How It All Started
Nearly two months ago, I took
some time off to organise my blog. Going through my old mocpages entry of my past LEGO creations, I
bumped across
Ironhide
prototype in yellow. I kept wondering why I put this prototype in
limbo. Suddenly I felt an urge to put this to a closure. So project
Ironhide was initiated.
Actually 80% of Ironhide was completed in about than 2 weeks, however I
was missing important transparent parts for the windows. So I hit
bricklink.com to get them. Then I found out no such parts exists in 2x2
tiles. I guess I have to make do with 2x1 sized tiles. Then the
inspiration to build ratchet came and I ordered more transparent tiles
of another color for this purpose.
About Ironhide
Actually I'm not too keen on the vehicle mode (plain old boxy van) at
first , but since G1 Ironhide doesn't have a "proper" toy reference ,
this somewhat spurred me to take on this challenge. As you can see, the
original Ironhide toy is different from his cartoon counterpart. The toy
van transform into a freakin mobile command/attack center with a seat
for human pilot (below). Same goes for Ratchet. After browsing through
numerous Ironhide illustrations drawn all these years... I settled down
with with grey shoulders, white torso and grey thigh.
About Ratchet
As for Ratchet, even the toy incarnation have the same window tint as Ironhide, I found this to be dull for a white vehicle . So I opted for light blue tint instead. Ratchet's head was colored differently by different comics/cartoon adaptation. Since Ironhide already is having a red head, I'm applying white on Ratchet.
Since Ratchet is a Medic /Autobot surgeon, he's equipped with diagnostic tools and "feared by all" surgical drill that pops out from his arms.