Iron Man Movie Series 1
I normally don’t care that much for movie figures, but this line is an exception for two reasons: 1. It’s Iron Man! and 2. Hasbro actually did a good job. For the most part, these are excellent figures. All of the Iron Man armor versions feature excellent articulation and nice sculpts with pretty good paint apps. This line is filled with spring-loaded action features, but most of those are separate accessories that clip on and don’t ruin the poseability or the aesthetic of the figures. Expand for post for pics and reviews!
IRON MAN MK III
The Mark III figure is solid, and serves as the “base” figure for all the various retoolings and repaints in this line. That’s a good thing! He’s got double knees and elbows, ball shoulders and hips, and thigh and bicep swivels. Plus, he has pretty good wrist and ankle artic. If it weren’t for the mid-torso ball joint, he’d have pretty much standard “ToyBiz” articulation. But, the mid-torso joint doesn’t bother me as much here as it has on some previous HML figs. It seems like Hasbro has lowered it and anchored up in the chest a bit, making it seem more natural. In short, it works. His detail and paint are both pretty solid too, and he really does look like the movie incarnation of the character. My only gripe is that the knee joints are kinda wonky looking (they’re completely flat in the front; it’s odd…) and he’s a little undersized. He just looks kind of skinny to me. But, those are minor gripes. It’s still a really cool toy!
IRON MAN MK II
The Mark II version of Iron Man’s armor is the transition between the big clunky Mark I and the red and gold Mark III. He still gets the silver on grey look, but has remodeled his armor into the sleeker, modern design. Basically, this figure is just a repaint of the Mk III, but it looks really cool! Hasbro went the extra mile with paint detail - giving him a cool grungy black wash and nice little yellow accents around his knees and elbows. Really cool!
IRON MAN MK I
I passed on the Mark I version of the armor. I have nothing against the toy itself, really. Other than the fact that it seems undersized and suffers from “pinhead” syndrome, but I just don’t find this armor visually appealing and chose rather to just focus on the Mark III repaints.
IRON MAN PROTOTYPE
This was another pass for me. I just don’t have much of an appreciation for strange looking snap-on armor figures. The Mark III is a much better version of IM in his red and gold, in my opinion.
IRON MONGER (V1)
And here’s another pass! This is a pretty cool looking figure but he has a pesky action feature that limits his hip articulation pretty severely. I passed in favor of the much more poseable second version of Iron Monger reviewed below.
IRON MAN STEALTH OPERATIONS SUIT (Wal-Mart Exclusive)
The “Stealth Operations Suit” version of Iron Man is easily recognizable to IM fans as War Machine. I’m assuming there were rights to that name, so Hasbro just gave it the “Stealth Ops” title. Nevertheless, this is an excellent variation on the standard MK III base design. The black on silver paint job looks cool, and he’s loaded down with accessories. All his guns are removable, and the only price he pays for this gear is a couple of unsightly pegs on his shoulders. This is probably my favorite figure of this series. The only problem is that he’s a Wal-Mart exclusive, so he’s tough to find if you don’t have Wal-Marts in your area.
IRON MAN REPULSOR RED PROTOTYPE (Target Exclusive)
The Target exclusive “Repulsor Red Prototype” armor is similar to the War Machine in that it’s supposed be Iron Man’s Silver Centurion look, just with a random unlicensed name. The figure is a straight repaint of the Mk III, with a silver on red paint job. Another really cool, logical repaint from Hasbro to add some variety to the Iron Man line. I like it!
IRON MONGER (V2)
The second version of Iron Monger is a huge improvement over the first, and, in my opinion, is the “true” Iron Monger of this line. This figure and the Titanium Man below are part of series “1.5″ which means they appear in late refresher cases of the first series.
Iron Monger himself gets done up nicely, with solid paint apps and good detail in his sculpt. He has a grungy wash that makes his armor look weathered and worn, and the layers of blue and white in his eyes and his power source on his chest really look quite nice, almost like they’re glowing.
