A Marvelous Suit, but Flaws in Flight: Hasbro Marvel Legends Iron Man (Heroes Return) Figure Review

Hey, thanks for checking out our review of the Hasbro Marvel Legends Iron Man (Heroes Return) Action Figure. It's a lot of fun to see Hasbro dropping so many different Iron Man armor designs and this one was a favorite when it was introduced. Sadly, though, there are some issues with this figure that detract a bit from the overall enjoyment of owning it.

After the events of Onslaught and the "Heroes Reborn" storyline, Iron Man makes his triumphant return to the Marvel Universe in Iron Man Vol. 3 #1 (Heroes Return), brought to us by writer Kurt Busiek and artist Sean Chen.

"Tony Stark and Iron Man have returned into the public eye, informing the media that Stark had been imprisoned by terrorists and recently arrested. Iron Man breaks up a robbery at Avalon trading by Vittorio Silvani, and Silvani swears revenge. Later Tony throws a housewarming party at his new Manhattan Tower and the festivities draw old friends such as Pepper and Rhodes along with rivals including Osborne and Bain. Morgan reappears, now head of Stark-Fujukawa's North American operations and asks Tony not to try and retake his old company. After the party Tony goes to inspect a new community center the Maria Stark Foundation is building, where he is ambushed by the Death Squad. He manages to evade them, become Iron Man and drive them off, but their fight wrecks the building. The next day, Tony announces he is not going to try and reclaim Stark Industries from Fujukawa, but is instead moving forward and forming a new company, Stark Solutions, in which he will serve as a freelance problem solver. Many of Stark's business and criminal opponents watch the broadcast, making plans to monitor, control or destroy him."

Synopsis courtesy of Iron Man Vol 3 1 | Marvel Database | Fandom

Let's waste little time and jump into the review. We'll look at Accessories, Appearance, Articulation, and Affordability before giving the figure an overall grade of zero to 10 ToyBoxes.

ACCESSORIES: 4/10

The figure comes with a decent set of accessories that add to its appeal. It includes interchangeable hands, allowing collectors to switch between fists and repulsor blast hands. However, a downside is that the repulsor blast hands are fixed and lack hinging, limiting poseability and creativity in displaying action scenes. Additionally, it comes with a pair of the translucent yellow repulsor blasts/jets that we've seen ad nauseam. It's disappointing that Hasbro reverted to the non-hinging repulsor hands for this figure. They finally seemed to be getting it right by including hinged repulsor hands but took a pretty giant step backward with this figure. I'm really disappointed by the poor choice of hands. I would have liked an unmasked head, based on the design from this comic iteration. I guess if we can't get good hands, asking for an unmasked head is a bit much.

APPEARANCE: 7/10

The appearance of the Marvel Legends Iron Man (Heroes Return) Action Figure is undeniably striking. The sculpt of the armor is faithful to the comic book design, capturing the essence of the character. There are some great details throughout, like the grid piece inside the mouth section and the lines on the uni-beam. One baffling aspect is that Hasbro added gold paint trim to some, but not all of the etched lines on the figure. The back of his gauntlets, top of his helmet and collar piece all have gold in the lines, but the back of his hands and tops of his boots were left unpainted. Troublesome, to me, that quality control allowed this. The marbling effect in the gold sections of the armor is supposed to add touch of realism, making it visually appealing to the eye. However, some collectors might find the marbling to be too subtle or unevenly distributed, affecting the overall finish. There is some marbling in the red, but it's much more noticable on the gold arms and legs.The fact that the marbling is more prevalent in the gold sections gives an awkward, unbalanced look in my opinion and what really bothers me is the "seam" down the outside of each of his legs. At first, I thought one of the legs was actually cracked, but then I saw it on both sides, but it's so uneven that I realized it had to have been intentional. There is no matching line on the inside of the thighs either, so this is, evidently, meant to enhance the metallic look. It falls desperately short though, especially given that it stops at the thigh cut on both legs. I just can't wrap my head around why anybody thought this would be a good idea. I'm being very generous with the score, only because I do appreciate the design accuracy of the figure.

ARTICULATION: 6/10

While the figure offers a commendable level of articulation in the limbs, allowing for various dynamic poses, the fixed repulsor blast hands are a significant drawback. The absence of hinging in these hands limits the possibilities for iconic flying and shooting poses. Running through the articulation, the head is on a disc hinge, but the helmet design limits up and down motion. Side to side rotation works good enough though and there is the tiniest amount of wobble. The shoulder pieces are attached to the shoulder and will rotate with the figure, which breaks up the design. They also allow the shoulders to raise out to a decent T-pose but need to be pushed back down into place. The bicep swivels work fine and the double-jointed elbows are limited by the design of his gauntlets. Unfortunately, you're only going to get just a bit past 90 degrees for this bend. The fists hinge and swivel, but as mentioned previously, the repulsor hands will only swivel on their peg. We have a diaphragm joint that bends forward reasonably well and is somewhat limited in back bends. Unfortunately, there is a waist swivel, rather than a ball jointed waist, which means turning the figure reveals the horrible looking "landing platform" hips. Surprisingly, he can do fairly decent splits and kicks forward reasonably well. The thigh cut works fine and the double-jointed knees bend in better than expected, due to the design of the boots. Additionally, the ankle articulation is quite loose on mine, hindering certain action stances.

AFFORDABILITY: 6/10

The figure is available online at retailers like BBTS, for $25.99. I was surprised that the price was a bit higher than the general retail. I suppose had I waited to see if I could find them in local stores, I might have saved a buck, however, lately my local box stores are at least two months behind with releases. The Marvel Legends Iron Man (Heroes Return) Action Figure caters to both casual collectors and hardcore Iron Man fans alike. However, the fixed repulsor blast hands may make some hesitant to invest in this figure, considering its limitations in posing options.

Overall, the Hasbro Marvel Legends Iron Man (Heroes Return) Action Figure is a decent addition to any Marvel Legends collection. The the design is comic accurate and fairly eye catching, the figure is hindered by the marbling effect, and lack of hinging in the repulsor blast hands. Add to that some restrictions in articulation and the Hasbro Marvel Legends Iron Man (Heroes Return) Action Figure receives:

5.5 out of 10 ToyBoxes.

This had the potential to be a great figure, but poor design, execution, and accessory packaging shot it down. Until next time... GEEK OUT!!!