Marvel Legends Extremis Iron Man vs Mandarin review

We already covered the Extremis Iron Man design back in 2023 in a review along with Ultimate Captain America, and while it was cool to get a more poseable version of a famous armor, I still wish there was more added to make him even better, from additional torso articulation and more convincing metallic shades so he wouldn't look plasticky. In addition, a new Mandarin has always been on many fans' wish lists, though Hasbro seems as reluctant to make one as much as they are to represent Slave Leia, hooded Cobra Commander, the ROTF Twins, and anything related to Temple of Doom. Admittedly, the Iron Man villain himself looks cool in a suit, almost like a badass evil John Wick, though it comes at the cost of reducing the character to being a reuse of a more generic body. That being said, let's see if this set is any worth picking up.

Here we have Iron Man in-hand alongside the other versions of the character. Or maybe I should say suit since the figure was retooled into Iron Patriot, an identity notably used by Norman Osborn as part of the Cabal. He's mainly here because of the mold history, but I mainly wanted to discuss the two versions of Extremis Iron Man. The original version from 2023 had some gold paint apps that don't mesh all that great with the marbleized plastic used for the hips, while the reds were barely even metallic and were rather drab. The new Iron Man tries to make the colors more vibrant, yet he ends up looking less metallic than even his stock photos. Whether you like the consistency or not is up to you, but would it hurt Hasbro to make a figure they're reusing metallic? It's all retooled parts, so use the budget to make him a little less cheap? I guess one positive is that minus the shape of his arc reactor, the colors vaguely resemble Armored Adventures.

The figure has had some modifications beyond the shades of red and gold, such as a new torso piece meant to accommodate additional articulation in the neck and butterfly joints. Neither really works the best, and it doesn't help that the torso ends up being slightly narrower despite broader chests making more sense for comic book superheroes. Sure, the Extremis armor is leaner than earlier Iron Man designs, but still.

To its credit, the new Iron Man can lean back slightly more if you only use the diaphragm joint, but the addition of an an crunch makes further improves his range. Still, if Ultimate Iron Man had a double ball torso for his articulation, why couldn't Extremis 2.0?

As for the Mandarin, this figure reuses a suited body with the longer, unbuttoned coat seen previously on many Legends figures without a flashy costume, I'm sure. The head looks a little oversized, and the hair doesn't really so much to hide that. It could be worse compared to most other Legends figures, but the Mandarin looks less like he could be a supervillain wearing a suit disguise and more like a generic Japanese mafia thug. Don't get me wrong I appreciate that the black plastic is nice and matte rather than shiny, cheaper materials, but he ends up feeling less cool than the comic art since we've seen this body so many times, and the proportions don't quite fit the Mandarin as well as Hasbro hoped.

His head sculpt is decent, but it feels somewhat like a mix between being generic expression and Hasbro trying hard not to apply any racial caricatures. It's mostly fine but not quite a spitting image of the Mandarin, to be honest. Articulation is standard for these suited bodies, so I will instead go over some of his alternate hands. Unlike the relaxed hands, these are more gestural in comparison while perfectly accommodating his effect parts. They definitely feel like reuse from a Morbius-type figure, though, given the length of the fingers.

They both have alternate heads, with Iron Man having an unhelmeted option that doesn't look too out of scale on him compared to putting the one that came with Hulkbuster on this body. I like that it's sculpted to resemble him wearing a thin layer of headgear-like material to either protect him or better interface with the helmet. The Mandarin, on the other hand, has a screaming head with grey hair as well as the 10 Rings in his fingers. The grey hair is based on Daniel Knauf's run on the Iron Man comics, something not many people bring up since the average Marvel Legends collector on social media probably pays little attention to comic lore as much as they still believe Exo Man was actually Iron Man in those fan made 70's Avengers videos.

Overall, this 2-pack is just okay. Iron Man is a decent second stab at the Extremis mold yet still has room for improvement. Mandarin, meanwhile, feels like an excuse for Hasbro to make the second or third best known version of the character to casual fans without going all out on his classic character design. The price I paid for this set isn't as high as what you'd pay for the Gamerverse 2-packs, but I know there should have been more done to make them a little more worthwhile than just "yo I got new Legends, check 'em out". Still waiting for that Animated Series Mandarin, Hasbro. You made a whole line dedicated to the 90s Iron Man series and failed to deliver on making him or any other villains present in the Season 1 intro!

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