Iron Man Mark 03 Target Exclusive Repaint

This armor suit is the peak of human technological achievement. It makes the wearer extraordinarily strong, and resistant to damage even from tank shells and rockets. Equipped with an array of repulsors and missiles, it is nearly unstoppable.

Incredibly detailed action figure, based on the movie character, features launching repulsor blast! Attach the figure’s blaster, press the button and launch a repulsor blast that’s sure to keep this savvy superhero’s enemies at bay!

Target exclusive Repulsor Red Prototype
March 2008
MSRP 9.99USD
Target Ordering Page

From the upcoming Iron Man movie comes the highly anticipated line of toys from Hasbro to go along. Hitting retail March 2008, you can also order the figures directly from the Hasbro Toy Shop online (be sure to look around for free shipping coupon codes and save some money to boot!).

I wasn’t sure which, if any of the figures I’d end up getting, that is until I saw them in person. Previews online always get my appetite whet, but the letdown of actually looking at say, any of the Spider-man 3 figures, or the recent line of Marvel Legends… and well, you catch my drift. BLAH!

Thanks to a trip to my local Target and a 5 dollar off coupon meant I came home with a few goodies. I ended up settling on the Mark 03 Target Exclusive repaint instead of the regular version, as I’ve always been a fan of the silver/red deco from the comics, that Bob Layton/late 80’s look ya know? The Target Exclusive is simply a repaint of the regular Mk 03 toy, so if you can’t get your hands on this one, the review will still technically apply.

Out of the box, IM here comes with his Detachable Repulsor Blaster and Repulsor Missile. It’s kind of a goofy weapon to give IM, since his hands are weapons already, but I guess for the kids wanting to actually shoot stuff around the house, it’s good enough. The missile has a pretty good kick to it, definitely point it AWAY from your face, unless you wanna shoot your eye out kid.

As you can see, The Mark03 here weighs in around the middle height-wise between the Mark01 armor and the villainous Iron Monger. Around 6 and a 1/2 inches himself, he’s a few centimeters taller than the Mk01 when they’re fully extended - however Monger there kinda dwarfs Tony by at least a half an inch. And that’s good, it really keeps the line in scale with itself, and definitely gives Iron Monger an imposing stature to go along (although we’ll be reviewing him soon enough!). After all, a hero is only as good as his villains, yeah?

The mold of the figure itself is actually far better looking than I had hoped. No details were skimped, and the paint apps are of high quality and have a sheen that screams METALLIC (although as you can see in some of the pics, the silver around his arms is a little hit and miss, but can be easily touched up by any crafty customizer/kitbashing types). The head mold is perfect, and all the notches and grooves in the armor really make this look like an Adi Granov design sprung to life. You can see in the pictures above, IM’s hands even have the repulsor emitter on them, as well as his rocket blasters in the heels of his feet. That’s pretty nice, for the little details.

Posability is impressive, but also a bit lacking in parts. And with something like 18 points of articulation on this figure, it’s hard to complain about the range of movement he can achieve - but I’m going to do it anyways. First off, the positions the hands are molded into is something of a disappointment, as it would be nice to be able to do a double-handed open repulsor blast - although the lack of articulation here is understandable, common, and a totally minor gripe. It also would have been nice to see him be able to take on some sort of flight mode poses, but you’re not gonna get very far with that either, sadly, as he looks kinda goofy with his arms over his head. Finally, the rotating socket balls in his hips allow for forward and sideways movement of the legs (which is actually pretty cool, and reminds me a bit of a Revoltech joint), buuuuut it’s hard to get IM to stand in more than a few positions because of this. Maybe if there was a little more give to the range that his ankles could move, or the weight in his legs was distributed a little more evenly, he’d be able to support better poses. As it is though, you’re mostly stuck with a bunch of variations of standing and pushing his chest out as the best he can really do. That’s not to say he can’t hold a bended knee pose at all, but overall you get the impression that a real life suit of Stark armor wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to wear as you’d think - especially if you suddenly found yourself in need to use the bathroom eek!

My biggest complaint with the figure has to do with the shoulder pads, and how easily they want to pop out of the pegs in his arms that keep him in. They really needed to be either more snug, or maybe even be held in place by a pin going all the way through the shoulder, or possibly a screw. As it is, I’m sure this will be a part that many people lose almost immediately (the left shoulder pad popped off mine as soon as I opened the package!). In fact, if you look at the Hasbro Toy Shop page, you’ll see in several of the official promotional images that the photographers mistakenly put the pads on Iron Man’s head thinking it some sort of earphones or visor, and who can really blame them?

Overall, the figure is extremely impressive. For collectors like myself who’re more into having accurate figures to pose on a shelf than something to actually play with, this guy is a dream. And even for the kiddies, I can see this being a great buy, what with the blaster and also because I’m sure once the movie is out, they’re gonna be begging to have one. The price point can’t be beat either, coming in at under 10 bucks, kids and adults’re definitely gonna get that much fun out of it for sure. And finally, for comparison to previous Iron Man figures, there really isn’t any. The Mark 03 is tops in terms of articulation, accuracy and sheer coolness factor definitely make up for the few and slight complaints I’ve come up with here. It’s a shame the whole of the movie line isn’t as great as this figure (the 12 inch Iron Man especially lacking, as well as some posability issues with Iron Monger and the Mark 01 armor too), but I suppose having the main character be the best is probably a smart move, yeah?

So what are you waiting for? Go find a Target and buy this thing already!