Tag Archives: Iron Man (Toyline)

#0992: Space Armor Iron Man

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

IRON MAN – SPACE ARMOR

IRON MAN (TOYBIZ)

SpaceIM1

Just like Captain America, my first exposure to Iron Man was via his cartoon from the ‘60s. However, unlike poor Cap, Iron Man wasn’t quite as obscure in the mid-90s. While Marvel’s big cartoons in the 90s were Spider-Man and X-Men, both Iron Man and the Fantastic Four received their own cartoons as part of the Marvel Action Hour. By extension, Iron Man (and the FF) got his own line of toys from Toy Biz, right as I was getting into super heroes and action figures. That was really quite convenient, wasn’t it? I’ve looked at a handful of figures from this line, but I’ve yet to look at the main man himself. That changes today, with my review of Space Armor Iron Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

SpaceIM2Space Armor Iron Man was released in the second series of the Iron Man line. He was one of three versions of Iron Man in this particular series, all of which were at least somewhat comics-based. The Space Armor has the notoriety of being one of the earliest specialty armors that Tony created. There have been a few different versions of the armor over the years (and a lot of the differences are really just based on inconsistencies between artists interpretations). This particular version was lifted directly from the cartoon’s design, which isn’t a direct translation of any particular look from the comics, but looks somewhat like a cross between the Model 05 and Model 10 armors (aka Marks I and II of the Space armor). The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation. Now, the interesting thing to note about Toy Biz’s 90s Iron Men is that each one was a basic figure, with a number of vac metalized armor pieces, which could be clipped on to complete that particular armor’s look. Exactly how close the figures were to their intended design without these pieces greatly varied from figure to figure. Space Armor Iron Man isn’t far off from the intended design, but he’s noticeably a lot sleeker, which results in him bearing more than a passing resemblance to the classic Iron Man design from the 60s/70s. Of course, the Space Armor was really just a slight tweaking of that design anyway, so that’s about right. The base sculpt is quite nicely done, with balanced proportions and some cool little armor details here and there. To facilitate the removable armor, the figure has holes on either side of the torso, the waist, the shoulders, the forearms, and the shins. These can be a bit distracting, but they aren’t terribly so, and the figure doesn’t look horrid without the extra armor. Space Armor Iron Man included eight armor pieces: a chest plate, back pack, two shoulder pads, two wrist guards, and a pair of boots. My figure is missing the shoulder and chest pieces, but you can get a pretty good idea of what the armor looked like. The backpack had a set of handholds that were attached to a hook at the top of the pack. When the handholds were moved a certain direction, the hook would retract. As far as paint goes, Space Armor Iron Man was rather simple, with various reds and yellows, the majority of which are molded plastic. What paint there is has been applied cleanly, and the flat red of the figure and metallic red of the armor work well together. In addition to the armor pieces, this figure also included a missile launcher, though, curiously enough, no actual missile to launch.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This Iron Man is a very special Iron Man. And no, not in a “keep your kids of drugs” sort of way. This is my very first Iron Man action figure. You remember waaaaaaaaay back in my review of Night Hunter Batman, when I mentioned my dad finding an Iron Man figure at the Service Merchandise that netted me my second Batman? Well, after he got an Iron Man, I wanted one too. On her way to work one day, my Mom took me to the KB Toys at the mall specifically to get me an Iron Man. I remember we got there before the store opened and I could actually see the display of Iron Men through the store’s window while we waited. After looking at the available options, this was the one I chose, mostly due to him being the closest to the classic Iron Man design, which was the one I was most familiar with. To this day, he remains my favorite Iron Man I own, and I think he really holds up!

