“I'm doing what has to be done, to save us from something worse.”
The first curated releases from the Marvel Cinematic Universe outside of the main Legends waves came in 2018. The ‘First Ten Years’ sets marked the 10th Anniversary of the MCU and went on to fill several gaps in our collections with figures like Red Skull, Yellow Jacket, Crossbones, and more. The series was then renamed the 80th Anniversary series in 2019 and here, alongside comic book releases, we saw more new releases including Skurge, Ghost, and Peggy Carter. 2020's releases saw a switch to the Fox movies and a set of releases celebrating both the original X-Men movies and Deadpool. And then finally in 2021, these annual releases evolved again into the Infinity Saga collection, a series of figures celebrating the first three phases of the MCU and including a mix of re-releases, and new characters such as Quicksilver, Odin, and Obadiah Stane.
The Infinity Saga would go on to skip 2022 but returned in 2023 with a set of 8 figures from the first full arc of the MCU. The packaging’s square box shape is consistent with all the movie releases dating back to 2018, while the design for the Infinity Saga established in 2021 is continued with a black window box, reflective side artwork - which is the same on every released - and the use of the movie logo on the box front, and the movie poster on the rear alongside a small piece of supporting text.
The Mk46 Iron-Man suit seen during the events of Captain America: Civil War saw four different releases across 2016 and 2017. The original release with the Giant-Man BAF wave was also repacked for an International ‘Best Of’ wave. The figure was then featured in the Disney Store Civil War 4-pack, and with a battle-damaged variant in the Civil War 3-Pack that also featured the release of Civil War Spider-Man. The figure has been selected as one of the 8 releases for the 2023 Infinity Saga wave and is pretty much the same figure and accessories as was released originally in 2016, although now with an additional head.
The Civil War Iron-Man was, at the time, a step forward in Iron-Man MCU releases with improved proportions and height making him more aligned with the other characters from the MCU. Iron-Man figures to this point had all come from Age of Ultron - or were much earlier standalone movie releases - and these had all been on the small size. The figure replicates the Civil War Mk46 suit to a good standard and uses a base red plastic that is not quite metallic, more pearlescent in its finish. This red is deeper in tone than the original release, deeper even than the battle-damaged version - so while the figure has no new parts as such, the paint job does improve the aesthetics to a colour more accurate to Tony’s suit on screen. The red is overlaid with both gold and silver elements. These are bright and defined across the suit with no obvious errors.
The helmet uses the same colouring as the suit with a red base and gold-painted faceplate with white eyes. While the body proportion is good, the head looks small on the body as though the body were enlarged but they forgot to do the head. This is worsened when you compare it to the new inclusion of an unmasked Tony Stark head where the Stark head is considerably bigger than the helmet.
The unmasked head is the best likeness to Robert Downey Jr. to date in the Legends line, and it looks to be a new piece or at least heavily reworked from the Endgame release which came as a full head and neck piece. The sculpt details are very well overlaid with the facial print bringing out the eyes as well as the facial hair detail. The one criticism is the size, which is a bit too big for the Mk46 body meaning either display combo - with or without a helmet - has some visual issues.
The figure comes with two sets of hands starting with a pair of clenched fists. These can be swapped out with a pair of extended hands inclusive of a central socket into which you can add the now obligatory repulsor effects. These are translucent blue with the energy blast at one end and a spike reaching out and tapering to a point. The peg fits into the hands for a blast effect or can be used on the feet socket for the same effect although this will require a flight stand.
Articulation remains pinned thanks to the older body, but the pins are not overly intrusive. There are 18 points of articulation with double joints to the knees and elbows. The bulk of the suit does hamper some movement, the shoulders, in particular, won't raise up fully even with the hinged shoulder armour above the joint. This impacts firing positions for the repulsor hands and effects as the arm can't be posed out at a true 90-degree angle. Other than this Iron-Man can be posed in a number of positions, and he can also kneel but remains some way from nailing the ‘superhero landing’ with limitations in the torso and hips.
The 2023 Infinity Saga releases have certainly not been on par with previous MCU waves of this nature with a focus on re-releases with minor tweaks than brand-new characters. The team has chosen three Civil War characters to tweak and those tweaks are impressive, but perhaps at the detriment of very obvious gaps from the movie such as Zemo or Hawkeye in his Civil War costume. The Mk46 Iron-Man itself is not a hard figure to find, despite being out for a number of years, but this updated version does bring with it a more accurate paint job and a stunning Tony Stark head. There are proportional issues, same as we saw with Captain America from the same wave, where the newly developed parts can be at odds with the older body. A decent upgrade, and with plenty of positives - just perhaps not one that we were all crying out for.
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...