Iron Man's alternate
mode is, appropriately enough, a jet, given that the dude can fly. In this
mode he generally looks pretty good, and is almost kibble-free-- his robot
arms can be seen fairly easily under his wings, but other than that it's
a solid mode. The red-and-brown color scheme is a little on the unusual
side, but it works moderately well with the yellow accents and the gray
missiles. (Under each wing, attached to each arm, is a spring-loaded missile
launcher in addition to the smaller, non-launching missiles under each
wing.) The mold detailing is also quite good, though Iron Man's jet mode
has a nosecone that is waaaay too stubby-looking. In fact, given the age
group this toy is aimed at, the jet mode as a whole just looks a tad too
"kiddy". Other, minor, problems I have with this mode are, first, none
of the rear wings lock securely into place and tend to flop around a tad,
and second, there's no landing gear, something that's pretty much expected
on a jet toy of this size.
Iron Man's robot mode
is also generally good, though like his vehicle mode is suffers from a
few problems-- none of them particularly major, but together they do subtract
from the toy a bit. For one, the wings just sort of fold behind his main
body without pegging in anywhere exact. The nosecone sides on his waist
also look a little out-of-place, as well, and a small flap that's supposed
to close up the hollow gap between his robot head the front of his chest
doesn't click into place anywhere. In addition, his lower arms are hollow,
given that the hands fold out of them, but no attempt has really been made
to make them look more "solid". I do like how the missiles have been relocated
to his lower arms to give Iron Man some firepower, though, and his proportions
are excellent, even though he does look a bit stiff for some reason. His
articulation is quite good, however, as he's able to move at the neck,
shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), hips (at two points),
and knees (at two points). The mold and paint detailing continue to be
quite good in this mode, and capture Iron Man's "look" quite well, though
I have to say the yellow doesn't look as good of a secondary color in this
mode as the brown did in jet mode. There are also a few minor things done
in this mode that, though not necessary for the transformation, are nice
extra little "steps" that help everything mesh together better. One of
these is the sliding out of the bottom of the "boots" to make the feet
wider, and the other is the sliding down of the jet cockpit to have it
sit more flush with the stomach and expose some details on Iron Man's upper
chest.
Overall, Iron Man is
a fairly good Marvel TF, though not particularly outstanding-- he doesn't
have any MAJOR flaws, but he does have several minor ones that add up.
Mildly recommended.
Review by Beastbot
*This mold was re-released in a near-identical color scheme for the Iron Man 2 "Concept Series" Transformers Crossovers sub-line. The only really notable difference for this second release was that the brown-gray plastic was replaced with the same dull red plastic used for the rest of the toy. Since this made the toy a bit too monotonous in color, I'd recommend the inital version over this subsequent release.