#0821: Grey Gargoyle

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

GREY GARGOYLE

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

GreyGargoyle1

Iron Man is really not a guy with the greatest gallery of rogues. Characters Batman and Spider-Man are as much defined by their amazingly entertaining foes as they are by their own personalities. And while they may not be quite as defined by their villains, even the likes of Flash (who has my personal favorite rogues gallery), Captain America, Daredevil, and the Hulk make out pretty well. But Iron Man? Yeah, his best foe, hands down, is himself, which doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for others. So, his foes tend to be a lot more forgettable than those of other heroes. Take for instance, Grey Gargoyle. He’s French, and he’s made of stone. He can also turn other people into stone. That’s really all there is to him. He’s never had a defining story, and he’s not really out there enough to be memorably kooky. So, he’s just there.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GreyGargoyle2Grey Gargoyle was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line, based on the cartoon from the 90s. He got himself a slot in the line by being one of the Mandarin’s many flunkies on the show, but even there he was mostly forgettable. The figure is 5 ¼ inches tall and has 8 points of articulation. He has one of the more unique sculpts than this line, depicting his actual chiseled nature.  The look is somewhat simplified, at least in terms of what he looks like in the comics, so as to better match the animation model from the cartoon. There are a few odd choices, though. First off, there’s the collar for the cape, which, for some reason is attached to his torso, despite the rest of the cape being a separate piece. There’s also the somewhat odd choice to remove the elbow movement from the right arm, to facilitate his (ill-conceived) action-feature. What is said action feature? When you pull his right arm back, it springs forward. This is supposed to facilitate a throwing action of some sort, but it doesn’t really work. Gargoyle’s paint is really simple. He’s mostly just molded in grey, with a tiny bit of slightly different grey for the mask/mustache, and two different blues for the gloves and the innards of his cape. What’s there is cleanly applied, but, like the rest of this figure, and the character himself, the paint is rather unexciting and forgettable.  Grey Gargoyle included two bits of stone, supposedly to be thrown by the action feature, as well as one of the weird ID badge thingies that most of the line included.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Grey Gargoyle was NOT amongst the Iron Man figures I owned growing up. In part because the first series was mostly gone from stores when I started collecting, but also due to my lack of any real interest in the character. I ended up buying him from the House of Fun, while attending the most recent Philcon. Mostly, I just got him to put towards completing the set. Truth be told, he’s actually a well put-together figure, and very true to the character. He’s just not terribly exciting….

#0783: Dreadknight

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

DREADKNIGHT

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

Dreadknight1

The 90s Iron Man cartoon is a very interesting thing. Like, I really enjoy it (well, the second season, anyway), but it was definitely the victim of some very poor timing. My review of US Agent touched on how unfortunate timing ended up saddling Tony with Force Works as his supporting cast, in place of the more conventional Avengers. Well, that also extended to his rogues gallery. Sure, characters like the Mandarin, Fin Fang Foom, MODOK, and even some of the second stringers like Blizzard and Whirlwind are classics who have stuck around. But, then you have the characters that just happened to be around at the time of the show, like Dreadknight, who’s essentially a poor man’s Black Knight, with some Dr. Doom thrown in for good measure. Not exactly the most memorable guy. However, he was in the cartoon, and that meant he got an action figure. So good for him.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dreadknight2Dreadknight was released in the third series of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line from the 90s. He was based on the character’s appearance in the show, which was in turn based on his appearance in the comics, which was unchanged. The figure stands 5 ¼ inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. Dreadknight’s sculpt was unique to him at the time, though most of the body sculpt would be re-used later down the line as a Black Knight figure. Generally speaking, it’s a pretty decent sculpt, and it’s on par with the rest of the line. Some of the musculature is a little on the large side, the arms are somewhat stubby, and he’s got a bit of a pinhead going on, but he looks pretty good as a whole. The occasional hint of chainmail detailing is an interesting way of handling it, but it works. Plus, the overlying clothing all has some nice folds and movement to it. It may be a bit small, but I do like the way his head turned out; very menacing. His cape is a separate removable piece. It’s pretty well sculpted, but it’s rather thick and heavy, and it doesn’t stay in place very well. Dreadknight has the misfortune of being saddled with a pretty horrific color scheme; the light blue and magenta really don’t go together. The figure accurately captures the colors, mind you, but they remain terrible. His paintwork is alright, but nothing fantastic. There’s a fair bit of bleed over on the edges of the magenta, which is certainly distracting. Dreadknight included a lance, with a weird, hard to use missile launching feature, as well as a shield, and a badge with his bio on it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Dreadknight is another Toy Biz Marvel figure I didn’t have growing up. Can’t really say why, other than I guess never being super enamored by the character. I ended up picking him up from a dealer at this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con. He’s actually not a bad figure, and I’m especially happy to have him because he completes my Series 3 set!

#0754: US Agent

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

US AGENT
IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

USAgent1

Who’s up for a history lesson? Well, too bad, cuz I’m giving one anyway.

