The mark 2 War Machine in terms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe never appeared on screen in Iron Man 3, but was still released by Diamond Select as part of their Iron Man 3 figures. The Mark 2 did appear in a comic prequel to the film which showed Tony Stark presenting Rhodes with an upgraded set of War Machine Armour. On screen the Mark 2 would get a paint job and go on to be the Iron Patriot - more on this later. The standard Mk2 release comes in the usual packaging we expect from Diamond with the usual high quality artwork on the side panel, and images of the figure and its counterpart (the Mark 43) on the reverse along with some detailed blurb about the figure. Once unpacked War Machine comes with a variety of "bits". Firstly there are two heads, the standard head and the unmasked James Rhodes. There is then the rear cannon which arrives in one piece, and the Hall of Armour diorama piece which is packed flat in 4 individual pieces. The sculpt is top notch, but I have come to expect as much from Diamond's 7" Movie range. As the whole figure is armoured the sculpt is broken down into various panels and pieces which are all very well detailed and link into each other - in many cases cleverly hiding one of the articulated joints. The head sculpt, or should I say face sculpt, of Rhodey is a good likeness for Don Cheadle. The paint on War Machine is pretty basic in terms of being two toned metallic. That being said all the pieces are well covered and there is no bleeding into corresponding panbels. The chest piece is painted with a red hue around the arc reactor and there are some nice decals on the arms and shoulders that link in to War Machines position in the US Military. My own gripe on the painting, and this likely varies by figure, is that my Rhodey eyes are a little "bog eyed". Articulation is very similar to the Mk43 Iron Man. The head is jointed and can look to either side and has a bit of up and down movement. The shoulders are ball jointed and cleverly covered by a shoulder pad which moves with the arm. There is an elbow joint and then a rotate and pivot joint in the wrist, all allowing War Machine to get into some decent poses with the arms - including that all important firing stance. These shoulders are prone to snapping. so be careful when posing the arms. As usual there is a torso joint which allows the torso to swivel side to side and gives War Machine a bit of range to lean forward and backwards. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and are quite exposed like the IM43 but in this case because the whole figure is grey the ball is less noticeable. Having the hips done this way allows for War Machine to have a greater range of movement as opposed to the early Iron Man armours which were heavily restricted by the sculpted hips (see Iron Man Mk6). The knees bend and there is a decent swivel and pivot joint at the ankles. That means Rhodey is pretty stable on his feet and stands very well. The only issue I have found, like many Selects, is a very loose leg which does tend to see the figure naturally slide into the splits. The head swaps easily enough, but I wouldnt want to do it to often as I would expect the paint to rub pretty easily. The shoulder cannon slots into a hole in the back and then swivels round and bends to a firing position. The mechanism isn't great and feels a bit flimsy so I think most people will leave it folded over the shoulder. The base is nice enough, albeit a bit plain and technically a little short once the figure is inside. All in all War Machine Mk2 is a solid figure with plenty of good points. The wobbly leg syndrome is worrying, and the cannon is not as great as I imagined. But he certainly deserves a 4 out of 5.
