Review – Marvel Select Ultimate Iron Man

“Tony Stark is Iron Man. With his Irontech armor, a revolutionary mixture of biochemical engineering and robotics, Tony Stark has figured out a way to save his own life from a degenerative brain tumor while at the same time giving him amazing powers.”
— from the card back

As much as I love the Marvel Universe 3.75-inch action figure series there are still times when the Marvel Select series — see the Wikipedia entry for information — tempts me. With a large selection of unexpected characters (and a lot of characters I don’t think we’ll ever see in the Marvel Universe series) and attractive, statue-like sculpts and accessories, the Marvel Select line grabs my attention almost every time I go into a comic book store.

Well, I finally broke down and grabbed the Marvel Select Ultimate Iron Man* and he’s neat, but I don’t think he’s quite neat enough that I’m going to collect many of the figures in this series. There are just a few too many minor issues for a figure of this size and price point.

Let me explain.

Packaging

Man, this is serious overkill on the plastic blister. For a blister card design, someone over at Diamond Select Toys decided that they needed a lot of packaging to show off this Iron Man action figure. With an outer shell and two inner shells there’s no way this Iron Man action figure is going to move around inside the package. And once you get to a package this large you may as well just step it up a notch and go to a window box.

There’s nothing worth keeping here. Once you pop open the blister and remove the twist ties it’s time to add to the local landfill. I’ve done my part to add more toy packaging to the trash heap; I think this package creates about four times the amount of trash that a single Marvel Universe package does.

Ultimate Iron Man, Nearly Ultimate Design

Based on the Iron Man design featured in The Ultimates**, this 7.5-inch tall Iron Man action figure looks (almost) awesome. This is easily one of the more mechanical Iron Man armor designs I’ve ever seen, with an almost mecha-like look that makes the character look a lot bulkier than he does in older (more classic) designs.

I say almost because the legs are too thick and long for the rest of the character’s body. And those oversized feet, when combined with the thick and long legs, almost makes the toy look like it’s standing on stilts. It’s not a terrible look, but it doesn’t quite mesh as well with the upper body as I would have liked. If the legs and feet were just a little smaller the design would have been perfect; as it is, it’s cool but not the greatest Iron Man design that I’ve ever seen.

Weak Articulation

As nice as the action figure looks, the minimal articulation detracts from the toy’s overall playability and value and takes what could have been an excellent toy and turns it into merely a good one. Michael Crawford’s Ultimate Iron Man review sums up the articulation quite nicely:

“He has neck, shoulders, wrists, ball jointed chest, hips, cut knees and ankles. Pin joints at the knees would have been better, and a joint at the elbows would have greatly improved the possibilities.”

In my opinion, knee and elbow joints would have taken this action figure up quite a few notches on the playability and fun meter. The inability for Ultimate Iron Man to move at the knees or elbows drastically limits the poseability options, leaving you with an Iron Man that looks stiff and wooden, just standing there with his arms at his sides out straight out in front of him as if he were Frankenstein’s Monster.

(Hey, maybe the Marvel Select line could take my Marvel Universe Wish List and give us a Frankenstein’s Monster action figure in this series. That seems a lot more likely than getting one in the Marvel Universe line.)

Excellent Paint

Ultimate Iron Man doesn’t have a lot of different paint applications, but what were get is tight and clean, without any significant mistakes or slopiness. Cast in a dark gray plastic, the silver, yellow, metallic red, blue, and flesh colors are all crisp and bright; the red is especially brilliant and the effect looks great when well lit. This isn’t the best paint application I’ve seen on an action figure, but for a $20 toy this is as good as we should expect from any toy manufacturer. I’m quite satisfied with Ultimate Iron Man’s paint.

Accessory or Diorama?

The towering, intimidating machinery that comes packed with the Ultimate Iron Man action figure is fun and really adds to the toy’s overall value (I’d love to see something like this released for the Marvel Universe series). The device doesn’t move at all, but it makes a great set piece for displaying Iron Man. And it interacts nicely with the action figure; Iron Man’s forearm armor is removable on both arms (see the photo, above) and cables connect the accessory to the figure. What’s odd is that in both Michael Crawford’s review and this review at comicbookbin.com the action figure came with six wires while mine came with just three. Did I get a defective copy or was the rerelease figure shipped with fewer wires?

The one thing that would make this accessory even better would be a cardboard backdrop to slot into the back of the piece. If anyone over at Diamond Select Toys is reading this please consider making the backer card on the next action figure a piece that can be cut apart and connected to whatever display/accessory is included with the figure. The packaging is certainly big enough that it would work for this.

Closing Thoughts

A great sculpt, excellent paint, and a fantastic accessory make this a nice display piece, but the limited articulation really detracts from what could have been one of the better Iron Man action figures on the market today. Overall the Ultimate Iron Man action figure is a nice addition to any Marvel fan’s toy collection — and it’s certainly cheaper than a lot of statues — but it’s not a must buy toy by any means. It’s a durable, attractive piece, but I can’t recommend this to anyone but the most dedicated of Iron Man fans.

If you want an Iron Man toy for display purposes this is a decent piece, but if you’re looking for a toy I recommend any one of the Marvel Universe Iron Man action figures (Proto-Classic Armor, Basic Iron Man, Silver Centurion, Golden Avenger, and Stealth Ops) since all of them are a lot more fun to play with. (And have significantly better articulation, even if some of the armor restricts the figures’ range of movement.)

*Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.
**Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.

Philip Reed has one other Marvel Select action figure — a Captain America — and he may grab a few more, but there’s no way that this line will replace his Marvel Universe collection.