Iron Man Mark 01 Armor

Trapped and forced to build advanced weapons for a vicious rebel group, Tony Stark builds this powerful armor suit in order to escape. Flamethrowers in the arms create a fiery corridor before him, chasing off his attackers, and lighting his way to freedom.

Help this armored superhero fight his way to freedom! Incredibly detailed action figure, based on the movie character, features launching flamethrower blast! Use the pull-back and release action to launch a blast and help this mighty hero defend himself against his most evil enemies!

Release March 2008
MSRP 9.99USD
Order online at the Hasbro Toy Shop

So the quick version goes like this; Genius guy Tony Stark is captured by some terrorist types and made to build weapons to help further their cause, but while he’s held hostage he receives a near fatal injury from an explosion which embeds shrapnel near his heart. The key to his escape, AND the only thing keeping him alive, is the suit of armor he cobbles together from the various missiles, tanks or whatever else is just sitting around.

Sounds pretty lame, right? Well once we get over all that goofy origin stuff, what we have is actually pretty cool - a guy in high-tech armor shooting deathlazers out of his hands and inflicting vengeance via repulsors from on high! Or in this case, breaking down walls and burning people to cinders using his wrist-activated flamethrowers!

Out of package, the Mark 01 comes equipped with a “Launching Flamethrower Blast”, essentially a yellow/orangish missile that loads into a spring activated slot on the left arm - there’s no button to push here, you just pull it back and let it go, so watch out! It’s a pretty boring gimmick, but it’s good enough I suppose, although it would have been nice if the “blast” was molded to look more like flames than the shape it has.

Size comparisons, the Mark 01 comes in close to 6 and 1/2 inches tall, just a centimeter or two shorter than the Mark 03 suit (and I would assume Mark 02 as well), but just like everyone else is around a half inch or more lacking compared to villain Iron Monger. As he should be, as Monger should tower over everyone!

The mold itself is pretty impressive, and full of tons of little details. Since the armor was cobbled together from different parts Tony Stark could find, that means everything is mismatched as well - the arms each have separate details, as do each leg. In fact, the left ankle/foot has a completely different range of motion from the right one because of these differences.

The paint apps on this aren’t that impressive, but that’s mostly due to the fact there doesn’t really need to be any. The majority of the figure uses the color of the plastic as its base, which also seems to have some color variations molded into it for added detail. Otherwise, there are some blacks here and there, and then some washes for detail/rust etc. There’s a decal on his chest featuring random numbers, as well as the signature center circle in the chest colored in with a silverish paint. The eyes are filled in with black, but as you can see, mine are kind of all over the place - as were all the ones I saw on the shelf when I got this one. I’m sure we’re going to see more than a few kitbashed versions of these showing up on e-bay in the coming months, with more metallic/grimy/battle damaged looking paint jobs - which in fact I’ll probably end up doing one myself!

Posability is where this guy really comes up short unfortunately, with only about 12 points of articulation. Sure, it’s a big hulking brute of armor, but it’d be nice if the toy had more range of motion than what the actual suit must have had. The head only swivels left and right. The hands don’t move at all. The elbows can’t raise much more than around a 30 degree angle. The knees bend, but not very far at all either. Iron Man can rotate at the waist, which is nice, but (as mentioned above) the issues with the different range from each ankle/foot means you are pretty limited by the sorts of stance he can achieve. So for poses, you’re pretty much stuck within the range of the pictures in the gallery here, which isn’t great.

That’s not to say the figure isn’t great though. Unlike the Mark 02 and 03, the articulation here is pretty weak - but the sculpt of the toy itself more than makes up for it. The little details like the treads in the legs, and the gears and wires in the back, it’s really got a lot going on. And as stated before, the availability for a much greater looking figure through kitbashing more articulation into it or adding better paint makes it even more desirable too. Plus, I mean look at it, it’s pretty awesome as is. And while I’m sure the kiddies are going to be more attracted to the shinier Mark 03 model, there’s something pretty elegant and raw with the Mark 01 that makes me like it just a bit more. The grime, and the steampunk feel of uneven proportions, and rust, leaking oil - it’s a thing of beauty.

Definitely not the best figure of the line, but it could very well be my personal favorite of the bunch. Now go buy it and decide for yourself!