I’m frankly stunned that I’m in possession of an official Machine Man action figure. Over the years we’ve certainly received plenty of surprise choices from whoever was running Marvel Legends at any given time. But with as many surprises, there seemed to be just as many glaringly obvious holes that seemed to refuse to be filled. I never held out much hope for someone like Machine Man, so it’s great to be surprised. Hellcat will continue that trend in upcoming waves.

If you’re familiar with the Black Panther body, then you’re familiar with Machine Man. It’s been a dependable, well-used body that we’re no doubt going to be seeing a lot more of in the future. I welcome its use. With so many bad bodies that have been used over and over, ruining great characters (like the recent Mag-frickin-neto), this one is inoffensive, plays great, looks fine and all-in-all gets the job done. I just don’t need an endless supply of resource-wasting newly-sculpted bodies. I don’t get bored with a body. I’d be as happy as possible with wave after wave of universe-fillers utilizing simple repaints of this very body. I could make a list. Seriously, Hasbro, I’ll make you a list and you can pump out this blank body in dozens of paint jobs.

Machine Man features a metallic purple that really accents his whole “artificial man” schtick. I love when metallic paints are used when appropriately. I prefer it to the occasionaly swirly plastic effect that has been used in the past. His paint really turns him into “Masheen” man.

Machine Man features a pair of extendable arms, and two pairs of hands: one pair of grippers and one pair of fists. Everything is swappable, meaning both pairs of hands plug into the ends of his forearms, or they plug into the end of his extensions, and you can mix and match for variety. This gives you a ton of different expressive posing options. I happened to get a pair of Machine Men and found that the extensions easily stack, allowing you to lengthen his arms by a factor of however many machine men you want to buy. The arms are bendable, but it’s a stiff bend, so you’ll have to give it a bit of force. I had this paranoid feeling that the wire inside would snap, so I’m not planning on bending it to much. The straight extension works well enough for me anyway.

Other than his extensions, he comes with a newly sculpted head and his trademark belt. Machine Man is a Jack Kirby creation, and the headsculpt evokes that Kirby quality as good as any.

I read my first Machine Man story in a Marvel Two-In-One two-parter where he teamed with title-head Thing against Ultron.

It’s a quiet dream to be able to cross off every single Thing co-star from my huge list of needed figures. Machine Man brings me one step closer to my goal. A well-done figure all around.

Order the set on BBTS

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