It seems a little weird that the latest film Infinity War is included in the First Ten Years line of Marvel Legends, but I guess it is part of the legacy. I guess it’s more strange to me because it includes a complete version of a Build a Figure that’s currently on the pegs still and an Iron Man that’s part of that same Build a Figure Wave. In terms of figure reuse, this set is essentially 100% reuse of past releases, and it’s one of the more expensive sets, which pretty much makes it the worst offender of the line for being a decent value. Fortunately it’s starting to get marked down. And not everything here is a bad deal, though it’s not all good. This set basically consists of one really great figure, and two mediocre figures, and all of that depends on how much you’ve already invested in previous versions of these characters.
So, I’m going to start off with the Iron Man Mark L (50) armor. This is Iron Man as he appears in the Infinity War movie, sometimes referred to as the Bleeding Edge armor. It’s a pretty standard Iron Man save for one new feature that wasn’t int he mainline release, and one I didn’t even know the figure had until I opened the shipping box and pulled this set out. The chest has a light up feature for the Arc Reactor. Press a button and it glows, very brightly. It’s a neat effect though it limits his torso pose-ability completely. Honestly, most Iron Man figures aren’t super poseable int he torso anyway, so it’s not a huge loss. It also helps the figure stand out a bit from all of the other armors.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any sort of add on bits like Tony Stark uses int he movie, which would have made for a great set of accessories. This armor basically consists of a bunch of nano machines that reconfigure into shields and laser pylons and extra jets as needed. This toy is just a human shaped suit of armor. He does have a nice set of repulsor hands, they don’t have joints but they are sculpted to be fully “up” in blaster configuration. Also included are a pair of replusor blast effect parts, though it’s the same part we’ve gotten in the past several Iron Man releases. As far as Armors go, it’s also not the most exciting design. Personally, I dislike how sleek and rounded it is and of all of the suits I own figures of, this is probably one of my least favorite designs.
Next up, Doctor Strange. This is such a hit and miss figure on several levels, and sometimes on the same level. If you own the previous release of this figure from the Doctor Strange movie, it actually really helps this figure out a lot. This is despite that from the neck down, they are identical figures.
So what’s good here. For starters, the head is great, really great. It’s got that current gen Hasbro better paint detail thing going on and really captures Cumberbach’s Strange. It’s different from the previous Doctor Strange head as well, with a little smirk going on. So many heads lately on these figures have smirks, I guess it’s the new thing for Marvel Legends or something. He also gets better paint apps on the Eye of Agamotto amulet he wears, the green Time Stone inside is actually painted this time, though the accessory itself is the same. There is a new cape as well, which is better…. ish. It looks nicer and has more texture detail, but the previous cape was also designed to stand up on it’s own, since in the films it has it’s own personality. The new cape is rounded along the bottom and doesn’t stand. The body isn’t entirely identical tot he previous release either, since one arm includes sculpted “Time Effect” parts. When Strange does some Time Magic, he gets these little green rings around his arms, the figure has this effect sculpted on one arm.
Which brings up the downsides, the Time Effects are not removable, so he is always casting a time spell, so to speak. There isn’t an alternate arm or anything to swap out, which is something they have done previously, in the Doctor Strange wave actually, with Nico Minoru. Considering they even HAVE a clean arm for this mold already designed, it’s a shame one isn’t included. I suppose the mold probably isn’t designed for easily removed arms. There is an alternate hand accessory to hold the energy shield effect but it’s not for the arm that the Time Effect uses, so you can’t even swap the most obvious green energy hand out. The body itself also isn’t quite as nice as the previous one with the paint details, which is surprising given recent trends of Marvel Legends as a whole and the head of this very figure.
There is a great plus here though if you have the old Doctor Strange, the parts are cross compatible. So the new, nicer head can be put on the old, more nicely painted, Time Effectless body to make a good Doctor Strange figure. The Eye of Agamotto just hands around the neck, so that’s easily swapped. The cap is the only iffy part, since the new cape has a peg that slips into a hole on the back of New Strange, a hole that doesn’t exist on Old Strange. So to use the new cape, you would either need to cut the peg off, which may cause the cape to attach in an unstable way, or drill a hole in the back of Old Strange, which is doable, but could be tricky to get just right. Or just use the old cape, since it still looks decent.
So lastly Thanos. I didn’t like the Movie Thanos design a lot but it’s grown on me over time. He looks like a Space Farmer. I guess it helps that he’s such a great character in the film that I can forgive his design some. Still, I never bothered finishing up the Build a Figure. The wave consisted of several characters I don’t need more of or didn’t like the design of (IM MK 50, Ugly Cap, Iron spider without tentacle arms) so I mostly opted to skip the Thanos BAF. This makes Thanos here kind of the jewel of this set, since it’s a great way to get a good character without blowing a bunch of money on other figures I don’t want. That said this set came out quite a while after the Thanos BAF wave, so anyone who really cares about Thanos probably already has the last release.
I will say, from what I have seen, this release is superior to the BAF release. The colors are much more vibrant overall for starters. He also includes two heads, both of which feel like better designs than mainline head, though having all three would be a nice bonus. The mainline head, which I don’t have is sort of slightly smiling and a little goofy looking, the heads in this release are the more sullen standard head and a grimacing angry head. Both are excellent representations of how Thanos looks in Infinity War. The gauntlet itself is also open fisted. Which feels more appropriate given that there was an entire battle about preventing him from closing his fist. Unfortunately the gauntlet isn’t easily removed and swapped with the closed fist gauntlet of the mainline release. I am sure it could be swapped using the Boil and Pop method, but it’s not something that just pops on and off quickly. I imagine, like Strange’s arm, this is a limitation of the mold not originally being intended for a swapping gimmick. Nitpicky pipe dreams aside, Thanos is a really great looking figure that really captures the character well. If you’re looking for a Thanos and don’t want to be bothered with the Build a Figure, this one is probably better anyway.
So on the set as a whole. It’s a decent set, despite being a set of re-released figures. Granted my opinion is tilted a bit since I didn’t already have the previous Mark 50 or Thanos figures. Even having them though, the light up chest on Iron Man is decent, the improved Strange is worthwhile and the the better Thanos is definitely worthwhile. Maybe not for the original MSRP but at a discount it’s a worthwile set for an upgraded Strange and some alternative Thanos accessories with better paint.
