To date, this is the best 6-inch Iron Man action figure that I’ve ever played with. And I’ve had just about every single Marvel Legends Iron Man ever made. Hasbro’s 4-inch line was fun, and there were some good figures there, but this new Iron Man from Figma is perfect. Absolutely perfect. Almost. Nothing is ever perfect, but this is definitely pretty damn close.
Figma’s Iron Man completes the first wave of The Avengers action figures that also features Captain America and Thor. It’s taken a while for these figures to make it to market, and we know that Hulk, Hawkeye, and I think Black Widow are planned as well. Bring them on, I say! Cap and Thor are great toys despite their scale and Iron Man is right up there with them.
But he’s better. Light years better. The sculpt on this figure is amazing, the engineering is out of this world, and the scale is pretty damn perfect. He’s taller than Hasbro Black Panther and NOW Captain America. He’s on par with Bleeding Edge Iron Man in scale. He towers over S.H. Figuarts Iron Man! He looks amazing in a Marvel NOW Avengers lineup. I love, love, love that Figma got the scale on this guy perfect. Except, he’s gonna look ginormously large on my Figma/S.H. Figuarts shelf. Who am I kidding? He’s going in the ML display.
The sculpt. Wow. Seriously. Everyone was hoping, praying, for Hot Toys-level of detail, and while I don’t own any Hot Toys collectibles, I can only imagine what one really looks like. And I imagine it looks like a scaled-up version of this figure. The details are amazing, the turnaround is perfect, and I love every part of this figure. So many panel lines and details for my eyes to canvas. It’s a Marvel.
The articulation is the best I’ve seen. Yes, this figure does utilize the round Figma joints that can look obtuse, out of place in a beautiful sculpt. Not here. If it weren’t for the fact they are not painted as beautifully as the figure, I would not notice them; they blend in beautifully with the sculpt. The double ball-jointed shoulders are a pleasure to play with and pose — the range of motions is great. The range of motion is great in general. The thighs feature an external and internal thigh swivel allowing for just a little bit extra motion. The knees have that great Figma range of motion, even if they are uncomfortably visible from the side and back. The best part? The chest! Yeah, it’s another Figma Thor construction: ball joint from the hips to waist, a traditional hinged ab, and then a ball-jointed chest. It took me a time or two to figure this all out, and, man, is it cool! Even the neck is jointed. I better stop, I’m about to have a nerdgasm.
Too late.
As mentioned, this figure is pure awesome. It’s another sculpting and engineering marvel to enjoy. But not without space for improvement. The weight of the figure combined with the strength of the joints prevents a good flying pose using the stand. My son had to resort to an S.H. Figuarts stand to achieve a good flying pose, but with all the armatures in the way, we abandoned any further attempts at staging a pic. The wrist flaps are, well, not that great. They look like after-the-fact add-on pieces of painted rubber. It’s like they ran out of money or had a factory mess up and had to find a quick and dirty solution to fix it. Dunno, but it looks off. The figure is heavy and could really benefit from some die-cast feet to help weigh him down, not that he’s unstable, but that extra weight might help.
The paint is amazing. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a 6-inch action figure painted like this. I literally want to put on rubber gloves to play with him. That, or polish him off after each session. It’s that amazing. It’s right up there with S.H. Figuarts Iron Man. If Figma releases a Black and Gold version, I’m sunk.
As per the usual, the Figma bag of extra hands and accessories is perfect. A multiple number of hands and repulsor blasts allow you to waste hour upon hour playing with your Iron Man.
There are probably more points that I haven’t talked about, like the shoulder-pad engineering or the clear chest piece. Or that this figure isn’t the exclusive GoodSmileCompany version but still has all the removable armor bits (someone cast them up quickly!) for that version. I’m thinking some smart fellow needs to start making Shapeways pieces for the figure.
You can still put in a preorder for him today at BigBadToyStore.