Marvel Legends Iron Man 2020 review

Sometimes Hasbro can crank out a simple figure with minimal new parts and make it feel like a completely new character. That’s the case with the Walgreens Iron Man 2020 figure.

This figure was a colossal pain to find and much harder than recent exclusives like Baron Zemo and Quasar. Thankfully a fellow collector found Arno Stark’s figure at a nearby Walgreens so I finally got him. Let’s see if this future (?) present day (?) Iron Man was worth the effort.

Packaging: To save on shipping, I didn’t actually have my pal send the figure MOC. Of course with hard to find figures being what they are, naturally I found the figure on a shelf so here’s what it looks like in package.

Likeness:  Arno is largely built on the 80th Anniversary Iron Man mold, which was exceptional as far as Iron Man base bodies. There’s still enough differences to make this feel like a vastly different version.

First off, the head sculpt. It’s got some “evil” raised eyebrows to show this isn’t the kindly, gentle version of Tony Stark. This new piece also has a more sloped top piece than the triangle point between the eyes of the Classic Iron Man armor.

My favorite change is this is the visible eye sockets, which is something I’ve been waiting on Hasbro to do with Iron Man figures for years. It looks great and shows that it can be done. Finally, he’s got the mouthpiece section with the Jaws-like metal teeth.

In place of shoulder pads, he’s got two gears. They look fine even if they could be a tad taller. Like the comic, they’re connected to the shoulder plate/chest rig. I give Hasbro deserved grief for shortcuts and botching designs, but this was executed very well.

 

His belt piece is also new with a visible circuitry board in the center with another gear on the left hip and a blade on the right hip. They definitely help make Arno look more formidable.

Paint:  The shiny metallic-like finish looks good here with a darker yellow and a brick red instead of the cherry red used on the Tony Stark figure.

It’s a smart choice to mix the colors up although now I’m not sure if I prefer Arno’s brighter gold to the comic color AI Tony Stark yellow.

The trickiest part with this figure was the eye slots, which I’m sure are enough of a nightmare that Hasbro doesn’t want to do it for Tony Stark figures. They turned out sharp with no issue.

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Scale:  Thanks to the chest piece and shoulder gears, Arno looks wider than the Iron Man figure. Although interestingly, the Iron Man figure is slightly taller. That figure was sized to look like a human head wearing a helmet while this one is scaled just a bit smaller.

Articulation: Iron Man 2020’s articulation is good. He can’t bring his arms in front of him as far as the original mold thanks to the gears, which is to be expected.

The hip blade and gear are high enough on his waist that they don’t hinder hip articulation. They’re made of a soft enough material that this wouldn’t be a problem anyway.

 

Iron Man 2020 has:

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

Accessories:  Although it would have been cool to get an Arno head sculpt as well, he’s still got a decent amount of accessories. He’s got a swappable set of repulsor firing hands and smaller repulsor blasts.

Next up are the boot jets, which now have a translucent yellow orange base to attach for landing/take off poses.

Worth it?  Iron Man 2020 retailed for about $20, which isn’t helpful if you can’t find the figure. I had to pay a bit more to add him to the collection, but he’s worth tracking down thanks to the new sculpting and effort to make him stand out from the earlier Iron Man figures.

Rating: 10 out of 10

While this mold isn’t as thrilling as it once was, it’s still really well executed and the changes to make this stand apart helps make this a must-buy for Iron Man fans.

Where to get it?  Iron Man 2020 was a Walgreens exclusive, but you can get him without paying a stupid markup on Amazon.

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