[Acquisitions] Marvel Universe Tony Stark Iron Man

If you simply can't get enough of Earth's mightiest heroes, you're in luck because today we've got Hasbro's favorite character (in terms of figure production), the Armored Avenger himself, Iron Man! And no, this is not your usual 1:18 Iron Man, this one's actually Tony Stark Iron Man!

If you've been visiting the Playground regularly, chances are, you already know that I'm such a huge, huge, huge Iron Man geek! I'm not a fan of how the man's been portrayed in the comics, but I do love the guy's armors! I love Iron Man so much that in fact, in my entire toy collection, the character that has the most number of figs is this guy. So far, I have 99 action figure versions of Iron Man (in various scales and sizes) and another two figures are already on the way as I write this post. That's more than 10% of the total  number of toys that I have!

This is actually the third Marvel Universe Iron Man figure to use this sculpt as we've already seen this sculpt used in Wave 7 and in one of those Greatest Battles Comic Packs (packaged with Thor). It's a decent representation of the Extremis armor but there's really nothing different with this figure except for the Tony Stark head and some minor paint differences. The Tony Stark head is just a repainted MU Multiple Man head, but it works. The head looks a bit small for the body, but that's acceptable because his body is covered in armor. Unfortunately, the tiny head makes his neck look quite long especially when his head is tilted back. A minor qualm but a qualm nonetheless.

The colors are close to those applied on Wave 7 Iron Man, only lighter and less metallic. The arc reactor and repulsors are now blue, and the eyes on the extra Iron Man head are outlined blue too. The paintwork on the Tony Stark head is excellent, from the nice skin tone to the perfect eyebrows and mustache. I'm not sure what Tony's real eye color is, but this figure has blue eyes. Hasbro definitely nailed Tony Stark's good looks here.

Iron Man's articulation is quite limited especially at the shoulders and that can be attributed to the figure's shoulder pads. Yes, you can raise his arms straight up, but the shoulder pads become underarm pads when you do that. Hip articulation also suffers from the type of construction, so don't expect good sideward range from the hips. On the plus side, Tony gets the great neck joint that allows the head to be tilted back more than realistically possible.

Tony Stark comes packaged with an extra Iron Man head, a piece of translucent yellow plastic designed to simulate a repulsor blast, and the ever-important (to me, at least) display stand (with the name Tony Stark tampoed on it). Not much, but still better than nothing.

Tony Stark Iron Man is a good figure. It may not be worth buying as an Iron Man figure, but as the only Tony Stark figure available in the Marvel Universe line so far, this one is really a must-have especially for those who have a 1:18 Iron Man armory.