Shatter Blaster Iron Man

So, within the same year, Hasbro saw fit to release yet another version of the Iron Man Mk. VII armor that debuted in the Avengers movie.

Only, this time they decided to include a few more joints to the action figure design, thus rendering the prior release obsolete. Really, with this new Shatter Blaster Iron Man, you really don’t need to go out and buy the Fusion Armor Iron Man figure, since both wear the same armor, but this one is a better toy.

Of course, the Shatter Blaster Iron Man is still not as articulated as any of the figures from the Iron Man 2 line, but things really did improve with the new articulation model that includes:

• Ball jointed neck.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Pegged hinge elbows.

• Pegged hinge hips.

• Upper thighs swivels.

• Double hinge knees.

• Pegged hinge ankles.

The double knee joints place this figure at the same level of articulation as the movie-inspired Captain America, but the ankle joints allow the feet to tilt to the sides, putting this Iron Man armor a bit ahead.

The added joints do not add a lot of motion range, but as I was manipulating the Iron Man during the photo shoot, I realized how useful is to have even the slightest iota of mobility at the ankles, although I just didn’t feel that the double hinged knees were much of an improvement. This Iron Man retains the hole at the back that allows using flying stands, but due to the ankle joints now the feet have no pegholes in them.

Being from a later production run, it seems that the painting process for this new Iron Man is much more tight, as my figure has a much more consistent finish in the metallic red paint apps and the gold looks quite rich.

One other, minor reason to get this new Iron Man is that this time Hasbro saw fit to paint his eyes, hand repulsors and chest reactor blue, which makes more sense than the beige the other version has. They still went for a solid block of color (instead of the white to blue gradient they had in the older Iron Man line), but I suppose that’s as far as they will go nowadays.

The Shatter Blaster accessory that lends its name to this Iron Man release is a re-purposed projectile launcher from the Captain America line, if I recall correctly. The whole thing snaps onto any of the forearms and launches a translucent plastic bolt at the touch of a button. It looks outrageously big, but at least it works properly.

There is no denying that this Iron Man figure is an improvement over the previous version, but I would hardly consider it essential unless you skipped the first release and really need an Iron Man from The Avengers.

Errex Score: 80/100

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Tags: Avengers, Hasbro, Iron Man, Mark VII Armor, Shatter Blaster

Category: Featured, Iron Man, Marvel, Toy Reviews