Iron Man 2 Crimson Dynamo
Crimson Dynamo. Sounds like a porn name.
Despite that, there have been no less than a dozen Marvel characters to hold the title. The Crimson Dynamo is a Soviet Super Soldier; a suit of armor created by Professor Dr. Anton Vanko that could control electricity. This was of course during the the Cold War, a time where ever US kid was told that the Reds were the antithesis of everything the US stood for. Hence Vanko was a man who worked for the Soviet government, made a suit to kick Iron Man’s ass, then saw the error of his ways and defected, eventually going to work with Tony Stark. The Reds sent Natalia Romanova to assassinate him. This is of course where all the geeks in the audience start picturing ScarJo in skin tight black leather.
The story sounds pretty good, and I can’t wait to see how it’s adapted on the screen. We know that Mickey Rourke will be playing Ivan Vanko (Anton’s son in the movie universe) and it’s been said that he’ll become the Dynamo later, but I’m curious if we’ll get a glimpse of the armor in this movie.
If it appears or not in the movie, at least we get to have a plastic representation of it. Thanks to Bim and Abumelt, I was able to get one of the 3.75″ action figures from the 2nd toy launch organized by Cybertron Philippines. It’s a good thing, too, since there are already reports that the figure is hard to find on the pegs, along with the comic version of War Machine. I was able to make it in time to get both.
The mold is based more on the armor worn by Yuri Petrovich, the fourth man to hold the mantle of Crimson Dynamo, than it was on Vanko’s original design. Though the back says that this was the armor made by Vanko, the original one was… visually evocative. What it invokes is those big tubes that look like bellows; You know, the ones that they used to use in all those chintzy science fiction films where space aliens all looked like silver washing machines. But in red of course.
I say it was a good call to use the ver 4.0 in this case since it seems to be the strongest, most iconic design among the 12 or so Dynamos that litter Marvel Universe. The toy brings out that design very well and seems to me to be very close to the illustrations of the day. The armor has ribbing where it’s supposed to be ribbed, has those funky gauntlets and greaves, and retains the gnarly shoulder pieces. All the geeks who go on and on about something being “comic accurate” can rejoice. This here, as they say, is the shit.
Paint-wise, the figure is very nicely done, though that’s usually the case when the majority of the surface is all one color. The toy is cast in a crimson (duh) plastic, that then looks to be finished with a nice glossy coat. Some of the nubs and joints are unfinished, but you can’t really see it unless you’re looking. It’s a very nice effect, and works well with the mold.
The only places that Hasbro could have messed up would be the black inside his intake vents on his chest and the cyclops “eye”. The Iron Man movie armors in this series have been using stickers for eyes, but I think this one’s been painted. You’re going to want to make sure your’s isn’t crooked. Mine is a bit of unpainted plastic in the very corner of the eyeslit, but it’s barely noticeable.
The figure isn’t really that tall. Personally, I like my villains big, bad, and with the ability to pound the hero into the dirt before he’s able to best them with his strength of will, intelligence, or awesome rock band prowress. Having grown up as a nerd and a geek, I equate big with evil. It’s stupid, but it’s my brain, so shut up.
Dynamo is a tad bigger than the Mark VI, but a skotch shorter than the Iron Monger. In terms of girth, he measures about the same; somewhere in the middle of the two.
Articulation is pretty standard for the line, which means far better than the Marvel Universe figures and closer to the old Toy Biz Legends standard. Here’s the list; swivel neck, swivel/post shoulders, swivel/post elbows, swivel wrists, ball jointed torso/ab crunch, double swivel/post hips, double hinged knees, and swivel/post ankles. Impressive considering the crappy joints we’ve had to put up with in the main 3.75″ line.
Accessories are pretty scarce though. All Dynamo gets is a strap-on eye zap. This is a weird choice in my opinion. His write up on wikipedia says that he has control of electricity, but this zap is PURPLE. It’s not the color I would have thought of for electricity.
It fits pretty well, but it goes all the way around his head. Not really a “snap-on” piece as the packaging states, and it looks kind of odd when viewed from the side.
It’ll also fit on some other 3.75″ figures.
I felt it would have been nicer if Hasbro had including pieces that went on his hands instead, like they did with the rest of the comic series. or why not re-use those great little pieces from Electro? I’m kinda kicking myself for not buying one of those when he was available.
