Marvel Two-A-Day
Hulkbuster Legends
War Machine Review

“This lone gunslinger act is unnecessary… you don’t have to do this alone! “ – Col. James Rhodes, Iron Man 2.

Do my eyes deceive me? Is there actually a… *gasp* movie-based figure in this wave with a movie-based BAF?!

Don’t get me wrong – I love the mix. I’m down for both MCU figures and straight up comic figures. The BAF kinda throws things off though. Three movie figures to build comic Thanos. Five comic figures to build movie Ultron. And now six figures to build movie Hulkbuster? It’s not terrible, and the wave assortments are surely based more on cost than logic, but I’d like to see the movie BAFs get at least a few more movie figures in the mix. Of course, maybe I just want a few more movie figures. Their need for unique sculpts has left a lot of holes in my MCU collection so far. A Falcon-sized hole. A Yellowjacket-sized hole. A Ronan-sized hole. I could go on, but I’d rather talk about War Machine.

War Machine is the sole single-carded Age of Ultron representative you get when building ol’ Veronica. And I’m not even going to hold the fact it’s pretty much a repaint against it. Besides, I can’t even point you to my review of the original figure, the Iron Patriot, because apparently I kinda skipped reviewing that whole wave. Oops.

Rhodey is easily one of my favorite parts of the MCU (he’s also a personal favorite in the comics too). I liked Terrence Howard in Iron Man and Don Cheadle has been one of the best parts of the subsequent Iron Man movies. And while I like the Iron Patriot design, I was happy to see him revert back to War Machine proper for AoU. I still have a soft spot for the heavier armor from IM2, but this design is still alright by me.

I haven’t’ compared the figure frame-by-frame to how the suit is redesigned in AoU, but it seems a fair approximation. It is mostly the Iron Patriot body redecoed and that one seemed pretty spot on. There might be some creative changes that aren’t captured here, but the body gets the job done.

So what’s the added value to keep this figure from being a desaturated rehash? I’d like to say there’s more – some alternate hands (WM features two fists while IP featured an open hand), but there’s just one extra bit, a second open-masked head. It is admittedly pretty cool though as extra bits go. The Cheadle likeness under the mask is well done. I felt the Mark XLIII open-faced RDJ head was sculpted well and then painted poorly, but Rhodey doesn’t have that issue. The paint is simple, but effective, even if Rhodey looks a little non-plussed. Continue to Page 2…

5 thoughts on “Marvel Two-A-Day
Hulkbuster Legends
War Machine Review

  1. With these movie figures, when they nail it they really nail it, and that Cheadle sculpt looks sharp as hell. I may have to pick this one up if I see it (ML is the one line I’ve always wanted to get really into but have never had the chance, in fact the Coulson set was the first I’ve gotten since….probably either Blade or Afleck DD, either way long before Hasbro).

    Now if only he could get to actually do something in one of these movies…

    1. It’s funny, War Machine (sic) gets some key movie time and we finally get the figure, yet Falcon has a LOT of heat now and where’s his?

      (seriously, he’s really fun to watch in Ant-Man)

      I make the League of Missing Marvel Movie Figures to be Falcon, Vision, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch at this point. I’d take that as a 4-pack thank you very much!

      Noisy, aside, did you get an order in for the Amazon Exclusive 4-pack?

      1. Falcon and Vision are pretty much a lock for the Cap3:CW wave, but rumour has it that the twins may not be coming, because FOX gets a cut of ANY movie merch featuring “mutants” and that does include the twins. This is why AoS has pushed the Inhumans this year, and the figures we did get of the twins were a 10″ 5poa of one of his comic suits, and 4″ 4poa of her movie look.

        it’s just more inanity from Perlmutter or whoever it is that had the Marvel offices remove and and ALL references to the X/4 franchises. on the bright side, at least Sony was willing to renegotiate their contract, but then again, they’re nearly in the same boat Marvel was when they cut the original deals. As long as Fox keeps churning out decent X-family movies, we’re not going to see much X/4 merch in the toy aisles. esp now that an actual X+4 film has been confirmed in the works.

  2. The Cheadle head is the selling point for me.
    I had a sense of deja vu pulling him out of the package, but when I realized he was simply an IP repaint it made sense. I do still prefer the first WM that you included in the review. that mofo is a TANK.

    well…ok, more of a humvee compared to “Veronica”, but still!

  3. *sigh* I’m still looking for the IM 2 version of War Machine at a decent price. Stupid thing is just so expensive on the aftermarket. I am looking forward to this one, though. I just love the design of the MCU War Machine in any iteration.

    Though I love the Don Cheadle head, does anyone else wish that the facemask was a bit higher on his forehead? Though I think this is movie accurate, I can’t help but feel that in “real life,” it would be higher up on his head (I felt the same way about the RDJ head).

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