Mega Bloks Marvel Invincible Iron Man Minifig | Produced by Mega Brands
Released March 2011
Released March 2011
Created by Mega Brands, the Mega Bloks are a construction toy similar to Lego. What differentiates these bricks from the other countless block-based construction sets out there is their use of licenses. In the past they've produced sets themed around such diverse properties as Thomas the Tank Engine to Halo. Their Iron Man and Marvel Universe playsets and vehicles have been around for some time but now they've introduced a new line of Marvel-themed figures, blind-bagged and sold individually.
Each figure comes in a sealed, blind-bagged foil pack. As you can see, there's no way of telling which is within. The front of the packaging shows the eight figures currently available in this wave. The rear of the pack (not shown) simply lists various health and hazard warnings.
Iron Man Minifig
The Iron Man Minifig reminds me very much of the Myclone line of toys and although the Mega Blok figures aren't quite as detailed, they're not that far behind.
So what's inside the pack?
As you can see, the figures come in pieces and must be assembled before you can start playing with/posing them. The connection system is pretty simple but versatile: the torso has a number of round-headed pegs onto which the various body parts are popped. The pieces not only stay in-place well but the round-end of the pegs produce joints that allow a fairly wide degree of movement.
In case you're wondering, he has neck, shoulder and hip joints that all use this method. His elbows, knees, wrists and waist use simple rotation joints. For a figure of this size, there's a good degree of movement possible and he's a lot of fun to pose.
The sculpt is a pretty good likeness of the Armoured Avenger and there's a fair amount of detail on the limbs and torso. The head is particularly good and captured the Iron Man look perfectly. The proportions are a little chunky but this is part of the charm of the figure's sculpt. It's supposed to have a slight Super-Deformed look to it.
Paint is average at best. It's quite thickly applied to a few areas of the figure and is a little sloppy around some of the edges. I've seen worse on some of the Marvel Universe 3.75'' figures though, so for a toy of this scale it's passable.
Extras
The pack includes a single 4x2 Mega Blok building brick, a preview sheet of the range and other products from Mega Blok's Marvel line and two clear orange plastic Repulsor blasts that slot into his hands. They're pretty cool but I keep wanting to slot them into his feet as take-off blasts. They certainly fit but don't click into place and aren't designed to stay in there. That's too bad, as it would have been a nice touch to have them do so.
Final Thoughts
The Mega Bloks Minifigs are just $2.50. So they check the impulse/allowance-level buy box. They're blind-bagged, so they've got that going on (which is good in my view) and the figures themselves are surprisingly well-articulated, nicely produced and quite funky little toys.
The Iron Man mini-figure is a good likeness of the character. Everything fits together well and he's a lot of fun to pose and play with. As I previously mentioned, he's not as awesome as Myclone King Walder, but then again, few things are.
However, although this figure is great and I look forward to seeing what else we get from the Mega Bloks Marvel line, I do have one major reservation about these toys: there are only eight figures in the range. Of those, one (the Green Goblin) is described as ''Ultra Rare.'' Two others (Black Costume Spider-Man and War Machine) are ''Rare.'' That leaves five figures as ''Commons.'' Within those Common figures are two Iron Man variants, two Spider-Man variants and one Venom. I picked-up two packs and now have both the Iron Man variants. Although I don't know how rare ''Rare'' or ''Ultra-Rare'' is, I'm not liking my odds of now being able to buy another pack and getting a figure I don't have. It's not fair to cricisise the Iron Man figure itself for that but it is something to keep in mind should you choose to pick-up more than one of these toys.
Scores
| Sculpt | B |
| Paint | B- |
| Articulation | B+ |
| Production Quality | B- |
| Final Score | B+ |
Image Gallery
Hey glad to see these are out! If you want try the small set with IM workbench (or something like, not in front of my Mega Block to know for sure) if you want blast off exhaust. Also, idk if the Marvel series is like the Halo blind bags but you might want to check the back edges to see if they have an imprint letter/ numbers code. For the Halo series this how one would find out which figure is what. For example the code.... scratch that this page has the codes for each figure. http://www.spartanbloks.com/marvel-series-1-superhero-packs/ Unfortunately I have most of these figures but it's nice to see Mega Brands is releasing them. And thanks for the review. :)
ReplyDeleteI think I've seen the workbench set - it looks pretty neat.
ReplyDeleteAnd I saw that the Lego Minifigs had a ''braille'' code on the back, so this is useful to know for the Mega Bloks!
those look FUN!
ReplyDeleteThey're not bad little figures - in terms of articulation they're certainly much more detailed than the Lego minifigures. It's just that there isn't enough variation for my tastes.
ReplyDelete