The Marvel vs Capcom game series has produced some of the most fondly remembered fighting games ever released to home consoles. With such a colorful and diverse roster on both sides, the pairing is a match made in gamer heaven, and after all these years, Hasbro has finally gotten in on the action by releasing what is hopefully the first in a series of Target exclusive 2-packs commemorating the Marvel vs Capcom series: Iron Man vs Mega Man X. Let’s take a look!
To be honest, I’ve never played any of the Marvel vs Capcom games. I have, however, played a whole mess of the Mega Man games, so that’s my key interest in my picking up this set. And for the general purposes of this review, Mega Man X will receive the lions share of attention, because *I think* the Iron Man figure is a reissue of one of the figures released around the time of Iron Man 2, but I could be wrong about that.
The packaging is bright and eye-catching, at least the white was effective in drawing my attention at Target. The colors and design strike me as being more “Capcom” than “Marvel,” but don’t ask me to justify that — I’m pretty sure I can’t. It just looks cool and unlike any other Marvel toy packaging I can think of offhand. But, as cool as it may look, in the recycling bin it goes.
Mega Man has seen a fair amount of action figure representation over the years, and he’s currently the darling of some of the import companies, but this is the first Mega Man released by Hasbro, so, considering their current track record with Marvel Legends, this set was an instant must-have for me. This iteration of the character is the Super Nintendo-based “Mega Man X,” and, as you can see from the screen shot below (courtesy of the new Super Nintendo Classic), Hasbro nailed the sculpt and likeness. This is an excellent rendering of Mega Man X. There are precious few paint apps since much of the figure is just massive swaths of blue, but the paint that is there, like on his head, is crisp and sharp.
Joining Mega Man X in this set is Iron Man. This looks to be a figure based on his early movie appearances — maybe it’s the Mark III? It’s a pretty standard Marvel Universe 3.75-inch figure, and we’ve seen many iterations of Iron man released in this scale over the years. Now, as much sense as this pairing makes, these two figures do look odd together. Iron Man’s design has a realistic quality it, while Mega Man X is pure cartoon rendered in plastic. It makes for a not-so-balanced set, but, like I said, I picked this up for Mega Man X, so Iron Man will likely be tossed in a fodder box.
For a 3.75-inch figure, Mega Man X is pure hand candy. He’s a ton of fun to pose, and thanks to his giant feet, he can easily hold most action poses. He doesn’t have the most articulation points in the world, but he can do just about everything I need him to. The only accessory in the set is Mega Man’s energy blast, which easily attaches to his “gun” arm. I can’t help but feel it should be yellow/orange, but I’m basing that on the Mega Man X game, so it could very well be green in the Marvel vs Capcom games.
While I did grow up with figures in this scale, I am not currently a fan of it. Truth is, I’ve always thought of Mega Man as being smaller than the typical human being, so, for me, this figure works decently with my Marvel legends figures. Well, okay — he may not integrate seamlessly, but it works well enough for me.
There’s a cardboard cityscape backdrop that is included in the set as well, and it works okay as a backdrop. The scene depicted makes no sense to me in the context of Mega Man, but I decided to keep it just for kicks. I can see it working more effectively as a backdrop for the Iron Man figure, but your mileage may vary.
This 2-pack is a Target exclusive and should be widely available at this point. Mega Man X has certainly received better figures in the past few years, but this is a great low-cost alternative to those expensive imports. If you’re interested, just head on over to your local Target store!
