[Newton Gimmick]

Iron Man might be the star of the show, but War Machine's got the bigger guns. Hasbro has really done a great job on these figures and War Machine shines as one of the best Iron Man 2 figures. He also has one really big glaring problem too.



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Check out the full review as we continue our March of the Robots month.

One of the interesting things that Hasbro is doing with it's new movie toy lines is that it's having separate sections for the toys. Wolverine Origins had figures that were from the movie, but they also had a section of the line that was "comic" figures. This way they can include more characters in the toy line without quickly running out of ideas since, chances are, any one movie will only have so many marketable characters. It's a genius idea and with Iron Man 2, we have three sects, movie, comic and concept armor.

Built by Iron Man for his best friend James Rhodes, the War Machine armor was meant to fill in whenever Iron Man wasn't available. Every bit as powerful as Tony Stark's original armor, and bristling with weapons, War Machine is built not just to stop evil, but destroy it completely.

That's a pretty awesome bio, as per the back of the package. War Machine has always been my preferred armored hero. Dynamo was my favorite armored villain, War Machine my favorite armors hero. Hasbro is treating me well with this line. I think it was the fact that Rhodes was the guy in the Iron Man suit during Secret Wars or just the fact that he ended up with a really cool armor of his own. Either way, I've always been a War Machine fan. This is the comic version of War Machine, not to be confused with the movie version of War Machine. Yep, Hasbro has both on the shelf at the same time. Kudos to them for that.

Packaging:
I still really like the front of the package and I even love that it identifies if this is a comic, movie or concept armor. It's a nice sleek package and it really works with the design of the motion picture. I have no complaints about that.

However, I find the back of the package hopelessly confusing. You've got the good bio and then it all goes to crap. It identifies three other figures and gives them numbers, but the numbers are already so high that I am baffled as to who all is available. It was like Hasbro wanted to give us a check list and then didn't bother to finish it.

Sculpt:
It's so pretty! This is far and away the best War Machine figure I've ever seen. I never cared for many of the Toy Biz versions and even the classic Toy Biz line didn't quite give War Machine the life that he needed. Hasbro has really hit a home run here in terms of sculpt.

There is a nice blue tint to the whole thing which gives it that comic book feel where you often see some blue mixed in with the silver and gray colors. He has a nice gun metal look as well, with just tons of wash and paint aps here. They could have simply made this guy flat, but they really kicked it up a notch.

Every angle of this guy looks good. He doesn't look like "just another armor" anywhere. You can see the details all over him. I have to wonder if War Machine won't steal some of the thunder away from Iron Man in the upcoming movie, because he's just so cool looking.

He has guns on his wrists, the big shoulder mounted canons, everything it here. It's all surprisingly functional too with lots of poses that can be achieved with the guns. There's an impressive amount of detail packed into such a small frame as well. Still, despite all the guns and weaponry, I am most impressed with the face sculpt which looks quite good in this small scale.

Everywhere has fine sculpting, from the inside of his hands featuring the little blasters to the bottom of his boots having the thrusters on them. This is a marvelous figure and a great rendition of War Machine. In fact, this might be the nicest Marvel figure that Hasbro has ever sculpted. If he's not the best, he's definitely in the top ten.

Articulation:
It certainly seems to me that there was a concerned effort on Hasbro's part to make War Machine retain all of his articulation. This has been something that designers have struggled with since the very first War Machine. How do you do all the added armor and gun weaponry without impeding the articulation? Well Hasbro has come up with a few solutions.

The shoulder pads are on a hinge, so they actually lift up. It doesn't look perfect, mind you, but it does allow War Machine to get some added posablilty in the arms and still look like the badass robot dude he is. The shoulder canons themselves are also quite articulated as they can go forwards and back as well as swivel at the connection point. It works quite well.

With all that work on the top half, it's almost a shame the bottom half is barely poseable. I've said it before and I'll say it again... Ball joint hips don't work on 3 3/4 figures. I'm not sure why that is, but it's just a fact. War Machine has big thick sculpted thighs. What happens is that those thigh pieces hit the ball joint. So he can move his leg forward a few centimeters and that's it. The perfect lower leg articulation would be GI Joe style t-bar hips with a thigh swivel, IMO.

It doesn't ruin this figure by any means, but it does take away from him quite a bit. It's just a reflection of the design choices in this line. I know a lot of the old Marvel Legends fans think that the ball joint hips are the way to go, but I don't. War Machine is a prime example of this because the ball joints are wasted because of how little movement you can get.


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