Marvel Legends Extremis Iron Man review – BAF Puff Adder wave
Extremis Iron Man features Tony Stark in one of his longest tenured armors. This is the armor he infamously wears during the Civil War/Secretary of Defense stint. Post-Civil War, this was Tony’s armor as a key member of The Mighty Avengers so this was definitely needed for a comprehensive armor.
Of the various armors, this is Model 29 for those keeping track at home.
Extremis Iron Man was incorporated into the Avengers-heavy Build-A-Figure Puff Adder wave despite being the one figure without a BAF part.
Let’s see how extreme this armor proves to be or if it’s one that gets pushed to a dark corner of the armory.
Packaging: I’m almost done with the closed window era of Marvel Legends figures in my backlog. The end is near. My beef with this setup for Marvel Legends is how uninspired it looks.
The character art in blue and the red, blue and purple dots along the side don’t make for an attractive presentation. For this one, the artwork is repeated on the front and left side.
If you’re curious, the other side showcases which other figures comes with the specific parts to build Puff Adder. On the back, it’s the iconic landing pose along with the four (!!!) accessories.
Likeness: Hasbro hasn’t done this armor since 2012 so it was due for an upgrade. The sleek armor plating and less friendly face plate certainly make this armor stand out. This armor is largely the inspiration for the Marvel Cinematic Universe versions.
After getting my preferred armors, it’s easier to appreciate Model 29. It’s a pretty cool armor set up thanks to the shelled aspect with the shoulder pads, the layered plating and future-skewing gauntlets and legs.
Hasbro’s sculptors did an excellent job on this model and I’m surprised how much I like how it turned out.
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Paint: Extremis Iron Man visually represented a darker time in the Marvel Comics Universe so it makes sense that this armor isn’t as eye-catching as other armors.
The red is more muted and subdued. Almost like a brick red instead of candy apple red. There’s far less gold in this armor, which is limited to the inner arms, a minor portion of the hips and the faceplate.
The render on the package brightens up his eyes and exhaust ports as if they were glowing. That would have been a nice effect to mimic with the figure as the white in the eyes isn’t stark enough to pop. Hasbro probably needed to add a few more white paint apps to provide that glow as even against gold, white doesn’t stand out enough.
All of the paintwork is clean though I’m not sure if the arc reactor triangle is supposed to be all white or if the yellow creeping along the sides is intentional.
Scale: In the Extremis armor, Iron Man doesn’t gain any extra height since this is his more lightweight armor. It’s sleeker and lacks the extra bulk of earlier suits. That also puts him about eye to eye with his Civil War rival Captain America.
Articulation: As always, the first order of business in posing any Marvel Legends Iron Man is making sure he can hit the heroic landing pose. The rear package makes it look easy.
You can hit that pose, but it requires popping the head off and repositioning it to more or less rest on the neck peg. You can’t raise the head to this position on its own.
He’s got plenty of articulation and proved a lot of fun to pose. The shoulder pads and hip pads are made of a soft flexible material that allows them to pop up when you move the shoulders and legs. That was smartly engineered so it doesn’t affect the various posing options.
While he lacks waist articulation, I didn’t miss it since that helps keep the integrity of the armor sculpt. I’m not sure how Hasbro could have pulled this off without breaking up the armor, but butterfly shoulders would have been welcome.
Extremis Iron Man has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- shoulder armor hinge
- bicep
- elbow (double-jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- upper torso
- hip
- hip pads
- thigh
- knee (double-jointed)
- ankle
Accessories: The Marvel Legends team didn’t break the accessories budget on Iron Man.
He’s got the standard repulsor blasts. This time they’re cast in a translucent yellow. They plug easily enough into the repulsor spraying hands, which this time finally have an up and down hinge. This feels like a game-changer for Iron Man figures and long overdue.
Extremis Iron Man is the one figure who doesn’t have a part for the Build-A-Figure Puff Adder. This would have made for a good time to include a more modern Tony Stark head. Or at least one that captured his look from Civil War.
Worth it? The Puff Adder wave was weird in that it did not stay on pegs for very long at all. Extremis Iron Man, Ultimate Captain America and Yelena Belova were the constant figures I would see in stores, but once the clearance hit, they vanished. I took advantage of the Black Friday Hasbro Pulse sale to get him for about $17.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
The Extremis Iron Man armor is an important one for any Iron Man armory given its significance to a major Marvel Comics storyline. Hasbro did a nice job bringing this to figure form though more accessories would have put him over the top.
Where to get it? I got Extremis Iron Man from Hasbro Pulse. You can also order him from Amazon and Entertainment Earth.
As an Amazon and Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.