2018 saw Hasbro release a number of new MCU box-sets to celebrate the First Ten Years of Marvel's Cinematic Universe. The first of these sets went back to the film that started the MCU back in 2008, Iron-Man, and finally brought us a mass release Tony Stark as well as the first Iron-Man suit, the Mark 1.
Packaging 5/5
The First Ten Years sets move away from the usual scooped sided Legends packaging and go with a sleek black squared off box with a window trimmed in red. The character name sit within this red trim and above the window is a pronounced Marvel Studios First Ten years log, with a smaller Legends logo to the side. A stylised Iron-Man head sits in a circular panel at the base of the window and the Iron-Man movie log below this to the right.
The right hand spine carries part of a larger illustration. By lining up all 10 box sets from 2018 a wider montage of MCU images is revealed. The left hand spine is designed more like a fact file in deep red with a breakdown of the setup for Iron-Man 2008.
"DURING A BUSINESS TRIP GONE WRONG, TONY STARK IS KIDNAPPED AND FORCED TO CREATE A MEGA-MISSILE FOR A GROUP OF RADICALS. MUCH TO THE SURPRISE OF HIS CAPTORS, STARK INSTEAD CREATES A SUPER-SUIT POWERED BY AN ARC REACTOR CHEST-PIECE, NOW WEAPONIZED. HE ESCAPED IN WHAT BECOMES KNOW AS THE MARK I ARMOR OF THE TECH-POWERED HERO, IRON-MAN"
Around the back of the box we have more references to the movie on which this set was based with a recreation of the movie poster. Next to this are two circular head shot images of Tony Stark and the Mk1, under these sits some character specific info.
"Tony Stark - The heir of Stark Industries, Tony Stark does not realize the impact of his weapons of war until he is kidnapped and forced to build one or die."
The figures sit in an inner plastic tray (no ties) which sits into a cardboard inner sleeve. Like the montage on the side of the box, this inner tray includes a set of images from the MCU in a neat grey scale finish.
Paint & Sculpt 3/5
This is not a new figure, with all parts re-used from earlier in the MCU Legends line. The head is the one packed with the 2016 Civil War 2-pack, and would be used again for the 2018 Marvel Unlimited US subscription. The difference in this set is that this new release of the Stark sculpt is now realised using the face print technology.
The likeness to RDJ is pretty great, the figure sadly does not photograph well and is a bit too glossy leading to a lot of reflection. Trust me that you won't be disappointed with it in hand. The head also pops off nicely and fits on a lot of the existing Iron-Man figures with varying success, see our Figure Hacks at the end of the review for more info.
The whole suit is a re-release of the original Coulson figure and has also been used in other releases like The Purple Man, Bruce Banner from Age of Ultron and Chameleon. Colouring is essentially the base colour of the plastic in which each part is cast, this means it is all neat and bright but not much else other than the shoes and belt. The tie is a separate flexible plastic and comes out of the pack with a bit of a mind of its own.
The sole issue with the look of this figure is that it isn't quite right for Tony's look in Iron-Man. The figure is obviously based on the early scenes before his capture. The suit he wears there is pin-stripped, this is not. The tie is patterned, and this is not. And it is not quite as well fitting as Tony's tailored suit.
I appear this may sound nit-picking, but bear in mind this is a set without any new sculpted parts - and as you will see next, no accessories, so I struggle to see why the figure could not have been more accurate and where the value is compared to say the Ant-Man or Civil War 2-packs.
Accessories N/A
Tony comes with no accessories in the box. This is disappointing as the Mk1 comes with a very poor flame effect piece and nothing else. When we consider what we got in other MCU 10 Year 2-packs like Civil War, Dark World or Ant-Man, this one seems to be falling short.
While I do not need Tony to have a wealth of accessories, I would have been happy with a second head sculpt in his glasses and a spare part of hands in the open palm pose he has when he demonstrates his new missiles and the mountainside behind him explodes.
Articulation 5/5
With the body being an older design, it still weighs in with an impressive 19 points of articulation.
Head : ball joint pivot neck
Body : ball joint torso, waist swivel
Arms : ball joint shoulder, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrist pivot
Legs : ball jointed hips, thigh swivel, double jointed knees, ankle rocker
Posing is a pleasure with this one, plenty of scope to give Tony some more dynamic poses or ore character in the stance rather than a neutral position. All the joints are tight and the figure stands perfectly on its own.
Summary
As a single figure, this is a solid suited Tony Stark release. It has good articulation and the head sculpt is a good one enhanced by the, albeit glossy, face print technology.
The issue is more one of value for money in a set retailing around the £50 mark originally. Tony is a full re-use of older figures, as is the MK1. And with no accessories and not even an accurate paint job to the scenes this is trying to recreate then there is a small level of disappointment.
Throw in an additional head with glasses, tweak the suit and tie pattern and this would have been a much more palatable re-release.
I score the First Ten Years MCU Tony Stark figure a 3 out of 5.
Figure Hacks
While there is no spare head to employ on other figures, some of you may use this Stark Head to enhance an Iron-Man figure rather than leaving it on a suited body.
I don't have all the IM releases to date but the head fits on all the ones I have access too and as these are variations of other suits I don't have then the head should fit on every IM variant including the Mk42 and Mk46 that are not shown - the head was originally designed for the Mk46 Civil War suit.
Sadly the head is a little small for some of them and looks quite odd on the Mk7 and Mk50. The War Machine sculpt - used on Hot Rod and Disco - has the neck peg set too high so this also looks a little odd. The best look is for the Mk43 and the Mk47
