SH Figuarts Iron Man Mark 85 Final Battle Edition Review

I found that during this pandemic, it helps to have a hobby to get your mind off of things. These days, I'm busy collecting Avengers: Endgame action figures to complete my "final battle" display. And don't you know it, an integral piece of that display came in the mail a few days ago: the S.H. Figuarts Iron Man Mk-85 Final Battle Edition!

Look at that big, beautiful box. The name of the figure is even printed in gold foil! You know how much of a sucker I am for gold foil, Bandai. Feels really premium, man, and I haven't even taken the figure out of the box yet!

As my first Figuarts Iron Man, I am impressed with the engineering and detail on this thing. And it's got diecast feet, too!

Standing around 6.25 inches, the Figuarts Mk-85 Final Battle Edition is in scale with other imported toy lines like Figma and MAFEX. If you're a scale-nerd like me, you may not want this beside your Marvel Legends figures, although you can pull the legs out further for an extra quarter-inch of height.

The figure is packaged with a headsculpt of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, I have to say they did a bang-up job with it. That tiny, cocky smirk and eyes looking ever forward is just peak RDJ as Tony that it just made me tear up. I miss you 3000, Iron Man.

A helmeted head is included, completing Figuarts Mk-85 Final Battle Edition's iconic look. I love the dark wash/dry brushing done to the entire figure to simulate the grimy, weathered look of the armor at the climax of Avengers: Endgame. I didn't like the earlier release's bright red and yellow gold look, so the grey wash gives it the grounded, realistic feel that I absolutely adore.

If you own the previous Mk-85 Figuarts that Bandai released, there are no surprises for you here. It's still a good-looking sculpt with possibly the high point of Bandai's Iron Man releases in terms of articulation. Yes, he can do the 3-point superhero landing and look absolutely badass doing it.

Iron Man ain't Iron Man without repulsors, and Figuarts Iron Man Mk-85 Final Battle Edition packs a whole lot of them. They're molded in translucent rubbery plastic, and they peg under the feet and into special hands included with the fig. They look really nice, although aren't they supposed to be blue?

For a while, toy collectors had to depend on 3rd-party manufacturers for the attachments and effect parts the previous Figuarts Mk-85 should have had. Bandai probably saw the opportunity to make maximum money from collectors, because Figuarts Mk-85 Final Battle Edition finally came with all the neat things you saw him do in the movie, and you didn't have to order them separately!

Figuarts Mk-85 Final Battle Edition comes with that cool laser blade thing Tony used in their fight against Thanos. It's all in one piece, molded with an un-articulated fist, so all you need to do is attach it to the wrist peg and you can go a-chopping. A "holographic" shield is also included, so you can recreate the scene before the Hulk's snap! Like the laser blade, the shield is attached to a molded fist that you can just peg into the figure. Both are sturdy and sculpted well, and the translucent blue plastic is used to great effect!

Finally, Figuarts Mk-85 Final Battle Edition also comes with the memorable "lightning refocuser" blasters! It pegs into the figure's back securely, and there are even blast effects you can put in when you want to display Tony in full "Thor, hit me!" mode! Be careful, though. You need to remove microscopic parts off of the blaster to reveal the peg holes the blast effects attach to, and you don't want to lose parts of an almost $100 USD figure.

I got this figure for $96 USD, which is possibly the steepest I've paid for a single 6-inch scale action figure. Import figures are hella expensive! But I had to bite the bullet, because an action figure of such an iconic movie character deserves the best version, and I believe this is it. The S.H. Figuarts Iron Man Mk-85 Final Battle Edition is just strictly better than anything that came before, a sort of thank you letter to people who, just like for Avengers: Endgame, did their waiting and were rewarded handsomely.

Medicom MAFEX will be releasing a similar figure sometime in 2033 in the near future, but from my recent experience with them, it will have to do a lot to replace this in my Endgame battle display.

If you miss Iron Man like 3,000 times, raise your hand. And if you got this far and found this review useful, thanks for reading!