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Iron Patriot

September 2, 2013 | By Errex More

This Iron Patriot was the figure I wanted the least back when Hasbro released the first half of the Iron Man Legends line, to the point that I’d wait until the second half of the wave was released before deciding if I could be bothered to complete the BAF.

I did get the Heroic Age armor, and then Hasbro went and unleashed the Mark 42 and Movie Iron Patriot suits, which I just had to get after seeing the Iron Man 3, so, at this point I already had half the pieces needed to complete the Iron Monger Build-A-Figure, and suddenly it made sense for me to go all the way and get the rest of the figures from the Iron Man Legends assortment.

The Iron Patriot armor is based on the Extremis armor design from the comics, being the one used by Harry Osborn during the Dark Avengers storyline. While I liked this armor design back when it was released in the Marvel Universe line, I find that upsizing it to the Marvel Legends scale emphasizes the lack of detail in this armored suit.

What it does have is a very sleek, dynamic appearance. The overall body proportions are a little bit on the skinny side, but it should look OK standing next to other comics-based characters. There are sharply defined panels and I was somewhat surprised that the ARC reactor on his chest is actually sculpted in the shape of a star.

Articulation is very extensive, and very similar to what was found in the 3.75-inch version, consisting of:

• Ball jointed head.

• Hinged neck.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Upper biceps swivels.

• Double hinged elbows.

• Pegged hinge wrists.

• Floating torso.

• Pegged hinge hips.

• Lower thigh swivels.

• Double hinged knees.

• Pegged hinge ankles.

Since the shoulder pads are mobile pieces clipped onto the shoulders, the range of movement in the arms is practically unimpeded and this is one of the very few Iron Man suits that can actually bend the hands upwards, for those “Stop, In The Name of Love” poses. However, there are also some rather annoying issues with the articulation design.

Yes, the ankles do have a limited range of movement due to the greave design, but that’s not what bothers me the most. Even though the armored discs over the hips are also mobile pieces that can be swung upwards to get them out of the way, the movement range at the hips is more limited than usual. The legs can swing sideways a little bit more, but they won’t move upwards beyond what I show in the review pictures.

Then again, the main reason behind me picking up this figure was actually getting the torso for the Iron Monger. This is the largest component needed to complete the BAF, and is almost as heavy as the Iron Patriot figure itself. This piece is molded entirely in shimmery blue plastics, both of the rigid and rubbery kinds and looks sharply detailed, with just a touch of solid red paint for the chest reactor and black for the antenna protruding from his left pauldron.

The paint job on the Iron Patriot is definitely it’s best feature. The figure is made from red and blue plastics with the same metallic finish we have seen on other figures in this line. The costume design asks for some metallic paint applications to cross over areas with the opposing color, but these paints match quite flawlessly the look of the plastic.
Instead of using silver for the white markings on the armor, they used a pearly white paint that provides a softer, smoother finish and even though the chest reactor was painted in this hue, the repulsor ports on the palms were painted in orange, as well as both eyes.

In the end, this Iron Patriot turned out to be a fairly decent figure. The issue with the hip joints really bummed me out a little bit but, considering it will spend most of the time just standing on a shelf, looking good, I don’t really regret getting it.