The new LEGO Iron Man Mark 3 Collectors' Edition is a scaled replica of Tony Stark's suit from the 2008 movie Iron Man. It has a cool-looking, ostentatious design; in the movie, J.A.R.V.I.S. drily comments on its 'discretion' before painting it hot rod red and golden.
Admiring its corresponding LEGO model, I'm struck by how the dimensions of the suit – the build of the shoulders, the wideness of the back, the cinch of the waist – are critical to the final, iconic look. The suit looks like something that was custom-built to one man's body and specifications – a fitted tuxedo rather than a Men's Wearhouse rental off the rack. It reinforces the recurring theme that Tony Stark is Iron Man, and his two identities are inseparable.
LEGO has released numerous Marvel replicas before, but the branding of this set as a 'Collectors' Edition' implies there might be more coming. Armor variants would be the easiest option for followup sets, since they would not require LEGO to articulate a human face in brick form. But a Spider-Man, Black Panther, or Starlord figurine – any character design that covers the face – could work equally well.
The build comes in 11 bags, and you build the set incrementally, body part by body part. First you build the torso, which you plate with red and gold bricks over a Technic skeleton. Then the legs, which attach via ball joints to the pelvis. Then you use ball joints at the ankles to affix the model to the feet, which you mount onto a grey platform base. Then the shoulders. Then the upper arms. Then the forearms. Then the hands. And then finally, the head, which uses creative building techniques to articulate the armor's mouth and eyes. The piecemeal instruction reminded me of the suit-up sequence in the movie, when you see all the parts turn, screw, and coalesce into a single, armored entity.
The model is articulable, within limits. The head turns. The elbows bend, as do the wrists and fingers. But the knees, ankles, and pelvis are locked in place, which means the model has a default power stance. The arms can either rest at its sides or can stretch in front of the model, palms out, to deliver repulsor blasts. One hopes that if LEGO continues this line of figurines, future models will be more flexible, or at the very least, will be locked into more interesting poses. The generic power stance is fine for the first set in a series. But it will definitely get redundant after the third or fourth.
The model looks sleek, but not too sleek. Call me sentimental, but of all the MCU Iron Man Suits, the Mark III has always been my favorite. The nanotech suit had better lines and the suitcase suit had cleverer animation. But the Mark 3 felt realer. It was from an earlier time in the franchise, when Stark still relied on machines to get him in and out of the suit – thematically similar to how he relied on a machine to keep shrapnel from reaching his heart.
Even the way the machines assembled the armor on his body made him seem imprisoned as much as empowered by his genius. Tony Stark lost some of its narrative resonance in Infinity War and Endgame when his suits got so sophisticated that he could materialize them at will. The suit was no longer a double-edged burden, and was instead a no-strings-attached power fantasy.
Writer Arthur C. Clarke famously said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And I loved Stark's suit when it was tangible and heavy, yet breakable – before it became too advanced and the "magic" took the stakes out of everything.
LEGO Iron Man Mark 3 Collectors' Edition, Set #76344, retails for $129.99, and it is composed of 1297 pieces. It is available now at Amazon and the LEGO Store.
Looking for more superhero gift ideas? Take a look at our guides to the best LEGO Marvel sets and the best LEGO Batman sets.
Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He's also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.
