Hey, if you had PTSD from almost falling into a space-anus, you'd come up with some "just in case" clothes, too!
Tony Stark developed his cutting-edge Iron Man armor and helped found the Avengers to protect the world against catastrophic threats.
Although it initially seemed like it was going to be a nice adventure game, it's since become apparent that Square Enix's Crystal Dynamics's Marvel's The Avengers is going to be "live service" trash that you're expected to keep paying for for years after you buy it, with less focus on a fun campaign storyline and more focus on being boring and grindy so you're willing to spend real money on fake money so you can buy new characters and new costumes (as long as they're not exclusive to a platform you're not using). Costumes like this one, we'd imagine.
1981's Iron Man #142 introduced comics' first "specialty" Iron Man armor - he'd always had special gadgets and new technologies he could pull out when the situation required it, but this was the first time he had an armor pre-built for a specific use, namely, operating for extended periods beyond Earth's atmosphere - aka, the Space Armor. The idea's been revisited a few times, so no surprise it's being brought into the game, too.
The game's "Starboost" armor is based loosely on
one seen during Iron Man 3's House Party Protocol - the Mark XXXIX, sometimes called the Gemini Armor. It was white, with graphite sections and gold accents, and this suit follows... suit. The colors, at least, though not the patterns. Which is kind of a shame, because giving the movie armor a solid gold dome really did call to mind an astronaut's space suit, making it look like something with a special intended purpose, while this one's grey faceplate just means it looks like Tony got tired of red and yellow.
The sculpt is new. Or at least mostly new.
The hands, biceps, shoulder balls, and everything between the chest joint and the knees appear to be shared with the plain Iron Man in this series (though they were new molds there, so this is hardly what you'd call "old"). The shins, forearms, and the armor glued to the shoulders is bulkier than the normal one, while the chest is molded with extra bulky armor running over the top of the shoulders and connecting to a thicker chestplate. The design of the suit could easily blend with a comic collection, a movie collection, anything.
Articulation is standardly good: balljointed head and hips; hinged neck and chest; double-hinged elbows and knees; swivel waist, biceps and thighs; and swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, and ankles. He's got alternate hands - either fists or open - but without the thick armor on the back of the hands, there's no need for the "repulsor blast" hands to be done without hinges.
This is a store exclusive, so it doesn't come with a piece of the Abomination Build-A-Figure. What it does have is four - count 'em, four! - energy blasts. They're light blue and have a bit of a metallic sheen to them, so even if they're the same mold we've seen so many times over, they stand out against the white armor so very well. Plus, you can actually fill up the holes in his hands and feet all at once. Nice!
I'm not interested in this series' BAF, so I'm not worried about getting the normal Iron Man - I've got plenty of red-and-yellows already, meaning he's not worth $20 to me. But the Starboost Armor isn't something we've had before, and it'll really stand out in your Hall of Armor. But wow, between this figure and their exclusive Black Widow, what is it with Target and Marvel characters who don't normally wear white wearing white?
-- 08/24/20
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