Uncle Iroh

"The truth is... I am Iroh Man!" Uncle Iroh is the brother of the Fire Lord and uncle to Prince Zuko. He was once a great general and now functions as Zuko's travelling companion and counsel. Calm, wise, and spiritual, Iroh understands the importance of balance and harmony. He's not just the brother of the Fire Lord, he's the older brother of the Fire Lord - meaning technically the throne belongs to him. When their father was killed died under mysterious circumstances and Ozai usurped the title of Fire Lord was named Fire Lord in keeping with his father's dying request, Iroh could have protested, but chose instead a simpler life. He was happier this way, and believed that had he been named Fire Lord, he would have become a very different person. Series 5 of Diamond Select Toys' Avatar line is based on Season 2, when Zuko and Iroh were on the run and incognito, so rather than his red Fire Nation robes, he's wearing Earth Kingdom green. The robe is a simple style with no adornments, just a thick collar in a darker color and a large sash around his waist. The large sleeves billow down past his hands in the back (they're bunched up above his hands in the front). Beneath the robes he wears a set of light brown clothes (shirt, pants) and dark brown boots. He's sculpted with a bit of a gut - it's not like he would get insanely jacked in his dotage, right? If there's one thing that's consistent among all the AtLA toys, it's that the likenesses are almost-but-not-quite-accurate. Like, you can recognize this is Iroh, thanks to his bald head and distinctive beard, but there's something indefinably "off" about it. He does have a beatific smile on his face, and one eyebrow raised playfully, so it's a cool face, it's just ot what we'd call perfect. "Resort Iroh" has the same kind of articulation as the rest of the figures: balljointed head, swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, and wrists, a wasit that may be a really tight balljoint or a really loose swivel, balljointed hips, double-hinged knees, and swivel/hinge ankles. There are no sort of swivels anywhere in the legs, so don't expect to get him to sit cross-legged on the ground. Despite having long hair, though, the head retains a decent range of motion. In addition to the "holding" hands he has on in the tray, there's also a pair of "knuckle strike" hands for fight scenes. That's not all, though. There's also a right fist with a fireball bursting forth from the knuckles, and a left hand with the fingers pointed to direct lightning. Where Azula came up with her lightning by just generally being crazy and angry and evil (not necessarily in that order), Iroh developed his by learning from waterbenders when he was travelling the world in his youth. Both energy effects are cast in translucent plastic, and Iroh's lightning doesn't have the clumsy "extra fingers" Azula's alternate hand did. Nice to see improvements over time! For when he's not fighting, Iroh's got the two things he loves most: his tea, and his tsungi horn. For the tea, we get a clay teapot on a brown tripod; it's not removable, but it is designed to sit over te little fire Iroh's made, a translucent orange flame crackling on a pile of straight sticks. The horn, which in the show was given the combined sound of a dukduk and a trombone, wraps around Iroh's head just the way it should, but obviously his hair can't be pushed down by it. A fun set of accessories, though. As of writing, no Series 6 has been announced for this line, but we hold out hope. There are still some pretty important characters who need toys, and we certainly can't count on McFarlane to do them justice. It would have been nice to get a Season 1 Iroh before Season 2, but this is still good. -- 05/20/23