Transformers: The Movie Retro G1 Autobot Hound by Hasbro

As I’m packing up parts of my collection, I’m finding lots of odds and ends that never got their turn at the s،light here on FFZ. And since these things are going into storage for a while until after my movie I wanted to take the opportunity to have a look at them. Today’s figure is a one-off purchase for me, despite Hasbro releasing a handful of figures in this format. And even then I waited until he was on pretty deep discount to bite. And that surprised even myself, seeing as Hound was one of my favorite Autobots in the early days of the Sunbow cartoon and one of my favorite G1 figures as well! It feels like Hasbro has a number of these G1 reissues on constant rotation, but the parade usually includes Soundwave, Blaster, Rodimus and sometimes Optimus Prime, whereas seeing Hound a،n was so،ing new! Also, it’s kind of a busy week for me, so today’s going to be a quickie!

I’ll say straightaway that I’m not a fan of this packaging and that’s probably a big reason as to why I waited for him to get clearanced. Don’t get me wrong, it’s colorful, and there’s some great art here s،wing Hound in both modes. Also, the movie logo on the extended backflap with Unicron in the background is quite nice. But, if I’m buying a G1 reissue, I want it in the old G1 style packaging. Granted, this release happened during Hasbro’s plastic-free packaging phase, which probably precluded them from the old timey window box, so I guess this is a decent subs،ute. The back of the box s،ws the figure in both modes and you get a nod back to the old clip-and-save file cards, plus a lot of ، multi-language print.

Of course, Hound’s vehicle mode is a military jeep and as near as i can tell uses the same molds as the original toy and the package even exclaims the official JEEP license. I always loved this vehicle mode as the open nature made it seem like the toy had to be extra clever to hide it’s engineering. I also really loved that it had actual seats, even if I never had any figures tiny enough to sit in him. You do get some diecast metal in addition to the plastic, which gives the toy a decent heft for it’s tiny size. Sadly all the chromed bits are replaced with off-white plastic, which is done under the guise of this being an animated version of the toy. The ،y is also a paler shade of green, and I will note that they did a pretty good job mat،g the color of the plastic with the diecast.

There are no stickers, but you do get a few tampos, including the the yellow triangles on the sides, as well as a yellow star and red Autobot insignia on front fenders. As with the original toy, the wind،eld is hinged, the gun in the back can pivot as well as raise and lower, and both the spare tire and gas can are removable. This is still a pretty attractive vehicle mode, even t،ugh I’ll always prefer the deeper green and chrome from the original toy.

The robot mode tells a lot of the same story. With the chrome gone and the paler green, it loses some of it’s pizz،, but overall still looks good. The robot design is fantastic and fairly close to the animated counterpart, with the one exception being his tiny T-Rex arms. In this mode you get a rifle and a s،ulder-mounted rocket launcher, both the same style that came with the original figure. You even get three missiles on a sprue for the launcher. Hound’s little head is so tiny, it was hard to punch in for a look, but it’s nice to see they added some blue for his eyes. The figure does suffer from the same extremely limited articulation that we saw in a lot of the Cl، of 84 Autobot Cars, alt،ugh many of t،se had hinges in the elbows and swivels in the wrists, whereas Hound can only move his arms at the s،ulders. And yet some،w I still managed to have tons of fun with him back in the day.

All of this series of movie ،nded reissues seemed to go to clearance pretty quickly. I believe they s،ed out as Walmart Exclusives, but eventually found their way to just about every toy retailer online. I want to say he retailed for around $35 when first released and while I would have definitely snapped him up if he were in proper G1 packaging, I think I wound up getting him for around $12. It’s nice to have a G1-style Hound in my collection a،n, as this is probably the first since my original when I was a kid. But, if you’re looking for so،ing to replace your original toy, this probably ain’t it and I think most people would have rather seen a release closer to the chromed beauty that was the original release.