His articulation is really great. He has true ball hips and shoulders, double elbows, single knees, ball wrists, hinge ankles, and a waist twist. He’s really quite poseable for a big guy! He has a gimmicky action feature where his torso pops open and his little Jeff Bridges head pops out (it’s spring activated and the head sinks into the torso when it’s closed up) but it doesn’t look that bad and it doesn’t limit his artic at all, so I don’t really mind. All in all this is a great figure and comes highly recommended.
TITANIUM MAN
Wow! I almost passed on Titanium Man since he wasn’t actually in the movie and he doesn’t really look much of anything like his comic book counterpart (this figure is based on the design of Titanium Man from the Iron Man the movie video game). But boy am I glad I picked him up! This figure is excellent!
Let’s talk paint and sculpt first. The thing that initially grabbed me about Titanium Man is the wicked detail in his armor and the lack of symmetry to it. Both legs are different, each forearm has its own design, and the chest and back look pieced together and offset with lots of panels and sections. It’s really neat looking! The paint is pretty basic, but where it really excels is in his “eyes” and chest power source where the white sort of ripples and waves over the green to create a neat pulsing energy effect. Also, the little communist star and sickle on his chest are clean and tight; it adds a nice touch. Very cool!
Now to the articulation - he has the same artic model as the Mark III Iron Man body, so that means ball hips and shoulders, double knees and elbows, torso ball joint, ball jointed head/neck, and swivel/hinge wrists and ankles. He’s really poseable and pretty much looks awesome in any position. Another nice thing is that Hasbro improved how his shoulder panels fit on as compared to the little pieces that fall off easily on the Mark III IM figs. These are anchored in and are in no peril of coming loose unexpectedly. He’s a very sturdy, well-constructed figure.
He also gets hooked up with the standard missile-shooting spring activated clip-on gun accessory. But I actually really sort of like Titanium Man’s double blaster. I was ‘meh’ about the gun things with the Iron Mans, mostly because they look like giant hair dryers. But with TM, I think I might actually display him with his gun attached. It’s pretty cool.
The only drawback to TM is that he’s kind of short. But he’s thicker and stockier than Iron Man, so he doesn’t feel “undersized”. More of like a little muscular dude in a metal suit. Heh.
Tags: iron man
ya i looked in wal-mart on march 27th and they weren’t there! if youre wrong about this I won’t be coming to your site anymore. I guess i’l, try target
ha! it’s not my fault if your particular wal-mart didn’t stock them! i assure you, they’re out there (**looks at pics above…**). in fact, my local wal-mart has yet to stock any IM toys. but the next wal-mart over (i mean, there’s one every 10 minutes down the road, right?) put them out on the 23rd like they were supposed to. I recommend calling around to different stores to check (saves gas).
ok sorry I said that I went to Universal Studio’s Island’s of Adventure yesterday and got one there for an unbelivable price of $15.95 that’s a little pricey but oh well and i’m going to check at Target today on Sunday March 29th
Yay I got another one it’s just hard to find ironmonger i looked at target and wal-mart and they weren’t there he’s really hard to find
cool. glad you found some. i haven’t seen iron monger or the mk 1 iron man yet either. they must be really short-packed. but be warned on iron monger - he has a weird action feature that ruins his leg articulation. he has barely any movement in his hips. i’m gonna hold out for the series 1.5 iron monger with the removable mask/armor. i think it might have better artic.
I’m not really familiar with Iron Man, but I bought the Mark 03, Target and Walmart exclusive figs as soon as I saw them, because they were just really cool looking, and really good figures. They look pretty good with my DC figures.
i have the prototype figure because it was the only one out when i first started seeing them around here. i love the figure because it’s the only one that shows tony’s face like all of the legends ironman. just recently my local walmart stocked up on the exclusive war machine ones and i grabbed myself one. i’d have to agree and say this is my favorite figure (maybe because ive always loved war machine) and i recommend picking him up.
oh but try and examine the legs. the one i got had a kind of warped leg that required me to put some weight on it in order to get it to straighten out.
