The Iron Patriot from Avengers Endgame was released in the Autumn of 2019 as part of the 3rd wave of Avengers Marvel Legends figures for that year. This third wave was made up in its entirety of MCU figures, mainly from Avengers Endgame - but also allowing the Hasbro team to infill or re-release some characters from earlier movies such as Vision from Civil War and Heimdall from Infinity War.
Packaging 4/5
The Iron Patriot packaging uses the blue theme colour as seen on all the MCU Avengers Endgame releases to date. One big point of difference is the logo, which on the previous two waves has simply been the Avengers logo in the purple/blue colouring. On this figure we finally have the full Endgame logo.
Artwork at either side of the box shows the Iron Patriot in a muted colour scheme with a blue haze rising up at the base. We get a better look at him on the back as he sits alongside the briefest of background text.
"Proud and powerful, the Iron Patriot is heavily armed, high-tech, and ready for battle"
The entire wave contains parts to built a Thor figure from Endgame and the checklist of this sits on the reverse of the box under the text and artwork. The Iron Patriot contains two Thor heads for use on the BAF - one with sunglasses and one without.
When unpacking the figure you will find two inner trays, one containing the figure and BAF parts and a second behind it containing the weaponry.
Paint & Sculpt 4/5
My first instinct was that this figure was a simple repaint of the War Machine figure from the earlier Avengers Hulk BAF wave. This is certainly not the case, and while there are some re-used parts the figure is predominantly new with an updated paint job to what we saw onscreen in the final battle with Thanos.
The sculpt on the figure is excellent, capturing the bulk and height of this new Iron Patriot Suit. The head sits squat in the shoulders and includes the usual armour lines as well as the eye pieces with their red rim and white lenses.
The body is similarly detailed and is cast in a metallic blue plastic which does suffer, as do a lot of Iron Man and similar figures using the same technique, with blemishes and swirling in the plastic.
Paint on top of the plastic base colour is applied well and very neatly considering the various lines and parts of armour and weapons it has to cover. More detailed designs like the airforce star on one shoulder and the FF 2718 designation on the other are done using decals.
Looking at what we see on screen, and the final figure, my one criticism is the colouring is too bright and could have actually done with being more muted and it certainly would have benefitted from a dark wash to both weather the figure and add more depth to the sculpt.
If you have both versions of this armour side by side you can see that there are very few parts that are a direct re-use. The head is carried over, as are the shoulders, upper arms and hands. The torso, waist and lower arms are all new (or at least tweaked). The legs share the lower legs but have new upper thighs and feet.
All of the weaponry changes, with the War Machine coming with two gun arms and a shoulder cannon. The Iron Patriot has two alternative shoulder cannons and a pair of missile units.
Accessories 3/5
While the figure is imposing enough, Rhodes also comes armed with some serious weaponry to clip onto the figure. We have a pair of shoulder cannons that are cast in the same blue plastic - albeit quite a bit softer - with red and silver details added. And a pair of missile racks with a number of individual sculpted and painted silver missiles within the racks. Like the figure these are well cast and are painted well.
There are no instructions with the figure, but it does not take too much working out that the four pieces line up to four holes on the back of the figure. The upper holes are for the cannons, and these can be slotted in either way but based on most reference photo's I can bring up, the circular part should be on the outside of the figure.
The lower holes are larger and for the missile racks. There is only one logical way these can be inserted.
It is disappointing that neither of these accessory parts are themselves articulated. While they can be rotated within their socket, that movement is minimal. It would have been good for a pivot or hinge on the guns at least to open up some more movement. It is however positive that Hasbro did make these removable so you can have some choice over the configuration or your Iron Patriot and the weapons.
Articulation 2/5
Despite his bulk, Iron Patriot has 18 points of articulation (excluding the weaponry).
Head : ball joint with pivot neck
Body : torso ball joint
Arms : ball joint shoulder, bicep swivel, single rotating elbow, wrist pivot
Legs : ball joint hips, thigh swivel, double joint knee, ankle rocker
The bulk does however have a bearing on how much articulation and posing you can do. The arms are only a single joint at the elbow, despite having a bicep swivel, and that bend is less than 90 degrees. The shoulders too are blocked from being raised by the armour panel. This shoulder panel is cast in a very soft plastic, almost like that used for a cape and it squashes as the arm raises. This looks odd but is also stil restrictive as the piece will only compress so much before upper arm movement is blocked.
The positive on the arms is the wrist, which pivots to a full 90 degrees allowing a good pose of Rhodey firing the wrist weaponry.
Legs are more mobile with a good range on the hips as the body thins lower down. The double jointed knees will allow for kneeling if you wish - but more for wider stances and firing positions. The issue with the legs sits in the ankles which are blocked at the front by the sweep of the lower leg armour. With no way to bend the feet forward and flatter, the figure does have a tendency to rock back on its heels - particularly with all that upper body weight concentrated on the back of the figure. Even with his bulk, Iron Patriot is not easy to stand unless you have him leaning forward slightly.
Summary
There is no getting past the fact that this is the figure we should have had originally, but I am impressed this is not just a repaint, but there are loads of new parts to make the two versions quite different up close.
This Iron Patriot version is well decorated, but is a wash away from perfection - something I say about very Iron Man derived figure to date in the Legends line. Articulation is OK, and I can forgive a lot of the restriction due to the bulk of the figure - but it would have been nice to free up those ankles to allow him to stand more securely. And some hinges in the shoulder weapons - as we've had on earlier War Machines - would have also been a nice touch.
For a big figure release that is not a BAF, Iron Patriot ticks a lot of boxes, He is just perhaps missing an Endgame Rocket Racoon designed to swing off his shoulders in battle? I score Avengers Endgame Iron Patriot a 3 out of 5.
Figure Hacks
If you are expanding your ranks of Quantum Suit Avengers from Endgame and can look past both the inaccuracy of the silver suit and the fact it is not as "bulky" as Thor from Endgame - then I can confirm that the two BAF heads included in Iron Patriot are a fit for the Quantum Suit body.
