Toy Review: Mark IV & VI

03/12/10

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.