Man, I live in St. Cloud, Mn, and they still don’t have these. I got Marks I, II, and III between my Target and TRU, but Walmart isn’t stocking, and War Machine was the main one I wanted! I don’t want to resort to buying it for 3x the price online, but if they don’t get them in the next week or so, I don’t think I have a choice!
Kyle, you should consider signing up at one of the big toy forums (TheFwoosh.com, Toynewsi.com, Spawn.com). they all have trading sections where collectors help each other out. It’s really the only way to affordably get what you want if you live in a “dry area” (like me!). I’m sure you could get hooked up with a war machine for cost plus shipping. it’s way better than going to ebay.
my local wal-mart has yet to stock iron man toys either. but the other wal-marts in my area still have the aisle displays here and there. if i see any more of the exclusives, i’ll pick up some extras for guys on here who can’t find them.
Thanks, man! That’d be great!
Hey, superarticulated guy, would you be willing to follow through on that offer? I called my walmart and they still don’t have any, and when I told them they were about a month late, they said they may not be getting any. And then, I check walmart.com, and see that they FINALLY put the warmachine figure up…and it’s ALREADY sold out.
Kyle - yeah man, i’ll definitely grab you one if i see them anywhere. like i said, though, my wal-mart hasn’t stocked them either. so i’ll have to branch out and hit one of the other wal-marts that’s a town over.
i wouldn’t worry too much about it, though. i mean, the movie isn’t even out yet and we all know how Hasbro likes to overwhelm toy aisles with ridiculous amounts of product. i’m quite confident that by May these things will be spilling off the shelves.
So I passed a walmart that had the figs…no war machine…EVERYTHING ELSE in large quantities.
Does your Iron Man have head articulation? Mine doesn’t.
Yep, the markIII armor body has a ball-and-socket head joint that allows for full swivel and a little up down motion. yours may just be stuck.
Thanks SA Guy, but mine’s like super-glued.
But i still love it!
I fixed it! Hallelujah!
i got THE WAR MACHINE, its tight but it has a ragged look, superarticulatedguy does yours look like that if you have one? and the missile launchers fall off easliy, im gonna crazy glue it.
You didn’t review the best one: Repulsor Powered Iron Man! It has motion activated sounds…average articulation and awesome detail!
Yeah, Bob, if you’ve got pics you want to contribute, send them on in! I’ve been to meaning to ask if any of you guys would be interested in doing guest reviews for figures i don’t have/ won’t buy. heh. i’m sorta low on disposable cash these days so my collecting has dropped off a bit.
I got pics up of the new (much better!) Iron Monger. It might be my favorite figure from this line. It poses really really well!
Whoa. I’m not sure if it’s just great photography or what, but that second Monger looks almost custom good. Must be the wash? In any case, my eyes will be peeled for that bad boy.
why cant the HML have the same level of detail as these figures?seriously i have every legend ever made up until the brrod wave and i just quit cos the figures were so so poor-but well doen on the IM figures hasbro!
Decky: Hasbro puts way more effort into sculpts it knows can be repainted a billion times over.
I was gonna post something to ya about tthat Iron Monger SAG. My brother also just found it the other day and sure enough the robots head does not move. The rest is better as you have already indicated and he seems to be just barely taller than the other but that head not turning gets me.
I wanna Titanium Man!
Ha ha ha!!! The snap on blasters do look like hair driers!!!!!!!
To everyone who needs the Stealth Armour IM/War Machine…I picked mine up at a ComiCon for $20…have you check Wal*Mart’s Website????
Just a thought…I’m still hoping for a Crimson Dynamo…
Dear Super Articulated Guy,
do you love your Iron Man action figure?
Because I do.
Hmmmm…
“Love” is a strong word. I like my Iron Man fig, but I’m not sure I love him.
I love Titanium Man though!
ha ha think you got it spot on there wes!
nice titanium man tho!