Welcome to Flashback Friday: The Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this series you’ll get a discussion and brief review on some of your favorite Pops from the MCU. Here, we really appreciate the shared universe so the figures will come from film, television, and streaming. Ultron from the Avengers: Age of Ultron set is this week’s choice for discussion.
Discussion: 2015 brought us the second Avengers film featuring the first big screen adaption of mega Marvel villain Ultron who was voiced by James Spader. In the film, Ultron was created when Tony Stark and Bruce Banner were splicing artificial intelligence with J.A.R.V.I.S. Needless to say it did not go as planned because Ultron became a mind of his own and soon had an army of robots at his disposal to help with his end goal which was to destroy mankind. I know in the comics there are many different versions of Ultron because he continuously upgrades himself. Each time he upgrades he becomes stronger and smarter. Throughout the film he upgraded two or three times becoming stronger in the process. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Ultron by any stretch of the imagination. Don’t be surprised if the studio decides to revisit this character in the future.
Age of Ultron featured a ton of characters. It only makes sense that the Pop set also features a great deal of characters. There are 18 Pops within the set and there’s at least one Pop for each main character sans Quicksilver who gets no love. There’s been speculation that there are some rights issues involved but that’s for another day. Ultron received two Pops for this set. This one is normal and pictured above while the other is a Grinning SDCC exclusive that doesn’t look all that different. I will discuss that Ultron in a future article. Since the set included a metallic Vision I would’ve really liked to have seen a metallic Ultron. It could have been a great addition to the set. Including an early version of Ultron when he was one of Tony’s broken down suits would have been phenomenal. The robot looked incredibly creepy and to have that adapted into Pop form well just take my money.
Ultron is a fairly new Pop and this is the first time he’s received the Pop treatment. Being just over two years old and not vaulted he shouldn’t be hugely sought after. Ultron is a very reasonably priced Pop. When I say reasonable I mean he can be obtained for less than $10.00 from a lot of different places. Anyone who’s been following this series knows about our awesome Facebook group which allows you to sell, buy, and trade with other members. It’s a great way to track down Ultron and any other Funko products you’re interested in adding to your collection. The link can be found right here. If Facebook isn’t your thing you can find Ultron on Amazon and eBay. He also had a wide release so you still might see him in a few stores here and there.
Description/Review: The majority of the Pop is silver. Red eyes really stand out on the head. There are four red lines that trace the outline of his skull. They come from the bridge of the nose and the eyes. Each cheek has one red spot in the center. The center of the forehead is indented and some of the armor protrudes where the ears would be. Moving on to the body of the suit we have completely silver legs with some outlines around the knees, calves, and quads. The arms look very solid and strong. There’s red on each forearm and right underneath the shoulders. Silver covers the chest piece but there are slits that feature red which makes him look very powerful. The energy exudes from his suit. I’m not a huge fan of the design for Ultron. I don’t think it looks that much like the character in the film and the whole Pop looks very boring. There’s not much going on and it doesn’t look as menacing as it should. Hopefully future Ultron Pops will have a stronger design.
What’s next? Unfortunately, Ultron’s future looks pretty bleak within the MCU. I think for the foreseeable future his only film will be Avengers: Age of Ultron. The character may be resurrected someday but for now he’ll stay in the past.
What are your thoughts on Ultron? Sound off in the comments section below.
Would you like to see a specific Pop in a future article? Post your choice in the comments section and you just might see your favorite character “Pop” up in the coming weeks.
Check back next week for another MCU flashback. Excelsior!
Matt Norris