Since I don’t really buy the pieces that came with the Classic Iron Man suit and the 1st Appearance as repulsor blasts, I’ve given them both to Crimson Dynamo. They look nicer on him in my opinion.
Overall, this is probably my favorite of the new batch I bought on that second day. Yes, even over War Machine. Sure Rhodey’s got the guns, but this guy looks like those old school robots you used to see in those 60’s and 70’s movies. Like some kind of tricked out Cylon dipped in blood.
Wouldn’t that be cool?
Revoltech Danboard
Originally posted at Slangards.Multiply.com
EDIT 3/16/2010: I changed all the references to Danboard as a male to female. The girl inside is Miura Hayasaka, Yotsuba’s playmate.
Of all the toys I have, there are only a few that are a permanent fixture on my display shelf. Danboard is one of them. What with so many people messaging me on the Pinoy Toy Kolektor and Cybertron PH boards about my avatar and where to find this little girl, I figured I’d take some proper pics and give her her due.
Unlike most of the Revoltech figure line, Danboard apropriately comes in a nice cardboard colored box with a few die-cut windows on the side, top, and front.
Inside, instead of the mess of twisties that American toys come in, she’s in a nice, easily opened plastic tray. You can just pop open the top tray and, “Viola!” she’s free.
What you see is what you get, boys and girls. She doesn’t have a lot of accessories compared to the other Revoltech figures. Basically it’s a circular stand, an extra head and flesh-tone neck joint. But then again, what she lacks in gear, she makes up for in sheer awesomeness.
Her design is great. For such a simple thing, you’d expect the manufacturers could just phone it in, but no. You can see the seams of the cardboard where it was glued together. If you get one of the Amazon or 7-11 exclusives, the boxes even have corporate logos on them. Great if you’re planning on making yourself a gestalt Danboard.
Articulation is what you’d expect. It’s a girl in a box for crying out loud. Don’t expect her to have double-hinged elbows. There are 5 points of articulation, but with the Revoltech system, those are pretty versatile. If you include the flaps around her torso, POA count jumps to 9. Despite a very big footprint, you’ll need her included stand to get her to stay upright. Her humongo head makes her top heavy.
The best thing about Danboard is her light up eyes. There’s a tiny, itty-bitty switch on the left side of her head that you can flip to turn them on. They’re powered by two watch batteries that you can access on the bottom of the head box. You wouldn’t believe how well she photographs with the extra feature!
Because Danboard is a girl in a box, she comes with an extra head. You simply pull off the head-box, switch the black “neck” for the flesh one and put on the human head. presto. It’s awful cute, looking totally bemused and surprised. You really can help but put her in all sorts of situations.
At a grand apiece when they were released, this girl was (arguably) one of the best buys I ever made. Of course he’s sold out everywhere now and eBay is the only option if you want to get one. Me, I’m thinking about it, because I want that gestalt cardboard robo real bad.
I can’t help it. I am so excited for this movie. I don’t care if this shows what looks to be most of the plot points. The whole thing is fucking awesome. Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Gweneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johanssen, Samuel Jackson, Mickey Rourke with a Russian (?) accent, Sam Rockwell, Paul Bettany, Olivia Munn, Leslie Bibb, Kate Mara, Jon Favreau, the Mark V and goddamn WAR MACHINE!
How can I not watch this?
Iron Man 2 Mark I
One of the nicest action figures in the new 3.75″ Iron Man 2 toy line is the Mark I. Created and worn by Tony Stark in mountain caves with rudimentary equipment, it probably has the most character of any of the Iron Man armors. Since I can’t really afford a 12″ Hot Toys version of the thing, I’m settling for going in the other direction. I’ve already reviewed 2 of the armors I bought at the toy launch earlier this month and figured I’d continue with the best of those that I found there. Sure the Iron Monger is big, and the Mark II is shiny, but there’s something about the dirty, banged-up look of this rust bucket that just sings.
The figure comes with 3 “armor cards” which fit into the slot of the included stand. It’s a great gimmick that I can’t get enough of. Sure it’s simple, and if the regular Marvel Universe line were to adopt it it would be pretty ridiculous, but here it works because Iron Man is so technological in nature. Schematics included on his display is just fitting.
