Pros : Bulky sculpt and looks and feels substantial, like a man in a suit. The decals add nice detail to the basic paint job
Cons : The accessories are poorly fitting and drop off and out too often. The unmasked head is a miss.
Captain America, Civil War, saw the Marvel Legends MCU roster expand considerably with new characters making their debut like Scarlet Witch, and updates to characters like the War Machine we are going to look at here.
The Mark 3 War Machine was released in three different formats for the Civil War launch, initially as a 2 pack US exclusive alongside an Iron-Man Mk 27 "Disco" Armour from Iron-Man 3. For the wider international market, the figure was packed into a Disney Store 4-pack alongside the key characters of Iron-Man and Captain America, and with Falcon to even up the opposing sides.
The figure would finally get a single release, but only in the Far East / Australia as part of a best of MCU wave which repacked a number of MCU figures and the Civil War Giant-Man Build-a-Figure.
Unlike the Mark 2, there was no unmasked head released for this figure. You are therefore restricted to the armoured up Rhodey for your display. That being said the head sculpt is spot on with angular panels and those rectangular eyes ringed in red to mimic them lighting up. There is also a wealth of other nice touches like the Lt. Col James Rhodes text on the chest plate. There is the number 003 on the arm and some winged star designs on the shoulder panels.
The Mk3 is a much bulkier and substantial version of War Machine compared to the previous Mk2 version from Age of Ultron. The figure looks like a pilot in a suit of armour and the armour itself is well executed. The paint is essentially the silver on top of the grey plastic the figure is cast in, but this is neatly done with no obvious issues.
Accessory number one for the figure is Rhodey's shoulder cannon. This is an articulated piece, cast in plain grey plastic. It slots into sockets on either shoulder - making it mountable on the left or right. The cannon doesn't fit all that well into the socket, but once in place you can rotate the top part of the cannon and then pivot the stand backward - giving a gull range of movement to the gun.
We then have these hand weapons which are again cast in grey plastic. These are articulated so they can be opened up or left closed. These weapons can either fit under the wrist armour by slotting them into a socket. They can also be folded and holstered on the thighs.
War Machine also comes normally with his electro baton. This is not shown here as the seller we purchased it from managed to lose it. The 2-pack and single carded versions also come with a folded version of the baton and alternative hands.
Articulation on Rhodey is pretty limited due to the bulk of his armour. He comes with 18 points of articulation - not including the shoulder cannon. The head is ball jointed, as is the torso under the top half of the body armour. The arms start with ball jointed shoulder which can be raised to some degree and the shoulder armour moves with them. Just under the shoulder is a bicep swivel, we then have double jointed elbows and pivot wrists.
The legs follow suit with the arm with ball jointed hips with a thigh swivel just under neath within the lines of the armour. Knees are double jointed and the ankles are rockers. Rhodey has no problem standing, and all joints are tight and many feel ratcheted.
The one issue is not being able to get War Machine in a flying pose. For this you would want the head to tilt further back and the toes to point out. You will therefore most likely have this War Machine standing firmly on the shelf.
For me, this bulkier Mk3 is a big improvement visually from the Mk2 from Age of Ultron. It comes with a basic paint job, but very nice decal detail like the pilot name, numbering and winged star emblems. The accessories are OK, but I struggle with those arm guns which could have been part of sculpt - instead they are very fiddly and are easily lost.
Bulky figures will always lose a level of articulation, but it is a shame that you can't get Rhodey into a decent flying pose. It is also a shame there is no unmasked Don Cheadle head.
I score the Mk3 War Machine from Civil War a solid 4 out of 5.
