieve, and this guy has plenty of flaws, but I'm a big fan of G1 Ironhide so that makes me happy.

Looks better from that angle, also I like the art work.

I love that they seem to have switched to boxart over the pics of the figures themselves but.....

No. No way am I dropping and extra 25 bucks on a figure that has the same low head problem.

And given the craptacular job done on Henkei SW and TC, I wouldn't be so quick to call it the better line.

You know what will suck? You finally get it from Japan...and it has a blue face!

I want it.

noo set ironuhaidu fureeeeeeeu!!!

omega666 wrote:You know what will suck? You finally get it from Japan...and it has a blue face!

I want it.

I can just picture some disgrunted worker painting over the silver henkei Ironhide face with all-spark blue just for lolz

First Gen wrote:And given the craptacular job done on Henkei SW and TC, I wouldn't be so quick to call it the better line.

Don’t think that all of the Henkei figures are like that. The only conclusion that makes sense to me is mold degradation. Having owned Henkei Starscream, Thundercracker was completely different. My Henkei Starscream had really tight joints and felt to be of higher quality than even Classics Skywarp.

Though, I will admit my Sunstreaker had some loose joints, all it appeared to be nothing more than a few loose screws. I don’t know what happened with Thundercracker, but all of the other Henkei figures have been far better quality.

The owner of Jizaitoys told me a while ago that the tightness of the joints is due to the pins. If the pins are set properly, you'll have a tight joint. Question for our kitbashers - Is there a way to pull out the loose pins and replace them? Are their other remedies?

Awesome, really looking forward to Henkei Ironhide & Galvatron.

Stormrider wrote:The owner of Jizaitoys told me a while ago that the tightness of the joints is due to the pins. If the pins are set properly, you'll have a tight joint. Question for our kitbashers - Is there a way to pull out the loose pins and replace them? Are their other remedies?

That is a darn good question. I would imagine there has to be a way to take the pins out.

As for Henkei Ironhide, I'm excited. Although I already bought Universe Ironhide, I see some improvement with the Henkei version. While the head issue is slightly annoying, it's of little consequence to me. Most of my figs remain in the box anyhoo.

Also, I don't understand why people complain about the vehicle mode. Ironhide is supposed to be a crash test van. The jigsaw look fits fine. Even if you can't accept the story explanation, the alt mode is not that bad.

Now Galvatron is a whole different story. Didn't like him in Universe and don't like him in the Henkei line. Too many problems going on at once (one arm longer than the other, ugly colors in tank mode, size of the figure itself, back heavy). Of all the Classics/Universe molds, this one strikes me as the sorriest. I really see no redeeming aspect in Galvatron. A real pity too. I would love to display Galvatron and Cyclonus together. I'm just worried the Cyclonus figure would make the Galvatron figure look even worse.

Okay, this time tomorrow I should hopefully be posting pictures of these guys.

D'oh! Godammit, Bic Camera in Shinjuku only had Galvatron, Yodobashi had neither of them. I'm wondering if something's up with their release. On the other hand, I saw something interesting in Yodobashi...Masterpiece Thundercracker for 8200 yen.

Henkei Ironhide is out. I got him in Nagoya on Thursday. MP Thundercracker is pretty cool by the way. When you add the red stickers to his wings and tail fins he definitely looks like Thundercracker.

Stormrider wrote:Henkei Ironhide is out. I got him in Nagoya on Thursday. MP Thundercracker is pretty cool by the way. When you add the red stickers to his wings and tail fins he definitely looks like Thundercracker.

I'm gonna see if I can get the Henkeis at Harajuku today.

Is the Ironhide good?

Yay, got them both!

The new manga that comes with these two is pretty cool, and it has nice sillouettes of the next three Henkeis: Hound, Cheetor and Cyclonus.

Diem wrote:

Stormrider wrote:Henkei Ironhide is out. I got him in Nagoya on Thursday. MP Thundercracker is pretty cool by the way. When you add the red stickers to his wings and tail fins he definitely looks like Thundercracker.

I'm gonna see if I can get the Henkeis at Harajuku today.

Is the Ironhide good?

Yes, Ironhide is worth it. Tight joints. Nice paint job.

I don't see the problem with the head that others have mentioned with Universe Ironhide. Henkei Ironhide looks straight (not down). I am not sure if the problem has been corrected with Henkei. There is a notch in the spine so it does not interfere with the bumper. Does the Universe Ironhide have a notch in the spine too?

Stormrider wrote: I don't see the problem with the head that others have mentioned with Universe Ironhide. Henkei Ironhide looks straight (not down). I am not sure if the problem has been corrected with Henkei. There is a notch in the spine so it does not interfere with the bumper. Does the Universe Ironhide have a notch in the spine too?

Do you have a pic? The other problem was that the wheels would hit the screws in his backpack, and the wheel wells would hit the upper part of his back.

Geekee1 wrote:

Stormrider wrote: I don't see the problem with the head that others have mentioned with Universe Ironhide. Henkei Ironhide looks straight (not down). I am not sure if the problem has been corrected with Henkei. There is a notch in the spine so it does not interfere with the bumper. Does the Universe Ironhide have a notch in the spine too?

Do you have a pic? The other problem was that the wheels would hit the screws in his backpack, and the wheel wells would hit the upper part of his back.

To expand on Stormrider's info, he does indeed have a gap in his waist for the bumper to go; however on mine at least his bumper doesn't reach his waist due to the issues you mentioned.

Apologies for the poor picture quality:

I see. It doesn't seem that he is looking as far down as the Hasbro version. I'd like to get one just to see the differences.

Thanks for the pics.

Diem wrote:

Geekee1 wrote:

Stormrider wrote: I don't see the problem with the head that others have mentioned with Universe Ironhide. Henkei Ironhide looks straight (not down). I am not sure if the problem has been corrected with Henkei. There is a notch in the spine so it does not interfere with the bumper. Does the Universe Ironhide have a notch in the spine too?

Do you have a pic? The other problem was that the wheels would hit the screws in his backpack, and the wheel wells would hit the upper part of his back.

To expand on Stormrider's info, he does indeed have a gap in his waist for the bumper to go; however on mine at least his bumper doesn't reach his waist due to the issues you mentioned.

Apologies for the poor picture quality:

I don't own Universe Ironhide, but hearing about the problems, I wonder if Takara corrected the issues with the Henkei version. The wheels do not touch the screws in his backpack on my Henkei Ironhide. There is clearance between the wheels and screws.

I am trying to take a decent picture, but my digital camera doesn't do close-ups very well. Hopefully, someone else who gets Ironhide can take comparison pictures.