Checking out the first toy released of the anxiously awaited War Machine as he appears in the upcoming movie Iron Man 2:
Today I’ll be reviewing the newly released Iron Man 2 Movie Series War Machine, this is the movie version in a line that is encompassing the movie, the comics and even original concept armors. Hasbro has been shifting their marvel gears into their normal smaller scale as seen with G.I. Joe and Star Wars, and while it may not sway everyone, these new Iron Man toys are hard to resist.
Packaging: The cardback packaging style is pretty similar to the current Marvel Universe Line, nice graphics and info on the character. You’ll have to rip the card up to get him out but there’s no twist ties to deal with, bonus of these tiny figures.
Sculpting: Hasbro has been stepping up their game in some areas lately compared to early attempts with Marvel Legends. One could assume the movie designs are just getting translated into toy via renders but, even the comic figures I’ve seen look well done. War Machine here features some amazing details for his scale and size, even with muted colors his lines and details pop. The sculpt is also integrated well with the articulation, it doesn’t really interfere anywhere except his neck, which is too thick to allow his head to raise up very much. His overall scale is nice, fitting with marvel universe and even G.I. Joe and like styled lines, being a man in armor it’s fitting that he’s a bit taller and it looks good.
Paint: Now paint detail has never been a strong suit with Hasbro, but with smaller scale one expects less detail, even with that I was still impressed with War Machine. The two-tone color scheme is done well, it gives him a nice metal look. There’s very little paint slop, nothing more than you would expect with a mass produced figure, and the detailed decals they’ve added are the nicest part. Little number sets, and other parts like the red triangles on his helmet are clean and clear. The Eyes and Arc Reactor in the chest feature what is supposed to be a glowing red color scheme, the eyes however got a bit too much white and end up just looking kind of hazy white, not much red. The Arc shows more red but is buried in his chest so deep it can be hard to see.
Articulation: Again Hasbro manages to impress me compared to some of their previous work, these figures feature some nicely done articulation. Overall War Machine has Ball Neck (severely limited due to sculpt), Ball shoulders, Hasbro Ball “Elbrows”, Swivel Wrists, Ball Torso, Ball and Socket Hips with Swivel Thighs on the ball, Double Knees, and lastly Ball Ankles. All the articulation functions well save for the neck as I’ve mentioned. Being limited by the size of the neck, and the overall sculpt, plus being very tight, his head’s limited with it’s range. Other areas are far more impressive though, the shoulders feature articulated shoulder pads which are hinged on his torso and move easily with his arms so theres little impeding of his arm movement. Other areas show some nice range, like the ball torso and hips allowing for some nice range and even subtlety in his posing.
Accessories: This figure features some basic accessories, but they aren’t bad. Technically I’m considering the rails on his back as part of his accessories, these levers slide up and down on his back and have a ball on the end to fit his two weapons, and let you move the weapon up and down from rested to aiming positions and then rotate them for posing, aiming. The two main accessories are two versions of the same gun, one is to scale and a nicely detailed version of his gatlin style machine gun in the film. It fits well and looks good, and there is an ammo belt that fits into a slot on the gun and then into one on his back to complete the look. It takes some work to get the belt and gun to all plug together with his back and then still be movable but it can be done. The other gun is an over sized “missile firing” version of the same machine gun, this is the “action feature” for the figure and is easily discarded for those who have no interest in it. The rocket fires and can probably hurt your eyes so be careful! I would have liked to have his rocket launcher set for his other shoulder but ah well. Lastly he comes with “Armor Cards” which are a nifty little set of two translucent cards and one solid card, that can be layed over each other to form a complete set of armor much like his plans for the Mark I in the film. These are nothing more than nifty little collectibles but still look neat and come in a handy bag. They can be plugged into the included plastic stand to make a complete display for each figure.
Overall/Value: All together I was really impressed with this figure, alot of it is simply the design of the movie War Machine which I love, but also the toy itself is really well done. I was so impressed I ended up going out and buying 3 more figures from the movie line. Personally like some others I would have preferred 6″ scaled figures but for smaller scale these are still great figures. Even for someone like myself who doesn’t really collect figures in this scale it’s easy to want to buy alot of these, at least completing important movie characters and maybe a few of the interesting concept armors. At around $7 a pop these figures are a decent deal. As impressed as I was by these small scale figures I’m even more excited about the upcoming 6″ scale figures and what Hasbro has to show us with their improved skills. Even comparing to Hasbro’s 6″ movie line from the first film these small scale figures show some nice improvements in Hasbro’s overall quality and designs and gives me hope for what we may see in the future.
