For years, I tried to find a comic book version of Iron Man that'd fit well for my superhero collection. The first option was the Neo-Classic look that was in the Retro Collection. That was a previously made Armor Model 13 that received proper boots after having the Model 10's boots. I skipped it because I couldn't find it and because of the dated leg articulation. Then there was the 80th anniversary Iron Man that has the Alex Ross influence to the iconic armor of the 60s, but he was hard to find. I did get Mark III from the first Iron Man movie, but it wasn't until revisiting the Fox Kids Marvel Universe as well as the Marvel vs Capcom series that made me realize that the Iron Man design I always wanted was in front of me this whole time! Same went for War Machine, who hasn't received a lot of Legends love outside of the MCU. Now we shall fix that by reviewing the brothers in arms with the Ursa-wave Modular
Iron Man as well as Deluxe War Machine!
Let's first cover Iron Man first, as he was the guy that made me want to look into the retrospective of the series. The Modular armor is pretty iconic to numerous fans of 90s Marvel, as it tows a perfect balance between the classic musculature and simplicity with the modern agility and badassery he deserves. The Armor Model 2-4, iconic as it was, felt pretty impractical for combat and the like, and the design did make it look like Tony Stark was wearing a metal leotard if you see the arms and thighs as exposed skin; this design makes for a more warrior-influenced appearance, thanks to the better distribution of colors that make the gold parts feel more like one layer of armor that allows for better flexibility for the arms and torso, explaining why the shoulder pads are separated slightly from the upper body of the torso. The gauntlets, buckle, thighs, knees, and boots have ridged plates colored gold to have an extra bit of break-up for the red. Everything is generally clean on this guy, and the pinless joints are applied here professionally (again, we'll get back to that part for Power Rangers).
His helmet is less Ditko and more futuristic, opting to ditch the C-3P0 mouth slit in favor of having the eyes be the main facial features for the front. They are painted black to give the illusion of being either lenses or being eye holes that are darkened from far away. Many other armor designs return to the visible mouth slit, but this is my preferred look on Iron Man at least. His articulation is standard for the line, though it is a little stiff. He has a ball joint for the head and a neck hinge, though the neck can also swivel, which is a rarity for some Legends since they use two ball joints for tbe neck and head at times. His shoulders move front and back as well as in and out, though they're very stiff for the latter. The biceps swivel, elbows double-bend, the wrists swivel as well as hinge in and out for both sets of hands, waist swivels, and the abs crunch like with older Legends. Hips move front and back, in and out, thighs swivel, knees double-bend, boots swivel, and the feet hinge up and down as well as pivot. His alternate set of hands are able to use the included repulsor blasts (which might not be the comic-accurate term, THANKS MCU) for when ge's ready to attack, or he can use them to fly with the aid of a flight stand.
Now it's War Machine's turn. This guy reuses the biceps and thighs of the 80th anniversary Iron Man figure from 2019, but the rest of the guy is otherwise new. And it makes sense that he'd be a reuse of a previous Iron Man armor, as the first design of War Machine is a retooled Armor Model 11 that Tony initially had before James Rhode, who previously took the alias of Iron Man while Tony Stark was either MIA or incapacitated, would later use the armor and immortalize himself as THE War Machine we all know and love. The black and silver color combo is unique to this armor, as Iron Man was previously associated with different shades of red with gold/yellow (or silver for the Centurion armor); in addition, the segmented black components on the torso, shoulders, gauntlets, and boots make for a militarized take on the concept or Iron Man. Normally, this is seen as over-the-top as the 90s way of making things extreme, but it makes sense for War Machine, as he was once a man serving the military and being a close friend of Tony Stark making his established history change in the 90s (even if the two had beef with each other because of Tony's actions). On his back are two retracted shoulder cannons, which can hinge forwards when they're ready to be used on top of having articulation on ball joints. His thighs are silver like with the older Iron Man designs, which is accurate everywhere except the MvC character art where they're colored black (and his silver has a bluish tint). The only issue is that the unibeam looks slightly warped, but the rest of the figure is otherwise great.
