I'd love to see a Missing Link Ironhide, it'd be either hilariously blursed or the most jaw-dropping, awesomely subversive feat of TF toy engineering ever.

I recently learned that Bumblebee does not turn into a VW bug. He turns into a Penny Racer toy car! You'll never unsee it.

This would've been the perfect candidate for an upgrade to a headmaster. You can have both looks, while still retaining the diaclone play features.

you also forgot to mention how easily Ironhide and ratchet broke...

Did you interview any of us G1 kids? I was there when Ratchet and Ironhide came out... and we loved 'em. We had imaginations.

My boy, he had a rough childhood, but grew into a true hero.

In early 1983, I witnessed my first transforming toy -- a dune buggy in the GoBots line code-named "Buggy Man." Later that year, I began to see advertisements on TV for "Diakron" (the American name for Diaclone) three vehicles that transformed into cars. I got one of them for Christmas that year (DK1, the Lamborghini Countach), but I never got the pickup truck (later released as "Trailbreaker") or the van. So when the Transformers line finally came out in 1984, my first Autobot car purchase was Ironhide. I loved that toy, and I never regretted it, not even for a second, because I had some Diaclone figures to put in his cockpit, which was awesome. Thank you for posting.

Never hated the mold, not once. I actually loved the van mode and the bot mode, while not toon accurate in any way, i still liked it. The sled was cool to me. I even bought the Encore reissues when they came out.

There are some things worth unpacking here. Firstly that hole in the crotch isn't weird, it's weapon storage for the turret on the battle sled. It's something I only stumbled upon when I got curious a few years back. Yes that means that Ironhide and Ratchet do in fact have underslung weapons in vehicle mode. What I've learned over the years, and Blaster (specifically his gun) was my first lesson with this, is that if an early Transformer has some weird hole in it, it probably served a purpose in Diaclone, microchange, et al, which wasn't carried over into the Transformers line. It also means that Ironhide was the earliest example of a Transformers figure mold, which featured weapons storage in vehicle mode. Given the mold was only the 5th Transformers figure mold to be created, it shows that weapons storage, and especially functional weapons storage, in an alt mode, occurred far earlier than meny transformers fans might have realised. Secondly, the play value in mech mode is far better than than the pilot merely riding in what is essentially a precursor to an AMP Suit in Avatar - both the Launcher and the turret feature cockpits for Dianauts, while the readout screens which line the sides, allow for additional play options. If you draw a parallel between Dianauts and Minicons, then this is essentially the oldest ancestor of Armada Optimus Prime. Thirdly, I think you misunderstood what I was saying about MC-18. I wasn't merely saying that the head for Ironhide came from MC-18; I'm saying that Ironhide ORIGINALLY WAS MC-18. We know that at some point, the decision was made by Hasbro to make the Autobots cars, and the Decepticons devices, military vehicles and weapons. However we know that there were other design choices at play and that not all of them would have come after that. Now bear in mind this is pure speculation on my part, but Occam's Razor lends credence to what I'm saying. I believe that in the initial stages of planning out the rebrand and amalgamation of the line, not long after 1983, there were a few initial concept character outlines for different toys, back before creative efforts were filtered out by marketing execs about what toys "will shelf-warm" (air quotes intentional on both sides of the argument). For example, robots who turn into jets are going to be soldiers. A robot who turns into a cassette player and robots who turn into tapes, will naturally be paired together and will serve in the roles of communications and intellegence gathering (storage media literally collect data. However what about a van, a family vehicle to get children from a to b screams out security? Transport, sure, but security????? However a robot which turns into a padlock - well that absolutely screams out being a robot whose role is security, as it LITERALLY secures things as its function. To that end, while the name may not have been ironhide at that time, I am saying that it is almost certain that the red and black security robot that we came to know as Ironhide was originally MC-18 in its entirety. Another thing which I think backs this up, is if you look at not only the head, but the rest of the body of the animation model of Ironhide, the design silhouette matches up perfectly with how Bob Budiansky would have stylised the design of MC-18 for an animation model. I think these designs were done as part of a marketting pitch - not every single member of the 1984 cast, but enough of them for a proof of concept. So what do I think happened? I think there were 3 things at play here. The first is the decision for the Autobots to turn into cars, whilst the Decepticons turned into devices. Additionally, the warmer colours, the reds, the oranges, etc, as a rule, became the Autobot colours, while the darker and colder colours, such as the blacks, the purples, the blues, etc, tended to become the Autobot colours. Even the decision to give the Autobots blue eyes and the Decepticons red eyes, matches up with this. Additionally as a bad guy, how much of an evil cool factor does a padlock have, besides next to none. Guns, and jets are a no-brainer. A camera and tapes to spy on people with, sure. But a padlock? I think what happened was that Ironhide the toy wasn't originally on the list to be a Transformer and MC-18 was originally meant to be the Autobot Security chief. However when marketing stepped in, plans changed and they needed another toy to fill the slot. I think the Onebox Cherry Vanette was sitting around unused and it was decided that the animation model for MC-18 would be completely reskinned from the neck down, into what we now know as Ironhide, whilst retaining MC-18's head. The added bonus of this of course, was that it gave them either a working animation design, or a far better animation design, than what might have existed for the Onebox Cherry Vanette Ambulance, which we now know as Ratchet. While we may never get a definitive answer, this strikes me as the most likely scenario for how we wound up with the animation model and toy design for Ratchet, differing so wildly. One other thing, whilst Ratchet and Ironhide might be the most hated early G1 toys out there, I believe any assigning to them of the worst G1 toy ever is misplaced. As someone who owns both MC-21 and G1 Blaster, I can unreservedly say that the worst G1 toy ever, in terms of how the original Pre-Tf toy was handled, is none other than G1 Blaster by a country mile. Not only did they gut the incredible working radio gimmick, which is amazingly executed, but they even removed working switched and dials, when in some cases, all it required was using a plastic part that was already there on the toy - the tuning dial next to the tape deck being the example of this. Meanwhile the gaping hole in Blaster's Electro Scrambler, which is designed to work with a crystal radio earpiece, was never filled in, despite the crystal radio earpiece being removed. In fact if you have a crystal radio earpiece with a 2.5mm plug, it will combine with the gun of any reissue of G1 Blaster, to this day. Meanwhile Blaster gets a free pass, when it should be thoroughly panned as a mold reuse (in fact it should be considered a cheap knockoff of MC-21 in comparison - no matter how officially licensed it might be), whilst the Onebox Vannette mold cops nothing but hate because Hasbro chose to cram a square peg in a round hole, with their choice of mold usage for certain characters. Make it make sense.

