First Appearance Iron Man (Iron Man 2 Comic Series)

Height: Approx. 11cm to top of head.

Articulation: 24 points total- ball-jointed neck; 5 points each arm: universal joint shoulder, universal-joint elbow, swivel wrist; mid-torso ball joint; 6 points each leg: universal-joint hip, double-joint knee, universal joint ankle.

Colors: Molded gray, transparent orange, and light gray(stand). Painted blue and black with rust red and silver washes.

Accessories: Energy Blast, Stand w/Armor Card x3.

Release Data: Released on March 1st 2010 with an SRP of $7.99.

Author: RAC

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This has always been one of my favorite Iron Man suit designs. It's also among the shortest-lived: after his first appearance in Tales of Suspense 39, Tony Stark paints his armor gold the very next issue. "Leave it to a woman to figure out an attractive appearance!" he exclaims progressively; but I suspect the real reason is the same reason that the once-gray Hulk became green: it was very difficult to get a consistent gray in the comic books of the time. (It's also worth noting that the Gold Armor's usual visual quirks- the "bucket" helmet with no jawline and the skirt -are both products of Jack Kirby's art on the second story. Matter of fact, Jack seems to decide on the skirt halfway through the second story.)


The Figure

While the Marvel Legends figure of this armor hewed extremely close to the Don Heck artwork from the first story, This figure draws a lot of cues from Adi Granov's reproduction of the Tales of Suspense #39 cover. The angular feet and the ridged area of the hips definitely hail from Granov's version, though the helmet and the forearms are closer to the original. The lack of an antenna on the shoulder, which Iron Man had in the interior of ToS 39, can be attributed to the fact that neither version of the cover has this detail. (Also that it'd be difficult to do at this scale.)

The paint job is spectacular, covering the gray figure with silver and rust washes that really do make it look as though it was made of old scrap iron. As with most of the other figures, the searchlight on the chest (which is of course not an Arc Reactor- at this point it wasn't even a Unibeam!) is blue- and I'm fine with this. It was always shown as being the same color as the armor in the comics, but that's a bit drab for toy purposes.

The head gives some tilt in all directions, though not a lot. It swivels fine, though, so it's about on par with the rest of the line's necks. (I popped the head off for a while, and I don't recommend it- the neck joint's actually a little soft and so putting the head back is an adventure.) The shoulders raise the arms to slightly above shoulder level when swung out to the side- better than some, but not as good as Classic Iron Man and Crimson Dynamo. Still well above what I think of as the minimum range I like. Swivel's unrestricted. This is also true of the elbow, though the shape of the joints does limit the bend to less than a 90-degree angle. Considering that this is supposed to be a bulky, hastily put-together suit, I think that's acceptible. The wrists turn freely, with one fist and one open hand in that same odd "one more, bartender" pose that the Mark III figure from the first movie used. (I think that in this case it's meant to ape the position of Iron Man's hand on that ToS 39 cover.) You can also see what looks like a repulsor port in the hand, which this suit doesn't have; it had reverse-magnetism "Repellers" but they were accessories. (The earliest version was a horseshoe magnet with a transistor attached!) However, there were a few palm-mounted options this suit had, most notably suction cups. So I'm perfectly fine with believing that this is what the palm shows.

The mid-torso joint doesn't really tilt a lot, and you have to apply some force to get it to swivel. The torso isn't really an ideal shape for that joint. The hip joints are standard for the line, and the shape of the legs doesn't restrict them. (No paint problems in getting them to move, either!) The knee is great- the simple tubular legs make for a nice U-bend. The ankle range is great too, though I do really prefer the rounded boots from the original design and the Marvel Legends figure.


Accessories

-Energy Blast

Controversy! As I said, this suit most definitely does not have repulsors- at absolute best it has a transistorized horseshoe magnet Repeller. So what's this energy blast? Well, you'll notice it's orange, for one; as with the searchlight here and the unibeams on the other comic Iron Man, I think we're going for the movie tie-in with this figure -which would make this a jet of flame. Which as far as I can tell this suit also doesn't have, the best it can do in that respect being a small welding torch attachment.

But I get that toys have to have accessories- hey, I like accessories! And this is definitely better than, say, a springloaded missile-launcher that fires missiles shaped like magnets. And I honestly can't think of anything else they could've put on this suit. And the flame accessory fits well on the hand, and holds a position well too. So it's a good addition!


-Stand

Speaking of stands, I just got a set of Tamashii Stage Vol. 3- a set of multipurpose stands primarily designed for Robot Damashii and S.H. Figuarts. But they work for all small figures and they're really nice! Meanwhile, if you'd like an actual review of the Iron Man 2 stand that this figure comes with, check out the Iron Man Mark VI review!


Closing Remarks

Like I said at the beginning, this is one of my favorite Iron Man armor designs. And while it's not executed exactly the way I'd like, I have the Marvel Legends version for that. This figure brings some new features to the table, even if one of them is possibly anachronistic. And the paint job, as with most of the comic figures, is really attractive. First Appearance Iron Man rates a Very Good.

-RAC