Diamond Select The Iron Giant

It was back in the spring that I decided to share the wonderful The Iron Giant with my young children. It was while watching that film with them that I remembered seeing on display at Toy Fair a brand new Iron Giant action figure. When the film was over and the kids were in bed, I jumped on my phone to look for more info on that figure and quickly found a pre-order. I placed my order that night and then proceeded to wait.

As the spring and summer months went by, so did the release date for the Diamond Select The Iron Giant action figure. No matter, I’m an adult and I don’t need to get toys right away. They come when they come and I’m just thankful when I can pre-order something. I was also busy with other figure releases so I wasn’t exactly missing this thing. Still, whenever it crossed my mind and I checked to see if there was a new shipping date, I got a little anxious, because it sure looked like a fun action figure.

My Iron Giant finally arrived this past week. It’s the first action figure from Diamond Select that I’ve purchased in probably 15 years, if not longer. Back in the early 2000s, I knew Diamond Select for its Marvel Select line of action figures. Those were generously referred to as action figures since most possessed very little articulation. They were more like inexpensive statues and set pieces. They tended to follow the Marvel Ultimate Universe, perhaps so as not to step on the Marvel Legends line put out by Toy Biz. Some of those figures were among my favorite though, especially the Ultimate Venom. Over the years, it would seem Diamond’s action figures have become more figure-like. And while I’ve never been moved to buy one until now, I was looking forward to seeing what a Diamond Select product was like in 2020.

The Iron Giant deluxe figure arrived in a blister package. Another thing I really don’t see often these days is blister packaging, unless it’s a toy for one of my kids. It’s an attractive package though with a space theme that hits on the look of the film. It’s also nice to have a box I don’t mind tossing as I’m starting to become burdened by window boxes I can’t bring myself to throw away.

The Iron Giant stands approximate 9″ tall and comes with a small assortment of accessories. He’s mostly cast in gray plastic with some paint applications applied on the abdomen and hands. He has a fair amount of articulation, and being a robot, it works rather well with the sculpt. He’s got a ball-joint at the head that allows for good rotation and some downward range as well. Unfortunately, he can’t look up really at all so no flying pose is truly possible. His jaw is on a hinge and while it feels loose, it seems to stay in place well enough when he’s being left alone. His shoulders are ball-jointed and the little overhang of the should moves with the arm so he can reach over his head. The elbow is a ball joint with a swivel and the hands all rotate and have an additional hinge. The upper body is affixed to the abdomen with a ball joint that allows for some nice pivot motion as well as rotation motion and makes up for the lack of a true waist swivel. The thighs are connected by a ball joint and the knees are on a hinge. No kneecaps means he can bend his lower leg in a 90 degree angle forward and backwards. The lower leg can swivel below the knee and the ankles are on hinges and rock side to side.

This is a rather nice amount of articulation for the big guy and there’s not a lot I find myself missing. I was hoping to get him into more of a crouching pose like when he squats in the film, but the legs aren’t really accommodating there. The head articulation is the only real bummer for me. This is a figure that doesn’t really need to be able to do too much to look good, and I like that Diamond got as much into the figure as it did.

The Iron Giant comes with some accessories, though not a ton. He doesn’t need a ton though, and one could argue he doesn’t even really need what he comes with. There are three sets of hands in total: fists, gripping hands, and open hands. The fists make for good default hands as it allows him to do the hands on hips pose he comes positioned in. The open hands are expressive and work with another accessory I’ll get to in a moment, while the gripping hands just feel like extra. He has nothing to grab onto, but I guess if you wanted to hang him from something you could make use of these. Or craft him some steel girders to snack on. Also included is an S emblem that clips onto his chest. It’s rigid plastic on plastic and I worry that repeated removal will either snap one of the clips or scrape the figure’s chest, but it does look nice and is quite appropriate. The last accessory is a little, tiny, Hogarth. He’s in a seated position so he works well with the open hands and can even fit into a gripping hand. Better yet though, he has a tiny screw in his bottom and Diamond smartly put a magnet in the Giant’s right shoulder for Hogarth to sit on. It was something I was hoping Diamond did when I saw the promotional images, but didn’t actually expect. I just wish they had done the same with the S emblem.

The main feature of the figure is the included light-up function. Flip a switch on the back of the Iron Giant and his eyes light up. The plastic his head is cast in is light and a bit thin, so more than just his eyes will light up. The effect is still pretty cool, cool enough that you’ll be tempted to turn it on every time you walk past this guy at night. It’s powered by a set of LR44 batteries which are included and should be less likely to leak vs a AAA battery, and obviously a lot easier to fit into the figure. It’s a cool feature because a lot of the film is done at night and Diamond was able to add it without taking anything away from the sculpt.

The Iron Giant moves well, has a neat light-up feature, and probably more accessories then it needs, though it’s not quite a homerun. The figure is surprisingly light in hand and the joints are a little loose for my taste. The legs in particular can be combative and he has toppled over on me a couple of times. It’s not terrible, but I worry about him becoming more loose as time moves on. Most of the parts on him are hollow as well, so he just doesn’t feel like a premium action figure. On the other hand, he’s also around 27 bucks so I’m trying to keep my expectations realistic. The looseness of the figure does mean there are no stuck joints or anything and the hands are on nice, long, pegs and are easy to swap. The forearm pieces can actually slide off too, though you probably will never have need to.

Nitpicks aside, I do love the look of this figure. The scale looks great and the proportions are all well done. I love the magnetized Hogarth as that’s just such a wonderful touch. I’d probably have preferred a second, standing, Hogarth instead of one set of hands, but this is also pretty nice as-is. I kind of wish they could have done a premium version with maybe some die-cast legs in a 60 dollar price range, but maybe that’s not realistic too. For the price, this is a nice figure and I think fans of The Iron Giant will be pretty happy with this one.