The Flash III

Iron
The ability to take an otherwise nondescript character and turn him into something special is one of the great successes of the DCUC line. That trend continues in wave 12 with Iron, the first member we get from the Metal Men.

The sculpt on Iron is beautiful, capturing the solidity and toughness you would associate with the character, right down to his square jaw and thick neck. His smock-style top features riveting in a triangular shape on the front that matches the rivets at the tops of his boots and on his gauntlets and the iron symbol on his chest and forehead are indented, not simply painted on. Speaking of paint, Iron is completely monochromatic, but done in a nice rich silvery blue that looks different depending on the light:

The color is helped by tiny dot-like imperfections everywhere except the arms and legs and a dark blue wash which give the figure the look of a real piece of Iron.

When you think of cross-branding at Mattel, you might think of the upcoming DC/Masters of the Universe packs, but as the packaging indicates, this figure includes die cast parts a la Hot Wheels. To tell you the truth, I can’t tell which parts are die cast, but to me the hands and feet feel like they might be metal (I tried a magnet and got nothing). In addition to Darkseid’s right leg, Iron comes with wrench (which actually works) and ball-and-chain hand attachments.

The pieces blend in color-wise with the rest of the figures and are designed to fit over Iron’s hands and fit snugly, though the wrench is a little loose. They also fit over any characters closed fist, assuming it is the large one, like Cyborg:

“Well it beats a sonic arm, I guess.”

Though it might’ve been nice to have them plug into the forearms, I definitely like the idea of not losing a tiny hand somewhere along the way. Iron has the same articulation as the rest of DCUC (including full neck articulation) except for the ab crunch, which is hidden underneath his smock. This missing articulation point is pretty much the only bad thing I can say about this figure, which is clearly my favorite in this wave.

Grade:A