Infinity Ultron

What if... Ultron won? Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton seek to destroy Ultron following a cataclysmic event. Can the Watcher stay on the sidelines and not interfere any longer? Although Ultron comes from What If... Season 1, he's not the Build-A-Figure for a series of What If...? Legends - rather, Hasbro made a second general "Disney+" series covering the second year of MCU TV shows (plus Hawkeye), and dropped Ultron in as the BAF for that. Despite it having no other What If...? characters. Buy six of the seven offerings (skipping Moon Knight if you feel like it) and you'll have a large, murderous robot. While most of the What If...? episodes were pretty clear about their changes, Ultron's was vague at best. "The Avengers didn't steal the cradle." Okay, why? What is the nail that meant this horse was lost? Let's work backwards: we know Ultron got into the new body, which means the upload was completed; in Avengers 2: Judgment Day, the upload was interrupted because Helen Cho shut it off briefly; Helen Cho shut it off because Wanda realized what was up and woke her from the Mind Stone's control. So if something happened to Scarlet Witch (Ultron kills her when he knows she's read his mind, Hawkeye's taser arrow knocks her out longer, something), that could have tipped things in Robot California's favor. Though he's more heavily armored, this Ultron is smaller than the normal robot, but that makes sense: remember, this is Vision wearing different clothes, so he shouldn't be towering over the humans. Sadly, this toy does not feature the flip-up faceplate that would let you see Vihz's familiar face under there, just the traditional-Ultron-shaped helmet with the four eyeslits. Infinity Ultron seems to be patterned after a medieval knight. A lot of the shapes of his armor call back to his pre-vibranium body, just exaggerated: the chest is smoother, the pauldrons are way larger, the kneepads are in front of the legs rather than inside them, but they're all unmistakably reminiscent of what came before. And that makes sense, since he only built his "Ultimate Ultron" vibranium form after losing the new Vision body he was making; he wouldn't have that design to work from, yet! Having five on the Infinity Gems embedded in his breastplate seems like an unsafe idea, but then, Thanos just wore his on a glove, and everybody was fine with that. Even Ultron's accessories are befitting a knight. He has a big red cape with golden trim along the bottom and painted shadows on the inside. That can be removed, if you like: it's only held on by a peg in the back and two shoulder spikes that poke through slits in the top. His weapon of choice is a ridiculously long spear, a 10½" double-ended thing that looks like it's ready for jousting. We wonder what made the cartoon designers go with this theme for him? The spear can only be held in his right hand, and even that (due to the size and the weight) not very securely. Infinity Ultron moves at the ankles, knees, though, hips, chest, wrists, elbows, biceps, shoulders, neck, and head. Getting the arms into place when assembling the BAF is a little difficult, since the pauldrons don't move much, but they already sit high enough that they don't block the movement of the arms - not as much as the chest does. If you're unsure about which leg goes on which side, just remember that feet point outward, not inward, and the shapes on the thighs are meant to line up. Really, the only thing we would have added would be a hinge for the front of his helmet, so we could see his red face and the Mind Stone he wears on his forehead. What If...? Season 1 was really good, with a bunch of excellent stories and nice animation. And while The Watcher was the smart choice for that series' Build-A-Figure, we're glad Hasbro has gone back and made this Ultron, too. Mr. Knight | Ms. Marvel | She-Hulk | Kate Bishop | Hawkeye | Sharon Carter -- 01/12/23

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