I didn’t intend to purchase many new Marvel Legends. I wanted 2012 to be a year of cutting back, selling. But, the figures are getting better – the Seventh Market is expanding, Mattel’s still got their hand in my wallet, and Hasbro? Well, they went and stepped up their six-inch game.
Vault and I found the Marvel Legends at our local TRU about a week-and-a-half ago. We each had one or two that we were mulling over, Hope and Thor for starters, but as the week wore on, I was feeling the pull (and I didn’t even have any Terrax pieces!). Disaster struck a few days later – the variant case! The classic dreamsicle Ghost Rider, Steve Rogers and his Electro-Shield, and the Stealth Iron Man.
I hadn’t anticipated picking up Iron Man, but not for the reason one might think. Years ago, I had a near complete Marvel Legends collection, but in leaner times I had to sell off most of it. I miss some pieces more than others, but what I really hated parting with was my Iron Man Armory (long time readers will note that I built it back up in 4″ form). I didn’t necessarily want to go down that path again, love it though I do. (And Vault was right alongside, for a shiny new Stealth Iron Man is similarly ensconced in his collection too).
I had resisted the traditional Extremis Iron Man the week prior, but my resolve easily melted for the Stealth Iron Man. I’ve always loved seeing IM in off-the-wall colors (hence my love of War Machine) and blue is a great deviation from his usual red and yellow. I was indecisive for just a bit, but ultimately Stealth Iron Man had to come home with me… and wouldn’t you know, his little red and gold friend tagged along. Well, damn.
I have only one issue with the sculpt and it’s something that’s endemic to most Iron Man figures. These IMs, like nearly all of the ones before them, are beautiful and sleek… almost too sleek. There’s just not a lot room for Tony in there. I do think the figures look great, but I wish the sculptors would take a basic buck, like the one Constrictor or Klaw sport, and take into account that the armor should fit over that size figure.
With that longstanding nitpick aside, I do love this sculpt (I did buy it twice). The Extremis Armor isn’t intended to be blocky and the figure is faithful to its comic appearance. I love the paneling, the sharp lines, and how they combine to make the suit feel more layered than it really is. Like the movie figures, the shoulders are achieved by adding a separate piece over the ball-joint, but unlike those figures it’s more firmly attached. This figure won’t be bouncing those off left and right like the movie figures.
I would’ve liked to see some pegs in the feet (or a hole in the back for a flight stand), but I’m not above drilling into the figure to make those happen. I’ll talk about it more in a minute, but the sculpt gets brownie points from me for working the articulation into the suit.
The paint on both figures was really sharp. There were a few areas like the mask/eyes where things could’ve been a little cleaner, but considering the figures are fully painted (to achieve that high gloss metallic effect) the amount of slop is really quite minimal. Continue to Page 2
Here’s a few pics that didn’t make it into the review. The standard back shot:
With some other Iron Men:
With some Avengers:
And a big scale shot where I missed that I blocked Hobgoblin’s face:
you know, seeing that group shot, i don’t think IM is that much smaller than he ought to be. like, compare him to constrictor, who’s pretty much a regular dude. IM is notably larger than he is. carnage is a normal sized guy, but the symbiotes do tend to add mass (i don’t believe they do canonically, but look at how venom and carnage notably bulk up over their symbiote-less host) and then in the avengers shot, while i agree that thor is a tad big, cap is a peak human, at physical perfection… he should be considerably larger than IM has business being, because tony is not only a peak athlete, he’s a businessman and alcoholic… his stature should be a little slight by comparison. not to say that extremis IM is not a tad small, but i really think he’s close to about right.
to make more comparison, i think clearly the FOIM is too buffed, by a huge margin, to be a CEO. these dudes are not buffed, sorry. and the first IM and WM in legends were just all around too big. even “dude in a suit” doesn’t explain why they’re so large. tony is not hulk sized, and if you match up that first series IM and hulk, it appears nearly so.
i know it’s almost anathema to suggest, but that movie WM might be the gold median everyone is searching for. he’s about dude sized, but bulkier due to the mass of the armor.
I think the height is pretty good, I just want a little more bulk in the arms or legs. I agree that he should only be so buff as a CEO, but he’d have to be downright malnourished to fit in the suit!
I agree on IM2 War Machine. There’s some convincing bulk there.
I was way more impressed with this guy than I thought. He’s a bit on the small side even without taking into account your “too sleek” point, and definitely feels as if he fits more into the scale of the movie figures. Still, he captures the Extremis look perfectly and moves great.
Regarding whether he’s too sleek, I agree more that he should just be bigger. The popular point that the scale conscious and Iron Man fans debate over is whether Extremis figures can afford to be smaller than other IM figures because much of the armor is secreted as a second skin out of his pores – thus allowing his overall build to be sleeker than a suit containing a dude.
I really love how he moves! He’s like a dolphin. LOL
I like his height, I just want a little more bulk in the limbs I think. The nano aspect of the Extremis does explain it away somewhat, but not quite.
Great review. Is there a Ghost Rider variant as well or did I read that part wrong?
The regular Ghost Rider has blue Flames, and the variant has Orange flames.
Ok thanks. I haven’t seen that version at all.
