War
Machine (Iron Man 3 Battle Charger)
War Machine's alt mode
is-- appropriately-- a jet with a machine gun hanging off one side of the
cockpit. Granted, realistically this is kinda dumb-- why would you have
a gun blocking the cockpit view on one side like that-- but it immediately
calls to mind War Machine (and if you're going for realism anyways, Marvel
Transformers aren't your line). The proportions are generally decent, except
for the wings, which are way too small. The color scheme sticks
with War Machine's basic scheme, being mostly black or almost-black (most
of the plastic is actually a very dark gray) with silver accents. It may
be monochromatic, but it works for the character and certainly fits for
a jet as well. There's a decent amount of paint apps too, though a few
more silver apps near the back end would've helped a little more. The amount
of mold detailing is okay, but it's not particularly impressive or intricate
anywhere-- not even on parts of the mech mode, where it should be. One
additional downside in this mode is that the side arm-wing pieces-- and
especially the shoulder-gun-- are a bit floppy due to the toy's gimmick,
at least on my copy.
As part of the "Battle
Charger" gimmick, if you pull the vehicle mode back and let it go along
a flat surface, after a few seconds the toy will automatically convert
to mech mode-- which honestly would be cooler if the mech mode looked like
much. The "legs" are definitely the biggest downside, as they're simply
the bottom half and back end of the jet mode without any real attempt at
looking like legs. They're also just one big "trunk" of a leg below the
waist, which is another big strike. The arms are too skinny and floppy
too, and there's no real articulation on this toy at all outside of the
shoulder gun pointing up or forward (technically you can move the arms
sideways at two points, but they're spring-loaded and thus will return
to their default positions as soon as you let go of them). On the plus
side, the chest looks decent enough with the cockpit folding up against
it and some mech mode silver and black detailing behind it, along with
a red-rimmed triangular paint app that resembles War Machine's power core.
The head is also quite well-sculpted and painted with some nice light blue
metallic eyes, so no complaints there.
The Iron Man 3
"Battle Charger" War Machine might be a decent toy for a little kid who
just wants a little auto-transformer toy, but beyond that it's hard to
recommend this guy. His color scheme and vehicle mode (minus the wings)
are pretty decent, but his mech mode is just awful outside of the core
body, and he's got no articulation whatsoever and a few floppy parts to
boot. The auto-transformation gimmick simply isn't impressive enough to
overcome all these deficiencies.
No Stats
Review by Beastbot