Dave's Toy Review:

     Deluxe Shape Shifters Weapons: Iron Man/Battle Axe

     Well, I was out taking one last look for new Transformers today, taking
advantage of the chilly 87 degree weather, and I ran across the new Shape
Shifters line at Kay Bee.  Wisely, I passed on the $13 toys they were
selling, and went over to Toys R Us, where they were $9.  Before I go into
reviewing the one I got, here's a summary of the ones I didn't get:

     Apocalypse - Turns into an arbitrary floating cannon thing.
     Punisher - Turns into a sort of pistol with limbs hanging off it.
     Armored Spider-Man - Turns into a pile of assorted body parts that looks
vaguely like a spidery thing you can stick to your wrist.

     As Iron Man looked the most like what he was supposed to turn into (an
axe), I got him.

CAPSULE

     Marginally posable but looks reasonably good in hero mode.  Fairly
clever transformation.  Hindered by last minute addition of chrome.  Very
mildly reocmmended, and it looks to be the best of the batch.  $8.99 at TRU

RANT

     These toys come in larger boxes with large windows in front, so they're
likely to be found stacked haphazardly under the Spider-Man action figures.
Each comes with an "ammo clip" which is not actually a clip, more of a
storage box for the extra ammo.

     In Hero mode, Iron Man stands 7.5" (19cm) tall and looks pretty good.
The oversized boots and stupid launcher block on his chest are the only real
departures from the proper Iron Man look.  His arms, chest and boots are
chromed, while the rest is not...my guess is that late in the game, some exec
decided the line was going to tank and tried to "rescue" it by adding chrome
to all the toys.  The chrome looks pretty bad on Punisher, let me tell you.
The figure's toes are pointed because of the transformation, so you have to
pull down a pair of heel spurs to get him to stand up.  Excessive force is
required because of the chrome cold-welding to parts, and you'll probably end
up with floppy spurs once you get them moving.  A definite case of screwing
up a marginal design with a stupid addition.  Anyway, it looks like he's
wearing high heels.  Poseability is minimal.  His hips are fully movable, but
the axe blades keep his knees from really doing anything.  His waist spins,
but only in one direction.  His arms only flap up and down at the shoulder,
due to the way his transformation works.  His head can turn, but be careful
or you'll launch the coiled spring missile.  Finally, his wrists have
universal joints, kinda incongruous on largely immovable arms.
     His weapon is the coiled spring missile Marvel discovered recently and
has fallen in love with.  It sits in a bulky housing on his chest, and is
launched by tipping his head back.  He has four missiles total, the rest
storing in his "clip."

     In transformation, his legs become the axe blade, and you have to play
with another set of spurs to lock things together.  These REALLY get annoying
fast, as they snap out or flop aside.  His arms and backpack fold back in a
rather clever way to form a handle that's twice as long as either arm is
alone, and is very stable.  Although it does look kinda weird with his hands
sitting there halfway down the handle.  Note that the chrome flakes off
quickly around transformation joints.

     The axe mode has a blade 7" (17cm) long and a haft about 8" (20cm)
long.  The missile launcher is now at the top of the haft and fires out like
a gimmicked Executioner axe.  Flipping a small lever out from the side of
Iron Man's abdomen lets you trigger the spinning gimmick as the axe blade
spins around like a pinwheel.  Unfortunately, you have to hold the axe in a
weird way to push the button, and hte blade tends to flop around as a result
of this gimmick.  While the spinning is neat for a few seconds, I think a
regular waist joint would have been a better idea.

     There's a little flexibility for finding alternate modes here, and my
favorite so far is the Rocking Chair mode.  From Hero mode, flip the blades
out along his shins.  Then put him in a kneeling position with his hands at
his sides to keep him from spinning.  Voila, Tony's rocking.  Or he's a sled,
that works too.  The Rosebud armor!

     Overall, not too bad, but kinda marginal for its size and price.  It
would have been a little better if some doof hadn't decided to vacmetalize it
all over.  The partial chrome look was stupid on the old Iron Man toys from a
few years ago, and it's stupid here, since everything's supposed to be the
same shinyness.

     Dave Van Domelen, thinks a peg for clipping the "clip" onto the figure
as a backpack would have been nice too....