Marvel Legends Tony Stark A.I. review – BAF Mr. Hyde wave

It’s going to be hard to avoid feeling repetitive with this one since the Tony Stark A.I. figure is the exact same figure as the terrific 80th Anniversary figure with a few alterations. Never let it be said that Hasbro couldn’t find a way to satisfy collector demand while still saving a card in the deck for yet another release.

My modern Marvel Universe reading is sporadic and Tony Stark is already back as a prominent member of the Avengers again. Unless he got killed off for the 30th time? It’s hard to keep track of what Marvel was doing.

Anyway, Stark was dead for a period of time, but being the megalomaniac he is Stark set up a hologram program to carry on the Iron Man mantle if he died (again). Stark’s A.I. essentially served as a mentor for Ironheart during her early, formative years as a hero.

Since Stark went old school and set up the A.I. for his classic armor, this made for an easy repaint option for collectors that wanted the 80th Anniversary figure in the more comic accurate yellow and brighter shade of red.

Packaging:  This is the standard packaging though you’d be forgiven for not instantly recognizing this figure is part of the Shang-Chi wave thanks to the prominent Iron Man logo. The side art is nice showing the hologram Stark head operating the vintage armor.

The bio nicely frames this incarnation of Iron Man so folks who aren’t caught up with this look. Like the Disney+ wave, the sell through portion features renders and not actual package art. That’s a weird look and hopefully we don’t see that again with subsequent waves.

Likeness:  There’s not much new to discuss here. Everything that turned out so well with the 80th figure is translated here so it’s got the longer gauntlets and boot sections.

Clearly the biggest change is the Tony Stark A.I. head. I’m pretty sure this is  new head sculpt, which was a welcome touch since this is otherwise a very simple re-release for Hasbro.

Paint:  Here’s the big change from the 80th figure.

While that figure was accurate to the darker red and golden hue Alex Ross used for his paintings of Shell Head, some collectors wanted a color scheme more true to the classic Bob Layton stories.

Hasbro obliged with a much brighter red and a…ahem stark bold yellow. Now the catch is Hasbro opted to offer some incentive for OCD collectors to grab this Iron Man for a third time by painting the arc reactor center and chest lights are painted with the A.I. blue.

It’s time to catch up with some customizers and figure out what shade of yellow is the exact match here because only an amazing BAF will get me to triple dip on the red and gold/yellow color scheme.

For those that don’t care about the blue, Hasbro give it a nice strong shade of A.I. tone blue. The hologram Stark head has some paint sketchiness namely the darker blue doesn’t properly cover the mustache and goatee sections. I feel like that’s not going to be a main issue for most collectors though.

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Scale:  This mold gives Iron Man better bulk and size so he doesn’t look scrawny next to his fellow Avengers. He matches up very nice with his fellow Big Three Avengers of Captain America and Thor.

Articulation: In case you missed the original figure, this Iron Man’s articulation is terrific.

There’s no real issues with getting any iconic Iron Man poses thanks to the circles on his hip popping up to not limit articulation.

 

Hasbro didn’t figure out a way to add hinge articulation on the repulsor hand, which was a weird call.

Tony Stark A.I. has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• bicep
• elbow (double-jointed)
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee (double-jointed)
• ankle

Accessories:  The 80th Anniversary figure was $25 and had a nice amount of accessories to make up for the lack of a BAF piece. This time, the accessories are cut in half since we do get that BAF piece with the right leg of the Mr. Hyde figure.

A.I. Stark has the previously mentioned repulsor hands, which swap easily with the fists. He also has the standard helmet, which will probably be the default look for a lot of collectors.

Finally he’s got the longer repulsor blasts cast in translucent blue.

Yes, the blue doesn’t work for it, but this would have been an ideal time to add in the “horn head” first take on this armor.

Worth it?  I got Iron Man for $16 as the Shang-Chi line is already going on clearance at some Target stores.

It took a Walmart sale to get him for this price as my area Targets didn’t cooperate until all the Iron Man figures were sold through. I appreciate getting a repaint for cheaper than normal so that was definitely a good thing.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

I’m conflicted here as this is essentially the same figure I gave a 10 to last year, but that figure felt more complete while this one still seems like Hasbro intentionally holding back on what collectors really wanted with less useful accessories.

Where to get it?  I got Iron Man from Walmart.com, but you might get lucky with your local Targets. You can also order him from Amazon and Entertainment Earth or Hasbro Pulse