Let’s talk about US Agent. As a member of the West Coast Avengers, he was carried over into the reformation of the team, Force Works. Force Works had the luck of being relevant at the time of the 90s Iron Man cartoon, resulting in the team serving as Tony’s primary supporting cast for the first season of the show. US Agent, while a member in the comics, was never on the show. But, since the cartoon’s toyline was taking just as many cues from the comics as it was the cartoon itself, US Agent was slated to be released in the third series of the line. Unfortunately, he was cut from the line-up at the last minute, due to a change in the case pack-outs. His tooling was shelved, and later re-purposed for the proposed Living Laser figure in Series 5 of the same line. When that figure was also canceled, the body was re-re-purposed into the “Muntant” Armor version of Professor X. Then, in 1997, with no rhyme or reason, a slow trickle of US Agent figures began appearing from overseas. They were dubbed a “Limited Release” courtesy of Elegant Way, and were very quickly discovered to be unsanctioned by Marvel or Toy Biz. Some 10,000 units were produced before Toy Biz could halt production, but they did their best to make sure as few as possible made it to the US, ironically making US Agent exclusive to areas outside of the US, and quite a pricey commodity amongst US-based collectors. What does all this have to do with me? Well, in case you hadn’t figured it out, I got one.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

USAgent2US Agent was, as noted above, supposed to be released as part of Series 3 of the 90s Iron Man line. Ultimately, he ended up being released on his own, as an unsanctioned product, so this is effectively a bootleg. However, unlike most bootlegs, the quality of the figure seems to be about on par with the official figures. The figure stands 5 ¼ inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation. He only has elbow movement on his left arm, due to a spring-loaded feature being implemented on his right. I’ve actually reviewed most of this figure before, when I looked at Astral Projection Professor X. The right arm, upper left arm, and upper legs are identical between the two figures. The torso and lower legs are mostly the same, though the Professor X pieces had ports for armor add-ons, and the US Agent’s torso has an additional sculpted insignia on his torso. The left hand has a tighter grip on this figure, which is odd, since he doesn’t actually have anything to hold, but it looks fine. The end result is a body that is nearly indistinguishable from Professor X’s to the average viewer. The body’s not the greatest sculpt ever; that torso still looks wonky. That said, it does work a lot better for US Agent than it did Xavier, which makes sense, since US Agent was the character for whom it was intended. US Agent does have his own, totally unique head sculpt, which is cool. It’s not exceptional work or anything, but it is pretty nice, and it gives Walker an appropriately sneer-y expression, plus it sits well on the body. US Agent’s paint work is generally pretty good. Unsurprisingly for a guy named “US Agent,” he consists mostly of red, white, and blue. The blue is molded and the rest is painted on; the application is decent enough, though there’s some slop around the edges. The official prototype shots for US Agent showed him with black in place of the blue, but it’s not unlikely that Toy Biz themselves might have made this change before dropping the figure. US Agent included an energy shield (which has trouble staying in place, due to the spring feature), and one of the standard Iron Man line badges, though it does not have the usual character bio, presumably due to Toy Biz never writing one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back in the 90s, when I was first getting into toy collecting, the Iron Man and Fantastic Four lines from Toy Biz were my jam. I got every figure I could, and I even saved the backs of the packaging so that I could cut out the small thumbnail images of all the other available figures. US Agent was one of the ones I remember having that little thumbnail for, but never being able to find. In those days, you didn’t have many ways of finding out about cancelled figures, so I just assumed he wasn’t out yet. It wasn’t until a little later, after discovering the awesome Iron Man Achive on Raving Toy Maniac, that I found out he never came to be. Then it was another several years or so before I found out he actually had come to be, but not in an easily attainable for a 10 year old sort of way. So, I was excited beyond belief when I came across a dealer at this year’s Baltimore Comic Con selling this guy loose, and not even for a small fortune. I’m really happy to finally have this guy, and to have finally completed my Series 3 collection!

USAgent3

#0608: MODOK

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

MODOK

IRON MAN (TOYBIZ)

MODOK1

MODOK! The Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing! That is, unless he’s on a children’s cartoon on Saturday mornings, in which case, he’s the Mental Organism Designed Only for Konquest. You remember how Konquest is spelled with a “K,” right? Hey, it could have been worse; originally he was going to be Mental Organism Designed Only for Kittens. That just doesn’t seem as threatening, does it?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

