Crimson Dynamo appeared in the ambitiously named Iron Man: The Armored Avenger Legends Series. Hasbro followed the time-tested “Batman” approach to this line, with each series featuring multiple Iron Men and a single villain. The line wasn’t a huge success, but the Iron Man variants sold well enough. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the villains; it wasn’t long before Iron Man was a stranger to the line that bore his name, leaving only Titanium Man and Crimson Dynamo on the pegs.
So why didn’t these villains sell? After all, these were fan-demanded characters from day one. Was all that talk on the part of the collector community about wanting them just balloon-juice, or did something else contribute to their failure? Perhaps Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man were overproduced or packed too heavily per case? Or maybe collectors were more focused on bulking up their armories? It’s possible the lack of a BAF piece or anything extra kept people away. While any of these answers could be true, I’d say it’s because Hasbro didn’t give us the “classic versions.”
Fans of modern comics are tired of hearing it. Hell, I’m tired of typing it. An often heated topic in the toy threads, the concept of the “classic” version of a costume may hold more weight than we think. In 1984 Spidey got a cool new black suit — seven months later he was back in his familiar red-and-blues. Superman died, came back from the dead with a mullet, split into two separate beings composed of pure energy, but within a year he was back to wearing his underwear on the outside. The pattern is clear — the classics are classic for a reason. So why are toy companies so reticent to give us them?
Crimson Dynamo is a good example. His racket: being bigger than Iron Man. That was it. Both he and his erstwhile line-mate-for-life Titanium Man were just bigger, clunkier versions of their foe. But you know what? It worked. In spite of knowing Iron Man would win in the end, their size created a psychological advantage; their tech might not be as evolved, but they could still win the day with brute strength and size. Not only did this make the fights seem more exciting, it also made a tidy metaphor for the Cold War. So why did Hasbro make him “normal” sized?
One could be cynical and say they were being cheap. After all, Hasbro had already done away with the free comics, the Build-A-Figure pieces, the paint — they’d stripped the product down considerably, so it stands to reason scale would be next. Fans had been calling foul on this for a while, as the first dozen or so Iron Men Hasbro issued were noticeably undersized. While the relaunch of Marvel Legends brought us the laughably undersized Extremis Iron Man, Hasbro finally got it out of their system and started giving Iron Man a little more bulk, Which brings us back to the Dynamo here.
Would this figure have sold better if it had been the “classic” version? What are the differences between the two? The classic version of the Dynamo would be much bigger for a start, imparting more of a sense of value to the purchase. A bigger figure would be cooler from a kid’s standpoint as well. When you factor in that the classic version of the character would also appeal to collectors, well, it seems like it should be a lock. But instead of doing what should have been the obvious, Hasbro went with a much more modern and streamlined suit, scoring a double off a pitch that should have been a home run.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked the figure enough to buy it. His paint is sharp, the sculpt is great, and he can strike some pretty nifty poses. Is he as big as he should be? Even in a streamlined suit like this the answer is no — he looks small next to other, more modern Legends. Do you wanna know my theory? I think this body was actually made to be Iron Man. Banded metal on the arms and legs isn’t exactly a look Shell-Head is known for, but Hasbro was creating all sorts of off-the-wall versions of Iron Man at the time. I look at it and can’t help but imagine this:
Pretty cool, right? Now, I have no way of knowing whether my theory is true or not — I just don’t think that Hasbro would intentionally phone in the Dynamo like this. I mean, Toy Biz was able to produce the Hulkbuster and the Buzzing Beetle and they were monster-sized figures. Would Hasbro really let that Johnny-gone-lately show it up by deliberately making such a comparatively petite figure? The world may never know. Hopefully Marvel Legends will revisit the Crimson Dynamo again, this time giving him the BAF he deserves.
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