Toy Biz Marvel Legends Series 1 saw the release of not one, but 2 Iron Man’s! This wave sported Tony wearing his Mark 2 and famous Mark 4 armors. Aesthetically there isn’t much difference between the two figures is that the Mark 2 is painted bronze and has a horned rimmed make while the Mark 4 is golden/yellow with the “golden arches” helmet. Otherwise same exact figure.
I’m not certain whether or not to call these armors “Model” or “Mark”. In this article they are referred to as Mark but that might be wrong from the comics perspective as I think the Marvel Cinematic Universe references them as Marks where comics use Model. Please feel free to correct me in the comments as to the correct usage.
The armor itself was rather short lived, it lasted about 2 years in the comic, but they were 2 grand years. Actually I wouldn’t know I wasn’t around back in 1963 but I can only imagine the excitement that this new armor generated. The Mark 2 and Mark 3 lasted a good number of years, it wasn’t until 1976 we saw the Mark 4. More than a decade. The horned rimmed look has been in and out of the comics since it became to cool to start rotating Iron Man armors every other year and you can even see a nod to it in the current movie armors.
themanintheanthill wrote up the Mark 4 in 2013 and I don’t have much to add on top of what he’s already written. The figure is a great sculpt for the time and carries the bulk that we all expect an average man in a suit of armor to look like. If your a scale freak then you’ll like that this figure is taller than Captain America and if you like relative scaling and think Iron Man should be big then this is a great figure for you.
And as mentioned in themanintheanthill’s earlier article the articulation is pretty decent. He’s got all the great Marvel Legends super posability and then some. Iron Man was one of the first Marvel Legends with what I call rocker shoulders, a forward to back movement of the shoulders, implemented with a hinge joint on the front of the pecs. It would be a few years before this joint was improved but at this early stage it was pretty killer. Iron Man could make hands together repulsor shots. The articulation is:
Rocker ankles
Hinged ankles
Swivel calves
Double hinged knees
Thigh swivels
Ball hips
Ball waist
Ball chest
Rocker shoulders
Ball shoulders
Swivel biceps
Double hinged elbows
Swivel forearms
Hinged wrists
Hinged fingers
Ball neck
Ball head
There’s not much more to say about this figure. It has held up over time, the neck breakage that happens in the Mark 4 has not happened in the Mark 2, which makes me happy since this was a difficult figure to come by. Back in the day, Toy Biz was good about keeping variants rarified.
You can still get this figure on
