Hot Toys Avengers: Infinity War War Machine review – Mark IV

As I watch some of the Hot Toys figures I’ve had on my must-buy list suddenly sell out, it dawned on me I should probably knock out some of the ones I’ve got in the review queue. And it made sense to start with the big gun Avengers Infinity War War Machine.

In every film James Rhodes aka Rhodey gets some slight alterations to his armor. The Iron Man 2 version was his bulkiest until the Iron Patriot armor in Endgame. I liked the sleeker Age of Ultron version and skipped the Civil War armor for the Infinity War version. Of the various War Machine armors, this is my favorite so I’ve been looking forward and dreading cracking open this bad boy for review.

I’m looking at the Sideshow Collectibles Exclusive Edition Infinity War War Machine thanks to a bonus feature I couldn’t skip.

Packaging:  Each figure in the Infinity War set gets a unique color combination while keeping the embossed Avengers “A” and gold foil Avengers Infinity War logo. This package is a 90s comic book investor’s dream.

Rhodey gets a blue and red color scheme, which in hindsight would probably make more sense in either case for his Endgame armors.

As always with the die-cast armor figures, the box is super-sized and much heavier than the average figure. I like the outline interior art as it looks like specs for the latest suit upgrade.

You’ll want to lift the top portion up instead of sliding it out allowing for better control of opening the figure. War Machine is not the kind of figure you want falling on your foot.

There’s the Styrofoam interior instead of the standard plastic. Opening up is a nice treat as the light grey Styrofoam allows the black and silver armor to pop in the packaging right away. Raise the figure section up and you’ll find the final packaged pieces with the next layer of War Machine’s weapons, the base and exclusive bonus.

Likeness:  The fun in waiting a few series before getting the latest Iron Man/War Machine figure is the distinction in the armor. War Machine’s Age of Ultron figure was sleek and perfectly designed for strafing runs to take out dozens of drones.

The Infinity War War Machine armor is sturdier and all around bulkier without looking too cumbersome. That’s important considering all of the gear Rhodey utilizes and a smaller frame would get overwhelmed by the various armaments.

Rhodes’ Civil War armor did have the benefit of most closely resembling the original War Machine armor though I like the aesthetic changes here. The neck piece rests higher while the chest piece is more intricate and layered.

I love how the armor has this shelled appearance where the extra bulk expands out so as to soften the impact for Rhodey, who at this point is still using cybernetic braces to walk.

Most of all, I appreciate how each armor is an evolution over the other and this one clearly feels like the one most suited for full-scale war.

I’ll save the other features for the accessories section, but there is a swappable open masked helmet with the portrait of Don Cheadle’s Rhodey. The jaw section piece is articulated.

No shock here, but the likeness within the mask is exceptional. I wouldn’t mind a fully unmasked Rhodes head at some point. Maybe for Armor Wars?

Paint:  My favorite aspect of this armor is it plays up Rhodey’s military background with a tech camouflage pattern throughout. The charcoal grey with the darker grey camo paint scheme looks amazing.

Hot Toys doesn’t slack off when it comes to the paintwork on figures whether it’s with skin tones or armored pieces. From a distance you can’t really appreciate the effort put into the tech camo, but up close it’s very intricate and well done.

There’s other cool elements in the paint job from the stars and stripes and “Col. James Rhodes — Retired” on the right breastplate.

Scale:  Hot Toys has always skewed the armor figures a tad taller than they should be and that’s the case here with War Machine as well. Ideally, he should be shorter than Captain America. He’s pretty taller compared to Falcon, who is a tad shorter than he should be anyway.

Articulation:  War Machine’s articulation is intuitive and really allows for some dynamic posing. There’s a button on the butt that allows you to lower the legs to a 90-degree angle.

This allows for sitting poses. The hip panels will lift up as needed and Hot Toys set them up to pop off if you approach a breaking point. Smart move.

His bulk might make you a little leery about playing around with too much movement. You will need caution with the flaps, but his arms plug into the ports so don’t panic if they pop off. The shoulder pads also lift so they don’t restrict his movement.

Infinity War War Machine has:

• neck
• shoulders
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• hip
• knee
• ankle

Accessories:  Alright, Rhodey comes loaded as you’d expect for War Machine.

There are eight sets of hands: fists, flying hands, articulated fingers with light-up repulsors and hands with laser attachments.

He’s got an articulated back-mounted chain machine gun and missile launchers.

A set of missile bullets to attach the shoulder mounted weapons and a set of forearm armor (upper and lower).

You can take the chest piece off to show the Stark tech wiring. It’s OK, but not a feature I’m likely to use much.

We also get a swappable LED helmeted head similar to the Infinity War Iron Spider figure.

The face plate’s magnet insert piece needs some superglue to stay locked in place on the right side. That’s a little annoying.

The big special edition bonus with this set is the Outrider with the burnt dismembered carcass of one of Thanos’ war dogs.

This is an excellent bonus and helps add a little extra in the Battle of Wakanda display. As you’d expect the paintwork is fantastic with great sculpting to show how the skin flayed off trying to force through the force shields.

Along with the Outrider, the other exclusive accessory is a rocky ground graphic card to affix on the figure stand.

A lot of the production photos show War Machine flying. Getting those poses aren’t possible with the included basic figure stand.

 

You’ll need the solid bendable one.

Yet Hot Toys recommends against using those likely since it wouldn’t be able to maintain the weight long-term. Still, it’s a bummer that there’s some poses that aren’t feasible without the thicker stand.

Light-Up Feature:  I took me forever to open Rhodey up, so the batteries were already corroded by the time I plugged him in. I was able to get some pics of the helmet’s red lights.

With fresh batteries, I’m sure they’d look nice and strong. On the plus side, the batteries went in and out with no problem.

Worth it?  War Machine clocked in at $415 thanks to the LED light-up features, the die-cast material and the Outrider accessory. I tend to save my Sideshow Reward points for Iron Man/War Machine figures so I didn’t pay nearly that much for him.

The die-cast is the reason for the expense and when you’re handling the figure it definitely doesn’t feel cheap or hollow. Is that four bills’ worth? With Hot Toys figures creeping up in price this comes off like a better value at least.

Rating: 9.2 out of 10

I’ve gotta take away some points for the lack of the sturdier stand and the slight oversize nature of this mold. Those issues aside, this is an excellent Infinity War War Machine and a necessary member of the Wakanda defense force.

Where to get it?  Sideshow Collectibles had Infinity War War Machine in stock for a very reasonable amount of time. Now he’s sold out. You can get him for a not terrible markup on Amazon.

As a Sideshow Collectibles and Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.