Hasbro launches its new toy line based on Paramount’s upcoming Iron Man 2 movie with a variety of different 3.75” action figures. Among those in the first wave of the “Comic Series” figures is War Machine.
For those of you who may not be familiar with these figures, Hasbro will be breaking these 3.75” figures into two different assortments, a “Comic Series” and a “Movie Series” (three if you count the “Concept Series” which basically are made up versions of Iron Man armor by Hasbro as a way to make more figures). The “Movie Series” will consist of waves of figures based on the Iron Man characters from the first two Iron Man movies while the “Comic Series” will consist of figures based on the Iron Man comic book series from Marvel Comics.
“Built by Tony Stark for his friend James Rhodes, the War Machine armor was meant to fill in whenever Iron Man wasn’t available. Every bit as powerful as Stark’s armor and bristling with weapons, WAR MACHINE is built not just to stop evil, but to destroy it totally.”
This over-simplified bio is found on the card-back for Hasbro’s new War Machine (Comic Series) figure, which in fact sounds more like the bio for the movie version of the character than the comic book one. None-the-less, that is what you get for background on the character. There will in-fact be a “WAR MACHINE” (Movie Series) figure released in a future wave of the “Movie Series” (wave 2, I believe) which will have some minor differences in appearance from this figure.
The packaging for the Iron Man 2 figures is fairly simple and plain. On the front is the same generic look for all the figures which shows an image of Iron Man in the top left corner shooting his repulsor and has the “Iron Man II” logo right above the blister. Just below the logo is the title showing whether the figure is a Comic, Movie or Concept series version of the character. Towards the bottom of the blister, the name of the figure and a description of the type of action features the figure may have are displayed. In the case of War Machine, it has retractable weapons.
The brief bio along with some small images of other figures in the wave and a larger image of the figure belonging to that particular card is on the back of the card-back.
Opening the figure is fairly simple – no twisty ties, thank god. When you get the figure out, you will notice it comes with two weapon effects-type attachments that will fit on the figure’s shoulder cannons, a figure stand, and 3 “Armor Cards.”
The “Armor Cards” are pretty gimmicky and don’t add much to the figure. In fact, since there no clear instructions on what the armor cards are for in the package, I am not sure if the kids buying these figures will even understand what to do with them.
Basically, there is a solid white card that shows the chest piece of the armor belonging to the figure in question along with two transparent cards with additional armor pieces like the arms, head and legs. When you place the two transparent cards over the solid white one, it gives the illusion of creating the War Machine armor. When you buy more than one figure, you can this mix and match the cards from other figures and supposedly make other unique looking armors. This might be cool if you could take the figures themselves and mix and match parts to make unique armored figures, but doing it with the cards alone seems like a waste of time and doesn’t always seem to work. I tried lining up the transparent armor pieces of War Machine with the solid card for Crimson Dynamo, another figure in the first “Comic Series” wave, but the arms and legs for War Machine did not align correctly with the chest piece of Dynamo.
The cards also contain some numbers, letters, and symbols which I believe can be used eventually at the website Ironmancard.com. Currently, that website is not live and the URL points to Marvel.com.
One other note on the cards, you also will be able to use these cards with upcoming vehicles from the Iron Man 2 line such as the “Rolling Battle HQ” where you can display them on a light-up computer monitor.
When you get the figure in your hands, you will notice that it feels pretty sturdy for a 3.75” scale figure. No vac-metal is used on the figures armor; it is completely made from a sturdy yet rubbery type plastic. The paint apps are pretty nice giving the figure a somewhat battle-worn metallic appearance.
The articulation for this figure is decent, but it is not as articulated as Hasbro’s Marvel Universe wave 1 Iron Man figure. Most noticeably, it is missing the chest articulation so it can’t bend over much. To be honest, this seems more realistic since someone wearing a big suit of metal armor wouldn’t be able to bend over and touch his toes.
Another weak spot for articulation is in the head. It can move from left to right but cannot turn all the way around or move up or down much. The figure also can’t turn at the waist, and although you could have the figure do the splits, you cannot really pose him in a seated position.
The figure does have double-jointed knees and ball shoulder joints. Like previous Iron Man figures that Hasbro has created, the shoulder pads of the figure’s armor move so as not to prohibit the movement of the figure’s arms. Due to the cut of the elbow joints, especially with his left arm, he can’t bend his lower arm up as much as you can with most figures.
The figure has two shoulder cannons that can flank the figure’s head or retract behind his back. The cannons actually rotate 360 degrees and are barely visible from the front when pointed down on the figure’s back. The cannons also have removable weapons effect accessories that give the illusion of firing rockets and bullets when placed on the cannons.
For additional firepower, the figure has a twin barrel laser on the wrist of his right arm. There is no accessory attachment for this one, so you just have to use your imagination when having him fire.
Finally, the figure comes with a stand that not only allows you to display the figure without worrying about it falling down but also allows you to display the figure’s “Armor Cards” with it.
For scale, if you stand him next to one of the previously released 3.75” Iron Man figures from Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line, you will notice right off how puny your Iron Man figure looks. The scale of these figures seem to be far more accurate than the MU Iron Man figures, as a character in a big suit of armor should be a little bigger than someone like Captain America.
Overall, the appearance if this figure is pretty dead-on to what I remember from the comics. The articulation and pose-ability of the figure is a bit limited, but when you consider what it would be like to actually wear a suit of armor like this and how much movement you would actually have, it seems to be a fairly realistic portrayal of what the character would actually be able to do in real-life.
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