Iron Man (Classic Comic)
Since I’ve been playing Avengers Alliance on Facebook, I’ve had desire to add some comic style figure to fill out some of my Marvel lines. Since Iron Man figures are still fairly available on clearance round these parts I picked up a comic version of Iron Man.
Appearance:
Right up front the thing that drew me to this figure was the finish. Instead of being dull, this figure has a bit of sheen to it. Both the red and yellow have a bit of metallic flake to them. It doesn’t show as well in the pictures, but you can really see the sparkles when the figure is in your hand.
The one are where the paint is a little bit of a let down is the arc reactor. Most of the Iron Man figures have two tone paint for the reactor. Here, it looks like it is missing the base color. The red shows through for some variation, but yellow or white underneath the blue would have gave it a bit more punch.
The repulsors are painted a strong blue. They look pretty good this way. There are four total. One in each hand and one in each foot. The blue dot on the left foot is off slightly, but that is pretty minor.
This is the Iron Man that I remember from being a kid. He’s got that vintage comic book feel from head to toe. I really love the ribbed sculpting on the boots and gloves. Even the gloves have segments on them. The back of the short get the ridged treatment, as well.
I think part of the reason I love this figure is his resemblance to Mego Iron Man that featured in Toy Fare’s Twisted Mego Theater. Oh, I miss that wacky drinking Tony.
The head is pretty much the classic Iron Man. The widows peak is well painted. The eyes are painted in the lighter blue of the reactor with some black behind them. It gives them some depth for sure. The mouth is just a plain black opening.
One thing that I had some issues with on some of the other Iron Man figures was the posing of the hands. Tony here is no exception. The hands are both open in odd clawing positions. One of these would have been okay but it looks like he’s getting ready to play piano with both of them. I’m not sure what would have been better.
I take that back, a little wrist articulation would have helped. If you could bend that hand, it would help differentiated the two.
Fun:
I’m still not a huge fan of the Marvel hips. I understand Iron Man doesn’t really sit. But, trying to get these hips in any other position other than the one he is in can be a chore.
This comes into play with one of his accessories, the flame base. For the base to look like he’s launching off, his feet need to be together. I just couldn’t quite get them together. It would be really nice to be able to get his legs closer together for this base.
The other accessory is a flame thing. I can’t get it to fit either hand. Near as I can figure, he holds it in front of him.
Overall
Since he was on clearance, I didn’t have real high expectations. Several dollars cheaper than the Avengers or Marvel Universe versions on the pegs not too far, so really I can’t complain. Yes, his hands are bit goofy. I do like the overall look though. I’ll probably end up using the flame base for a different figure, so there’s some pluses all around.
Engineernerd Score: 88/100
Category: Featured, Iron Man, Marvel, Toy Reviews
This is a really cool mold. I picked up the one with the ponty mask instead, but any of these are way better than the classic version they released in the MU line.
Yeah. For the price and considering the base, I really couldn’t pass him up.
The flame thing actually fits on Iron Man’s hands (any of them). The trick is pushing his hand into the accessory while preventing his little finger from getting caught in the “mouth” of the accessory (by “mouth” I mean “that hole on the base of the flame thing where his hand is supposed to enter”). It is a little hard, but works. As for his legs and the base, the trick is turning the ball joints of his hips in a way that makes the discs inside them face sideways, so turning the discs to rise and lower the legs will move them sideways; after that, close his legs; then, turn Iron Man’s thighs so his knees are turned a little more to the sides; finally, bend the knees a little and his legs are joined together, ready to use the flame base.