Released 2008
Hasbro cashes in again with another sub-par figure
If you read my review of Hasbro's Mark II figure then you know what to expect here. If not, it might be worth giving it a look since the Mark III is essentially the exact same figure with different paint.
To be blunt, Hasbro's Mark II SUCKED, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time extolling the virtues of their Mark III since it suffers in most of the same ways. There's going to be a lot of copy-paste going on in this review (and not just because I'm a lazy bastard). Overall, the Mark III is a better figure than the Mark II thanks to a bit more fit and finish, but it's still not a great figure.
What makes this especially painful for me is my love of the Iron Man films and ILM's spectacular work on updating the look of the armor for a 21st century audience. I want to LOVE the Mark II and III figures... but I don't. Even considering their original retail price point, they suck. So how do they fail and why? Let me explain.
To be blunt, Hasbro's Mark II SUCKED, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time extolling the virtues of their Mark III since it suffers in most of the same ways. There's going to be a lot of copy-paste going on in this review (and not just because I'm a lazy bastard). Overall, the Mark III is a better figure than the Mark II thanks to a bit more fit and finish, but it's still not a great figure.
SCALE and HEIGHT
This is an approximately 6 inch figure, but comes off as being a bit short for the scale. It fits more closely with Hasbro MARVEL LEGENDS figures than the older Toy Biz figures. But it's close enough to not really matter.
I wouldn't recommend it to be used with the larger scale MARVEL SELECT figures since they are in a 7 inch scale. The difference would be glaring.
Sculpt
As I mentioned in my Mark II Iron Man review, Hasbro's sculpting chops were in a sad state (as was their Quality Control, apparently) when this figure was released in 2008. And while the overall look of the sculpt resembles the film, it falters under close examination.
One of the first things you notice when looking at the Mark III is how sickly and anorexic it looks proportionately. Having re-watched the first film today for good measure, I can say definitively that this was NOT the case onscreen.
Making things worse is inaccurate detail (flare launchers on the hips spring to mind), womanly hands (that look more like fitted gloves than armored gauntlets), and pencil thin wrists. Fortunately the spots on the Mark II (where you could see where each part was crudely ripped away from the sprues of the mold) are better covered on the Mark III thanks to thicker paint. Also fixed are the chunky areas that were present on the Mark II.
Making things worse is inaccurate detail (flare launchers on the hips spring to mind), womanly hands (that look more like fitted gloves than armored gauntlets), and pencil thin wrists. Fortunately the spots on the Mark II (where you could see where each part was crudely ripped away from the sprues of the mold) are better covered on the Mark III thanks to thicker paint. Also fixed are the chunky areas that were present on the Mark II.
Paint Apps
I've had two issues with the Paint Apps on the Mark II and both are somewhat addressed on the Mark III.
First, the paint of the Mark II was simply NOTHING like it appeared in the film. That's not the case here. The Mark III DOES capture the Gold and Candy Apple Red seen in the film and Hasbro deserves credit for getting that right. Also present are silver trim on circular fasteners and around the collar (Though NOT under the arms or between the "ribs" as should be the case). These are nice touches that help break up an otherwise straight forward color palette. It's in the film, and it's on the figure.
The paint that IS there is sloppily applied, but it's better than the Mark II. That isn't saying much though and there are a few places where you can spot either missing paint or some ugly paint bleed.
But at least you can't see the underlying plastic all over (as was the case on the Mark II). Apparently Hasbro saved enough money by not including a second "Sperm Launcher" that they could afford a second layer of paint. There are still scuff marks, but I'm going to tell myself those came from the previous owner, since I sure as hell wasn't going to pay for a new Mark III after seeing the Mark II.
Again, this is exactly what it seems like... a cheap way to crank out a bazillion figures to cash in of the films release. I guess they figured that kids wouldn't care or be able to tell the difference. It'll be up to the individual collector as to how much they can accept the rushed quality overall.
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| Better Paint than the Mark II |
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| Sloppy Paint Application |
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| More Sloppy Paint Apps |
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| Weird Black Paint on the Head |
Articulation
The articulation here is identical to the Mark II. So I'll be pasting in those comments:
Here too, this figure under performs. To call the articulation here "limited" is perhaps too generous. And again, maybe I'm expecting too much from a 2008 figure. But it's not just that the points of articulation are lacking, but that the range of motion of each joint is especially limited in some crucial ways. Looking to strike that awesome "Ground Pound" pose? Well too bad. Pretty much any dynamic pose you'll try will be undermined somewhere by the articulation on this figure. In the end I just gave up and posed the armor as if it was standing in the Hall of Armor.
And here's a simple one that boggles my mind: For some reason, ALL of Hasbro's movie based Iron Man figures have No WAIST joint. It's not like this is a difficult or complex joint to manufacture. You cut the damned figure in half at the waist and put a peg in there. The amount of bang for your buck that this joint gives collectors is immense, and it seems like pure penny pinching to leave it out.
Instead you get not an ab crunch but a crap diaphragm rib pivot joint. This is the ONLY way to get the Mark II's shoulders to rotate off axis from the waist. As for any sort of forward or backward bending, your options are pretty limited. Forward bending is nigh impossible and you can eek out *maybe* five degrees or so of backward bending. WEAK-sauce.