Yep. I bought the orange variant one, but I haven’t opened him yet. I might actually like the blue one better, but, after the eventual review, I think I’m going to tone down the color on the skull. Hopefully it’s white plastic and a little aceton will help clean it up.
I wish he was a little bigger, but he still looks great. Looking forward to seeing what other Legends are on tap for this year. Love the pics of the Iron Men having a laugh!
I was so happy with how that pic turned out!
Great review! I am more of a DC guy, but with DCUC on the ropes, I’ve started picking some of these up myself. Not having been into ML before, I have to say I’m really liking them. One question: Where did you get those amazing flight stands?
Thanks! They’re called whippy superpose if I recall, I got them off eBay a few years ago.
Loved the review! I’m a huge Iron Man fan, and the Extremis Armor is my favorite. Your review is spot on. Also loved the shot of Extremis vs. Hulkbuster–straight from the comics.
I’m envious of your Stealth variant. Gotta have it for the armory!
Thanks! Hopefully, the variants will be easy to find!
I ordered 2 each of Steve and Hope from TRU.com and got two variant Steves. I do tend to be lucky like that, online. At retail, not so much. I did see this IM the other week at TRU, but I’m so tired of IM after all the movie waves, plus he’s the extra figure for the 8/case shipper, it was an easy pass.
I ordered 2 each of Steve and Hope from TRU.com and got two variant Steves. I do tend to be lucky like that, online. At retail, not so much. I did see this IM the other week at TRU, but I’m so tired of IM after all the movie waves, plus he’s the extra figure for the 8/case shipper, it was an easy pass.
I’ve been searching all over California for the new Legends and can’t find them anywhere. What states are you guys finding them in?
I’m in the midwest, Missouri to be exact.
Target made life easier for ML fans this time round. J0emama over at fwoosh (http://thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=75859&start=420) posted the following link for Marvel Legends stock at any target store:
http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile.jsp?title=fiats&dpci=087-06-2403&storeNumber
Just enter either your zip or city and state and it will tell you the stock status of ML 1 for stores in a fifty mile radius down the exact number of figures. These have a street date 2/24, so a lot places aren’t putting them on shelves. I used the link and still had to ask. Best part of the story is that I couldn’t find a staff member to help me, but a vendor (from a company collectors give a lot of flack to) happened to be there. She looked up the dcpi#, even made a call to verify, and ran to the back to grab a case for me. She’s the one who told me about the street date, but told me to check out with them and see if hey ring up. She also said I didn’t get them from her. She was really great and made my day. Only gripe I have is that was a variant case. I’m not interested in any of those this time around so the hunt continues.
Oh, and they were cheaper than tru at $14.99 each.
Where did you get the flight stands from?
They’re called whippy superpose if I recall, I got them off eBay a few years ago.
STOP MAKING ME WANT TOYS. TRU only had TWO Stealth Iron Mans. Bummed I missed out on Energy Shield Steve. Might go back for this guy, maybe. $18 is a bit much, though i rpefer to support TRU over walmart. Hopefully these will hit other stores soon. Though my walmart has been a dick with their 6″ move exclusives. If it want for living mostly out of state for the past few years I wouldn’t have foun d nay. Now I’m back in NY stuck between two shitty walmarts. Hopefully these get released everywhere.
If Wal-Mart would get these in, it’d be great! As it is, the next case at TRU will prolly see me finishing up Terrax at the higher price point. :/
Great review, and phenomenal photography as usual. If you want some good Terrax stories make sure you check out all his appearances in Fantastic Four when John Byrne used to write & draw the title. Don’t bother with any modern crap…the FF appearances are where it’s at. 🙂
Peace,
Chip
Thanks! I’ll have to check those out. I’ve been reading a lot more Marvel lately…
Where did you get those nifty flight stands? They look awesome.
I’m preety sure whippy superpose is the name, but the only place I know to get them is eBay and that was a few years back now.
Great review! Got a variant set from Meijers. $14.99 was the damage. Didn’t get Hope S. though.
Thanks! I’m still short a Hope myself, ideally the next case will have a good paint job.
The HAHAHAHA pic is hilarious!
Does IM come with a Tony Stark head? I saw this pic a while ago: http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h404/ericbevan/legends1pics.jpg
Nope, that’s the alternate head from the Iron Man/F. SHIELD 2pk. It seems that Hasbro is continuing to make their heads swappable after those 2pjs.
(regular red 70s armor Tony came with Sharon Carter, while the variant Stealth Tony came with Maria Hill. altho you could do a little army building as both sets came with two head for each figure. The variant female heads were fully painted, while the regular were flesh plastic, and the alternate Maria head was a red head.)
I wonder why Hasbro stopped doing the whole optional hands gig, especially since the Iron Man 2 6inch line featured it. Having asymmetrical hands really irks me, and its strange to display him as a suit of armor if one hand’s a fist and another’s wide open. The IM2 6inch Mk.IV and Mk.VI are still the best Iron Man figs in recent years IMO, in terms of articulation, accuracy and details. The Revoltech Iron Man series just look too anorexic; Iron Man’s a guy in a suit, not a mecha, so he really should look like there’s a human inside