The Display Case: Iron Man Legends Titanium Man

Oh Marvel Legends. You were such a highly praised and much loved collector-oriented line of wonderfully detailed and perfectly articulated characters from all across the Marvel Comics universe. The line went through a lot of changes since it's beginning, especially after it's move from Toybiz to Hasbro, who's had it's ups and downs with the license at first. Now a days, though, Marvel Legends are a very rare find, with only one or two 2-packs coming out every year. Thankfully though, Hasbro has said that 2012 will herald the return of Marvel Legends and to wet our tongues have given us a 6 inch line of Iron Man figures until then. The Iron Man Legends line's first wave is pretty typical with two Iron Men and a War Machine, but the fourth figure is of a character fans have been wanting since his cancelled prototype was shown close to five years ago! Ladies and Gents; I give you Titanium Man!


Sculpt:

Now this isn't the first Titanium Man we've gotten. technically that honor goes to the IM Movie line Titanium Man that came out during the first movie. While that version was more so based on his movie game design, this Titanium Man is based purely on one of his more recent comic designs. A combination of raised armor plating over a form-fitting metal bodysuit along with a pretty intimidating helmet and huge shoulder pads make for a way better looking version of the character. Height-wise he stands a good half an inch taller then the movie Titanium Man and is about a centimeter shorter then IM Legends Iron Man. This is probably the one downside about this figure. In the comics he stands a good two to three feet above Iron Man. If anything he probably would have gained more points if he was at least an inch taller, but as is it's really not all that bad.

Paint:

This section's gonna be kinda short because, well, there's nothing to talk about. And no, that's not a bad thing. What I'm saying is that Titanium Man's paintwork is pretty much spotless. No paint slop, little to no scratching (The only nicks are on his spine panels and even then they're hard to see) and no missing apps. His colors consist of a very Toybiz-esque dinghy metal grey and a pearlized lightish green that just makes him pop when on a shelf. Finish him off with a burgundy visor and you have a pretty good combination of simple yet striking.

Articulation:

This is my favorite part of the review because this guy has articulation that will bring any Marvel Legends collector way back to when the line was in its prime. Titanium Man doesn't use any of the articulation joints that Hasbro introduced back when they first got a hold of the line. Nope, he uses the good old Toybiz-styled joints that we all loved. Not surprising considering he was designed while they still held the license. Double-jointed elbows and knees, ball-jointed shoulders and hips and hinges for everything else, including the head. His articulation is pretty much perfect, but if I had to point out a downside, it'd probably be his feet. To be more specific, while his feet are hinged to allow forward and backward movement it would have been perfect if he had ankle tilts. This would have helped out his posing abilities and stability tremendously. As is it's a bit difficult to get him into any stable poses that don't consist of him standing still. It's not totally impossible, but it can get tedious after a few tries. A single flaw on a figure with otherwise perfect articulation.

Accessories:

Every figure in the Iron Man Legends line comes with at least one accessory. In Titanium Man's case, he comes with a double barrel blaster you can mount on his wrist. In a funny bit of irony, the blaster he comes with is actually the same mold as the one that came with the movie Titanium Man. While the movie version's blaster was pretty much straight black this one is colored the same green as the figure with some red circuitry and comes with two translucent red missiles. The blaster itself is.....well.....under par. One thing I never understood is the way it was designed. At first glance you'd think that the missiles would be inserted on the side with the bigger gun barrel, but instead they load the other way. It really makes no sense to me. The other issue is that the force at which the missiles are shot at is practically non-existent. It could probably just be the case with mine, but even so that does pretty much make the thing useless. Either way it's a typical accessory that'll no doubt be tossed aside once taken out if the packaging.

Verdict:

Well OF COURSE you should get one! This figure is great. I'm so happy that a toy that was thought to have been cancelled finally sees the light of day and was totally worth the wait. Along with Crimson Dynamo, another Marvel Legend that was thought to have been cancelled, Titanium Man has been one of the most requested Iron Man rogues to see production. Yeah, he's not huge but hey, we have him now, don't we? The first wave if Iron Man Legends is still just hitting stores, mostly Toys R Us, but there are two things to take into consideration. At the moment Titanium Man is a little hard to find, so make sure to check everywhere. Also, TRU has been increasing the prices on some of their collector oriented products, such as DC Universe Classics, the Marvel Legends Fan Packs and, of course, Iron Man Legends, so keep that in mind if you find one in their stores.

On the next Display Case we'll be heading back to Japan to take a look at a figure of my favorite anime character, so stay tuned!