War Machine sports the standard articulation for the line, but again his armor offers up unique problems. Like the others, his head can only swivel, but it’s further blocked by the raised panels on his shoulders. The distance between his lower torso and thigh cut is smaller than standard and this causes him to be incapable of the more dramatic legs poses of the other figures. His shoulder pads do flip up to allow movement to his ball-shoulders; though it can look a bit odd at times. I’m disappointed that he’s limited, but he still has more than twenty points of articulation overall and the retractable weapons help ease the sting.
War Machine is painted largely in a metallic grey/blue and silver. The darker grey/blue areas are also given a wash of black paint to help differentiate the armor from the others. It helps the toy have a more useful, “in the trenches” look. The War Machine armor isn’t about flying around and impressing chicks. Its job is to blow **** up. And it looks like it does just that. He doesn’t feature a large repulsor/fire blast like the others. Instead, they call back to the ML War Machine with clip-on effects for the mini-gun and the missile launcher.
Despite the articulation problems, he ended up being my favorite of the five figures. I’m still looking forward to getting the Rhodes version of this armor, but this one will look great in the armory that’s slowly accumulating on my desk.
I didn’t mention this with each individual figure, but every one of them includes a base and three “armor” cards. The bases are your standard rectangle base with a molded extension that goes behind the figure and holds the armor cards. The cards are a neat accessory, but not terribly exciting. The chest piece card is printed on white stock with the other two cards being translucent. Basically, if you have several figures you can mix n’ match the cards and create your own armor. Each combination of three cards creates a unique 9-digit string and tells you to go to IronManCard.com. That site name still just redirects to Marvel.com which doesn’t mention them, but I’m guessing that 9-digit string could someday be used on the proposed website to make the armors digitally. The movie is out and the site still hasn’t gone live, so who knows? Maybe nothing will come of it.
Overall, I’m happy I bought these toys. I can’t deny that I have an urge to put a collection of Iron Man armors together and I hope this line is the line to do it with. I’m not the biggest fan of 1:18th, but these are great figures despite their size. The sculpting is top-notch and that makes these little guys stand out over a lot of the other lines in this scale, including Marvel Universe. The articulation may leave a bit to be desired here and there, but when it’s blocked by the armor you find youself thinking that maybe that’s okay. These are guys in giant metal suits, they don’t need to move like Spider-Man.
I may not be down for every movie or concept figure, but I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for the comic versions that are being released in the line.
I still remember having to google for the Marvel Universe site when they misprinted the website on the cardbacks.
Whatever they’re going to do with Ironmancard.com or Ironmancards.com, it’s registered 6-19-2009 to 6-19-2010 according to WHOIS. I can’t believe they’d buy it just to redirect traffic, and they’ve had almost a year to get it live.
That’s funny.
Yep. Movie’s out. Toys are out. Seems like it’d be a good time.
I said it before and I’ll say it again–I can’t hear “Crimson Dynamo” and not think “Red Cyclone.”
Odds are I’ll pick up Dynamo sometime soon. I saw pics of Comic Wave 2’s Titanium Man and I think he and Dynamo would make a cool pair.
Titanium Man is pretty cool.
Fantastic pics!
Thanks, Rey
Great review. I got dragged into the line by the twofer sales at TRU.
Me too. I ad matched them at Wal-Mart, but still.
This review needed more Hellboy.
LOL. You have to be careful with Hellboy use…
The images on you 3 3/4 IM guest review don’t work any more.
We got it fixed. Thanks for telling us!
Thanks, Frank!
Great review, Noisy!
You should get some of the movie and concept figs too. They’re a lot of fun!
I have two movie figures, but I didn’t like them as well.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This line needed to be 6″. It’s idiotic that it’s not compatible.
It’s Hasbro… they make sweet love to the 3 3/4″ even when not that many marvel fans want the wimpy little guys.
Hasbro does have the 1:18 down. Can’t deny that.
Expect the 6″ scale to get even rarer as more and more lines move to 1:18. This happened in the 70s when oil prices got to high and now with the lack of stable factories in China costs must be cut. 6″ is the old mans scale and 3.75″ is the hip new kid on the block.
(and coming from me there’s irony in that statement)
The less I *want* to buy, the better. 😉
Course, we’ll have to make this a website about pizza or something if that happens…
Some of these pics make me think you should be doing the press photos for Mattel. 😀
Thanks, Adrian!
I’m loving all these lines in the Joe Scale. Being able to stage Captain America and Iron Man with a GI Joe assault team to attack a squad of HISS III tanks is beautiful.
Crimson Dynamo and War Machine are my standout favorites from the comic armors. I have hard time fidgeting with them when I’m at my desk. As nice as the comic armors are, the Concept armors are the money. Not to mention they just look great rounding out the “Hall of Armor” everybody is secretly building. The Hypervelocity Iron Armor is now my official Iron Man.
I think that’s the biggest draw to the scale is the compatibility. I like that myself quite a bit.
And a Hall of Armor is a tempting prospect… 😉
Great stuff as usual!
Thanks, Randall.
I decided that I wanted to post and say great article. You put way too much time into these reviews compared to other blogs, but I appreciate it.
Thanks, ExMan.
Seeing classic Iron Man standing with these guys, he looks terribly garish.