S.H. Figuarts Marvel Iron Man 3 Tony Stark Review

Which is the best Disney-Marvel film? If your answer is anything but Iron Man 3, then I’m sorry but you’re dead wrong. The third Iron Man film is an interesting predicament because it’s a Shane Black movie battling the confines of a Marvel blockbuster formula. It also gave Tony Stark some much-needed character development which, of course, was quickly dropped in the next Avengers movie thanks to that hack Joss Whedon. After all, who needs depth for your flagship character?

For a movie that was tailor-made to sell toys we never really got a large assortment of 6″ scaled action figures. Marvel Legends produced the one Iron Monger build-a-figure wave, but never really went into the armors, villains, or anything really. Thankfully, Bandai never forgot about good old Tony Stark! He spent a sizable amount of movie time out of his armor and I’m glad that they decided to go with this version of the character. We need a solid Marvel Cinematic Universe Tony before Downey retires.

I love that they went with the gimmick of allowing me to swap out his suit’s arms and legs. It’s just a plain fun feature to mess around with. Tony comes with the Iron Man suit’s lower legs, forearms, and two pairs of hands. He also includes another couple pairs of non-suit hands and a base that may or may not be a preorder or early adopter bonus. His head is also removable, so if you have another Figuarts Iron Man armor it can now have a Tony head! I don’t have any Figuarts armors since Hasbro has provided me with more than enough Iron Man suits throughout the years.

In the interest of transparency, I’ve never been a huge fan of the Marvel S.H. Figuarts. Especially the unmasked ones like Thor, Captain America, and Hulk. I’ve always felt like their likenesses are somewhere between an anime and the actor that portayed the character. This Tony Stark seems to be the first one that really captures the actor’s likeness. This is thanks, in part, to Bandai’s recently developed digital paint process. It’s really helped them capture the fine details in the figure’s face and bring plastic Robert Downey Jr. to life. Of course if you examine the face very closely you will notice the dots that make up that printed on paint. I’d imagine as the technology is improved upon these textures will be even less evident.

I’ve messed around with Tony quite a bit since he got in. He’s even taken my attention off of MP Optimus Primal from time to time! There isn’t much bad you can say about this figure. If anything at all, my only real issue is that he’s a little too short to be hanging out with my Marvel Legends. I’m still going to fudge it, however. His armored wrists could also use a little larger range of motion. Other than that he’s a great depiction of Tony Stark, and more importantly he gives me renewed faith that Bandai can actually make Marvel figures I care about and want.

Tony Stark is available now! Expect to pay between $50 – $70 depending on where you get him from. Amazon also currently has him in stock, so check that out.

[adsense]