My bluish Diaclone “Optimus” made me no friends, but did make me life long enemies. And my Dinobots had pilots.

"Iron Hide and Rachet were horrible! Megatron was a bit gay too, but.....:-/ !"

When I finally got Ironhide in the 80s I thought I was missing parts because it didn't have a head until I noticed the stupid sticker at that point I was really disappointed

The fuck? Ratchet is one of my all time favorite Transformers from back then. It bothers me to this day that I lost him.

Can’t help but think it would’ve been a more reasonable decision to just keep Ratchet and Ironhide as mech suits and just have two human characters with the same personalities. I mean, if you can have Spike, Sparkplug, Chip, and Carly…then some human characters could actually directly participate in the fighting, which I imagine would’ve pleased a lot of kids.

I really would want detailed video going over why cartoon models deviated from the toys. Like one pattern I noticed is eye color change with Optimus, Soundwave, Perceptor and Blaster from yellow to blue and red. And why the helicopter triple changed never became a transformer.

I hate that thing as much as I LOVE the SS86 Ironhide

My first Transformer toy was Mirage. I had saved up my allowance and bought him for $12 at Ames. My brother got Sunstreaker. Good times.

I got Ratchet as a kid, and was totally in denial about it missing the cartoon head. I kept on double checking the box!

I loved my gen 1 Ironhide toy. It was my 5th birthday present and I loved it so much that when I broke it I got it again for my 6th birthday. I also got Megatron for the Christmas between the 2 birthdays.

I have never had a issue with the mold. As someone who prefers toy accuracy to animation accuracy, I thought the toys were pretty good. Still do. There's a lot you can do with them that you can't do with, say, SS86 Ironhide or Ratchet. And I like those too.

I had Ironhide as a kid. I absolutely loved that toy, even if it didn’t match the tv show. Pulled all of my G1 toys out several years ago, and he’s still one of my favorites. 🤷‍♂️

Ironhide and Ratchet were fine in their vehicle mode, but they're transformation to robot was just goofy looking. I can't remember if I every got either of them as they weren't on the top of my want list.

What made it worse was how much screen time and character development they gave to Ironhide and Ratchet. Overshadowing cooler toys and characters such as Jazz and Mirage. In the pilot Jazz was basically second in command. Then became a background character, where even his character personality was replaced with blaster in season 2.

Apparently you've never had Broadside, at least Ironhide was weird enough to be cool, Broadside transformed into 3 kinds of brick

80s was a mixed bag we get names like slag and spazstic (which quickly got taken off of the shelves.

@5:20 The classic Ironhide was released first than the power loader from "Aliens" which was shown in 1987.

I always thought that G1 Ironhide and Ratchet’s heads should’ve been a separate piece that could’ve set on a peg. It would’ve meant they would’ve had to make a small adjustment to the mold.

Count me amongst the opposition. I love the mech suit presentation. That was the main thrust of all robot toys in the pre-TF early 80s. It didn't bother me that the show looked different. Ironhide was an extreme but none of the other characters matched either. Megatron was probably more distracting to me.

So Ironhide and Ratchet were the first Headmasters... (till they weren't)

I feel really bad for any 80’s kids who were watching Transformers, and wanted to get toys of their favorite characters, Ironhide and Ratchet, only to go to the store and see these weird, headless mech shells.

I never knew this. Would have been great if Ironhide and Rachet became headmasters

I liked these toys and its amazing how the head upgrade kit fixes so many of the problems of this toy and it makes you wonder if they had included the head upgrades as accessories in with the original toys even though being part forming would have changed peoples feelings on these toys.

I just wish they’d release the original jetfire again.

that toy should never have been released without the pilot

I was so proud and happy back then when I got Ironhide. Today the Figures are much better, but today the Video Game consoles, Computers, Cars and so much else is better, too.

There are 3P upgrade kits that sit into the seat of those figure and finish off the top of the robot to make it look more accurate

I had the 1985 Ironhide because he was my favorite Autobot on the cartoon, but my friends thought it had to be a GoBot because its design sucked. I liked it, but it didn’t look good compared to the cars. My favorite G1 autobot toy though was the die cast metal Jazz.

Y'know this does bring up one of the biggest missed potentials that Hasbro could have done with the Titans Return toyline, Ironhide and Ratchet. How beautifully full circle would it have been if those two were deluxes in TR with their own detachable headmaster partners?

Just wait till we get a missing link version

Great video!! I’m sure them being so disliked as toys contributed to their demise in the animation movie!! I’m glad I have my SS 86 version of both!!

I remember when my friend got them and I looked at em and though "r u serious?" I thought he already broke them

🤣🤣 " Daaaamn!!!" I remember having ( both ) of them, 😂 Even my mother was "CONFUSED 😕!!" when she saw me playing with them!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Ironhide was my first transformer action figure. If I am remembering correctly I even had it before the show had started. I loved him. I thought he was great, and carefully watched for him to be on each episode.

I remember my first transformer. It was the starscream at the beginning of the video. I recall having mixed feelings because the legs didn't bend and the hands had to be placed on, but love won out and I still have a large collection

My friends and I always thought Ratchet and Ironhide were solid, easy to add into adventures, and well-designed, if a little goofy and disappointing size-wise and by comparison to the cartoon character. If you want to talk about hated models, we had Megatron, who had to stay as a gun because he flopped all over the place as a robot and Trailblazer and Hound who immediately flew into pieces despite the most delicate care one put into transforming them.

I remember seeing the red version in toy stores here in Germany as a kid. At that time we only had 3 TV Chanels and I had never seen a single episode of transformers. It looked cool in my opinion.