I wish the same could be said for the stand. It’s just too small for the figure. Understandable, considering the rest of the line is much sleeker than this figure is (not to mention more expensive for Hasbro), but it’s a kind of silly that he can’t really use it the way it’s meant to be used.
The other accessory that comes packed with him is another BFG (Big F*cking Gun), or Stupidly Huge Firearm (SHF). It seems to be a requisite part of any toy these days, popping up in Transformers, then GI Joe, and now Hasbro’s Marvel lines. Mattel also has them in some of their 5″ Batman and Brave and the Bold lines as well. I’m guessing kids love the spring loaded rockets, but I hate their disproportionate size and the fact that with this much extra plastic they probably could have either gave us extra hands, a flight stand, some exhaust pieces that attach to his feet, a repulsor blast, or hell, they could have just knocked a dollar of the price maybe.
At least his SHF is relatively acceptable, being in keeping with the movie’s design (it’s an arm mounted flamethower) and not being too stupidly huge.
The best thing about the Mark I has always been the sculpt. Even the 6″ version that came out after the first movie enjoyed such great detail that even without too many paint apps, it was the greatest looking toy of the whole line. In my opinion, it was even better than Iron Monger.
Compared to the 6″ version, the 3.75″ one is slightly less detailed. You can see the difference in the scale that the sculptors had to work with in the belts that run along the gears of his legs. The bigger figure has ribbing along that belt that is much smaller and closer together relative to the smaller figure. However, that’s about the only sacrifice. You can still see rivets and plates. You still have the various gears and gyros all around him.
What’s even better is that he’s painted.
The first version suffered from a lack of any real paint applications. Aside from some the black lettering on his chest. This one however has some really nice paint work with some muddy yellow knees and gloves and some nice rust effects. His rear “engine” is also painted black, which makes for a nice break in the monotony.
Of all the toys, this is probably the best one in terms of color because of the fact that it’s MEANT to be a mess. Unlike the Mark II or Mark III, it doesn’t really matter if the machines that spray the paint on miss a register line, because this guy is supposed to be made of junk anyway.
Articulation is another nice improvement on the 6″er. This version has some additional range when compared to the other. It’s not really dramatic, but it’s welcome.
He can basically dip lower than his counterpart, and can bend at the elbow and knee just a tad more. If this Mark I was going to propose to Pepper Potts in some wacked out What If… universe, he’d be able to do it. He’s also got some range on his neck, allowing him to look up to some degreee.
Of the 8 figures I bought the other week, this is certainly my favorite. I’m not sure about stocks though. They were plentiful at the toy launch, but I hear that they’re not included in future case assortments. It might become harder and harder to get a hold of later on, so get ‘em now. Don’t you dare wait for mark downs.
Iron Man 2 Mark IV & VI
So I went to the Iron Man 2 Toy Launch, held last Sunday at SM Megamall by Hasbro Philippines, Toy Kingdom, and Cybertron Philippines. Rather than the tiny activity area where the Transformers toy launch was held, the organizers were able to secure the nice, roomy area where the skating rink used to be. It was nice to be able to leisurely browse through the ailses without causing grievious bodily harm to people unfortunate enough to try and squeeze past me (I’m a fat bastard).
These events are normally well organized and they seem to get better with each iteration. It’s a lot easier to get the toys I’ve targeted by attending than it is to hunt for a particlar hard to find item later. There’s usually a distribution system in place where popular items are distributed to customers with a first come first served priority. Sure it’s usually a whole day affair since you need to sign the priority list and then wait for the stocks to arrive, but considering how much I spent on transportation alone during my last great hunt, I’m glad I can rest easy.
This time out, my target for the day was the 3.75″ movie collection:
On the pegs were the first wave of 10 figures. Most of them were pretty nice sculpts, though I was disappointed that the shipments with the Comic Series and the War Machines didn’t make it. Since I already had an Iron Monger and I wasn’t really wowed by the Mark IV night light, I only went home with 8 figures.
Of those 8, 3 were short-packed. I had figured that Hasbro would choose the enemies like Iron Monger and the variant armors to be chase figures, since kids aren’t all that keen on things they don’t see on the screen. I was right about Monger; those figures were gone before lunch. However the other 2 figures were surprising to me.
