IRON MAN — MODEL 01

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When Billionaire Industrialist Tony Stark dons a sophisticated armor of his own design, he becomes a living high-tech weapon and the world’s greatest human fighting machine — the Invincible Iron Man”

In the ’60s, a lot of Marvel’s super hero books started out decidedly less super-hero-y. Things like Hank Pym being “the man in the anthill” before his proper Ant-Man persona, or the Hulk’s more generally monstrous angle. When Tony Stark first appeared as Iron Man, the focus was less on a heroic persona, and more on the sci-fi side, playing up the suit’s mechanical nature. While he switched over to the more traditional super hero fare in short order, that original design has nevertheless remained a memorable and distinctive one, and a recurring variant in the world of toys.  Today, I’m taking a look at its latest toy incarnation!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Iron Man Model 01 is part of the “Beyond Earth’s Mightiest” sub-line of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends.  He’s much like the Amazing Fantasy Spider-Man from last year’s Spidey anniversary line; a just above standard priced single release figure in effectively a standard single figure package.  This marks the second time the Model 01 has graced Legends, following up on a Toy Biz release from all the way back in 2006’s Mojo Series.  He’s based on his original armor design from Tales of Suspense #39, without the adjustments of later appearances of the armor.  The figure stands __ inches tall and he has __ points of articulation.  Despite how bulky the armor may be, the figure remains pretty darn poseable.  Some of the joints do require a little extra care to clear the sculpted parts around them, but its not anything crazy, and it’s done without making the joints too obvious.  Iron Man’s sculpt is all-new; it pretty much has to be, because it’s not like he can really share much with any of the later armors.  Presumably, most of the sculpt is earmarked for re-use down the line for a gold variant, but until then, it’s just this guy.  For the most part, I do really like it.  It’s chunky and the detailing is clean, which is all you can really ask for on this design.  The only thing I’m not keen on is the helmet.  It seems a little too flat and small to believably have Tony’s head in there, and I’m also really not a fan of the shaping of the eyes.  The armor as portrayed in ToS has a pretty distinctive eye shape (which Toy Biz’s version actually gets down very well); they should flare out both sides from the center, but they just slant upward instead, which looks off.  Iron Man’s color work is more involved than it looks at first glance.  The bulk of the coloring is handled via molded plastic; it’s the swirly silver kind, which I’m iffy on.  There’s actually a good deal of painted scratches, which can be missed at first, since they look a bit like the swirls.  I do like them, though; it’s just a shame they’re lost a bit on the plastic.  He also gets some pretty cool detailing on his arc reactor.  Iron Man is packed with two sets of hands (open and fists), two blast effects, and matching smoke trail effects.  The effects don’t plug into his hands, since this armor predates the repulsors, but instead plug into the boots, for rocket flying.  You’ll need to supply a flight stand of some sort if you want him to actually use them, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Toy Biz Model 01 is one of the few Legends I still clung to as a default, in part because there was no competition, and in part because I honestly just think it’s still a pretty good figure.  That said, I’m a sucker for early Iron Man armors, and I was happy to see an update crop up.  From the neck down, there’s no denying this is a big upgrade. Unfortunately, I’m still not really sold on the helmet.  It just doesn’t feel right to me, and for that reason, he’s still not a total replacement in my eyes.  Honestly, I was rather underwhelmed by this one right out of the box.  Messing around with him for the review did help me enjoy him more overall, though, to the point that I realized it was really just that head throwing things off.  Maybe the inevitable gold repaint might get a new head, ala the Marvel Universe version?  That would sure be nice.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.