Crimson Dynamo (Iron Man 2 Comic Series)

Height: Approx. 11.5cm to top of head.

Articulation: 24 points total- ball-jointed neck; 5 points each arm: universal joint shoulder, universal-joint elbow, forearm swivel; mid-torso ball joint; 6 points each leg: universal-joint hip, double-joint knee, universal joint ankle.

Colors: Molded crimson, translucent purple, and gray(stand). Painted crimson, maroon, and orange.

Accessories: Energy Blast, Stand w/Armor Card x3.

Release Data: Released on March 1st 2010 with an SRP of $7.99.

Author: RAC

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There's not a lot of really great Iron Man villains to begin with- he's not the only comic superhero to have that problem, but he's probably the worst offender. And the fact that most of his longterm villains scream "Cold War" doesn't help either. (Especially now that Marvel's sliding time scale has moved Tony Stark's origins up far enough that he didn't even become Iron Man until right around the end of the Cold War- or possibly later.) Case in point: the Crimson Dynamo.


The Figure

If you actually have the patience to read that whole Wikipedia article, you'll notice this is specifically Crimson Dynamo Number Four. This makes a certain amount of sense: I suspect that Iron Man 2 draws a certain amount of inspiration from the Armor Wars storyline, as I probably mentioned before, and this is the Dynamo that appears in that story. It's a good design: more angular and techy than most of Iron Man's comic armors up to that point, though the upper part of each limb is still muscly and form-fitting in that way that comic book armor used to be. He's also significantly larger and bulkier than Iron Man, which makes sense for the villain.

With the exception of the orange visor, the entire suit is done in varying shades of deep metallic red, from crimson (obviously) to more of a dark maroon. It's all very clean and very smooth, but if not well-lit or from a great enough distance he starts to look a little monochrome. Which he was in the comics, so it's mostly not a big issue.

The head is basically restricted to a swivel due to the bucket helmet, but that seems unavoidable. The shoulders swivel in a full 360 degrees, and swing up almost 180 degrees- only blocked by the large ridged shoulder armor. The elbows are similarly blocked by the gauntlets, but it's more severe there, with the elbow's bend limited to around 45 degrees. The wrist swivel's unrestricted though, and we have the same set of hands here as on the rest of the line: one open, one fist. Considering that he has no hand-based accessories and I'm not sure if the Dynamo had any palm-based weapons the way Iron Man does, I'd kind of have preferred two fists.

The tilt of the torso joint is really nice, though the shape of the torso prevents anything more than a small arc of swivel. The hip joints are about the same as they are on all the other Iron Man 2 figures, with the same fiddly adjustment. On the upside, there's no restrictions created by the shape of the torso or thighs, so it's got about the best range you can get from this joint. The knees get into a fairly tight V, which is pretty good considering there's cuffs to contend with as on the elbows and shoulders. The feet are pretty nice too, with perfect swivel and good tilt in all directions.


Accessories

-Energy Blast

As opposed to the hand-mounted blast that Iron Man has, this is a piece that slips around the head to represent a blast coming from the visor. It's a neat idea, though it can look a bit silly from some angles. (One of those angles is "detached," where it looks like some kind of extremely bizarre necktie.) But it fits on the head very snugly, and does what it's supposed to do quite well!

-Stand

Sometimes I feel kind of bad about glossing over the stand and Armor Cards. They're really some of the nicest all-purpose stands I've seen lately, and the Armor Cards are a neat idea. One thing, though: why isn't ironmancard.com up and running yet? It redirects to Marvel's main page and these figures have been out at least a month. What gives, Hasbro and Marvel?


Closing Remarks

It's nice to have a villain- there's a bit of a shortage in the line so far -and it doesn't hurt that it's also a really good figure from the first major Iron Man story I ever read. I'm not sure which Titanium Man is coming up in the Comic Series, but I hope it's the Armor Wars counterpart to this figure. The Crimson Dynamo is Very Good.

-RAC