Part of my recent
Iron Man 3 win from ActionFigurePics.com were these two 'Assemblers:' War Machine and the Mark 42 Iron Man armor. The first thing I noticed when I got these two next to each other was that War Machine is much bulkier than Mark 42. I'm surprised they did that, especially since interchangeability is the theme for this line.
They're both neat basic action figures with limited articulation and basic paint but good detailing in the sculpts.
The 'Assemblers' gimmick is that you pop off and re-attach or swap limbs for armor modification. Each figure comes with extra arms and an action shooter of some sort. While this feature does nothing for me as an adult I think it would have been pretty neat as a kid; it's well executed with the arms snapping in securely and not feeling loose or wobbly or like they'll just fall right off.
War Machine looks great, although the shoulder cannon piece he comes with looks lame when attached, it's just too tiny and barely peeks over his shoulder. I didn't bother attaching it for the photos.
War Machine's extra parts are even less exciting then Mark 42's. There's no added paint apps, and the plastic color doesn't even match up.
Of course you can add one figure's parts to another, which might be fun for kids but in this case ends up looking a bit odd, especially since Mark 42 is more svelte than War Machine.
The Assemblers gimmick is clever and well executed, but I don't think they are making enough armors in this line to make it truly worthwhile. If there were ten or more armors you could make zillions of cool creations, but to my knowledge there are only three: War Machine, Mark 42 and Iron Patriot.
But I'm not complaining, free toys are free toys, and if you're an Iron Man fan you could have been treated a lot worse by the toy companies. In my experience the third film in a trilogy usually gets the worst of it when it comes to toys, be it through repaints or rushed, lazy product. At least these are new and nice representations of the on film armors!
Free toys are always welcome!
ReplyDeleteThey look decent ;) But what's up with the recent outpouring of action figures with limited articulation?
ReplyDeleteMovie action figures especially seem to be trending that way lately.
DeleteOk I been waiting for you to review these Eric and I can give you my thoughts on them.
ReplyDeleteFor kids I think they are great and at the price points I have been seeing them at in my area they are affordable which they should be considering they gimmick.
I think the biggest problems with them are the lack of more armors like you said and in the fact they are geared toward kids making them much simpler which can steer adult collectors off who as we know are the biggest buyers of these things anymore.
In my area these along with the Spider-Man toys are "Peg Warmers" along with the Marvel Universe Gladiator figures which no one buys.
I hate to say it but I think we are going to be seeing a lot of these at stores like Big Lots at some point in the near future which is too bad because the pervious Iron Man figures where very good and sold well.
These are definitely aimed at the kids, but I think they hit enough points to make collectors...well...collectors can never be truly happy lol!
DeleteI picked up Mark 42 and Iron Patriot back a couple of months ago and I certainly like them for what they are, the additional supplied limbs aren't quite different enough in most cases to be included with the figures, I'd prefer to see arm axes and battle damaged arms with flesh arms coming through. I believe there will be two waves of these at least, 6 in the first and another 6 after, though a bit more diversity would have been welcome, I'd have lost my marbles if they had released a Tony Stark figure in this line, it'd be cool to have him in a t-shirt and jeans to add armour to like Tony with Mark 42's arm on. And they needn't limit it to that, I'd love to see lots more figures made in this fashion so I can more easily mix and match parts among all my toys, not just the Iron Man armours. Cool toys, can't beat the price!
ReplyDelete12 armors would make this a nice robust line - and I agree, adding a Tony Stark into this line would be pure genius!
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