Tony Stark's Armor Collection

Question

In pictures of Iron Man 3 we see Tony has a room with what I am guessing are old armors. What are they all?

Here are two other angles:

Answer 1

They are all the past models of Iron Man armor, or at least placeholders for them. At the end of Iron Man 2, it's implied that Rhodey kept the War Machine armor, which was the Mark II, and yet there's an armor that looks like the Mark II in that lineup. From left to right, they are:

1. Mark I - This armor was the first Iron Man suit. Stark and Yin-sen built this in a cave while imprisoned by the Ten Rings in Iron Man. The suit was used to escape captivity and was destroyed in the process. The Ten Rings recovered the wreckage and it ended up in Obidiah Stane's possession. From there, Tony must have recovered it after the end of Iron Man.
2. Mark II - This was the first suit Tony built upon returning from captivity in Iron Man. It's a basic Iron Man suit, with minimal weaponry and decoration. In Iron Man 2, Rhodey takes the armor and has it outfitted with Hammer weaponry.
3. Mark III - The final suit of armor built during the film Iron Man. This model has the familiar red and gold design, with additional icing protection built in. This model also has additional weaponry that the Mark II lacked (i.e stunners, unibeam, wrist rocket). This armor was damaged during the climactic battle at the end of Iron Man against Stane's "Iron Monger" armor.
4. Mark IV - Not much is known about this armor. This was the armor that was worn by Tony at the start of Iron Man 2, so it was designed and built between the films. He's shown wearing normal clothing underneath this armor, a new feature as the previous armors have required a jumpsuit to be worn underneath. It isn't shown with any significant new weaponry over the Mark III, and since it is replaced in the film by the Mark VI, we'll never know what made this armor special.
5. Mark V - This was the suitcase armor that Tony used in Iron Man 2 during the battle on the race track. Like the Mark IV, this was designed and built between films. This armor seems to be a more minimal design, prioritizing size and weight over firepower. During his battle with Vanko, the only weapons used were the hand repulsors, so it's possible that's the extent of this suit's weaponry.
6. Mark VI - Tony built this suit during Iron Man 2 to make use of his new, palladium-free RT unit. It is similar in design to the Mark IV, but has a triangular hole in the chest plate, instead of the traditional round hole. It has numerous new weapons which Stark made use of during the climactic battle in Iron Man 2, such as the one-use wrist lasers. This is also the armor used for the first half of The Avengers.
7. Mark VII - After the Mark VI sustained heavy damage during the events of The Avengers, Stark built this armor. Its design brings back the circular chest plate hole. On this armor's back are supplementary thrusters, which grant the armor additional stability in flight. This armor also adds a new remote-deploy capability, where the armor is capable of being launched and then it seeks out Tony and attaches to him. Since there are 7 suits of armor in the images, it seems this is the latest armor in Iron Man 3, until (based on the trailers) Tony designs the new gold on red armor.
8. Unknown new Iron Man 3 armor - This is the armor we see in one of the shots above in the central podium. This is a notable design change from the previous armors, as it has a gold with red highlights styling, instead of the traditional red with gold highlights. From the first Iron Man 3 trailer, and some concept art released during Comic-Con, it seems to be a variation of the Extremis armor. In the comics,

the Extremis story arc featured Tony building a new suit of armor that could be mentally remote controlled by Tony. The armor moves via additional repulsors on each piece of armor, which allows Tony to fly the pieces of armor onto himself. The Extremis storyline has this made possible by Tony becoming a cyborg, but the trailer doesn't make it clear if this aspect will be part of Iron Man 3.

Answer 2

They are the Iron Man armors in technological progress from the Mark I to the Mark VII.

• Iron Man Armor Mark I - far left

• through Iron Man Armor Mark VII - far right

Mark VIII is the newest golden armor in the center panel.

The Iron Man Armor is arguably one of the most powerful forms of technology developed by Tony Stark.

• Alone, the Mark I was sufficient enough to allow him to go through armed terrorists in order to escape.

• The Mark II was sufficiently powerful enough to go toe to toe with a more advanced and updated version of the armor (the Mark IV).

• The Mark III was able to battle the Iron Monger suit, however, with some difficulty (due to the fact that it was powered by the first generation mini-arc reactor and the Iron Monger was powered by the second arc reactor he made upon his return).

• The Mark V, while lacking weaponry and flight capabilities, was still able to take on Vanko while just utlizing just the Whiplash harness.

• The Marks VI and VII proved to be the most powerful generation suits used by Stark. They were powerful enough to battle hordes of Hammer drones, Vanko with his own armor, survive and battle two Asgardian gods (Thor and Loki, respectively) and hordes of alien foot soldiers and large transports (the Levithan).