Head sculpt looks more traditional for Iron Man designs, with the W-shaped mouth crevice having more in-common with the later designs, like Extremis and almost every MCU Iron Man faceplate. There's even a bit of sculpted eyebrows to make the face look more like a frown, which the Modular Iron Man helmet may or may not need. And there is a reticle of sorts on the right of his head. His articulation is largely the same as Iron Man's, so let's talk about his accessories. He comes with one of two options for his right-hand-side arm cannon, which is an in-motion rapid fire bullet effect part, and the points closest to the gun are a lighter orange than the preceding ones to convey the appearance of him shooting rapidly. He also had both singular bullet effect pieces and smoke pieces, but the seller I got the figure from didn't have them.
The other accessories he has include a rocket-launching effect part that goes on the right shoulder cannon, with a smokey gray cloud going over its front section to convey the plentiful number of rockets (three removable accessories for this guy) firing out thanks to the aid of the clear yellow blasts to also distinguish them from the red and gray. Meanwhile, his left shoulder cannon has a rapid blast effect that's colored like the rapid bullet effect part, which adds some asymmetric yet versatile firepower. He also has some jet-boot blast effects accompanied with smoke clouds to depict him either launching into the sky or landing. Originating from the 2020 Iron Man armor, these effect pieces look cool yet could be a little more stable, especially since War Machine has a bit of weight to him that makes the display option feel wobbly. And finally, he has an alternate James Rhode head, with a flattop hairdo that fits his militaristic/90s attributes very well. Makes me want to hunt down an Iron Man head with a mullet for some 90s-era photos.
Both figures received retro-styled repaints with unique packaging that reflects their animated-series toyline from ToyBiz, much like with the Spider-Man and X-Men figures. Iron Man is now colored to be non-metallic like the AI version of Iron Man repainted from the 80th anniversary version, and while he loses the normal blast effects (though the repulsors have paint added on) new to him are a blue blast effect pieces for the unibeam and hand (with white paint to add an extra bit of photogenic glow to them), a cartoon-accurate Season 1 head that has more paint on the top than the regular head (which is inaccurately given blue eyes), an unhelmeted Tony Stark head with mullet, and grilling hands for him to hold the Proton Cannon, iconic for being in the MvC games...okay technically he had it first in the Marvel Super Heroes arcade but it's War Machine's Sunday Best!!!!...anyways, there is a flight stand to keep ot from weight down the figure, and there is a single blast effect piece for it...it should have come with either a small ploom for it to sort of look like the full blast, or multiple blast effects to at least give a use to those unused holes.
War Machine is basically if the black was a little more flat than it currently is while his silver is replaced with pearly white. The reticle and unibeam are both blue, yet I think they should be white like the biceps and thighs while the eyes and part of the mouth to be red. He only retains the shoulder cannons and their respective blast effect parts, but he does come with repulsor blast hands. Oh, and I should mention this is close to his look in Season 1 and in Spider-Man, because he looks different in X-Men and in Season 2.
Now what if Iron Man and War Machine did the Fusion Dance from DragonBall Z? Well, we get War Machine as he appears in Marvel vs Capcom! This fan-channel release comes with the repulsor hands of the retro WM figure and the Pulse-exclusive unibeam and hand blast effects, which are read like the regular blast effects. His deco will probably throw people off since the black doesn't look as purplish gray as the sprites, but that was to make the characters pop in-game. That explains why Venom is blue and Spider-Man having an orangey shade of red.
These two figures are awesome. While they have some minor issues with the joint tolerances for one and the accessory stability for the other, they are my favorite versions of Iron Man and War Machine, and possibly the only ones I need for my collection. I have Extremis Iron Man on the way, yeah, but these two are my favorite versions of these characters, especially as fan of the 90s,vC, and Season 2 of Iron Man. They should both have some form of availability online, so you owe yourself two favors and get these two figures ASAP.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for both
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