Neo-Classic Iron Man (Iron Man Comics Series figure #30)

The only thing I can complain about is how closely it adheres to its original comic art in places. That in itself is probably a strong indicator of my overall satisfaction here. Overall rating: Very Good

Height: 10.5cm

Articulation: 26 total points - Ball joint neck; 5 points each arm: Universal joint shoulder, pre-eblow swivel, hinge elbow, swivel wrist; Mid-torso ball joint; 7 points each leg: universal joint hip, thigh swivel, double joint knee, double jointed ankle.

Colors: Molded matte red, yellow, clear yellow and light grey (accessories only); Painted red, yellow, metallic red, blue, black.

Accessories: Stand with Iron Man Armor Cards x3; "Energy blast".

Release Data: Release on or about May 19th, 2010 in the United States at a retail price of US$7.99

Author: ExVee

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So, out of how many years of Marvel Legends under two different toy companies plus the year or so of general GI Joe scale Marvel Universe figures, and this is only the second example of this particular armor design? The first was in the mostly forgotten at this point ...uh... Well, see? I've even forgotten its name. (RAC tells me it was Superhero Showdown) Of course at the time it was massively out of scale compared to the main Marvel figure line, plus I recall reading it wasn't that great anyway - engineered by Toybiz, afterall. I guess the joke is that now that same figure would be basically in scale. But it no longer matters, for the Iron Man 2 movie line has finally delivered us a new version equal to modern standards of quality! (there was also this extremely aged entry in this subset of Iron Man armors, but really, is anyone going to count it now?)


One part of the figure's sculpt ended up making this toy stand out more than the design it represented. Photographs seem to exaggerate the figure's already massive and probably even over-sculpted thighs. I was happy to find that the effect is far less pronounced in person, but it's still an issue I have. Rather like Guardsman from the same wave, a design that was originally pretty subtle in the depiction of muscle mass overall has found itself suddenly extremely detailed. Unfortunately Guardsman seems to come out much more the worse for it than this Iron Man. Since I'm already on the area of details I have a problem with, I'll toss in that the gauntlets and boots should look bigger and thicker than they do. However, that varied a bit since there was at least a couple clear versions of this suit in the comic and I'm biased for the later, bigger look.

I'll admit that with the high detail sculpt of the muscles, the relatively large expanse of completely smooth surface on the red torso armor pieces makes for an interesting contrast. Oddly, or perhaps even alarmingly, outside the Unibeam projector on the chest, the ...er, "Iron Briefs" have the most detail of the solid armor pieces on the torso. It's a fun bit of the design, since the red part of the armor makes the figure look very large thanks in part to the shoulder armor lining up with the chest panel's bottom edge and looking as much like a single, side unit as possible under the circumstances. Actually, for the whole wide shoulder gimmick, I've long thought that no Iron Man armor could be better represented by Bruce Timm's art style.

Anyway, the armor caps manage to pull off the majorly broadened shoulders appearance by not only being nearly flush with the chest on the bottom as I already mentioned, but by being almost completely level across the top. Better is that they do this while still being able to hinge out of the way for arm posability. Having had time to reflect on War Machine perhaps, the hinge is now hidden within the line of the shoulders so at first glance you won't even know it's there. I should correct myself, though. I can see why they didn't use this method with War Machine, and it's for the simple fact that inside hinges would have gotten in the way of the shoulder gun tracks. It really is nice how the figures manage to represent the difference in design philosophy between suits. This figure represents a design that was carefully made to appear simple, smooth, and efficient, with all the technology buried under the surface. War Machine was quickly put together and had a load of strapped on extras to get the work done without concern for appearance.

I have to say it is a pleasure to have a new Comics Series figure after getting a few of the movie figures. How nice is it to have a figure where all the joints are willing to work right out of the package? Especially following Iron Man Mark III, just the novelty of hip joints that I can move without feeling like the leg will snap off first is such a wonderful change! This Iron Man still only has the typical average in articulation, but it's enhanced by being able to use all of that jointing. I still would like for the ankles to be a bit more movable, but that's really a tiny complaint at this point. As well, a neck ball joint that was able to act as more than a cheap swivel joint would have been appreciated.


Paint

Generally clean paint work on this figure. But it's not a Movie Series figure, so that is for some reason not hard to manage. Still can't really figure that one out.

The helmet's red paint does bleed down to the edges of the mask a little, sadly. In this case it changes the positions of the upper edges just enough to make the mask look crooked. Were this not a design from after Tony stopped drinking I'd have a really fun excuse for why that is.

The color of yellow used on the limbs combined with its orange paint wash looks like nothing to me so much as delicious cheese. I imagine that's not quite what was intended as the color layouts were being designed. Cheesy or not, I vastly prefer this shade of yellow to the one used on the first assortment's basic Iron Man figure (#26, as reviewed by RAC). This is not exactly gold looking, but it's surely closer than the last try. Actual gold paint seems to be reserved for the movie figures. If it gets us better quality paint jobs on the Comics figures I'll accept the trade.

This Iron Man has also possibly the worst thought out paint operation possible. He has paint on the soles of his boots. Actually, he has double paint on his boots, since the metallic red is not the base plastic color. But good job on the designers remembering detail like the repulsors on the boots and points for trying to whoever decided to paint those. But seriously, that yellow dot is gonna be the first thing to wear off if anyone does anything but leave the figure on its stand on display somewhere. There's already a chip in the paint on my figure and I've barely done anything with it beyond the normal test drive before a review.


Accessories

Besides the standard display stand and assortment of Armor Cards (did they ever turn that website on?) Iron Man comes with an energy blast piece to fit over his hand.

Made of soft, translucent almost green-yellow plastic, I can't rightly tell which hand this is intended to go over. It's a quick slide over the left fist, but it's not a solid fit and it ends up at an odd angle. The right hand is not a fist, but the spread of the fingers makes the energy blast a more difficult fit. I also found that there were red paint scrapes on the inside of the hand socket, so it's rubbing it off somewhere. One way or another I managed to not be able to find obvious paint wear on either hand, but between the underwhelming effect of the piece and the potential for paint loss I don't think I'll be using that accessory anymore.


Closing Remarks

I've been waiting months for this, and am pleased it wasn't a moderate disaster like some of the movie series figures are ending up. Sadly the aesthetic matter of the thigh muscles may be a turn off to some, but this is so far the absolute best you can find for this often overlooked design. Thankfully it's not nearly as significant in person. I'm giving this Iron Man a Very Good and surely would have been Excellent if the legs had been more in line with the original comic art. Oh well.