GEEKISH PURSUITS: REVIEW: Hasbro MARVEL LEGENDS Heroic Age Iron Man

Released 2013

MARVEL LEGENDS debuts the latest Comic Book Iron Man!

Front View of Packaging

One of the things that I find myself having a real weakness for these days is figures of armor based on the Iron Man films. ILM just knocked it out of the park when they brought Iron Man's design into the 21st century, and it's only gotten better since then (peaking with the Mark IV in my opinion). I've even warmed up to the new direction of the Mark 42 armor, and it's one of the figures that I'm most anticipating this year.

Rear View of Packaging

But to be honest, I've never been a huge fan of Iron Man's look in the comic books. It never would have worked in the real world. And it never incorporated the "mecha" look, so perfected in Japan. But Mecha-look or not, I gotta say that I really like the direction that Marvel has taken their latest HEROIC AGE Iron Man design. So it was with a sense of glee that I received it as an early birthday present from my friend Isaac. What can I say...? Dude knows what I like.

Being that this suit is supposed to be the product of nanotechnology, it's a much more sleek design than we are used to seeing. It conforms to Tony's silhouette, and since the fiction supports it (nano-scale materials), it's no longer constrained by the notion of rigid plates that overlap to form a carapace design. It's not just modernized plate mail, so I can get with how the armor is designed without blowing my suspension of disbelief. Maybe I just think too much.

SCALE and HEIGHT

Front View

This is an approximately 6 inch figure. It fits more closely in scale with Hasbro MARVEL LEGENDS figures than the older Toy Biz figures. But it's close enough to not really matter.

Rear View

I wouldn't recommend it to be used with the larger scale MARVEL SELECT figures since they are in a 7 inch scale (with the possible exception of their smaller AMAZING SPIDERMAN figure).

Sculpt

Hasbro "sculpting" circa 2007

Hasbro has really upped their game in recent years and nowhere is this more evident than in the sculpts. You have only to Google a gander at the "face" of the Emma Frost figure they released in 2007 to see how far they've come.

Solid Sculpting from head to toe

Which brings us to this Iron Man figure. What's on display here is remarkably sharp and detailed. Sure, it's maybe not on par with some of the offerings from Japan (Figma, Mafex, etc), but then, it's a fraction of the cost. What you're getting here is value for money. Great work at a great price.

Paint Apps

You have to hand it to Hasbro... Their reach doesn't exceed their grasp. In the Toy Biz days, they really went hog wild with their paint apps. It was common to see shading in the paint work along with a liberal use of dry brushing. Hasbro's approach is more conservative... It's less art and more manufacture.... but that isn't necessarily a bad thing when it comes to quality control and the end result. Recent Hasbro figures start with plastic that's molded in the base colors of the figure and then flat colors are used for variety and detail. No shading, no dry brushing. But what IS there looks very clean and well done.

Being Iron Man, this figure features thick metallic paint that doesn't bleed the base color through (a problem that was common in earlier Iron Man figures like the Mark V). Edges are sharp and there's no noticeable paint bleed anywhere.

BEFORE: Hasbro being lazy with the glowing area paint apps

There's just one glaring problem: Somebody got lazy with the numerous glowing surfaces like the Arc Reactor. This might be okay in little seen areas like the palm of a closed fist, but this figure has glowing spots all over, and slapping some blue paint in these areas just doesn't cut it. Nearly every previous (Hasbro) Iron Man figure has had a nice white that fades to a light blue around the edges... a treatment that much better approximates a glow.

AFTER: Painting in the white that should have been there in the first place.

Not being content to let this stand, I busted out some white paint and set about adding white centers to each of the glowing rings on the figure and while it isn't a smooth fade it still looks miles better than the blue on it's own. I'd recommend doing the same to yours if you pick this figure up.

Articulation

The Heroic Age Iron Man, is a great example of Hasbro's modern articulation, and I hope we continue seeing this set up (plus pec joints) in all of Hasbro's figures to come. You'll find enough flexibility in the engineering to get old shell head into pretty much any basic pose your black heart desires. What you shouldn't expect is the kind of flexibility you might find in a Revoltech or Figma figure... but then again, you're not comparing apples to apples there. A six inch Revoltech Iron Man can set you back between $30-$100+. Here you are getting 80% of the figure for about 15% of the cost. That makes Hasbro's offering a GREAT deal for all but the most hardcore collector. So what does that 80% get you?

