As you might have picked up, I'm pretty excited about the Iron Man movie. I'm really looking forward to seeing the archetypal character, without all the Extremis/Civil War/SHIELD garbage that's mucking up his current comic incarnation.
The first line of action figures is in stores now; so far I've picked up the Target-exclusive silver Mark III and the Mark I pictured here. I don't plan on getting any more, as almost every other figure is some kind of variant of the Mark III, and I don't need mold multiples.
The Mark I is by far my favorite figure. This armor looks cobbled together; it's covered in belts, weld marks and joins, and wonderful color variations. It's incredibly non-symmetrical - the overall form is the same on each side/limb, but the details vary from piece to piece. The figure's not very articulated at all, as each joint (except for the shoulders) is blocked by pieces of the armor; but that's a really inspired design choice, as the armor the figure is supposed to represent surely has the same issues.
So far, when the movie folk have tried to bring 'real-life' looks to comic designs, it's always turned out poorly (see leather X-costumes, hard-rubber bat-suits, etc.). But by complicating the original armor design, they've really made something neat here.
Heavyarms | April 2, 2008 8:47 PM
I picked up the red and gold version of the MkIII, which I think was awesome. I couldn't find the MkI anywhere. It was funny, the MkIII I got was the ONLY red/gold version left, but there were multiple Silver Centurion versions (at one Target I went to, it was the only Iron Man figure left on the pegs). It has a big 'ol "Limited Edition" sticker slapped on the front...