Hasbro Marvel Legends: Iron Man Model 70 Action Figure Review

Welcome back to another Dan's ToyBox Hasbro Marvel Legend Action Figure Review. This time around, we're taking a look at the Controller Build a Figure Wave: Iron Man Model 70. When I first saw pictures of this figure, I was pretty excited about it, but after receiving mine, I've got some mixed feelings, which we'll dive into shortly.

During a period of soul-searching, Tony Stark steps down from Stark Unlimited, stops relying on advanced technology, and eliminates all of his Iron Man armor, save one. Tony keeps a vintage style suit, which he utilizes against Knull, during his invasion of Earth. At one point, one of Knull's symbiotes infects the suit, but Tony is able to subdue and control the creature using Extremis, thus creating the Extrembiote suit. After the invasion is thwarted, Tony returned to a regular version of the newly designated Model 70 Armor. As with other versions of the Iron Man Armor, the suit has abilities which include flight, enhanced strength, increased durability and repulsor blasts. It is also equipped with computer systems operated by a low-level artificial intelligence unit named B.O.S.S. The systems are protected by an advanced encryption program. The suit allows Iron Man to reach incredibly high flight speeds and has superior maneuverability. The armor also has and can deploy a set of robotic spiders for infiltration purposes, which could carry computer viruses. Additionally, the armor is equipped with tools for crowd control, the armor can dislodge a set of three discs from its left heel. These warning discs project a giant hologram of Iron Man with a pre-recorded message warning bystanders that he is tackling danger nearby. The armor's heels are also equipped with a set of roller skates similar to older Iron Man suits for increased speed on the ground. This version of Iron Man's famous armor first appeared in Iron Man (Vol 6) #1, in September 2020, created by Christopher Cantwell and the inimitable Alex Ross.

As always, we will look at this figure through the lenses of: Accessories, Appearance, Articulation and Affordability. After which, we'll give the figure an overall score of zero to five toyboxes. So, let's not waste any more time!

ACCESSORIES

The Marvel Legends Iron Man Model 70 Action Figure comes with: two pairs of hands: one fisted, one repulsor blasting, two translucent yellow repulsor blast effects, and two translucent white smoke trail effects. Much to my great joy, the repulsor blasting hands have hinges!!! We have seen the blast and smoke effects before and, also to my great joy, I figured out how to properly position them around the repulsor blasts, which then give them a great jet emission effect when plugged into Iron Man's boots. There is no BAF piece included with this figure though. While I would be happy with another set of repulsor blasts, that could be used in the boots when the first set is plugged into his hands, I'm all right with what we get. The smoke effects actually look better when wrapped around the blasts and plugged into his boots:

The fact that an Iron Man figure comes with hinging repulsor hands just makes me very happy. It's like Spider-Man being packed with Wall Crawling hands... it's a must have! That coupled with the nice look of the smoke effects on the repulsor/jet blasts is sufficient in itself to give this figure an A for Accessories.

Image © Dan's ToyBox 2022

APPEARANCE

At first glance, this is a really nice-looking figure. The sculpted details are very well done, and the look is just as it was pictured in the comic books. Admittedly, I have not read any of the books this armor was featured in but looking up photos online confirmed the accuracy of the appearance. The armor was designed to have a retro yet upgraded look comparable to his early armors. Now, with that in mind having the figure in hand I'm very unimpressed with the orange-ish tint to the gold armor sections. I looked at this figure under natural, white, and fluorescent light and just feel like the whole figure leans toward an awkward orange tint on both the red and gold pieces. I also get the white discs and uni-beam are part of the suit design, but that stark white (no pun intended) look is almost distracting, as if someone forgot to finish painting the figure. I did also, see some of that typical marbling that generally dictates a metallic look, though mine was mostly around the lower torso and not much elsewhere. The sculpted detail on this figure though, is absolutely incredible. I am really impressed with the amount of care that went into recreating the look of this armor and the attention to even minute details, such as the line work around his abdomen and his back side and legs. I'm also really pleased with the neck piece and the care put into sculpting that piece. The application of black paint in the eye and mouth slits and both sides of his mask is clean. I would have liked to have seen some type of wash applied though as the gold pieces, with the exception of the mask faceplate don't really look metallic at all. I'm really struggling to give this an appearance grade, but there's just enough about it I DON'T like to push it down to an A- for Appearance. Really the sculpting and the general metallic effect of the red portions manage to push it up into the bottom grade.

Image © Dan's ToyBox 2022

ARTICULATION

I had high hopes for the articulation on the Hasbro Marvel Legends Iron Man Model 70 Action Figure. They were dashed fairly quickly though. Let's start with the good... The head and neck seem to be on a dumbbell joint, which allows both to move, theoretically increasing his head's range of motion. He can look down quite far, but sadly, not up as much. The head will easily turn side to side and has a nice degree of tilt that, when coupled with the neck, allow for some nice displays of "attitude." That's probably the best feature of his articulation though as things go downhill from here. The shoulders run into problems when trying to raise the arms into a T pose. The gold overlay on the shoulders is soft and can be lifted enough to aid in raising the arms... but as you can see in the picture, this causes the shoulder piece to dimple, which looks TERRIBLE.

Iron Man's armor is supple, but not to this point. The bicep swivel works all right but is also somewhat limited by the gold armor plate. His elbows will bend in to just 90 degrees and as mentioned earlier both sets of hands hinge and rotate. Iron Man has an upper diaphragm joint which barely bends forward or backward, though the sculpt does continue underneath. The joint will allow for some rotation and side to side tilt though. There is no waist swivel. Surprisingly, his legs will do pretty good splits, which was somewhat of a shock. The legs do kick forward, well up and outward, but as with the shoulders, you have to be concerned about denting or creasing the upper thigh armor. There is also some limited backward kick as well. The upper thigh cut is nicely hidden and works good enough. The knees are double jointed and mine needed some serious heating before they'd bend. Even then, they only bent about 90 degrees because of the boot design. There is a boot cut, which works nice if you like those and we do get terrific ankle hinge and pivot. I wish there was enough good to give this a passing grade, but nope, the articulation is limited and difficult.

AFFORDABILITY

My figure came from Amazon and was listed at $24.99 but amazingly on the day my order was processed, the price actually DROPPED to $17.24. You can find him on other toy selling websites for around $25.99 which is falling right in the myriad price structure that Hasbro seems to be rolling out for Marvel Legends. Had mine not been on sale, I don't know that I'd have said it's worth the regular retail price. I just feel that there is enough wrong with the figure that I received to make me second guess buying it. So, nope, I don't think regular retail is worth the price unless you are an absolute Iron Man fanatic.

I really want to like this figure much more than I do, but if I'm being honest, I just don't think it's worth the price. I've already got a crease in one of the shoulder pieces from trying to raise the arms and a crease in one of the leg pieces from raising it out in front of him, and I can't seem to get it to go back into shape. Sadly, Iron Man, I am only giving you an overall score of:

2 out of 5 toyboxes

Thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to spend some time with us here in Dan's ToyBox. Until next time... GEEK OUT!!!!