Back in 1984, under the Transformers line, an Autobot was released by the name of Hound.
Transforming from Military Jeep to robot he served as the Autobot's scout, hunting down the Decpeticons, and secretly wishing to be human.

Fast forward 20 years and Hound has been given an upgrade under the newly released Alternators line.

Still a jeep, and still retaining his dark green colour, but this time he's a highly detailed 1:24 scale model of a Jeep Wrangler.

The original release of Hound was one of my first large scale Transformers, and holds a place dear in my heart, and this newly released figure does the name justice, and this time puts him in a real world vehicle

Due to trademarks expiring after so many years, Hasbro lost the rights to the name Hound, but to rectify this they have simply put 'Autobot' in front of his name. It's a nice nod from them, and keeps name with the vehicle that we remember when we were kids.

On a first look you'd be forgiven that this was simply a scale model of a Jeep Wrangler, however if you look closer you can see the 'stripes' on his arms are visible behind the wheels. Also a give away is the Autobot faction symbol on his number plate. Hound is about 16½ cm long (6.5 inches) in vehicle mode.

True to a real world Wrangler, Hounds 4 tyres have independent suspension. However because of his transformation and design the wheels have no steering. Also of note is 'Cybertronian Radial' imprinted into the rubber of the tyres.

Hounds primary colour is a dark green, with black for the roll bar, wheel trims, and a light grey for the seats and other areas of the interior.

The bonnet can also be opened and instead of some arms or head in there, you find detailing of the engine. Another nice touch to hide the robot mode parts.

The interior of the driver and passenger's side has also not been forgotten in the detailing. Included are things you'd find in a real Wrangler, including steering wheel, gear stick, handbrake and speedometer (though to small to have actual numbers) and the usual things you'd find on the dashboard.

Transformation from vehicle mode to robot mode is much like his original version.
Arms swing out from the front, legs swing down from the rear of the vehicle, head pops up from the front bonnet, however this time there are a few more complex moves to do, but still doesn't take long once you'd got the hang of it. Once done your greeted by Hound in robot mode.

In robot mode Hound stands about 19 cm tall (7.5 inches) and is still mostly dark green, however mode the light grey and black can be seen, along with the yellow sergeant stripes on his forearms, giving the impression that Hound is in the military and also a nice nod to his original jeep mode, and robot mode.

One great addition to this new line of Transformers is posability. The original Hound, along with most of the Generation 1 figures, were limited in there articulation. This time Hound is awash with articulation, ranging from elbow joints, wrist movement, knee movement and the ability to position his feet. The waist is also able to rotate (as it's needed in the transformation sequence) however due to the positioning of the tyres it is limited. The head is also on a ball joint allowing you to move in almost 180 degrees and up and down.
Another nice touch is the hands.
No longer one solid piece of plastic with a hole for the gun to fit in, the hands are moulded separately and are able to open. The top finger by the thumb is able to move independently of the other four and all this aids when he's holding his weapon.

As standard with the Alternators series, Hounds weapon is able to be stored while in vehicle mode. In past releases the gun has normally been the engine, however this time the engine has become his arms, so the designers decided to use the spare tyre at the back to store the weapon.

Hound originally had a Hologram gun which could project a 3-dimensional grid and laser-light topographical maps, handy for his function as a scout. The newer weapon does share some similarities with the original, but with the limited storage space it seems kind of small for Hound, and looks more like a pistol.
The original also included a shoulder mounted missile launcher, but this is absent from the new updated model.
There was also a machine gun for when he was in vehicle mode, but since you don't see many Wranglers with machine guns mounted in them, it was left out.

The head sculpt to Hound is similar to the original, with a sliver face and green 'helmet' but shows more definition that the original. Another nice touch is the flip around Autobot symbol on the front of the bonnet, leaving you the choice to display it or not.

Over all Hound is a very nice update to a 20 year old figure. He retains all the same qualities as the original, only updated to a new vehicle mode and a whole stack more posability. When I opened him up for the first time, it took me back to the time when I got my original and the memories of the days I'd zoom about my house with him sniffing out the Decepticons and spying on their plans.

The original Hound is being released by Takara in Japan soon, and this version adds to it. As this is an American Alternators release, Hound is made from plastic, as apposed to the Japanese Binal-Tech release of the same figure where parts of him have been replaced with die-cast metal, much like the original was back in 1984.

The Binal-tech version has been available for a few months, and the version covered in this review has just started to filter out into stores in America and on-line, for the much cheaper price of $20 - $25 as apposed to the $45 - $55 price tag of the Japanese version.

Definitely worth picking up if you're a fan of Transformers or even of realistic model cars. Though I'd recommend the Alternators version over the Binal-Tech version, if you can live without the die-cast metal.

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