Armorhide

Height: 9.5cm (Robot Mode); 5.5cm tall by 8.5cm long (Vehicle Mode)

Articulation: 12 points total: Ball jointed neck; 2 joints in each arm - Ball jointed shoulder and elbow; Hinged waist; 2 joints in each leg - Ball jointed hip and hinged knee

Colors: Molded blue, white, grey, dark grey, clear blue, red; Painted silver, metallic blue, red, yellow, green.

Accessories: Cyber Key (Earth Planet); Rifle

Release Data: Released as part of the third Scout Class assortment in fourth-quarter 2005 with an average price of $6.99.

Gallery: 14 images.

Author: ExVee

The Figure

Transformers have always been linked to Japan at some level or another. From 84-86 almost all the Transformers were repurposed Japanese toys. Then later as new toys were made, Takara became the engineers of Hasbro and Kenner and Hasbro's designs. In 2001, Transformers was again being sourced directly from Japan, with the adaptation of Car Robots into Robots in Disguise. Ever since, Transformers has been closely codeveloped by Hasbro and Takara. All markets get the same toys, and same cartoon. Mostly.

Even in such an arrangement, there will be times when there's a few toys that appear only on one side of the ocean, and Cybertron is no different. Armorhide here is one such toy released only for Cybertron, though I'll bet it's gonna be in Japan as a USA Edition before long.

Vehicle Mode

In keeping with his Earth Planet Cyber Key, Armorhide is a fairly realistic looking little truck cab. And by realistic, I mean "has no moving parts." It looks really nice, but there's not really any fiddle value here at all, nor is the Cyber Key gimmick accessible.

On the other hand, every other part of the vehicle mode is positive. It holds together very securely, with no parts coming loose just from casual bumps or even dropping. The sculpting is good and sharp. The surface detailing is a little sparse, however it would be accurate for a truck to appear this way. The detailing that's present is quite well defined.

The rear wheel frame is a little obviously the robot mode arms, though to be fair, it's not really easy to disguise limbs being used this way, especially at this size and price level. Even so, I can't help but wish that there had been some way to make things look more connected, since there's a noticable gap between the driver compartment and where the robot shoulders begin.

Robot Mode

The transformation is quick and fairly intuitive, and I find the transformation of the feet clever and elegant. There does end up being a bit of awkwardness in the proportions, but that can actually be good if you're of the mind that these alien robots needn't look perfectly human shaped.

An interesting thing here is that the head is remarkably similar to Machine Wars Mirage/RiD Skid-Z in overall appearance. The ball joint is a little bit sticky here - it tends to want to go to a couple positions over the place you want it to actually go. It seems especially resistant to looking forward.

The torso is basically a big box that does nothing. Well, almost nothing - more on that in a bit. The arms are a little more limited than I'm used to, even at this size. The shape of the shoulder joints prevents almost any outward swing to the arms. I'm talking less than 30 degrees, which is a serious hit to a figure's poseability. The waist hinge is really a transformation leftover, but it can help with some useful articulation, since for best range of motion a waist needs to rock back and forth. This only goes back, but you take what you can get.

The hip joints have better range, but the legs have some quirks of their own. The knees are a kind of hinge joint, but the hinge is tapered, so to tighten the knees for robot mode, you push the lower legs out and the grip gets stronger. While this may make a compromise between stiff joints and ease of transformation, it results in the knees being a little delicate, since if you don't move them carefully, you end up sliding the joint and loosening the knee.

The feet are my favorite part of the transformation. They're wedge shaped pieces that rotate. In vehicle mode the exposed surface is flush with the cab. During transformation, these pieces are rotated and the newly exposed surface ends up sticking about half a centimeter out from the lower legs. The result is a subtle but still noticeable change that adds the feel of bulk to poor tiny little Armorhide. The motion feels so natural and the appearance is just so *right*.

Paint and Detailing

As I mentioned before, while appropriately sparse, the surface detailing is done quite well, with lines that are well distinguished. The paint work is quite nice, though it looks a little iffy around the eyes. But really, you can hardly fault a bit of error in such a small area.

Cyber Key Power

Armorhide's key slot is in the middle of his back, and is only correctly accessible in robot mode. When inserted, the key pushes forward a bank of missile fronts, and opens the hatch on the front of the chest that used to be the grille of the truck. The missiles don't fire, because of the size, but that's okay. One thing I both appreciate and slightly resent is that the key has to be left in for the missile battery to stay open. As soon as you remove the key, the missiles retract and the hatch closes. In previous activation gimmicks, like the Mini-Cons, I thought it'd be interesting for a toy to have a gimmick that requires the Mini-Con or other upgrade object be attached to stay unlocked.

But, I also have to kind of resent it because the Keys are not my favorite example of a power-up device, and I like being able to take them out right away and leave the gimmick going. So my feelings are pretty mixed in this case.

Accessories

-Rifle

This is clearly meant to be a rifle first and a part of the vehicle mode second. It has no firing gimmick or anything, but it's a pretty nice, if simple design. It also has Armorhide's only example of the Autobot insignia tampoed on the butt end.

To fit with the vehicle mode, this was given a secondary plug to that it can fit into a square slot on the back end of the truck and stick up at an angle. Topped off with a tow-hook, you have a completed rifle badly hiding as a towing mast. A piece of equipment that I'm pretty sure even little yard tractors don't have, let alone regular semi cabs like Armorhide is modelled after. Good as a gun, though, and it has a special clip on one side to store the Cyber Key. Nice touch.

-Cyber Key

Regular old Earth Planet key. he Key Data code on the back is s645, if you're interested in that.

Closing Remarks

How often do we get semi truck or similar looking vehicles as Not Prime? That by itself gives Armorhide some points. Plus, he's got a good Cyber Key gimmick, cause who doesn't want a little tiny guy who has most of his body full of missiles?

The toy could probably be better without increasing its cost, and with Scout Class hitting almost $8 in some places, it can be a little hard to see the good, but if you give it a chance, I think you'll find it.

In the absence of a Cool rating, I'll give Armorhide a score of Good.

-ExVeeBrawn, 10/23/2004