Iron Man Mark III (Iron Man 2 Movie Series)

Height: 10.5cm

Articulation: 24 total points - Ball joint neck; 5 points each arm: Universal joint shoulder, pre-eblow swivel, hinge elbow, swivel wrist; Mid-torso ball joint; 7 points each leg: universal joint hip, thigh swivel, double joint knee, double jointed ankle.

Colors: Painted cherry red, gold, blue, silver, white.

Accessories: "Flip Up Armor", Armor Cards x3, Stand

Release Data: Released in March 2010 with the first assortment of Iron Man Movie Series figures at an SRP of US$6.99

Author: ExVee

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In many ways I feel as though I already reviewed this figure when I did the Mark V. Of course, the figures are fully separate sculpts, but the basic engineering is essentially the same. This is your basic figure of the previous movie's Iron Man armor. Plus as there's only minor cosmetic differences between this and the Mark IV, it probably comes with the more interesting accessory among your Iron Man options.


Though using the standard giant ball joint for the neck, the head fits ever so slightly loose, freeing up some additional range of articulation versus other figures using this arrangement. By the same token, the head comes off that much easier. I have vague hopes the later Iron Man figure featuring Robert Downy Jr's likeness will still employ the same oversized neck joint and allow for mix and match. Though thinking on it I'm not at all sure what benefit such a thing might afford. Hm.

The arms turned out to be a good change from the crazies found in Mark V (somehow it seems backward to compare in this direction). Since the shoulder caps are separate units, the shoulder joint is opened to a reasonable degree. You can raise the arms to nearly 90 degrees with the armor attached, and a good bit farther if you pop those pieces off. The elbows seem to be turning into a source of mild confusion due to their construction. An armor panel extends down from the upper arm to cover the back of the joint, and so the elbows can bend equally in either direction. This results sometimes in these figures coming packaged with their forearms oriented backwards, which I've seen demonstrated in other photography. Nice to not have restricted elbow joints of course, I just wish people would pay a little more attention to it.

The big deal I'm having with this figure is in the legs. The hip joints are all but impossible to work with. Using the same upside-down universal joint system as is typical in these figures, in this case the swivel connecting hip to body is more loose than swivel connecting hip to thigh. Since this jointing relies on selective twisting of both swivels to get the legs in different poses, obviously this represents a bit of a problem. Seriously, was there a problem with the tried and true combination of ball joints and swivels? It seems like there's little call for such a complicated joint at this scale except to cause me aggravation. Just in case that wasn't enough, this is one of the worst examples of paint locked joints so far. Even after numerous attempts to wear some play into the joints, they still feel like they'd sooner snap off than move as intended. To steal one from RAC's book, PROTIP: Gloss paint on joints is never a good plan.

This one may be unique to my figure. I can't tell whether the knee joint on the left is bent - which is a recurring issue with this joint construction - or if the entire shin has been bent to one side. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've had one of these figures yet that has properly straight legs. Compounding this, the ankles which are built with the same range of jointing as every other Iron Man figure, whether through more paint fusion or bad design are effectively fixed in place. You might can get them to swivel, but the hinge seems to be fully out of the question so that it might as well not even be there.

I'm glad Hasbro is good at making Transforming toys, or else I'd be about set to lump them in with Bandai about now.


Paint and Deco

I rarely use this section since I think it's usually slightly subjective and really variable between particular examples of a given toy. However Iron Man figures have that special distinction of massive and widespread paint screwups. That said, there's likely little I can add here that you haven't already read somewhere or even experienced for yourself. But I'm compelled to say that it's completely unreasonable to have to go to so much effort just to find a figure that has "okay" paint.

Even my own Mark III which I had opportunity to pick around for the best paint job has scratches, chips, and badly applied patches. This is largely restrained to the gold paint areas, which I guess is fortunate in some way, but it still floors me. I'm amazed that I was even able to get one that had the eyes adequately centered and aligned. Unlike the first movie's toys, it's a lot harder to tell for sure in the packaging this time around. It'd be nice if they'd fix the pink "glow" in the ARC reactor too, while we're making wish lists here.




Accessories

-Extra Armor
The packaging is pretty non-specific about this item, but its features tend to make me think it's designed to increase flight speed. It has a large cylindrical protrusion out of the middle of the back which might be some sort of giant engine. Or possibly a huge external ARC reactor making this more like a power boost. (This will forever be Power Shirt Iron Man to me.)

The armor unit fits top-down onto Iron Man, which I prefer since pieces like this never totally close after being placed on the figure. The seams being under the arms keeps them helpfully out of sight. A big problem I've had is that the shoulder pads in this armor piece seem to want to push the figure's regular shoulder caps off their connections. I've had to spend a lot of time putting this on, finding the shoulder piece dislodged, and then having to reset and start again. Your mileage may vary, of course, but the way this appears to be made to work leads me to believe it wouldn't be an isolated problem.

One thing that led me to my original conclusion of this being some sort of flight upgrade is that there are flip-up panels that make me think of air brakes. Whatever the intended purpose, these are also a source of mild frustration for me. The panels are made of soft plastic, a move that I can understand well enough since I'm sure these would be a breaking or choking hazard or something otherwise. The problem is that I don't think the toy was engineered with soft plastic in mind for this. The panels are supposed to close down basically flush with the rest of the armor, which would be easily accomplished with more rigid plastic. It might even be pretty simple here - except that they don't fit.

That might be a bit of a simplification. The problem is that they aren't naturally long enough to reach the end of the grooves left behind when these pieces are opened. To properly close them, you have to pull on them, and then snap the ends down onto the armor, leaving it in a constant state of tension. So of course if it's not seated exactly right, it'll be springing back out before long at all. It can be done, and it looks pretty nice all closed up. But I just wish it could have been executed in a different way to not be such a task to actually do.



Closing Remarks


I specifically sought out this Iron Man because its large accessory was not a missile launcher. In that regard it succeeds at least in being fairly interesting in itself. Sadly mild execution problems plus a series of issues on the figure its attached to tend to all add up.

On the hope that much of what I experienced was isolated errors, I would still probably recommend this for someone who wants an Iron Man without a specific model already in mind. It does end up making me regret never getting an Iron Monger from the original movie line. Iron Man and his Power Shirt at this scale would be great to pit against it.

I keep going back and forth in trying to rate this. Having a gimmick that is probably the best integrated with the figure among all the various sorts of missile launchers available makes me want to go a little on the high side. But all the flaws I find in the construction keep making it feel like it's dropping a peg or two. Ultimately I think I have to judge it on the balance, which brings me to a final rating of Could Have Been Better. Sad thing is that it would be so even with just a little more careful use of paint. Rather a shame, I think.