Iron Man: Iron Monger

This mighty suit of armor is as ruthless as it is powerful, willing to destroy the entire city, just to take out Iron Man. It was built from the design documents for the original Iron Man armor. It bristles with weapons, and is strong enough to smash boulders into dust.

Incredibly detailed action figure, based on the movie character, features super fist-smashing action! Squeeze this fiendish figure’s legs for a super strength fist smash that’s sure to pack a punch! This “iron”-clad villain is ready to destroy anything in his path – and he’s heading for your neighborhood!

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

As you can read from the official solicit above, the villainous Iron Monger is a weapon of mass destruction, based on stolen and modified Stark Enterprises designs - which explains the similarity in looks between all the toys, yeah? Also of note, this review will be on the first wave Monger, NOT the second wave version that features an opening cockpit/chest gimmick (which I may review at some point down the line…).

Right out of the package, Iron Monger here is pretty impressive. About 7+ inches tall, he towers over all the other figures in the line, AND outweighs them too! I’m serious, I was shocked by how hefty this guy was. Solid and thick plastic makes up the majority of him, Monger really feels bulky - don’t drop him on your toes or you’ll be sorry!

Iron Monger is also the only figure in the line to not come with any accessories, although he does come with an action gimmick, the “Super Fist Smash”. To activate the gimmick, you just squeeze the legs together, which causes gears in the waist and arms to twist in a punching fashion. I never actually got the motion to work right, or look like anything like a winding up punch - the closest I got was Monger here doing his best disco dance impression, or maybe having some kind of epileptic seizure. Also, the gimmick causes a severe lack of mobility in the figure to boot - but I’ll get to that later. Blah to gimmicks like this I says!

Without weapon accessories, Monger here at least comes built in with some guns and missile salvos, on each arm there are separate stocks of armament ready to blast away - as well as the repulsor slot in each hand. The little details in the mold are great, and ultimately make up for the major posability problems - although it would have been nice if he had at least some kind of removable or firing accessories. Monger here has about 13 or so points of articulation, although Monger’s head/helmet has the most range of motion of any of the figures in the line (and also has a tendency to POP out pretty easy, so be careful), which makes for some pretty cool poses for sure. The paint apps, because they are so limited, look great. Basically his eyes are colored in with a gradient, and there are a few other spots of red on his torso - and then a slight dark wash to bring out the details. I know there has been an issue with poor paint on a lot of the other figures, but Monger manages to skip that flaw at least.

Now for the flaws he does have. As stated above, and because of the “Super Fist Smash”, the mold has a pretty major flaw. The right hip joint doesn’t move forwards OR backwards at all, because in order to enable the punch gimmick it only hinges towards the other leg. That’s right, his hip only hinges inwards - maybe the gimmick should’a been called the “Suzanne Somers Thighmaster” instead? So what that hip joint means for posability is you are pretty much only able to stand Monger up in various straight poses, maybe some slight bended knee, even though the knee joints have a wide range on them, AND the ankles have an extendable and moving part to help stabilize the figure in a variety of poses - which sadly, this guy just can’t make. From what I hear, the other version of Iron Monger (the one with the exposed cockpit) will actually have 2 proper hip joints, but it’s unfortunate this one doesn’t in place of something as silly as the punching movement it has, which again, doesn’t even really work to begin with. So what you’re left with is a lot of “jazz hands” poses, although the joints in the shoulders were tight enough to hold up the Mark 01 Iron Man over Iron Monger’s head with ease, which I guess is kinda cool…

Overall, that’s not to say Iron Monger is a total waste. Regardless of the limitations here, the mold itself is pretty great. He looks imposing as he towers over the other figures, even if most of the interaction here is going to come from the Iron Man figures, because Monger can’t really get around very because of his bum hip! Did I mention how bulky he was too?!

In the end, despite how great the figure looks - and he does, he really really does - the hip joint issue just puts too much of a damper on what he can do. If you’re the kind of collector only interested in having something to stand on a shelf, or maybe your desk at work, or even to keep MISB, then this guy should be fine. If you’re like me though, and want to move the guy around, change his poses every so often, then this one is probably a pass. Also, the kiddies’ll probably get bored with this guy pretty fast too, and again taking into account the lack of accessories as well, maybe it’d be best to wait for the 2nd wave version to grab - the one that actually has working legs. I know I’m wishing I had.