Cinematical

The DHL guy showed up this afternoon with another big box, and the kids, sensing it was something cool, swarmed around while I opened the box. Sure enough, there was coolness within -- an official Iron Man action figure. Here are some pics of Iron Man in all his plastic awesomeness . Note the back of the box, which details all the groovy features: When you push his button he says "I am Iron Man!" in a kind of creepy voice, of course, but look! "Repulsor sounds!" and "Launching Repulsor Projectiles!" That's great, until one of the kids puts the dog's eye out with those things. If only he had a button to push that would make him transform into Ozzy Osbourne singing "Iron Man," he'd be perfect.

The kids immediately took over Iron Man, negotiated a complicated pact detailing for how long each of them gets to have possession of Iron Man for their newly invented Iron Man game, recruited a slew of other action figures to be Iron Man's brothers in fighting all that is evil, and reminded me that their father has promised -- promised! -- to take them to Iron Man on opening day. At least the swag keeps them busy -- between this and Indiana Jones, they've gotten many hours of non-video game play out of the various packages that arrive at our door.

I'm not especially a comic geek, but I think Iron Man looks pretty darn cool, and this is definitely one movie I'm waiting to see. With Robert Downey, Jr., Terrence Howard and Samuel L. Jackson in it, my hopes are high that it's not going to suck. Iron Man comes out May 2, so mark your calendars. Bigger views of the above pics after the jump, if you want a closer look.