The regular Mark IV and the Mark VI were very scarce on the pegs. If you were gunning for a set of 10, you could list your name to get a shrinkwrapped set including those two figures, but there were only a few on the sales floor. I had thought that since these are new armors that I suppose are from the movie, Hasbro would have ensured that these are the ones that are out in force. I guess I don’t know all that much after all.
Luckily, some of the cool Toy Kingdom reps were able to help Bim, Timster and I finding the few that were on shelf. They weren’t the best examples, but at least I didn’t have to shell out for an extra Iron Monger or the light-up Mark IV which was warming the shelves.
I like the new packaging. Very small, very tight, very little wasted space. Easily stackable in a box, or small enough to display the whole thing on one wall if you’re an MOCer. The figure and the accessories, even the cards, are easily visible. An important detail in this case since quality control seems to have been pretty lax in the case of this line.
The back of the cards has the standard Hasbro product shot. It’s aggravating that the prototypes are always so much nicer looking than the final production figure. You can see the sculpt is there, but there are so many problems with the paint that a close evaluation is warranted when choosing your figure. Since there weren’t that many pieces on the shelf, we settled for sub-par examples. Since I’m less particular with paint (it tends to wear after awhile anyway) I can live with it, but you may have to pass on the first few you see.
The package is easily opened (with a letter opener or something) and you can still put everything back in the tray when your done if you want to store it. Of course it won’t be MINT… but who are we kidding. Toys are only fun if you open them. The rest of the time it’s just an excercise in frustration.
The thing I really like about this new toy line was the included armor cards. Sure, most collectors couldn’t care less about these inserts, but if you think about it, they’re very well thought out. You get a schematic of the armor you bought that fits right into the included stand. It makes for a great display and it’s making me thinking about getting another Stealth Operations and Mark V so I can get the stand and cards as well. If you have the patience to really create a 3D diorama of Tony Stark’s Armory, these would be great to put in the background.
There’s only two real differences between the Mark IV and Mark VI; the first is the unibeam shape on his chest. The Mark VI has a triangle while the earlier model shares the same round one that the first 3 had. A tiny distiction that really doesn’t affect the rest of the mold. If you’re not a completist, I’d suggest just picking your favorite shape and leaving the other on the shelf.
Personally, I was waffling on whether or not to buy both myself. I’m glad I finally decided to get both. If you play with toys like I do, then accessories are a big plus. Mixing and matching gear on GI Joes is half the fun. In this case, thought the 2 figures only come with a BFG (the second difference) the stand and card (none of which is a really “accessory” in my book), you can switch the 4 hands between the two.
Sure you only have 4 hands between the 2 Iron Mans, but it makes playtime a hell of alot more fun. They’re sculpted with one fist and one open palm each, each on the opposite hand. You can switch and have Iron Man either do an all out repulsor attack with both palms open, or use the BFGs and have him blast enemies to kingdom come.
Look at the hand pegs and the wrist holes and you can see he’s cast in gold colored plastic. Hasbro used that weird paint they used on the first movie’s toyline. It always looks tacky even when dry and never looks even; clumping in places, and going on to thinly on others. The figures, especially the red and gold ones, have an unfinished look to them, which saddened many of the old Marvel collectors. And after a few months, you just know they’ll go the way of my 6″ Silver Centrurion, which is pink now that the silver paint has faded and the red underneath is showing through.
There’s also a great deal of slop, especially where the gold meets the red. One of mine has a great big gold blob right on his stomach. Sure we can fix it, but we shouldn’t have to. It really makes me wonder how we we’re seeing factory refects for sale when these are apparently just as bad. What kind of threshold are we talking about here? Do they have to have melted heads before they’re tossed?
Because of the terrible paint issues, I can’t fully recommend these toys. However, there’s a lot of good going on here. You’ve got an excellent looking sculpt, more than enough articulation (with ball jointed hips, double hinged knees, ankles, wrists, and a mid-torso joint), some nice inserts, a stand, a BFG that isn’t too ridiculously big and
At only Php450.00 a pop, it’s a relatively good value in today’s market. Sure you used to be able to get a Marvel Legends Juggernaut at the same price, but that was like a decadeago. Considering oil and plastic isn’t a renewalble resources, and the current value of the peso compared to 10 years ago, it’s a pretty good deal.
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