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Reactor Shift Iron Man

March 3, 2014 | By Errex More

I was sorting out my collection the other day, and then I realized I never got the regular, non-light-gimmick Iron Man Mark VI armor, which is odd since those have been sitting forever at discount stores.

So I went to my usual discontinued toy outlet, and once there I found this Reactor Shift Iron Man, instead. This figure was released as part of the Iron Man: The Armored Avenger line by Hasbro, right after the Iron Man 2 line ended.

This figure uses a lot of the molds from the Mark IV and VI armors. In fact, the only new piece is the upper torso, which now displays very intricate detail sculpted onto the chest piece.

Articulation follows the standard scheme for this line of figures, consisting in:

• Ball jointed neck.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Pegged hinge elbows.

• Swivel wrists.

• Barbell mounted torso.

• Pegged hinge hips.

• Upper thigh swivels.

• Double hinged knees.

• Pegged hinge ankles.

The figure comes with two alternate covers for the chest, both made from flexible, translucent blue plastic. One has a circular reactor window and the other a triangular one.

Both chest covers have a pair of tabs that connect to slits on the figure’s shoulders and a small flange in the middle that clips onto the lower edge of the ribcage. This system works fairly well in keeping the pieces attached.

The only issue I have with this figure is that both covers are rather thick, bulking up the outline of the armor. It is not a deal breaker for me, but I do think that the Mark IV chest piece looks slightly better than the Mark VI.

The paintjob on this version of Iron Man is very nice. There are a few stray paint marks at the back, but the overall appearance is nice on my figure. The paint applications on both chest plates are also nice, but the coverage at the edges is slightly uneven on both of them.

Even though I find the concept interesting, I feel that the Reactor Shift gimmick could have been implemented a little better. The figure looks much nicer without the plates, but then again, I don’t recall seeing the Iron Man suit at this particular state of disassembly in any of the movies.

In a nutshell, Reactor Shift Iron Man is a nice enough figure to have, even though I would not call it necessarily an essential purchase. And I still need to go back and get me that elusive, vanilla Mk. VI.