>>8342842>>8343145>>8343069I can respect the sentiment, but I think I'm gonna have to side with the ER figure. Both have glaring faults brought on by their requirement to be accurate to an old design never meant to be a toy, so it has to come down to what aspects allow them to overcome their weaknesses.
In this instance, both are very panel heavy, gappy, and are have engineering on both extreme ends of over and under designing. However, Universe Ironhide is a very insular toy. It exists to satisfy itself in a vacuum. The hands are only good for using his included weapon, which only works for him and his moldmates. Funnily enough, in a line with plenty of out there re-imaginings, Ironhide also fails as an interesting departure or evolution, unlike Perceptor, Scourge, Onslaught, or even Galvatron as bad as he was, so all he has is his unique aesthetic within his line, which just doesn't work for me. His vehicle and robot modes also lack any kind of integration features like 5mm posts, which can at least help improve weapons or even partsforming, officially or not. Maybe I've been spoiled by TR, but a standardization or features and a way to unite other figures with each other just makes a toy so much more enjoyable outside of the character it represents.
It's the same reason I don't collect many MPs or even SS figs: The fun of a mainline figure you can easy pick up, pose, and fucking transform is simply a more worthwhile kind of joy than trying to be ambitious for any reason, be it accuracy or individuality. When it comes down to it, I will take a toy that streamlines for simplicity and can be fun with others over pieces that that can only be appreciated in a technical sense, and even with duds like Cliffjumper and Arcee, I've found plenty to like in the Warden era.
Still lazy as hell to leave the wheels and feet unchanged from the Siege fig though.
