This guest review of the Iron Man 2 Concept Series Advanced Tactical Armor 3-Pack is from AFP reader Suri. Thanks very much for the review and pics!
Mere minutes before seeing Iron Man 2, I decided to drop into a K-Mart to look at some toys. K-Mart is not exactly my usual stop, but it was immediately next to the movie theater and I decided “Hey, why not?” At best, I was expecting some of the Hulkbuster wave of Iron Man 2 toys. I’ve heard rumors of spottings in California and Canada of this wave. At worst, I would settle for a Hypervelocity Iron Man or a Movie Mark I, neither of which I have picked up yet. What I didn’t expect, however, was this three-pack – mainly because I didn’t even know it existed.
This three-pack of the 3.75-inch Iron Man 2 Concept Series is simply something I did not know of. I had seen no press shots, heard no rumors and never seen them in stores. As it turns out, this is a K-Mart exclusive, as can be seen on their site (Iron Man 2 Concept Series: Advanced Tactical Armor). I stumbled upon it purely by luck and what immediately caught my eye was the Iron Patriot armor.
Labeled “Vibranium Armor” on the box, it’s clearly the Captain America-suit Iron Man, art of which has been around since late in the Civil War event. There was even a 6-inch version of it in the first Iron Man movie toyline, which I sadly do not own. I am hesitant to call it the Iron Patriot armor, as that’s what Norman Osborne is using now and not the original name. Additionally, the color distribution is different than the comic book Iron Patriot armor, but I’m getting off topic. The toy itself. A repaint of the Mark VI, the red, white and blue paint are all very, very shiny. But also very sticky. It took a while to get any of the joints to move. Additionally, it seems like the blue paint stops short just under the head, leaving a small area of white at the top of the neck. In terms of the shield, it’s got little elastic bands to keep it steady, as well as a wrist clip which doesn’t work.
The second item, and the one I was least enthused about upon purchase, is the War Machine Omega Factor Armor. Besides sounding cool, I have no idea of the context of the name. I know The Omega Factor is both an old BBC television show and the subtitle of an Astro Boy video game. Beyond that, I think it’s just meant to sound cool. A repaint of the movie War Machine with some different colored plastics used, it’s rather neat. The War Machine figure is awesome and so is this. It comes with the same ammo belt feed and missile-firing gatling gun as the regular one, the latter of which I shall toss into a bin and forget about, it’s a little more than I was expecting, so it’s nice. But still, I don’t like the missile-firing action. Into the bin it goes.
Lastly, there is the Bio-Metal Armor. I hesitate to call it a repaint of the Mark V suitcase armor, because it’s molded entirely in translucent red plastic. Redeco, maybe? Regardless, this looks really, really cool in person and so much better than the solid red with black speckles on the back of the box. It also comes with a missile launcher, but no suitcase. But, and I find this the single most puzzling aspect of the entire three-pack, it comes with an extra hand. The hand used with the Mark V to hold the suitcase. Why? I’m not ungrateful, but… it just seems rather odd. But I like it. I may be a bit biased, as I do have a thing for the thin frame of the Mark V sculpt and the tiny little details, which I feel look cooler with the translucent red. I also feel the smaller frame, oddly, helps him stand out from the other suits. It’s lightweight and will not be doing any Hulkbusting any time soon.
Overall, I feel this was worth the $15 retail the pack goes for. The K-Mart site claims $25 is retail, but it also claims the pack won’t be out until May 30th. Clearly, it cannot be trusted. I don’t think I’d drop $25 on this, which is the same price as the Toys R Us Concept Series exclusive 3-pack. Doesn’t sound odd? The TRU 3-pack is 6-inch figures, not 3.75 inch. Regardless, I really do like this pack. If you’ve got a K-Mart nearby, then you can probably snag this when it comes out.
Very good to know. I am sort of, kind of, addicted to the IM2 line. I did not even know they were going to have 3 packs of figures. Off to the stores today to see what I can find. PS Watching Iron Man 2 last night only made me want the toys more. 🙂
This set is $25. It happens to be on sale this week for $14.99.
It’s not, technically, the Iron Patriot armor, which is why the color scheme is off. Back during Civil War, Marvel had a bunch of fake-me-out promotional artwork to imply that Cap’s side might win. In that art, Cap is sporting Iron Man armor with the color scheme seen here. This was also made into a 6″ figure from the first movie toy series. That color scheme is being replicated here, in the 3.75 scale. The Iron Patriot, while using the same colors, is a different color scheme.
It also lacks the Star that Norman has his armor’s chest, instead of the little triangle the Mark VI has in the movie, I know.
I just like being able to have a name to assign to something, even though I do address that it’s not exactly accurate.
That “Iron Patriot” looks nice, but I’m disappointed as I thought this pack was going to be 6″. It’s unlikely that the IM2 6″ figs will be freed from Wal-Mart’s death grip, so perhaps we’ll get a Mk VI 6″ Iron Patriot when Iron Man 3 rolls around.
My local TRU has a few of those 6″ Captain America Iron Man figures from the first movie. I never thought they’d become peg warmers. I remember hunting that guy for weeks, way back when.