Classics Ironhide was almost as bad. It had all those glaring panel gaps in car mode and the chest was unable to fully seat because it collides with the hips. I think the Ratchet retool fixed the chest-to-hip issue, but there was no saving the car mode's aesthetics.

Within the release of the Encore reissues of the Nissan C20 robots, the company BestToys made the heads for Ironhide and Ratchet.

before transformers conquered the world, the french toy manufacturer joustra distributed the diaclone figures in europe. later, joustra had to repackage the diaclone figures, which then became the MB transformers.

Its true, a lotta people dont like the Oneboxes. I did, thought they looked cool because they werent humanoid (unless you took them off the battle sleds).

Transformable car toys with eyes on their windshields would be perfect for a transformable version of Disney's Cars.

Ooooh, I have that binocular Transformer somewhere around here ! The box is long lost though.

What would missing link ironhide and ratchet look like? Would they just make their seat heads turn or would they just have a head accessory just like the 3rd party upgrade kit? And also, I highly doubt anyone is gonna pay $40 - $70 for these abominations if they got adapted for missing link

Even within the context of Diaclone, it's still an oddity in terms of design. The best comparison I could make would be selling a highly detailed model kit of the USS Enterprise next to one of those plastic space helmets with the Star Trek logo pasted on - they might be from the same IP, but only barely.

And a year later they would release Skids who looked like Ironhide and Ratchet should have looked which made it all the more mystifying why they would take two characters who played such pivotal roles in the cartoon and make their toys almost entirely unlike the characters they were writing. I was actually kind of surprised when Skids came out that they didn't release new versions of Ironhide and Ratchet using the new mold.

Quick little tip those binoculars that turn into a robot we're sold here in Canada and packed into the Transformers line if need be odds are I can dig them out and take a picture I got them as a kid I forget if mine are damaged or not but I'm about 75% sure they're in among the Transformers on shelves in the back room. I've got a collection of 200 or more Generation 1 Transformers and before somebody whines they didn't make that many start factoring and stuff like where they made multiples with different colored plastic not to mention I've got some of the really Oddball rare ones that were technically knock offs like I have Godzilla Grimlock. There was a variant of Grimlock that turned into Godzilla from a robot I'm not making it up dachlan I think was the ones that released it and they were sold here locally. One that I got is missing part of the tale of memory serves me. I lost track of how many they released in the generation one line between many cons Headmasters and all sorts of weird obscure absorbments that didn't actually have their own cartoon to ins. I even have some of the battle beasts which they tried to shoot into Generation 1 LOL I didn't know the battle beasts were part of Transformers till I got a DVD box set a few years back. I thought a piece was missing from Ironhide all this time where he's got that whole where his crotch would be I didn't know it came that way Factory

I was lucky enough to find that Diaclone red vanette at a flea market in SW Ohio as a kid in the mid 80s. There was a vendor there who sold a lot of imported toys from Japan/HK/Taiwan. Loved how it's scale and pilot could play well with my favoritest toy ever - G1 Optimus!

Sunstreak was the first Transformer I ever got. I wish I had kept it in better shape.

As a Diaclone toy, it's fun as a mini version of Battle Convoy's play pattern with a mech and a battle station. It's not shown in the pictures, but the Dianauts can also pilot the van as well. As a Transformer, I was confused that it didn't look like the cartoon, but I knew what Diaclone was, and that's how I figured it what the deal was, and was just disappointed we didn't get the pilots.

I had Ratchet and loved playing with him! He was great.

I saw several of the Diaclones on the school bus a year before Transformers. I thought the Vanette, which was black, was the coolest one. I definitely saw a Sunstreaker amd maybe Trailbreaker. None of them were the same colors as their Transformers counterparts.

This isnt G1 Wheelie

man, after watching this, I immediately grabbed my core class Ironhide and Ratchet and started fiddling with them. Im glad we have better representations of them now.

Just as an aside, there is also a seat in the battle platform behind the front gun, for a second pilot to use.

If Takara makes it further with their Missing Link toyline to where these two are next, I wonder how they will handle them?

I disagree. I loved both Ironhide and Ratchet - yeah they were nothing like the cartoon but Ironhide was one of my favourites. Funnily enough he died whilst I was playing with him and snapped into bits in the middle.