The head is mounted atop a basic ball joint that's range of motion is so limited that trying to tilt his chin up or down whatsoever results in the head popping OFF. You *might* get a whole 5 degrees of play out of this joint. TOTAL. So you can forget about that flight pose, even if you pop the head off and lightly seat it back on the joint. His head does rotate left and right. Whoop-ee.
His shoulders rotate and raise just like most MARVEL LEGENDS do, however this is again limited. This time the limiting factor is poorly designed shoulder armor which pop off when his arms are raised above say 75 degrees. Shoulder armor is held in place by a shallow "bump in dimple" type setup which seems to lead to the loss of these pieces on nearly every used example I've seen. Crap.
Biceps swivel nicely as this is nearly impossible to mess up and elbows are double jointed. Thank gawd my Mark III didn't include a decimated elbow joint like my Mark II did.
But c'mon, this figure couldn't possibly fail in other areas right? Well you'd be wrong there too. You see on paper, the Mark II DOES swivel AND pivot at the wrists, just not in any way that is useful. Wrists flex but don't extend thanks to an overzealous hand armor sculpt. This makes Iron Man's iconic Repulsor poses physically impossible, forcing limp-wristed poses instead. And that's not particular heroic looking or in keeping with the way Stark likes to bust a pose.
Both hands are pre-posed... (into not fists, gripping hands or a Repulsor friendly position, but instead) into a weak looking pointing pose. Again, not especially useful.
Here too, this figure under performs. To call the articulation here "limited" is perhaps too generous. And again, maybe I'm expecting too much from a 2008 figure. But it's not just that the points of articulation are lacking, but that the range of motion of each joint is especially limited in some crucial ways. Looking to strike that awesome "Ground Pound" pose? Well too bad. Pretty much any dynamic pose you'll try will be undermined somewhere by the articulation on this figure. In the end I just gave up and posed the armor as if it was standing in the Hall of Armor.
And here's a simple one that boggles my mind: For some reason, ALL of Hasbro's movie based Iron Man figures have No WAIST joint. It's not like this is a difficult or complex joint to manufacture. You cut the damned figure in half at the waist and put a peg in there. The amount of bang for your buck that this joint gives collectors is immense, and it seems like pure penny pinching to leave it out.
Both hands are pre-posed... (into not fists, gripping hands or a Repulsor friendly position, but instead) into a weak looking pointing pose. Again, not especially useful.
His lower body articulation is similarly limited. Hip joints are bizarre. In their default position his legs can be raised to the side but CAN'T move forward (dorsiflexion) without first rotating the hip joint by 90 degrees or so. Even then, his leg motion has a slight arc to it and you have to use the upper thigh swivels to get his knee joint top side again. What the hell was Hasbro thinking?
Knees (like the elbows) are double jointed and work surprising well, though I do notice that they get loose easily.
Which brings us to the ankles and feet... which SUCK. 5 degrees seem to be the magic number of rotation on many of this figures joints, and that's about how much vertical pivot you can expect from the ankles. Want some camber out of those feet to support a wide heroic stance? Well forget about it. But hey, the ankles allow the feet to ROTATE!!! (Which is basically useless).
This doesn't make the Mark III a particularly stable figure, nor easy to stand in any position aside from a stiff standing position.
This doesn't make the Mark III a particularly stable figure, nor easy to stand in any position aside from a stiff standing position.
Special Features
SUCKING somewhat less than the Mark II.
Want some Foot Peg holes to offset that ankle instability with a stand? Well me too. But this figure doesn't have them.
Accessories
Had I been sucker enough to buy this figure new (I learned my lesson after the Mark II) it would have included a spring loaded projectile weapon known affectionately in collector circles as the "Sperm-Launcher" or "Snot-Launcher". Somehow, I'm not weeping at it's absence.
Other versions
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| Revoltech Mark III |
One company that took the Mark III seriously in this scale was Japan's Kaiyodo. They produced a Mark III in their REVOLTECH line that looks vastly superior to the Mark III in every way. It's got a better sculpt, stellar articulation, and even an LED that lights up the Arc Reactor in the chest. Yes, it does cost about $65. But you're getting 10x the figure for that cost.
Size Comparison
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| Shorter than later movie figures |
I've shown the Mark III next to a Hasbro Mark II and Mark VI (review forthcoming).
Opinion, Value and VERDICT
For completionists, it might be worth adding this figure to your collection. I know I was bitten by the bug to collect all of Hasbro's movie armor figures. But after the Mark II, I'm regretting that. If you can get this guy loose, in good shape on eBay for cheap, then by all means consider it. But had I to do it again, I wouldn't drop more than $15 on this figure.
Closing thoughts
This figure is not as bad as the Mark II. That said, it suffers in many of the same ways, particularly when it comes to articulation. And if you can't enjoy posing a figure it's fun factor is pretty severely limited. Based on how much improvement later figures (Starting with their Mark IV) displayed, it's clear that Hasbro was aware of these problems. And these days, Hasbro has really corrected much of what made this figure such a wasted opportunity. Still a shame though.
For more REVIEWS like this one, keep checking back on yer' old pal Evotaph and GEEKISH PURSUITS. In the meantime, please COMMENT and SUBSCRIBE!
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