MODOK2MODOK was released in the second series of ToyBiz’s 90s Iron Man line. The line was released to tie-in with the cartoon of the time, so MODOK is based on his appearance there. Though, to be fair, his look on the show was largely unchanged from his comic appearance, so the figure can easily pull double duty. The figure is about 5 inches tall and he has 6(?) points of articulation. The articulation is a little hard to get an accurate count on; the attachments on the head definitely move, but it’s hard to tell if the arms and legs are actually supposed to move. If they are, they’re quite limited. MODOK has a sculpt that was totally unique to him, and it’s actually pretty great. It captures the character’s design rather nicely, and it has a surprising level of detail for a figure of the time. The face has some nice, deep set wrinkles, making him appropriately grotesque and all of his armored parts have some nice etched in details. While the sculpt may be impressive, the figure’s been saddled with one of the more lackluster paintjobs of the time. It isn’t actually bad, but it’s incredibly basic, with most of the colors just being molded plastic. Plus, the colors are all flat, which doesn’t really showcase the sculpt all that well. A little bit of a metallic finish would go a long way. MODOK included an ID Card with his picture, powers, and a quick little bio (these were included with all the figures in the first two series of the line), as well as a blast piece that works with the figure’s “action feature.” When you press the button on the back of the figure, or squeeze the head, the blast piece gets launched, at least in theory. In reality, the button doesn’t actually work; you can still go with the head squeezing method, though the launch distance is a little…underwhelming.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

MODOK is another one of those figures that I missed out on growing up. I feel like he may have been one of the more difficult figures to find. He ended up being one of the figures I came across in the dealer’s room at this past Balticon. He actually ended up being the most expensive of the figures that I picked up, though he still wasn’t all that pricey. As an adult, I can appreciate this figure, especially for the strength of the sculpt. As a kid, I think I might have found this figure a little bit less exciting. No real articulation and a lackluster action feature don’t do the figure any favors. That said, he’s a decent looking figure and works perfectly fine as a display piece. I guess it really just depends what you look for in a figure.

#0547: Hawkeye

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

HAWKEYE

IRON MAN (TOYBIZ)

Countdown to Avengers: Age of Ultron: 9 days remaining.

Okay, we’re very definitely getting into the selection of characters that I consider to be the quintessential Avengers.  And no one gets more quintessential-y than good ol’ Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye!   So, let’s have look at a figure of that guy, shall we?  In fact, let’s look at the very first figure of that guy ever released!  That’ll be nifty!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hawkeye was released in Series 2 of the 90s Iron Man line, which was done to tie-in with the Iron Man cartoon of the time.  Unsurprisingly, Hawkeye is based upon his appearance in that show, which in turn was based upon the design he had in the comics around the early 90s.  It’s a tweak on his classic design, and it’s not too overly 90s, so it works.  I do miss the buccaneer boots and loincloth, but oh well.  The figure stands roughly 5 inches in height and sports 8 points of articulation, which is actually a little bit below the standard of the time.  The lack of proper arm articulation is certainly odd, what with him being an archer and all, but he actually managed okay, thanks to the pose of his arms.  The figure’s sculpt was wholly original to him.  It’s not bad, especially for the time.  The proportions are generally pretty good.  The hands and feet are a little on the large side, and the shoulders are a little high-set.  He’s also got some ridiculously defined musculature, but to be fair, that’s actually true to the show.  The costume details are pretty well handled, with clean lines and some nice texture work on the purple parts.  The head is pretty much spot on for the character, with just the right amount of cockiness in his expression.  Hawkeye’s paintwork is pretty much on par with other figures from the same time.  It’s simple, but well-done.  The colors are nice and bold, and everything is clean, with no real slop or bleed over.  The eyes are totally white and pupil-less, which is not in keeping with his appearance on the show.  However, given how small they are, it’s likely that pupils would have looked rather goofy here, so it was probably the right call.  Hawkeye included a bow, arrow, quiver, a small knife, and the weird character badge thingy that was included with all of the figures in the first few series.  Of course, my figure has none of these things because silly child Ethan decided to lose them all.  Way to go younger me! [EDIT–But then adult me found them again, and I talked about them in this figure’s Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!]

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, I don’t recall the exact circumstances by which I came to own Hawkeye.  I’m fairly certain that he was a gift from my parents.  I know my Dad had a Hawkeye figure first, and that I really liked it, so I’m pretty sure he took note of this and bought me one of my own.  It’s definitely an important piece in my becoming such an Avengers fanatic, I know that much.  Looking back at it, it’s not a perfect figure.  The arms are a weird choice, and he’s held back a little by the fact that he’s in a relatively short-lived costume.  All that said, he’s my first Hawkeye figure, and he’s still my favorite.