STIFF NECK: Much like dogs, this Iron Man is incapable of looking up

Well for starters a head mounted atop a ball hinge joint. That gives you a wider range of motion than a standard Ball Joint. Still, his head doesn't rotate back far enough to get him into a good flight pose, even if you pop the head off and lightly seat it back on the joint. Since I plan to display mine getting his repulsor blast on, this isn't really an issue.

LEANING BACK: This is the closest to a flight pose you're gonna get.

One thing that's been missing in a few Hasbro figures in recent years (I'm looking at YOU Mark V Iron Man) is a good waist swivel and fortunately this figure includes such a joint. Pair this with an Ab Crunch (which leans surprisingly far back) and your halfway to many dynamic poses.

LEAN FORWARD: This armor was clearly not designed to allow for sitting on the can

His shoulders rotate and raise just like most MARVEL LEGENDS do, along with the familiar bicep swivel and double jointed elbows. He swivels at the wrists, and unlike some previous Hasbro Iron Man figures (Shame on you, Mark II and III) has a wrist pivot that allows for IM's iconic repulsor blast pose. Only one hand is open to do this pose, but (in the Immortal words of Tenacious D) like "c*ck push-ups"... all you need is one.

What you won't find here is pose-able finger joints as were common on the older Toy Biz MARVEL LEGENDS figures. Say what you will about Hasbro's finger-free stance, but I don't really find myself missing them too much. It's great to have the option, but a good set of hands can offer enough flexibility to get by with.

Ankle Rockers FTMFW!

His lower body articulation is textbook "Modern Hasbro". I'm not sure exactly what to call the thigh joints that they are using on their most recent figures, but they replace the previous standard ball-hinge hip joints. In my opinion, these look much better (no odd "ball" between the thigh and the hip) and seem to have about the same range of motion. So that can only be an improvement. Also present is an upper thigh swivel and double jointed knees. But from there down, it's (again) a newer design.

Ankle Eversion

The feet for example, don't rotate like previous figures did... and there is no toe joint. But I'd gladly trade those in for my favorite.... ANKLE ROCKERS. These allow for foot Inversion / Eversion. What this means is that the figure can keep his feet flat on the ground even when busting out a wide stance. It looks great, and I love it!

Special Features

Being a Hasbro release, there really aren't any special features to be expected. This is not targeted at kids looking for gimmicks and action features. Instead, Hasbro put that effort into a solid quality core figure with a sharp sculpt, clean paint and modern articulation. For most adult collectors, we'd rather have that than the wacky shooting thingees that were packed in with earlier Hasbro Iron Man figures like the Mark II and III.

It would of been nice to get a few extra hands as were included with earlier movie Iron Man figures, but the lack of their inclusion isn't a deal breaker.

"Oooooh.... SPEED HOLES."

One nice touch that IS included are Foot Peg holes. This figure doesn't come with one of the Hasbro modular stands included with previous figures, but should be compatible with them.

Accessories

The Heroic Age Iron Man figure includes the left leg of the Comic Book Style IRON MONGER Build a Figure. Currently, only three BAF pieces have been released. The rest will ship with the Iron Man 3 Movie Mark 42 and Iron Patriot figures in May 2013.

Included IRON MONGER Left Leg BAF piece

Being that I vastly prefer the Iron Man movie (2008) version of Iron Monger, I may end up selling off my BAF piece.

Other versions

To my knowledge there are no other versions or variants of this figure.

Size Comparison

Side by Side with Spidey

For the sake of consistency, I've used the same Hasbro symbiote Spiderman figure in most of my Size comparisons. You can see here that Iron Man just inches out the web-slinger height wise, as should be the case. I've heard that many of the Hasbro (Movie Version) Iron Man figures were a bit under scale so it's nice to see an Iron Man figure that stacks up to the expectation of him.

Opinion, Value and VERDICT

For the $15 or so that this guy is going for at retail he really is a good value for the money. Sure, he isn't jam-packed with awesome extras like the old Toy Biz figures were, but sadly... those glory days are over.

Getting his Repulsor Blast on

If you like Iron Man, this should be a no-brainer. Get him now for cheap, or expect to pay a markup on eBay a few years from now. You're gonna want him in your collection or display one way or another.

Closing thoughts