Iron Man 2 Mark VI Power Glow Armor Review
 

Not too long ago, an image of the Mark VI Power Glow Armor Iron Man turned up and instantly caught my attention:

Iron Man 2 Power Up Glow Mark VI Armor Revealed

So imagine my delight once I saw it not too long afterwards at Kmart. Since I didn't know if movie series wave 2 would be out at other retailers on March 1st, I decided to pick up movie series War Machine and later, the Mark VI power glow armor. The movie War Machine review can be seen here:

Movie War Machine From Iron Man 2 Review

I'm a fan of translucent plastic. I am also a fan of light up gimmicks that don't compromise all articulation. With my excitement increased upon finding the power glow armor at retail, how did this figure turn out? It might surprise you...read on...

Accessories
 

This figure doesn't come with much. Just:

• figure stand
• armor cards x 3

No missle launchers unlike the other armors. In lieu of the launchers and other accessories, this figure has a light up gimmick.

The Figure Itself
 

The Mark VI Power Glow Armor is significantly different from the figure shown on package. The figure on the package is completely translucent whereas the final production figure only has a transparent torso. Everything else is made out of solid plastic.

I like clear/translucent plastic so I would have preferred a completely translucent figure like the one pictured on the package. It would have made the light up gimmick more impressive.

This figure is more than meets the eyes, unfortunately, as the shoulder joints are on ball joints. Sounds good right? Unfortunately no, as these joints are different than the ones on the other Iron Man figures. The shoulders fit very, very securely on the ball joints. Not bad right? Well, the disappointing thing is, the shoulders have an extremely limited range of motion. Yes the shoulders can move out to the sides, but barely. Just enough to count as sideways articulation, but not much more.

The head has great range of motion, due to the push-down feature necessary to activate the light up gimmick. The head basically functions as a button. However, the head is noticeably loose. Wobbly even.

Other than the aforementioned disappointments, the detail and sculpt on this mold is great. Be careful when picking these figures out however, because the plastic on the heads is rather soft, so there have been some that I have seen with indentations possibly from finger nails, et al.

Articulation from the lower body down is the same as on the Mark II/III/IV/V and regular Mark VI armor, so plenty poseable with the legs.

Power Glow
 

The Mark VI Power Glow Armor is centered around the power glow gimmick. Articulation on the shoulders and torso was compromised for this one gimmick. Was it worth it? To be honest....no.

The gimmick is neat, it's the main reason I picked this figure up. An orange LED is housed within the torso and the torso is lightly painted with red, except for the arc reactor area. The arc reactor area is clear, so that the orange light shows through brighter. The light shows brighter from the front than the back.

It's fun to light this Iron Man up in the dark. This gimmick is meant to replicate SPOILERS DON'T READ THE NEXT SENTENCE IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILING THE MOVIE(highlight to read):the sheer power of the Mark VI, apparently it's prone to overheating or something so energy dissipates out..or something...I don't remember I threw away the packaging.

I took some shots in the dark to show how bright it can get. For me, gimmicks are cool so long as they don't compromise articulation too badly. Unfortunately, as cool as the power glow gimmick is, it compromised too much articulation for me. I can deal with the loss of abdominal articulation, but minimal range of motion for the shoulders? That disappoints me. This could have been my favorite Mark VI figure had the shoulders not been shafted like that.

Poses
 

This will be part 1 of showing how limited the articulation is on this figure. The following are poses I put the Mark VI Power Glow armor in towards the end of the photoshoot. As you can see, the leg articulation is great, but the upper body articulation suffers. This is basically, as dynamic as it's going to get.

Mark VI VS Mark VI Power Glow
 

As you can see in the following images, the basic Mark VI smokes the Mark VI Power Glow armor in the articulation department. I predict that the basic Mark VI will be the favorite of collectors, with the Power Glow version appealing more to kids. One of the most appealing things about the Iron Man 2 line is full articulation. The articulation in this line is superior to that of the current 3-3/4" Spiderman line, and depending on who you talk to, Marvel Universe(the latter is more on the side of parity).

Simply put, if you like light up gimmicks and don't mind the loss of articulation, get the power glow Mark VI. If you are looking for consistency and high poseability, the basic Mark VI is for you.

The basic Mark VI is more appealing to me, because I get more fun out of posing it rather than trying to pose the power glow version and activating the power glow gimmick.

Conclusion
 

In conclusion, the power glow armor is a decent purchase, but underwhelming. I won't recommend it wholeheartedly simply because it's not a must buy. Articulation is a key selling point for Hasbro's 3-3/4" Marvel lines and this figure lacks it. The basic Mark VI is simply more straightforward fun due to higher poseability, though this may differ with younger audiences.

I give it a 6/10. Decent if you know what you are getting into, but otherwise, the standard Mark VI is superior.

... and yet, the Power Glow one has practical "repulsor blasts" hands...

Too bad you can't switch em...

why cant you the hands plug in on all the others should fit easily I got the regular VI saw this one but the loss of articulation just kills it and i don't like the glow bleed in the torso

Thanks Shin, I was struggling between getting this figure or not as another notch in my Ironman Hall of Armor set but I agree when you say that the articulation is too far gone.

Maybe if it ever got on sale for 4 dollars....

I agree that glow bleed ruined it for me that I didn't even look at articulation.

Thanks again for the review, Shin. The Mark VI is a kickass armor... Can't wait to find this. Probably will buy both the light up and non.

No problem man, the bad thing is, you can't tell how limited the arm articulation is until you take the figure out of package.

I picked up one of these last night and am in the process of modding it. Mainly, removing the dumb red LED and replacing it with a white or blue LED. Also, gonna darken up the chest so it only comes out of the Arc Reactor. And gonna try and get a pushbutton switch in there so that you can press Iron Man's head down to turn it on and off.

Anyone have any thoughts on which color LED I should use? Blue or white?

If you can, great, but I don't want to buy this waste of plastic just for that...

Hey, are the hands removable/swappable with the regular Mark III/IV armor?

While I don't know about the Light-Up Mark VI, the easiest thing to do is switch one of the hands with the repulsor hand from the Mark IV.

yeah Ive found that you can switch them but don't know about the power glow but if I had to guess its the same.

I'll probably be getting him. The wobbly head seems to look a bit distracting though.

In think white would be good.

It will only look good displayed in the dark if you mod a switch into the body....as is you have to keep the head down to keep the figure lit up.