Michael Bay’s unique take on characters from the 30-year-old Transformers franchise can sometimes be very hit or miss, but this time Bay and his designers seem to have come up with a design for a familiar character that succeeds in not only being a cool design for a “Bayformer,” but in being an interesting and fun design for a Transformer from any era.
Hound was a member of the original crew of Autobots who crash-landed on Earth way back in 1984, so he was one of the very first Transformers character introduced to the American public. His alt mode was a military jeep, so that gave him some cross-appeal with the GI Joe fan base, and the character would go on to be among the most fondly remembered Transformers characters and figures from the ’80s.
Naturally, when it was announced Hound would be joining the Autobot roster for the upcoming fourth movie, fans everywhere braced themselves for what Bay and his crew had in store for Hound. Fortunately, the results are not bad at all. This new interpretation of Hound turned out to be among the better Transformers offerings this year, movie or otherwise.
Now, to be clear here, we’re calling him “Hound” just for the sake of clarity and to avoid confusion. When looking at the figure and the box art, another character leaps to mind first, and it isn’t Hound. I can’t help but think the figure’s design more closely resembles Bulkhead, the big galoot who was featured in both Transformers Animated and Transformers Prime. The character’s bio on the back doesn’t do much to settle the character debate, so it’s my thinking you could get away with calling him either, but, as a compromise, I’ve been calling him “Bulkhound.” I think that fits.
His transformation is satisfying and not overly complex (please see video above), and even his alt mode reminds me more of Bulkhead than it does Hound.
Like the majority of the figures from the Age of Extinction line, Hound is packed with intricate detail, and he just looks awesome. I’m a huge fan of this design, even though I wasn’t at first. Like Galvatron, I bought him online on a whim, and, again, like Galvatron, I am very glad I did. This is definitely a fun and welcome addition to my collection.
His head sculpt makes him look like a grizzled war vet, like a background character from a Rambo movie or something. The “beard” was off-putting to me at first, and I hated the beards on the Wreckers in the last movie, but I’ve warmed up to this one. Since it’s painted solid black, it’s easy to ignore, but there is a lot of detail that’s lost in the black paint, so I may give it a silver paint wash to bring some of that detail out. He kind of reminds me of Clutch from GI Joe due to the beard and the helmet, which further adds to the “grizzled war vet” impression I’m getting.
You’ll notice the green of his helmet doesn’t quite match the green used for the rest of him. His helmet is painted, but it is a much closer match than the close-up would imply. You’ll note in other pictures the difference isn’t as jarring, and when he’s on my shelf I don’t even notice the difference at all.
My favorite thing about Hound is the amount of weaponry he comes packing. He’s got guns everywhere. Including the knife on his chest, he’s sporting a whopping eight weapons, which is a whole heck of a lot for any Transformers figure. And I love that every single weapon can be stored while he’s in his ‘bot mode. He just looks plain awesome with them all in place. I can’t wait to see hm in action in the movie — I’m picturing a robotic John Rambo with John Goodman’s voice wasting Decepticons in epic ’80s fashion.
Hound is a well-articulated figure by Transformers standards, which makes him all the more fun to play around with. He even has a waist swivel! It’s easy to get him in dynamic action poses, and he can actually hold them, which is awesome.
His articulation breakdown is as follows:
Swivel head
Swivel and hinged shoulders
Bicep swivel
Double-jointed elbows
Wrist swivel
Waist swivel
Swivel and hinged hips
Hinged knees
Swivel ankles
Now, he does have wrist swivels, but they aren’t very useful due to the “ammo belt” soft plastic coverings on his forearms. It’s possible his wrists are able to turn more freely, but I haven’t applied much force for fear of tearing the ammo belts.
Looking at the above pic, this new Hound serves as a nice halfway point between Bulkhead and the classic Hound. I maintain he is a weird amalgamation of both characters, so the name “Bulkhound” totally fits.
Hound’s alt mode looks cool, and it can be packed to the gills with weapons just like his ‘bot mode, but — and I think it’s just because of the shape of his cab — it kind of looks like a garbage truck in military colors to me. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but I do think that impression I’m getting is just due to the shape and my complete ignorance of anything to do with military vehicles. It’s probably some sort of transport vehicle, and it looks like he could do some real damage plowing through some city streets, so we’ll have to wait and see just how his alt mode factors in the movie. It does look a bit generic to me, though, so it’s definitely his ‘bot mode that’s “selling” the figure.
Hound should be on the shelves now at all the usual retailers, or he can be had by just clicking a few buttons at Amazon or Big Bad Toy Store.
Buy from Big Bad Toy Store
Buy from Amazon
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