Thunderhoof has the distinct pleasure of possibly having the first Tractor alt mode in Transformers. There may have been one previously, probably some sort of Minicon if there was one, but I am pretty sure there hasn’t been a Farm Tractor in Transformers history. Plenty of construction vehicles, not so much farm machines.
Thunderhoof’s spirit animal as it may be, is a deer. As such he ends up with some pretty huge majestic antlers on his head in Robot mode. He also, appropriately, has hooved feet. His robot mode is pretty imposing and has a nice design but it’s not without it’s problems. The backside is very bare bones and his legs are very hollow. This makes him pretty ungly when views from rear angles.
The biggest offender is in his legs. As part of the Transformation, his shins have a joint in the middle to allow the lower half to fold up. This joint basically ends up flexing constantly because there isn’t really any way to lock it in place. It almost functions as a second knee joint, in an annoying way.
Part of the reason for all of this hollowness and funky extra joints is the amount of compression that goes on during transformation. Thunderhoof kind of reminds me of the old Lockdown toys in how much larger his robot seems than his vehicle. Thunderhoof is easily one of, if not the tallest Deluxe figure in the Robots in Disguise line, yet his vehicle may be the smallest of the line. Everything neatly and compactly folds up on itself. The vehicle is neat and pretty menacing with it’s giant spiked bit on the front. The spike bit is simply his head hanging off the front, but it’s not super noticeable as his head except from the bottom.
Thunderhoof is a bit of a mixed bag. He’s got a neat design, but he has a lot of little issues that make him pretty finicky as a toy. He’s definitely a good example of why it kind of stinks that there are no Voyager level toys in the Robots in Disguise line. He could have definitely benefited from a larger size and price point allowing for a bit more stability and a larger alternate mode.
