Classic Iron Monger

November 20, 2010 | By More


I fell for it. Normally, I can see repaints coming a mile off. In the case of the Classic Iron Monger, I missed it.

Now this isn’t the Iron Monger from the films. This is the comic book version. In short, a powered armor suit to beat Tony Stark at his own game.

Appearance:

As I stated above, this figure is a repaint. That’s not entirely fair. IM is based on the Hulkbuster Iron Man reviewed here. However, the change of a number of pieces gives this figure a fairly different appearance.

I realized this was the same basic figure when I saw the back. If you remember back to the Hulkbuster, I said the ARC light was a a separate rubber piece and we’d probably see a repaint with a different shape. Which is exactly what we have here.

Probably the most significant change to this figure is the head and neck. I’m not a huge fan of the neck piece. It’s like a washer and can slide around a bit. The head is nicely done, though. He’s got that angry robot look down. The head is probably the piece that changes the look of this figure the most. Because of the height it has over the squat Hulkbuster head, it really gives the figure a different look proportionally.

The overall color of the figure is blue. There’s a strong wash over the figure that highlights all the details. I’m not use to seeing colors this bright on a figure with a wash. The effect reminds me of some of the Warhammer figures I’ve seen in my travels.

The combination of the blue and changes to the forearm armor and shoulder pads remind me of a really bulky Mega Man. The hoses on the arms go a long way to making the arms look different from the H.B. My one small complaint here is that I wish the shoulder pads would have covered the smoke stack holes from the red version.

The one thing I’m not sure of is the antenna. It looks like it is molded the way it looks, which is broken at the end. It’s not a bit deal, I’m just not sure why it is that away.

Fun:

I really loved the Hulkbuster, so it’s no big surprise that I’m fairly impressed with this guy as well. As a bonus, both elbows work with no issues.

I do have one slight issue with this armored baddie. I’ve stated numerous times, I’m not a big fan of the one fist one and one open hand sculpts of most of the Iron Man line. The movie Iron Monger (reviewed here) broke that mold with two open hands. However to make up for that, this version of the Monger has two closed fists. While they look cool with the paint wash, an open hand would have been nice.

Like all of the figures in this line, the big blue guy comes with a stand and mix and match cards. I really have no use for the cards, yet. The stand, while nice, isn’t needed either. This guy has enough heft and big clunky feet, so balance isn’t a problem.

Overall:

Yeah, I like him. No surprise. He’s a fairly well executed repaint. There’s enough changes to the shin and arm armor that it’s not obvious, and the head really gives the figure a different look proportionally.

One of the the things that is kind of cool about this figure, is with the generic looking robot appearance and blue color, he really wouldn’t look out of place with a number of other figures. Fighting GI Joe or squaring off against Hellboy, this figure is not so blatantly Iron Man that it will blend in with a bunch of other stuff.

Engineernerd Score: 96/100

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Category: Featured, Iron Man, Marvel, Toy Reviews

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Comments (4)

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  1. fishmilkshake says:

    Nifty! I like it. Shame they don’t do them in 6″ scale.

  2. Errex says:

    Neat design, but I don’t know how I feel about the bright blue color scheme.

  3. Engineernerd says:

    It kind of grew on me. I didn’t think I’d like it, but is really such a contrast to all the red and grey, it’s kind of cool.

  4. JD says:

    I love this figure cuz it’s big and scary and bad ass, a great toy sprung from the comic art. Ya know what? I found it once in a store, bought it that one time, never ever saw it again.