Packaging: Standard carded Marvel Legends action figure with the comic book behind the figure, and illustrations of the rest of the Apocalypse series on the back of the card.
Iron Fist #8 (October 1986) This issue is pretty pedestrian and unremarkable. Sometimes I wonder who chooses which issues to reprint? The story in Iron Fist #8 is about Iron Fist fighting Chaka & the Golden Tigers in the subways of New York City. Imagine a guy dressed in green & yellow lycra trying to surprise criminals in the flourescent lighting of the New York subways? While Iron Fist was a cool martial arts hero; his alter-ego, Danny Rand had an endless amount of personal problems. Several pages of this issue are dedicated to Danny Rand's inner turmoil about the death of his parents (and who murdered them?).
Headsculpt: Since most of his face is covered, there is not much detail. The sculpt is faithful to the traditional look of Iron Fist in the 1980s comic books.
Articulation: The Iron Fist body is not only very flexible, but the musculature is very detailed and anatomically accurate. Iron Fist is muscular, but not ridiculous. He has a lean look similar to Bruce Lee, and to most famous martial arts masters. The biceps and ankles have cut joints. The neck, shoulders, and thighs each have ball joints. The hands are sculpted in traditional martial arts grips. One fist is clenched in a chopping fist mode, and the other hand is in a karate chop pose. The wrists and hands can also be flexed. The abdomen is hinged, so Iron Fist can do crunches on his Ab Flex machine.
Gear: Iron Fist includes a couple of orange plastic energy trails that you can attach to his hands if you display him in an action pose. These energy trails (see Iron Fist #8) would pop up whenever Iron Fist could concentrate long enough to summon his K'un-Lun chi power.
Paint Apps: The yellow sash, collar, and slippers look sharp. The dragon tattoo on his chest stands out in dark contrast against his light skin tone; and so do the black eye sockets on his yellow mask. However, some of the other figures on the pegs were slightly fuzzy; or else they had too much orange tint and/or tiny black specks on the mask.
Market: $8-9 at most retail toy sellers.
Overall: Iron Fist looks like he stepped right out of a 1980s comic book. It is great to see an older Marvel character done in a way that respects his original look. Since the comic book is part of these sets; I have to knock Iron Fist down a grade due to the sub-par reprint story.
Grade: B
