Everyone in the Marvel universe must be really tall and super skinny, because here's another figure showing up with those exact same dimensions. Iron Fist is one of the tallest figures in the line yet, which is a shame because the biography card included with him lists him much shorter than others. This scale problem is only compounded upon by his lithe and acrobatic frame, making him look even lankier. I'm not a huge fan of this basic body sculpt that he has, shared by a number of other characters in the line, simply because the proportions look way too long, as compared to figures like Captain America, which despite still looking long, don't look unrealistically so. And that was a really confusing sentence! The muscles in his arms and legs look accurately athletic, although those in his chest are way too bulging and taut. Not only would his costume have to be skin tight, but he would have to be a freak of nature to look quite that muscular. The feet and head seem about the right size, but his hands do come across as a little big from some angles. They're definitely not DCIH humongous, it's just that some people may find them on the large side. On the note of his hands, there's another gigantic problem with the sculpt on this guy: he doesn't have fists! His name is Iron Fist, he's a martial artist who punches people, and yet they give him two open hands (see the comic at the bottom)? One open hand would have been sort of acceptable, but not including a fist is inexcusable. I may actually refer to him as Iron Palm for the rest of the review, just to mock their lack of foresight. The hands also look drastically less detailed than the rest of the figure, especially noticeable around the cut forearm, where it goes from heavily muscle-textured to perfectly round.  This sculpt is barren when it comes to details, simply because of the simplicity of the costume. The only sculpted features across his entire body are in fact his muscles, which are sharp and easy to see, just too exaggerated in spots as mentioned earlier. The head does profit from some detail work, with a sculpted-on mask, hair in the back, and raised eye sockets. This is all crisp and improves the appearance of the figure. The headband strands in the back look more like a wishbone than actual cloth, but they still add a dynamic visual element. Sadly his lips aren't quite so cleanly carved, looking almost deformed or extremely sad on one side of his mouth, but thankfully the rest of his face has a nice shape. The flame accessory that's included has a good sense of flow and looks good when posed correctly, although because of the way it's supposed to be connected, actually attaching it to the figure is almost impossible. There are a lot of disappointments with this relatively simple sculpt, so it's hard to sympathize, but it's still an okay looking figure despite all these problems. He does have a certain sense of style or charm that's hard to categorize or explain, and it manages to counter balance against his technical weaknesses.  

Sculpt Score: 5 / 10

 Iron Palm here relies on just a few colors to achieve his look. The green that makes up a majority of his costume is a nice shade that shows up well in person or on camera, complementing the bright yellow well too. It has a sort of fade effect, whereby it goes from very light to quite dark across different parts of the costume. The best I can say is that it looks good in some spots and not so good in others, so you'll just have to judge that for yourself. The yellow areas suffer from the usual problems you see with yellow, in that the color isn't quite thick enough to cover the color underneath, and this is particularly evident on his chest emblem. The boots and belt don't suffer quite as badly, but the problem shows up there too. The skin tone on his forearms is slightly varied when moving across the swivel joint, which can be somewhat jarring, and the color shift from his neck to face is even worse. The neck is really poorly done, green showing through across the whole thing, just making it look yellow and filthy. Applications on his chest emblem are very clean, highlighted by the perfect thickness of the black line surrounding the design. His belt and boot-tops showcase mostly straight lines, but each have a little roughness here and there too, much like the green ending at his forearms. You can't expect perfection in a figure this small in a mass-market line, so I'm not complaining too much; just don't expect anything perfect. The applications on his face aren't too amazing either. The black around his eyes is okay, but the actual whites of his eyes are pretty muddled looking. The line at the bottom of his mask isn't that straight, nor is his hair that wonderful as it looks messy and globbed up. There isn't a lot of positivity in regards to this paint job when looking at each individual part, though Iron Palm isn't a terrible looking figure by any means as a whole. Considering the small size, a lot of the things mentioned above are hard to point out in normal circumstances, and you won't be terribly disappointed by his appearance, especially if the intended purpose of this toy is to play instead of display. 

