Iron Panda

WWRp Heavy Bramble Mk2 Iron Panda

One of the frustrations, or attractions, of collecting 3A is whether a new robot will appear with a variant in your favourite colourway or not. And inevitably there will be times when you can’t get the design you want in the scale you want to collect. Iron Panda is the prefect example of this conundrum. It’s pretty easy to tell from the forums that Iron Panda is a popular unit, but when the Mk2 Bramble with the giant rocket launcher was released in 1/6th scale there was no option for the Iron Panda colourway. This was remedied with the Bambaland store release of the 1/12th scale version, and he has recently shipped so we are now getting hands on.

I won’t repeat the ground well covered by proper toy bloggers, other than to emphasise the relief of having a weapon light enough to be supported by the figure, after the nightmare of trying to keep the larger version balanced with a gun so weighty and so lengthy as to tip the figure given the slightest waft of a butterflies wing on another continent.

Anywho, that aside, one of the things which appeals to me most about the Iron Panda colour way is the story behind the abundance of logo’s – or rather the lack of known or clearly explained story.

Like most of Ashley Wood’s bot’s there is a number in the mix, 14 in this case, or TRP14 as it appears most often. There is also the main phrase DEAD EYES OPEN, and on this bot, like others in this squad, what looks like a piece of aded graffiti, “Fuck the Reds!” A direct reference to the Martians, the opposing force, clearly signposting that the Iron Panda bots fight for the Terran forces.

Add to these legends, the mysterious John H, the enigmatic CRUNCH an [X] and an icon which could be a helmeted monster head, with maw gaping to rip a bite out of you and a subtle, single lone teardrop, visible on the centre of the chest in this case, there is plenty to speculate about with this figure…