Marvel Legends Iron Man Model 01 review

Iron Man’s original Model 01 armor might not get the fanfare as some of the other versions, but it’s important enough in the mythos for it to be the first armor shown in the MCU debut film.

Toy Biz released a pretty great original armor attire and Hasbro is running out of figure options left to update so it was time for the Model 01 armor to get its moment in the spotlight. This is part of the Avengers: Beyond Earth’s Mightiest subline making its inclusion somewhat odd. Iron Man debut his Model 02 armor in the first issue of the Avengers, not this one.

Regardless, this was an essential addition for my Iron Man armory. Let’s see if this is worthy of memorializing or is a rusty release.

Packaging: Despite the windowless packaging, I really like the look of the Beyond Earth’s Mightiest packaging. I think it’s the white color scheme helping to make the packaging more colorful and allowing the blues and reds to pop better. Cap would approve.

As the norm for this package setup, we get a shot of the Iron Man Model 01 figure with comic book art behind it. This art is direct from Tales of Suspense #39. The right side features another picture/render of the figure while the back shows another figure image and the included accessories.

I wish this package setup included some form of bio as there’s so much wasted space on the back.

Likeness:  Iron Man’s Model 01 armor is intentionally one of his wider and thicker armors as Tony Stark was focused more on protection rather than sleekness. The torso is appropriately plain with a rounded chest plate and bulky arms and thick legs.

There is some detail here as the belt with Iron Man’s transistors is intact. Hasbro didn’t skimp on details that the Toy Biz figure had, which wouldn’t have been a great look. It’s got the rivets along the forearms and legs as well as the vent exhausts in his waist section. And of course, the antenna on the left shoulder.

The head sculpt is also fantastic though it does lose some points compared to the Toy Biz version, which sculpted a Stark head underneath so you could see his eyes.

I really wish Hasbro would start incorporating that into Iron Man figures. While it shifts from shaded black to seeing his eyes it’s a nice visual.

Finally, his boots have the oversized tips around his knees and there’s a nice tread underneath his feet.

Paint: Of course, the Model 01 is Stark’s least colorful armors so Hasbro added some cool detailing to give it a worn-down battle-damaged look. There’s some scrapes and paint chipping (intentional) throughout.

Stark wasn’t wearing a shiny metallic grey so Hasbro could have gone with a dirtier, rustic look for the Model 01 armor. Instead, they went with the pearlescent style. It’s fine though it looks too pristine from where Stark broke it out.

In TOS, the arc reactor chest piece was just grey like the rest of the armor. Hasbro decided to spice it up with an electric blue and white paintjob along the section. Toy Biz went with gold to foreshadow Stark’s future look so it’s cool that they look a little different from each other.

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Scale: With this attire, Stark wasn’t around any other heroes so his scaling isn’t that important though the original artist Don Heck seemed to make the Model 01 armor taller than some of Iron Man’s subsequent armors.

Articulation: Despite the inherent bulkiness of this armor, Hasbro still opted to make this figure as articulated as possible.

The torso is intentionally limited — as it should be — to reflect Iron Man’s initial armor set up. It doesn’t need an ab cut or even butterfly shoulders since this is the first edition walking tank and not nearly as streamlined as future armors Stark would consistently tinker with and improve.

He has double-jointed elbows, but the forearm piece makes it useless. This would be a problem in a lot of cases, but it works for the limited nature of this armor.

Despite the intentional articulation limitations, I had a lot more fun than I expected posing him.

Iron Man Model 01 has:

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

Accessories:  Iron Man has a deluxe price tag although he really needed a few more accessories to truly justify the extra price point.

He’s got swappable fists to punch out bad guys.

Additionally, he’s got repulsor blasts that fit in his boots along with the smoke trail to simulate him flying. This time the smoke trail is in a translucent charcoal black to show that Stark wasn’t quite yet all about that clean energy.

Worth it?  Iron Man rings up a bit more than the standard Marvel Legends at $27.99. That’s a tough price point consider there’s no new accessory or even a Tony Stark head.

To really make this deluxe worthy, Hasbro could have included swappable arms for the mid-dress look or included a cloth trench coat to capture his debut disguise.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Besides the price and minimal accessories, this is a really solid figure and well worth adding to the Iron Man armor collection.

Where to get it?  You can grab the Marvel Legends Iron Man Model 01 figure from Entertainment Earth.

As an Entertainment Earth affiliates, I earn from qualifying purchases.