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2010EARLIEST
2020LATEST
THE LEGEND
Ivan Vanko grew up in Moscow with a grudge he inherited. His father, Anton, had worked with Howard Stark on the arc reactor, then lost everything when he was sent home to the Soviet Union, where he died in poverty. Ivan, a physicist with prison tattoos and his father's notes, built his own arc reactor in a cramped apartment and used it to power a harness and a pair of electrified whips.
He made his entrance at the Monaco Grand Prix, walking onto the track in a mechanic's overalls and slicing through racing cars while Tony Stark was driving. Stark beat him, but the point had been made: the Iron Man technology could be copied. Justin Hammer faked Vanko's death, sprang him from prison and hired him to build armour, and Vanko built an army of drones instead, then took control of them and of War Machine. He came back for the last fight in heavy armour of his own and lost in a blast of crossed repulsor beams.
OFF THE PAGE
The name Whiplash goes back to Marvel's Tales of Suspense #97 in 1968, where Stan Lee and Gene Colan introduced Mark Scarlotti, a Stark weapons designer who turned criminal with a metal whip of his own design. The Vanko family arrived earlier still: Anton Vanko was the original Crimson Dynamo, created by Stan Lee and Don Heck in 1963. Iron Man 2 in 2010 folded those threads together into Ivan Vanko, son of Anton, played by Mickey Rourke.
Rourke brought a heavy, tattooed physicality and a dry sense of humour, and the race track scene, with the whips glowing through the smoke, became the image most fans remember from the film. The character also led Marvel to publish a comic version, Iron Man vs. Whiplash, featuring a modern Vanko. On screen he is a one-film villain, but his look is so particular, part engineer, part convict, that it has kept him in demand with figure collectors long after the film.
IN SIXTH SCALE
Hot Toys has returned to Whiplash more than once, which says plenty about how good he looks in sixth scale. Its 2010 Movie Masterpiece figure caught Mickey Rourke at the race track, with a sculpted muscular upper body, tattoos, a light-up chest reactor and whips. In 2015 Hot Toys built the Whiplash Mark II from the film's finale as part of its diecast series, in helmeted armour with light-up eyes, a magnetic mask and battle-damaged chest plating. In 2020 it went back to the race track for a new edition sold as an exclusive in selected markets, with printed tattoos, scorched clothing, glowing whips and a road diorama base.
Collectors split between the two looks. The race track Vanko is a character piece that lives on the likeness and the tattoos, while the Mark II is a heavy armour figure for the diecast shelf. Either way he belongs opposite Iron Man and War Machine in an Iron Man 2 display, alongside the rest of the Marvel shelf.
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