Iron Man 2 Movie Series Wave 1 Iron Monger Reviewed

Iron Monger is the primary villain from the 1st movie and I doubt he will show up in Iron Man 2. Nonetheless, Hasbro made an all new figure of him for Iron Man 2 Movie Series Wave 1, along with other armors from Iron Man, such as Marks I-III. Right off the bat, the 1st thing mentioned about this figure was it's scale; it isn't in scale with the other figures. In fact, a lot of fans use the 2nd Iron Monger from the 1st movie line as thee Iron Monger to use with the new 3-3/4" Iron Man 2 figures.

Yet I picked this smaller Iron Monger up. Was it worth purchasing? Read on....

Iron Monger only comes with a figure stand and 3 armor cards. Unlike most of the other figures in this line, Iron Monger lacks a missle launcher. Since missle launchers aren't things most collectors use, the lack of a missle launcher won't bother most of you.

Iron Monger has subtle paint applications of metallic blue. So subtle that I did not even notice them at first! It's much more apparent on the armor cards, and thankfully so, as the blue shown on the cards stands out too much. On the figure, the blue paint apps are applied just right.

The metallic paint apps are a great touch on Iron Monger. So it looks good, but does it play, and pose well? Well...

Yes but it can be frustrating. Why? The figure has tight joints. For a big figure, rather good range of motion, though the hips could use more(nowhere near as disappointing as the hips on Marvel Universe Hulk though). Fortunately for me, my figure did not suffer from stuck joints(it took a while to move the hips though). So where's the frustration?

The frustration is due in part to some of the joints being way too tight. Another figure that this reminds me of is Iron Man Mark I(you'll see in a later review). Trying to move the hips on my Iron Monger figure resulted in the joints FINALLY moving after applying much force BUT also my finger ending up getting scraped by the leg after losing grip on it. Not cool. If you're a parent buying this figure for your children, this is the main thing I'd watch out for.

Now I don't mind tight joints so long as the joint(s) in question are not stuck, but these were too tight in my opinion. The other joints, aside from the hips are alright.

The figure features full articulation, it just lacks the double jointed knees that most of the other Iron Man figures have, as well as an ab joint. In lieu of a ab joint(which might have "broken" the sculpt), it has a waist joint. It also has a ball jointed neck with decent range of motion. I love how this figure has ball jointed wrists, we rarely see these joints on 3-3/4"-4" scale figures by Hasbro and it's a welcome surprise.

Iron Monger has an abundance of sculpted details. The overall sculpt is quite good, with weapons and wiring sculpted on. At this smaller scale I think fans will appreciate the intricacy of the detail. However, since it is molded in plastic prone to scratches, I suggest sifting carefully through the figures at the store, and looking for one without embedded scratch marks. If there is any weakness that this line has overall, it is that; there have been many figures I have opened only to find scratches in the sculpt, specifically on the heads/masks.

Luckily for me, the head sculpt on mine was fine, but look at the last image of the leg, what the hell is that?. You can sure as hell tell, those scratches are not part of the design at all, no battle damage to recreate the last battle from Iron Man 1.

In conclusion, this figure is worth picking up. I doubt kids will really care about the accuracy of scale. Iron Monger is a decent figure, brought down just by the random scratches on my figure, and the situation in freeing the hip joints.

Is it a figure worth replacing the 2nd Iron Monger from the 1st movie line? In my opinion no, but I look at mine as a "mini-Monger", a drone that Iron Man, War Machine and others can fight. For collectors it's a figure that can be used in addition to the 2nd Iron Monger, but not as a replacement for it. The good thing is that it's still bigger than the Iron Man figures in the line, as it should be.

The quality is good, and it's not a bad figure. In fact the only reason I can see anyone passing this figure up is for scale, other than that and the aforementioned issues, it's not a bad purchase.

Thank`s Shin, nice review.
Have to say I`ll be sticking with my S1 Iron Monger purely as it fits better. I still may pick up a few of these though to turn into something else.
As for the tight joints, yea my IM SeriesIII has that same issue.

I just got a couple of these one to keep in box and one to open and give to my son/check out myself. gotta say it's one of the best 3.75 Hasbro's out there. Not really worried about scale in comparison to the movie.

Another great review, Shin! This is actually the very first IM2 fig that I picked up... I just couldn't put it back on the peg...

I got the new one as the son of the original (OK I live in a warped universe, LOL). Anyway he is cool, much cooler than I expected and looks like they pretty much shrunk him down from the series 1. I got flashback to old toybiz reusing moods in different scales with that (but this is obviously not the case here, but the similarities are uncanny).

Great review!

Any comparison pics with the V2 Iron Monger from IM1?

the blue looks nice enough that I might repaint my 6" figure!
it would be kind of fun to hollow out the pilot from the 6" and put in a 4" to drive him

I found one of these by complete and utter random chance while doing a mini-hunt after work a few weeks back.

I love this guy. Even this out-of-scale he's intimidating enough to be more than a match for my Steel Brigades.

I painted the eyes and reactor on mine a nice evil red/orange and ir enhanced the look tenfold (gotta post pics of that!)