Marvel Legends Iron Man Model 20 review
Counting up my Iron Man armory at this point is probably not a good idea. The latest Iron Man retro wave hasn’t helped with three additions. Admittedly, they’ve all been necessary and essential including this one — Iron Man Model 20.
This armor has been around longer than I remembered. The Model 20 was the armor Iron Man debuted at the end of Kurt Busiek’s iconic run and was the base armor during JLA/Avengers. Tony Stark also wore it when Geoff Johns had his short, but memorable stint as Avengers’ writer so, this is a pretty significant armor.
There are enough differences that getting the Model 25 will still be necessary for the New Avengers armor though this can work in a pinch. Let’s see how the Model 20 figure fares.
Packaging: The Marvel Legends team is using the 30th anniversary of the Iron Man Animated show as a way to get out more Iron Man figures. This retro card is much taller with a wider window than the Spider-Man and X-Men retro lines. That’s probably due to accommodating the She-Hulk in the wave.
The wide window showcases the figure and all the accessories. On the back, we get the digital readout of the armor and the bio done in the animated style. It’s a brief explanation for this armor, but I appreciate some effort at least.
Likeness: This is more of a layered suit of armor compared to some of the sleeker, streamlined armors of the past. The Model 20 looks like a step forward into future tech with the plating and layers resting over each other.
It’s still got enough width that a guy could actually fit in the armor.
The faceplate does have a rougher, more sinister edge to it than some others mainly due to the angular top portion and the recessed lower jaw area.
It kinda gives a similar aesthetic to a Dr. Doom or Ultron armor. The Model 20 also has an angled backpack section as well.
Given the unique nature of this armor, it doesn’t look like anything was repurposed from a previous Iron Man figure. I love seeing that attention to the character’s look to make a new sculpt as needed. This can largely be reused for the Mark 25 with a few slight changes so we’ll likely see this armor again.
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Paint: I appreciate the variety of colors in the Iron Man armors. For the Model 20, it’s got more of a brick red with deeper gold. Hasbro outlined the white eye slots with black highlights. Even better the chest piece features a gradient gold and white instead of some weird light blue.
The gold and red play with each other well so there’s no bleeding or overspray with the paintwork.
Scale: Iron Man doesn’t gain any extra height in this armor. Still, he should be slightly taller than Captain America, Ant-Man, Wasp or Black Panther. And he should be looking up at fellow She-Hulk and Thor. The scale is pretty accurate as his head is a tad taller than Cap.
Articulation: Iron Man’s modern armors have all the lessons accumulated from previous armors while upping the power.
This is a sophisticated fighter jet essentially wrapped into a suit of armor.
As has been the norm for the Iron Man figures his articulation is pretty good. I wish his torso had a bit more back and forth range. The side-to-side movement is excellent though.
His shoulders are also well engineered so he can bring his arms fairly close together for a dual repulsor blast.
Iron Man Model 20 has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- bicep
- elbow (double-jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee (double-jointed)
- ankle
Accessories: Iron Man Model 20 gets a lackluster smattering of accessories compared to other wave mates.
He’s got the matching open right hand and left fist. And he comes with four repulsor blasts/boot exhaust translucent blue effects. They’re all the same length and width so you won’t have to make any tough choices for which blast goes in the hand or boot.
That’s all he’s got though. Guess that was the trade off to handle all of the new sculpted elements.
Worth it? Iron Man Model 20 is the regular price of $24.99, but Target had a sale going that took him down to $17.49, which was a great deal.
Rating: 9.7 out of 10
The Model 20 is a really fun Iron Man figure. Sparse accessories aside, the sculpt is killer and makes for a tremendous addition to the Iron Man armory.
Where to get it? Target has the Iron Man Retro wave in stock, but they’re selling pretty quickly. GameStop has the wave on its website. You can also grab the Marvel Legends Iron Man Model-09 figure from Amazon or Entertainment Earth.
As an Amazon and Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.