Welcome to our review of the Marvel Legends Iron-Man Mk7, released as part of the 2018 The First Ten Years of Marvel Studio series. This is the Mark 7 suit we see Iron-Man use in The Avengers when battling the Chitauri invasion of New York.
Packaging 4/5
The First Ten Years packaging deviates away from the scooped sided Marvel Legends packaging to a more conventional box. The base colour remains black. The Marvel Studios The First Ten Years logo sits prominently top left, with the Legends series logo to the opposite side. The figure is visible through a shaped window that is framed in a red bar.
This red bar expands under the figure to confirm the character name, specifically written in this case as IRON MAN MARK VII. Next to this is a large Avengers "A" circular logo. The front of the box finishes with the Hasbro logo to the right and the Avengers Movie logo.
The right hand spine of the box carries a repeat of this movie logo at the bottom, and above this various scenes from the First Ten Years of the MCU in individual panels. These panels connect to the other releases when placed in number order to create a wider display piece.
The left spine is headed with a Marvel Studios logo and beneath this a red panel designed to look almost like a data card. In here we get a synopsis of the movie and the year of release as 2012.
"THE AVENGERS 2012
WHEN THE ALIEN CHITAURI THREATEN TO DESTROY NEW YORK CITY, TONY STARK MUST SUIT UP IN HIS MARK VII HEAVY-COMBAT ARMOR TO LAUNCH A NUCLEAR MISSILE AT THE APPROACHING ENEMY FLEET. IRON-MAN PUSHES THE SUIT TO ITS LIMIT, LOSING POWER AND CRASHING TO EARTH AS THE CHITAURI ARE DISABLED AND THE WORMHOLE DESTROYED AT LAST."
Beneath this text panel is the Legends logo and a number 3, indicating this is number 3 in what was originally a 10 set release - there have now been 11 thanks to the addition of Ultron.
The rear of the box see's another Marvel Studio Logo. The rear is then split into two halves. The right is a replication of the original 2012 Movie Poster. The left talks briefly about the Mark VII suit and its capabilities.
"Equipped with a mighty Vibranium arc reactor and enhanced fligher capacities, the Mark VII is a Fully-Loaded Rapid Deployment suit built for heavy combat."
The figure slides out via the top or bottom box flap. Like all Legends releases the figure sits in a clear plastic tray, surrounded by the spare parts, and that then sits into a cardboard insert. The cardboard insert is very well decorated and uses similar offset panels from MCU movies, this time in Black and White, as are used on the outer box.
Paint & Sculpt 4/5
In hand and Iron-Man is a nice heavy piece with a crisp glossy finish. The head sculpt captures the face mask and it is sculpted with grooves between this and the rest of the helmet - although it is not removable. The red on the head, and the figure, is the base plastic colour and while not metallic it is the best colouration I've seen to date on an MCU Iron-Man.
The gold painted on top for the mask is neat and is metallic, albeit duller than the red. The eyes are rimmed in blue to try and make them look illuminated - this works well at distance, but doesnt look the best really close up. Black lines have been used on the "mouth" and round to the cheek sections, but the rest of the panel lines on the helmet are left as they are.
The body is fully cast in bright shiny red plastic. The shape and bulk of the suit are good, and this Iron-Man certainly isn't undersized standing at 6.5 inches tall. He does look like a man in a suit, which has been a problem with other earlier Iron-Man figures.
The suit is painted with varying gold and silver panels. This is all applied neatly, although I have a couple of areas where silver has been dripped or caught on the red. They've even painted the ratcheted knee and elbow joints silver to make it look like an internal working part.
The only thing that still does not quite work is the Arc reactor. Again this is applied as a white sticker. While this is reflective, it still looks plain and boring.
While the plastic is perhaps the best so far for recreating that red metallic iron-man colouration, it still suffers from some internal defects from the casting process, particularly under lights. The figure is also a wash away from being fully finished. With so much panel detail on Iron-Man, seeing this lined out would have made a huge difference.
Articulation 4/5
Despite the bulk, this Iron-Man still packs a good amount of articulation with 18 standard points of articulation, with another 6 moving parts built into the armour to both support movement and to add further posing options.
The head is a ball joint and this rotates fully. There is also a peg within the neck joint and this allows the head to look down. Sadly you can do the opposite motion to have Iron-Man looking up as he would in launching or most flight poses.
The same can be said of the mid-torso ball joint. This rotates but the lean and pivot on it are minimal. There is movement all round to help pose the upper torso, but not enough for more dynamic posing - again am thinking of flight poses.
The legs are ball jointed at the hips with a thigh swivel almost immediately underneath. Because of the amour panels the legs will only raise up partially so there will be no Superhero landings from Iron-Man. Beneath the two hip joints are double jointed knees and ankle rockers. Both of these are tight and secure and Iron-Man stands perfectly well in most poses.
The arms start with pegged hands and there are two sets included in the pack. We have a pair of fists and a pair of open firing hands. These are cast in red plastic with no paint apps. The fist hands are pivoted on the peg so these rotate and have some bend. The firing hands are pegged only so once plugged in they can only rotate and are fixed in position otherwise.
The elbows are double jointed with the ability to bend to and beyond 90 degrees to a point where the hand is pretty much touching the shoulder. The shoulder ball joint also has full movement out and up with a flexible piece on the shoulder amour panel allowing it to move with the arm. This is not so much a joint, but a flexible piece and I suspect it will have a limited lifespan before the bending will take a toll and it may snap.
The other articulation I alluded to are across four fin panels on the reverse of Iron-Man. These are used in the movie for flight. Each panel is a hinge joint and you can open each of them independently. Once opened there are painted details underneath and of course the gloss red plastic is a match.
These fins do give some good additional posing options but it would have been beneficial to work on the neck and torso joints to allow true Iron-Man in flight posing with an appropriate flight stand.
Accessories 3/5
So far this figure has been completely originally with a new sculpt throughout. That can't be said of the blast FX accessories included which were originally included in the Civil War Iron-Man and have also been recycled for the Homecoming Iron-Man and the Infinity War releases.
These are essentially two cast pieces to represent the firing of Iron-Man's repulsors. They are cast in a softer translucent plastic and plug into holes on to the hands. While we have had blue ones in earlier releases, these are a more accurate yellow flame type.
The plug in option is not brilliant and I am finding mine do drop out a little too easily.
While these do work for firing poses, I think they are better utilised as repulsor blasts to show Iron-Man taking off. This looks even better when you employ an aftermarket stand as seen in our images.
The blasts do also fit into Iron-Man's peg holes on the feet if you want to use them as foot boosters. This does beg my one question as to why we couldn't have maybe got four of these for the price point on this figure - especially when you consider the amount of content the Red Skull single release had included?
Summary
There is no doubt this is probably the best Iron-Man MCU figure to date, and the first to properly give us the height and bulk of Tony Stark in a suit.
It scales really well with the other Avengers figures, but as these are now dated there is a big gulf in finish and quality of sculpt between them. I wonder if the MCU line continues we may see further do-overs?
I can't find fault with the sculpt, and my only concerns remains the red plastic and the defects visible within it and the lack of a wash to bring out all that exquisite panel detail.
With good articulation for this price point and lovely collector friendly packaging, then the Mark VII comes in with a 4 out of 5, a few paint apps away from top marks.
