Tag Archives: James Rhodes

#0193: Mark I, James Rhodes, & Mark II

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

IRON MAN MARK I, JAMES RHODES, & IRON MAN MARK II

MARVEL MINIMATES

Minimates, Minimates, time to review some Minimates! Yep, it’s more of my favorite line of toys to review, Marvel Minimates. It’s a long running line, with almost 60 main series, plus lots of supplemental boxed sets and exclusives. And I own a very large portion of them, so there’s quite a few for me to review. Today, I’ll be looking at a set from the tie-in series for 2008’s Iron Man. It’s James Rhodes and the Mark I armor, plus the variant Mark II armor.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These guys were released in the 21st series of Marvel Minimates.

IRON MAN MARK I

While stranded in a cave, being held captive by a terrorist cell, Tony Stark builds his first suit of armor, dubbed the Mark I, from scrap parts. That’s right, Tony Stark built it. In a cave. With a box of scraps! The Mark I is built on the standard Minimate body, which means it has 14 points of articulation and stands about 2 ½ inches tall. The figure has 10 sculpted add-on pieces: helmet, chest plate, upper arm covers, lower arm covers, thigh covers, and boots. All of these pieces look great, and have a tremendous amount of detailing. The coolest feature about the figure is what’s underneath of all those pieces: a whole Tony Stark! Add the included hair piece and spare feet, and you get a pitch perfect interpretation of what Tony wore while working on the Mark I. It’s a great touch, and this was one of the very first Minimates to implement such a feature. The paint work is very detailed and quite cleanly applied, especially on the underlying Tony pieces. This is by far my favorite figure in the set, and in fact the whole of series 21.

JAMES RHODES

James Rhodes, or Rhodey as Tony likes to call him, is Tony Stark’s best friend and confidant. This figure is kind of funny now, given that it’s based on Terrance Howard’s ill-fated portrayal of the character, and is in fact wearing the very outfit he has on during the infamous “Next time, baby!” scene. The figure is built on the standard Minimate body with two add-on pieces: hair and jacket. Both pieces were new to this figure, and both are pretty much spot on to how Rhodey looked in the film. The paint work on the figure is pretty nice, with no real slop, and some very nice detail work on the shirt and pants especially. The face isn’t quite Terrance Howard, and it seems like the skin may be a tad too dark, but it’s a valiant attempt. Rhodey included no accessories.

IRON MAN MARK II

After he returns home from captivity, Tony decides to refine the Mark I, and builds the Mark II. It’s a sleeker design, and it’s a bit higher powered. It’s also a really easy repaint for toy companies, given that it’s really just a silver version of the Mark III, the film’s main armor. So, here it is, for pretty much that reason. The figure is on the basic Minimate body, with 6 uniquely sculpted pieces: two-piece helmet, chest piece, gloves and legs. All of these pieces are well sculpted, and look accurate to the movie. Not as impressive as the Mark I, but still pretty good. The paint is fairly basic, being mostly one shade of silver, but they did put all the appropriate rivets on, which is a nice touch. The figure includes a spare set of hands and legs, and a hair piece, to allow a more disassembled look.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really loved the first Iron Man film, and patiently awaited the release of the tie-in ‘mates. They kept getting pushed back, which was very annoying, but once I had them, they were one of my favorite series of Minimates for a very long time. I still love the Mark I, and all the amazing detail present in that little guy!

#0066: War Machine

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

WAR MACHINE

MARVEL SELECT

Today, I’ll be taking a look at another figure from the Marvel Select line.  This time around, it’s from the small assortment of figures released in the line to coincide with the release of Iron Man 3 this past summer.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

War Machine was released as part of the Iron Man 3 subset of the Marvel Select line.  Like the rest of the Marvel Select line, they don’t have specific “series”.  They tend to just be released on their own, or in pairs.  This figure is of course based on the War Machine 2.0 look from the *Tie-In comics to the* Summer Blockbuster Iron Man 3.  Yeah, despite it’s presence throughout the tie-in toys, the actual War Machine paint scheme is only in the lead-in comic, and makes no actual appearance in the film.  And yet this is the main release figure, and the Iron Patriot is the store exclusive.  Bleh. The figure stands roughly 7 inches tall, and has 26 points of articulation.  The sculpt is accurate to the suit design from the movie, although it’s a bit thin in the waist area.  All the details are nicely done, but some of the armor details are slightly soft.  The paint is adequate.  It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just a bit bland.  It’s lots and lots of greys and silvers.  War Machine comes with a stand that resembles a stall from the hall of armor, and an alternate head sans faceplate, so you can see Rhodey’s face.  The stand is nice, but it takes up a lot of space.  The extra head is cool, and the Don Cheadle likeness is pretty good, although I feel like his skin tone is a tad light for Cheadle, and the eyes are a bit on the wonky side.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Yeah, so right off the bat, this is a figure that ties into a movie where the look presented doesn’t appear in the film.  I like the sculpt, but I think with the more exciting Iron Patriot paint scheme, this figure would pop a lot more.  They actually did make an Iron Patriot from this sculpt, but it was a Disney Store exclusive, and is difficult to find.  And this figure was $12.  At $12, this figure is pretty good.