Paint Score: 5 / 10

 The Marvel Universe seems to be priding itself on the fact that it offers a lot more articulation than its rivals (DCIH), but Iron Palm here doesn't really seem to take full advantage of a diverse articulation model like many other figures in the line. His leg articulation in particular is quite limited (although still vastly superior to DCIH), with hinges at the ankles and two at the knee, with very restricted ball style hips. Including some way to swivel the leg, whether at the knee, ankle, or thigh would really improve the number of stances into which you could get this figure. The hips are also almost useless, because his legs are very difficult to move forward, making it impossible for him to sit down naturally; they just turn up and out at strange angles. His upper body is definitely more expressive, with hinged elbows, a ball style torso and shoulders, and swivels at the wrists, biceps, and neck. All of these joints offer very big ranges of movement, meaning you find a lot of cool poses and he's a lot of fun to play with too. Most of the joints look natural with the sculpt, at least as natural as possible. It's good that they're not sacrificing appearance for excessive articulation, and a good balance is found here, except for one spot, which are the wrists. These cut forearms are much higher on the arm than you normally see, and there's something much more distracting about the cut when it's just below the elbow instead of at the wrist. Since it's so close to the end of his sleeve, integrating it there would have given even better results, but as it stands now, it's ugly. His neck makes it hard to give this toy any personality, so a ball joint here would have been a huge improvement too. All of the joints are plenty tight, and nothing was broken or stuck out of the package. I've posed him numerous times and nothing shows any signs of loosening, so that's good too. In the end, it's solid, working articulation that would only benefit from a few more points.  

Articulation Score: 8 / 10

   

 Iron Fist himself isn't too much fun. Not only is the character only marginally popular, but the action figure doesn't feature anything overwhelmingly exciting either. There is only one rather small flame attachment, which is actually pretty hard to use with the toy, and he's not visually engaging or even big and imposing like other characters. Maybe if he had fists so that you could do something other than slap with him, it would help, but as mentioned numerous times before, Hasbro didn't think it necessary to sculpt him with fists. The articulation is good enough to allow you to play with him, and you can also find some interesting poses for your display shelf as well, so that adds a fun element. The biggest step towards enjoyment is the Fury Files online system that Hasbro decided to implement with this line. Iron Fist comes with a code that you can enter online for extra story and background on the character, and providing that living narrative for a toy to live in is a great way to make him more fun, especially for the younger buyers. He also includes a card with unique art and biography information, all in a little "top secret" envelope you have to break the seal on. This fun little diversion definitely adds a lot of play value and improves the score here. It's still not enough to make an otherwise bland toy shine, but it does keep him afloat.  

Fun Score: 8 / 10

 I can't help but feel this is a rather small action figure composed of very little plastic. He feels light in your hands, although not particularly weak or flimsy, so that's a plus. I think he would stand up to a modest amount of roughness in play sessions, but you can't go tossing him off roofs and expect a high survival rate. There seems to be a relatively high production value exhibited here too, it's certainly nothing amazing, but the quality is higher than a lot of mass market toy lines, although those are often much cheaper too. Iron Fist/Palm retails for $8.44 at Wal-Mart, and pretty similarly everywhere else you can find him too. That's a lot of money for a 4" action figure that's quite skinny and includes only a very small accessory. If he were a very famous character then people might be more willing to lay down the money, but when he's not very well known and costs this much, sales might be a problem for Hasbro. Thankfully they went the extra mile with the online Fury Files concept, which does require some spending and outside effort, as well as provide you with a little bit more entertainment for you dollar, which helps balance things out a little.  

Value Score: 5 / 10 

Summary

 5 - Proportions are questionable, details are almost nonexistent, muscles are perfect in some spots, terrible in others, face isn't that attractive, hands don't match, seriously where is his fist?

 5 - Colors work well together, fading effect of green is either awesome or terrible, applications are below average but acceptable, some color matching issues, stills looks okay as a whole. 

 8 - Has plenty of points and more than the competition, everything works smoothly, only a few restricted joints, wrists look ugly but everything else is okay, fun for play or display.

 8 - Toy itself isn't that amazing, includes a lame accessory, articulation model is strong enough to make him playable or displayable, design and character aren't iconic or well-known, Fury Files online system adds a bunch to the fun value.

 5 - Not a big or plastic-heavy figure, accessory included but it's small, Fury Files is nice addition, price is just way too high for what you get.

Overall Score: 62 / 100 - This is an Okay Toy

Iron Fist suffers from poor sculpting decisions and execution, as well as weak paint and a hefty price tag. Only his solid articulation and relative enjoyment keep him standing.

P.S. This could be the figure I'm giving away this month, just leave a comment for a chance to win (if it's the one).

-The Articulated One