For my 9th birthday I got Jetfire (another wtf when the cartoon tried to integrate that toy into the show) and Ratchet. One of those may have gotten a little bit more play than the other.

I would say Wheelie beats both ratchet and Ironhide..though those two did suck

Lmao though you were going to refer to the “transformers” that you pull back and let them go, and all of sudden flip into robot mode… Those were cool until the motor springs broke😂

Only saw one at a babysitter's house I can't remember if it was Ironhide or Ratchet.

you forgot to add... "Any version of Megatron which is a Tank in fact anything thats not a Megatron g1 gun is......" to the title mate.....

I don't know where you got that unicron reformat back screen but you need to make a 10 hr version of just that.

What was the go bot you mentioned Baron something the red and silver one? Cause I had a Brain blast I had that one

Im surprised they even put the character in the show if this is what its based on. They coulda said it was made by humans or made for the humans to help fight against the decepticons

Ol' sticker face, can tell from the thumbnail lol

Untill this day I stil don’t know for sure why I bought Ratchet as a kid… I think my mom got something to do with this as it was an ambulance and less agressive then the other TF a was allowed to choose from.. Some special ❤ from me for this monstrosity of a TF!

I just got Res-Q from Gobots to be my Ratchet.

My brother had a 1979 Datsun 280Z, which were a few Transformers, Prowl was one I think. A blast to drive!

It better be Blurr…

at least they had moveable arms unlike the Throttlebots

I don't know man. It is what it is. You're over thinking it. Hasbro didn't put much thought into it, they just wanted to make money. The whole thing was rushed, even the TV show. Watch the toys that made us and it's clear that it was all about selling products and making as much money as humanly possible. To say the Ironhide toy was the most hated is a bit of a stretch as well.

I just kept hearing "the missin' vanette", "the missin' vanette". I'm like, well, where is it? Took me a while to realize he was saying "the Nissan (nee sahn) vanette".

I got Ironhide and Ratchet in '84, and I'm not saying I'm special, but in the late 70's my dad was stationed in Okinawa and for my 6th birthday sent me what was called the Microman Surveyor One. So I understood that Micronauts came from somewhere else, and then I got those first 3 Zoids from Tomy, so things like the little cockpit of the crane in Prime's trailer and Ironhide/Ratchet I kinda understood. When I opened Soundwave and saw the copyright 1974 Takara imprint I wondered what took so long lol.

I always thought this one looked really really weird.

Out of all the g1 toys I actually had iron hide and rachet and enjoyed them but I never tied them to the cartoon characters.

Honestly most g1 figures are outdated by modern standards, sure they have the nostalgia factor but that's it. Nothing else is really special about them

Love the looks, super cute😎✌️

Nah, I love Ironhide /Ratchet. I used Zoid pilot as Spike etc. Loads of accessories, good articulation (comparatively). Yeah, loved em.

Wasn't Ironhide supposed to be a mech suit? The head is really the seat

as a kid in the 80's i never had ratchet. but i did get ironhide for Christmas

That freaking owl from the beast wars line was total garbage.

Ha! I jist found the robot part of this as I was digging through old stuff! No idea where the accessory part is tho

I wonder if they'll make it into the 'Missing Link' line :D

Through the whole video, I thought he was saying, "Missing vanette". I kept thinking, "what is he saying that's missing?", until I realized he was mispronouncing, Nissan as "missing". Nissan is pronounced (Nee-sahn)

Takara toys were always weird. Is Floro Dery who fixed the toys by designing the cartoon representation of each character.

At least it's not Titanium Megatron.

Would have been interesting if, in the show, they weren't Ironhide and Ratchet, but humans in mechsuits using their tech.

If it's not POTP RODIMUS PRIME, I don't want to hear it. I hate that thing with an ABIDING hate.

I assumed my brother's was broken and missing parts but yeesh, guess not.

Ironhide was my first Transformer...... i bought him because that was the only figure at the grocery store at the time and i wanted to join in with my friend's figures.......and Yes..... i totally agree....when i took him out of the box....i was horrified and disappointed with him🤣🤮👎👎👎