Welcome to our review of the Marvel Legends First Ten Years Infinity War 3-Pack. The set, part of the celebration of the First Ten Years of the MCU, was released in 2018 and is the 10th set of the series and is themed around Avengers : Infinity War. The set comprises of 6 inch scale action figures of Iron-Man in his Mk50 armour, Thanos and Doctor Strange. In this review we look at Iron-Man.
Packaging 4/5
The 10th set of the 10 Years of the MCU releases brings us right up to date with an Infinity War based pack containing the main protagonists of the battle on Titan - Iron-Man, Thanos and Doctor Strange.
Like all the 10 Years of MCU packs the usual scooped sided Marvel Legends pack is abandoned in favour of a standard box with the Marvel Studios logo prominent on the top left. A smaller Legends logo sits to the side of this.
The characters are visible in a red framed window, and the character names sit within this as Iron-Man Mark L, Thanos and Doctor Strange. A large Avengers "A" then breaks the frame in the centre and the movie logo for Infinity War is then placed bottom right.
The top flap of the box features a neat grey Marvel Studios The First Ten Years print, similar to the Black Series shadow text.
The Iron-Man does of course include a light up chest feature, and to allow people to test this there is a circular cut out in the front of the box so you can press the button and light that arc reactor.
The two side spines carry further images and info. The right spine carries some images from Infinity War in individual panels as well as the movies logo. These line up with the other 10 Years releases to make a full montage of the MCU as seen from 2008 to 2018.
The left spine has a bold red panel into which is written a synopsis of Infinity War. We also see the numbering for this box as Legends 10 at the base of this panel.
"A THREAT HAS EMERGED FROM THE COSMOS AS THANOS, A RUTHLESS WARRIOR, PLANS TO COLLECT ALL OF THE INFINITY STONES. JOINED BY HIS FORMIDABLE ALLIES, HE WILL BE NEAR-UNSTOPPABLE AT ACHIEVING HIS GOAL. THE AVENGERS, THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, DOCTOR STRANGE, AND SPIDER-MAN MUST JOIN FORCES AND FIGHT SIDE BY SIDE TO STOP THANOS WHILE THE FATE OF THE EARTH AND THE UNIVERSE LAYS IN THE BALANCE."
The rear of the box has a picture of the movie promo poster to the right and next to this three panels, one for each of the characters included in the box. These are headed by a circular panel and a portrait of each character.
"IRON MAN MARK L
After being an integral part of the Avengers team from the start, Tony Stark finds himself divided from Earth's mightiest Heroes. But now, faced with an imminent deadly threat unlike any he has ever encountered, Stark will be forced to call upon some familiar faces and battle alongside some new allies"
Paint & Sculpt 2/5
The Mk50 Iron-Man uses, essentially, the same sculpt for the head as the original release in the Thanos BAF line. The head is fairly standard for an Iron with the gold faceplate edged in black lining. The eyes are white, with blue rims and the rest of the head is a cast red helmet.
The rest of the body is also cast in the red plastic with the gold and blue elements painted on top. The proportions are good but the red plastic does not look great and even has some stress marks in places. There are even variances in the plastic with the lower legs a completely different shade of red to the upper thigh and torso.
There has been some attempt to black line the panels around the stomach, but this fails to extend anywhere else on the body which is pretty disappointing.
The torso has been amended to house the light up LED arc reactor. Batteries are accessed via an unsightly panel on the back of the figure, complete with large screw fastening, along with a switch. The feature is accessed via the panel just under the chest section. This is actually nicely disguised.
Once pressed the LED lights up for about 8 seconds and then fades away. It does look OK, but with the plastic around it being unpainted and quite thin the light does cause this area to glow also.
While I appreciate the LED is Hasbro trying something different, this is not for me a kids play set - particularly when you are paying an RRP of around £70-£80 for three figures. I personally would have liked to see the LED dropped and the figure come with Nanotech weapons that we actually see in the movie.
As this figure has the light up feature, there is a multilingual instruction leaflet included to help collectors operate the figure and to change the batteries.
Accessories 2/5
Iron-Man is packed with the same FX pieces as have been doing the rounds since the Civil War Iron-Man releases. This time they are cast in light blue translucent plastic and slot into the holes in the out facing hands.
While they don't look overly brilliant when Iron-Man is firing them with hand outstretched, they do look pretty cool if you are showing Iron-Man in a launching pose (with aid from a flight stand). It is therefore a pity there isn't a way of getting more of them so the feet can be firing thrusters also.
If you aren't using the firing hands there are also a pair of fists which can be swapped in. These are cast in same red plastic with a gold strip across knuckles. These slot into place with a click with no issues.
Of course this Iron-Man should be judged on the accessories he doesn't have. There should have been a wealth of options available for this figure considering all the various Nanotech Weapons he uses in the movie. One of two of them in this release would have been much more welcome than the light up feature and some old FX pieces.
Articulation 2/5
Iron-Man has 17 points of articulation, losing a couple of joints due to that torso and its battery and light compartments. The head remains ball jointed and has a good range of movement around and up and down. The figure loses both chest and waist articulation.
Arms are ball-jointed shoulders with bicep swivel and double jointed elbows. The shoulders do not fold flush to the body so Iron-Man will always present with an arms out by quite a way. The wrist joints depend on the hands being used. The firing hands are not pivoted, hence why they are always stuck out at that angle - these can just rotate. The clenched fists are pivoted so these rotate and pivot.
The legs are articulated as normal with hip ball joint, thigh pivot, double jointed knees and ankle rockers. The figure stands perfectly well under a number of stances.
Summary
Iron-Man is the weakest of the three in the box set. The light up feature, in my opinion, adds little to the figure and the money would have been better served with the inclusion of the Nano weaponry. The light also impact articulation and the look of the figure overall.
The plastic on the figure shows signs of stress and varies in colour, and where paint is applied it is not overly neat and areas that would benefit from a wash or darker lining have been left.
I am a fan of Iron-Man and he has always had a bit of a raw deal with his MCU releases in the Legends line, and sadly this is the worst to date.
I score the Mk50 Iron-Man armour from the Infinity War First Ten Years box set a disappointing 2/5
Read about the other figures in this Infinity War 3-pack. Check out Doctor Strange and Thanos in their own reviews. Or visit our full Marvel Legends archive.