Hound is making another appearance as an action figure in Hasbro’s Combiner Wars series of transforming robots. The character has been around since 1984 and is one of the original members of the Ark that travelled from Cybertron to Earth.
On top of a long history in the cartoons and comics, Hound recently appeared in the Micheal Bay Transformers movies. As a military jeep and character, he’s always had this “Grandpa is telling World War 2 stories” coolness about him. The TV show hit this home with his voice and characterization; between Hound and Jazz the cartoon really nailed the voices.
Over the years there have been a few incarnations of Hound: the Generation 1 figure from 1984, the Alternators version, Universe and Henkei versions, and now a Combiner Wars version. The Generation 1 is probably the best version of a jeep, and the robot mode was cool despite the limited articulation. The Alternators version was really sharp, but it was a different Jeep and the robot mode lost a lot of the original’s look. The Universe and Henkei versions made major departures from the jeep and robot mode, as does this new version. For the most part, Hasbro has a decent track record with the jeep, but not with the robot mode. The problem being that Hound’s cartoon robot form is the dominating look for the character. Truth be told, the Universe and Henkei versions come the closest in recreating the robot mode from the Generation 1 cartoon.
The Generations Combiner Wars version looks nothing like the Generations 1 Hound except for the unique head sculpt. Otherwise it could be the retooled Swindle or Rook. However, there are a great many collectors that love the uniformity of the Combiner Wars line and the ease of transformation that accompanies it. Hound seems to lose a bit of magic in adopting a uniform look; the Universe and Henkei version seems to be more unique and have personality.
The vehicle is more of dune buggy than a jeep. Sure, dune buggies come from jeeps, but this is more of a traditional dune hopper. It does look a bit like a G.I. Joe VAMP, which is a cool aspect and would be even cooler if it were scaled to the Joe scale. The wheels spin, none of them were stuck and it drives okay, and, yes — “vroom vroom” sounds were made during the test drive.
Hound either transforms into a lower leg or arm, but for the sake of this review he is pictured as a lower leg. The foot can be transformed into a foot, hand, or rocket launcher on top of the jeep (not pictured). There is a number of 3rd party manufacturers making add-on parts for the combiners, specifically hands and feet, as well as other add-on parts. It makes sense since the Hasbro parts are really generic.
The jury is still out on Hound. There will be some collectors that love the figure for the uniform look in their collections, and others will be looking for something else. Luckily there are plenty of Hounds for collectors to choose from. You can still get Hound from:
