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Battle Damaged Iron Man
Hot Toys
"The
following is a guest review. The review
and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford
or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the
guest author."
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Jeff checks in tonight with a
look at another terrific Hot Toys Iron Man - take it away, Jeff!
In just a few weeks the juggernaut that is IRON MAN 2 will be hitting
us right between the eyes. So far the only figures we have been
guaranteed from Hot Toys are War
Machine and Whiplash
but we can all rest assured that we’ll at least get one more version of
ol’ Shell head in his iconic red and gold colour-way before too long
(EDIT- MK IV just
announced!), but then of course there’s Nick Fury and Black
Widow, not forgetting the MK V, MK VI and the suitcase
suit as well, the potential is there for this to get very
messy and oh so expensive!
However before we get to IM2 we still have two new figures from IM1 to
look forward to from Hot Toys, there’s the much anticipated Mech Test Tony
Stark and the figure we are looking at right here, right now,
the upgraded, bashed and dinked version of the MK III suit. It’s billed
as ‘the battle damaged’ version, but it is oh so much more than that.
When you stand this new one next to the earlier version of the MK III
you can see just how much of a difference there really is!
So, if you’re a shell-head completist, fancy an upgrade or if you’re
thinking of making this your first Hot Toys IRON MAN figure… read on!
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Packaging
-
***
The first three IRON MAN figures had some of the coolest boxes of last
year, all three were a variation on a theme using side mounted magnetic
panels that unwound to expose the mechanics of the suit, and although
this new box sits well with its brethren, it has a distinctly
individual feel as well.
Gone are the magnets, instead we have an embossed and die-cut slip over
sleeve depicting the battered chest-plate, whilst the back has detailed
shots of the figure with it’s multiple details and features. The inner
box has the exposed mechanics found under the chest-plate of the figure
on the front and yet more detail shots on the back, these are done in a
graphic style to mimic the enhanced CG imagery Tony sees projected
inside his helmet, a nice touch. This inner box is in effect split into
two separate halves connected by a wide spine. When opened and laid
out, the main figure, heads and hands are housed in the right hand side
whilst the chest-plates, environment base, aerodynamic flaps and the
extra exclusive battered helmet are all nestled securely in the left
side. Between the two is the interconnecting spine that has the full
production credits printed on it.
I have to admit the old magnetic boxes are still my favourite design,
but with all the extra bits that needed to be packed with this guy I
can see the need for a revamp, and although it’s not my favourite from
the line so far, it is still undeniably a great bit of design that
deserves a full score.
Sculpting
-
****
When I first received this figure I had a feeling this review might be
quite easy, as I originally thought there would be a lot of re-use from
the first MK III, but how wrong I was! Well, I say that, obviously some
of the outer sculpted elements have been re-used but virtually every
limb and joint has been reworked and re-engineered to some degree. I
won’t go too far into the articulated elements and action features
here, as I’ll cover those in more depth later. Here I’m just looking at
the basic aesthetic, however, that said the engineering is so well
thought through and intrinsic to the look of this guy that it goes very
much hand in hand with areas of the articulations design.
I guess it would make most sense for me to take for granted that you
are either familiar with the first MK III figure, or you have read my
review for it, as I think discussing it’s differences and where it
varies will be much more straight forward. Also, the pictures included
will ultimately paint the thousand words I would otherwise have to
type… and I’m wordy enough as it is.
So, the legs are basically the same as before in most aspects and move
in the same way too, though the calf and hip have newly designed
elements for the revised action features. The groin area is the same
and is still made of a softer vinyl material, as is the abdomen, but a
revision of the way it is cut at the join means he can now move a
little more in this region. The most notable difference when looking at
the two MK III’s side by side is the chest area, as when the armour
plate is in position it is a little wider, and of course it is
removable.
Why is it removable?
Well we have two versions to choose from, there’s the undamaged version
which has a few scratches shown with the paint app, and then there’s
the properly mashed up and pummelled version which shows a whole raft
of damage from paint scrapes right through to extreme dents and
crumpling. Underneath these chest panels are some wonderfully observed
details on all the mechanics and engineering that surround his ARC
generator heart, these radiate out over his chest to his shoulders. And
the tops of the shoulders are different as well, this is to allow the
plates to fall over the top section of the chest plate, and to
accommodate the mechanical motion of them sliding forward to allow the
rocket launchers to pop up out of the cavities they conceal. The back
and arms are again all pretty much the same in the way they look, but
they shield a few more gizmos and doohickeys amongst their hinges and
layers. The neck is also a tad longer, I had hoped this might add a
little more to his range of movement, but sadly it hasn’t much, except
in the looking from side to side motion. I was hoping he might be able
to look up acutely for flying poses, but if anything its actually
slightly more restricted with this new design, which is one of my few
annoyances as I was really hoping for some good blast off poses.
To aid in your ‘dynamic’ posing of this fella there are 7 hands
included, all bar one are reused from the first figure. Two are fists,
two are slightly cupped for repulsor flying and two are palm and
fingers spread wide for repulsor beam blasting poses and lastly there
is an extra ungloved left hand, just in case you want to re-enact the
scene where he takes the glove off in the middle of his battle with
IRON MONGER… no, thought not… cute touch though you have to admit!
This exclusive set also comes with no fewer than three heads, first
there’s the undamaged head with light up eye feature, this is
essentially the same as the one that came with the first figure, but I
did notice some subtle retooling around the mouth. The second head is
the same face sculpt used on the MK
II figure but with the rivets removed from the outside of the
helmet. This is a nice sculpt that benefits from an even better paint
app this time around. At one point it looked like we might get a rather
spiffing new head sculpt from Ko Jun for this figure, but the good
people in the movies licensing department wouldn’t approve it, why?
Well, no one seems to be 100% sure, but after asking a few questions it
would seem that actors (who are a notoriously vain species, it might
surprise you to find out) very rarely like to approve sculpts that show
them in anything but a very, very flattering light. So emotions,
particularly angry and aggressive ones are seldom allowed, I guess at
this point I should say thank you to Mr Gerard
Butler as the figure of King Leonidas shows just how cool it
is to get a sculpt showing a bit of emotion every now and then. Anyway,
enough of ‘might-have-beens’, lets deal with the head we actually get.
As I said, the sculpt is the same; showing Stark in a
neutral/determined expression but the paint is 100% better here from
every angle. The outside of this helmet shows more scratches and scorch
marks and the face plate can be raised, as it is held in place by
magnets. In fact you can lift it off entirely to reveal the Tony Stark
face completely, and it gives you a chance to see all the great
detailing on the inside of the mask as well.
Lastly there’s the exclusive ‘severely’ damaged helmet, there are some
nice observations to show the extreme dents and bashes, and where as
the other two are made up of separate sculpted sections brought
together, this is one solid lump of vinyl. It does however have a ‘cup’
joint in the underside, so if you feel inclined it can be pushed onto
the neck post, but the damage is so hard core, if a human head was
inside, it would be pretty busted up… let me rephrase that… it would be
lumpy soup!
So there you have it… well most of it… but my initial thoughts that
there wouldn’t be too much to say in this section proved completely
unfounded, if I had the inclination I could write another couple of
pages on this category alone!
However, whichever way you look at it, even with the re-use of the old
head sculpt, this is a definitely four-star item. In fact when viewed
as a whole it’s nothing short of a small engineering marvel, and mini
work of art to boot!
Paint
-
****
I liked the paint app on the first version of the MK III, I really did,
but this is just that little bit more redder and little bit more
golden. The first had that fresh from the showroom, concourse look, the
red was a deep colour almost approaching burgundy while the gold was
more matte in appearance, looking like a brushed metal finish. But here
on the new version the gold is deeper in tone showing iridescence not
evident on the first, while the red is a more intense Ferrari/Hot Rod
scarlet. The division lines are all beautifully crisp, but are also
helped by the implied scuffs and scratches. He comes with two chest
plates showing varying degrees of abuse, from light fistfight with
Doctor Doom, right through to a heavy bombardment from the Hulk. The
‘undamaged’ one still shows a few scrapes and scratches, but these are
achieved with the paint app as the basic panel itself is reasonably
pristine. The heavily damaged one however shows a lot more warping,
dents and impact marks. This is enhanced even further by the scratched
and bashed up paint work that covers it. Both chest panels also have
clear plastic lenses set into their centres so you can view the glowing
ARC reactor clearly underneath. These panels lift off to expose a dark
charcoal grey back ground with some super-fine work on the steel
mechanical workings of the small servos, gears and micro circuits, and
once again the paint app shows a deft touch, with no slop or overspill
even on the tiniest details. I have to say I’m very impressed with the
scratches and scrapes painted onto the figure here, most of the base
plastic used seems to be red, this is evident by looking at the
underside of panels like the shoulder guards or forearm cannons, but
every millimetre of it is painted in a super dense rich red (or
metallic gold where needed). The over all effect is very even,
especially under artificial light, but in daylight with some super
close scrutiny you can pick up on some slight variation in tone between
a few of the panels, but you really will have to examine him very
closely, with a very critical eye to pick up on it.
The Tony Stark face is as I said above the same as the one we got with
the MK II figure, but he has received a brand new paint app from Mr JC
Hong. You’ll find the flesh tones are warmer and the hair, eyebrows and
eyes are all painted as beautifully as we have come to expect, this
version also comes with a bloody scrape on the right hand side of his
forehead and a scratch under his right eye.
So for me this is another outstanding job carried out on a very
technically complex figure, and as such it’s a full score figure
without a doubt!
Articulation
- ***1/2
From an engineering angle, this deserves a full score for many reasons,
but ultimately I’m judging it from all angles, so whilst the physical
construction makes the mind boggle, it still has a few limitations (I
actually asked Hot Toys how many separate pieces go into this figure,
and was told it is over 300… yes you did read that right over 300!).
However, even with the few compromises that had to be made to keep the
aesthetic, there are still some newly revised joints that are an
improvement on the first incarnation, most notably the waist and
elbows.
The augmentations here are marginal but both offer slightly improved
mobility. The elbows for example no longer use the rubber sheathes to
cover the joints, so they can easily achieve a 90 degree bend. The
waist can now twist a little due to the way the vinyl armour has been
re-cut/shaped at the point where it joins the trunks at the front and
the back. The neck is now also a different design and is removable, it
houses the batteries for the light up eye feature on the undamaged head
in a similar way to the recent Bat Man DX and RE5 Wesker figures. This
means each light up feature now has its own power supply where as on
the first one the eyes and chest ARC shared a common source housed in
his back. The rest of the articulation is all pretty much the same as
the original figure reviewed here,
there are however also a few extra whistles and bells on the ‘action
features’. The back of the calves on the legs can still open, but the
configuration is different, the top part lifts up, followed by the
lower section which now also lifts in stead of opening out to the sides
like it did before. Within the lower section are two smaller saloon
doors, so when the lower section is in the down position they push up
and swing open to expose the mechanics within (confused… you will be!).
It’s actually all pretty straight forward when in hand, and describing
it this way makes it sound much more complex than it actually is.
The aerodynamic flaps on the back also carry a lot more detail and
articulation. These come packed separately in the box and the small
pegs at the top of them need to be pushed into position. Then the main
flaps are all basically the same configuration, but have finer multiple
layers, the lower part, which is the larger of the two flaps has two
hinges, the upper portion has three layers, an outer shell that lifts
over a second plastic layer that has a third super thin laser cut metal
wing beneath. The lower flap is two layers consisting of an outer
plastic flap over another metal laser cut wing. You will need to
exercise caution when opening and closing these, I found the left flaps
on mine to be much stiffer, it all still moves but I wouldn’t like to
see him in the hands of kid or even worse a sausage fingered klutz of
an adult… be warned!
On the sides of the hips are two spring loaded ‘twist and pop out’
drums, Hot
Toys described these as ‘retractable countermeasure
dispensers’, I have to admit I forgot what these were for till I
recently re-watched the movie, they were deployed when IRON MONGER had
Tony in a bear-hug and they act like rotating machine guns, but
regardless of there intended function the engineering here is just
beautiful. From the closed position you just twist gently anti
clockwise and they spring out, first the main drum is released then
around the circumference of the chamfered edge are six pegs that also
pop up to stand proud of the ring. For this feature to operate to its
maximum potential you have to make sure the semi circular indents at
the top of the outer thigh are aligned with the drum otherwise they can
be blocked from opening properly. He also comes with two chest plates
as described above, these are slightly wider than the first MK III’s to
accommodate the details beneath, it certainly adds to his heroic
silhouette. These have two male pegs on the inside; you simply align
these with the corresponding couplings on the mechanical chest then
push it into place. I found this worked fine just using my hands, but
there is a special tool included, it’s a simple clear plastic spatula
that you can use to gently jemmy the plate away from the figure when
you want to swap over or just remove. Next there are the two shoulder
mounted rocket launchers, now obviously these don’t actually fire
rockets, but they do pop out of specially designed panels. You simply
slide these panels forward to release the rocket canons that emerge on
double hinged arms, the other end of the spatula included is also
intended to be used here to help push them back into the closed
position.
The neck, as I said above is of a new design and it has a push on ball
joint at both ends. However, the nature of the vinyl collar it pushes
into, coupled with the way the heads interact with the top ball joint
mean the articulation is still sadly a little restricted here, so we
still cant get a good looking up angle for those flying poses :(
The arms both have action features too, the left has the opening panels
to show the forearm rocket launcher, this has a far more fluid motion
now and the rockets face the right way as they emerge, rather than you
having to fiddle about getting them to ‘flip’ in the right direction.
The left arm has a ton more detail; first you lift the rocket launcher,
then flip the lower section out on a hinge where you’ll notice there is
another smaller section that also flips out on a smaller hinge. Above
this is another section that lifts up in a scissor action, when all
these elements are opened up you get to see all the cool details
sculpted within. There’s no getting away from the fact these bits are
fragile and fiddly, but cheez it does work well and look very
impressive, just take it slowly and carefully!
The other big feature here are the light up elements which are all
essentially the same as on the first figure but with a few tweaks to
the positioning of their activation switches. The eye lights are now
triggered by a switch at the top of the neck, the chest’s light is
still concealed under the rear air break on the right hand
side of his back and the palm-repulsor beams are turned on with small
switches on the inside of the upper arms, and once activated all glow
intensely bright.
There, I think that about covers it in its rawest form, but rest
assured you will have a lot of fun just exploring and familiarising
yourself with the full range and potential this figure has, he’s a
blast to play with!
Outfit
– N/A
Tony is quite literally built into this suit, so as such, this category
is a moot point.
Accessories
- ****
Most of the accessories here comprise of parts of the figure that are
interchangeable, so you can swap them over for different looks. The
official Hot Toys spec sites-
- Two interchangeable chest panels
- Seven interchangeable hands, including 4 with light up replusor palms:
- Tony Stark, in damaged helmet with removable mask
- Non-damaged Iron Man helmet with light-up eyes function
- Deluxe Iron Man figure base
- Damaged helmet as accessory (exclusive version)
So pretty much all of these have been covered above, apart from the
extra damaged helmet and the stand, and it’s a very nice stand, one of
the few I will definitely be using. It’s made to mimic a section of the
roof above the large ARC reactor at the Stark facility, the site of
IRON MANS final face off with IRON MONGER. It’s a wedge shaped section
with industrial style flooring at the front and shattered sheets of
toughened glass at the rear. The front also bears the IRON MAN logotype
sculpted in full colour out of a black background. The figure can stand
and pose just fine on this without the need of a support stand, but one
is supplied if you feel the need for it.
The extra ‘exclusive’ battered helmet is a nice extra, but is intended
just as an extra accessory to be placed at the figures feet or perhaps
used as a prop for your Tony Stark in his
suit to hold, there is a plug on the inside, so you can
actually fit it on the figures neck should you want to, but it has
taken such a hefty battering that if Tony’s melon was still actually
inside it, he’d spend the rest of his life in a vegative state.
However, the sculpting is all still top notch and the paint shows some
nice observations, with dry brushing showing some cool implied details
and damage where the scarlet paint has been scuffed away to show the
steel beneath.
So a great selection of bits and pieces that give you plenty of display
options, a full score from me hands down, I awarded my score based on
the exclusive set which I have, but to be honest the crumpled and
bashed helmet has limited use without a full Tony Stark head sculpt
being included, so it wouldn’t really affect the final score too much,
but rather put a nice coat of varnish and a cherry on top of it.
Value - ***1/2
Considering the degree of R&D, plus all the super-fine work
lavished on this figures many articulated elements and action features,
even at the hefty RRP of $189.99 he feels like you are getting
something approaching a reasonably good deal.
However, in the real world, where most non-toy collecting ‘normal’
people live, 190 big ones is a hefty sum for 12” figure.
So with my 1/6 aficionado head on I want to give this exceptional
figure a full four star score, but with my self employed, married
father of two head, I’m thinking three. So in a fit of schizophrenia
I’m giving him a well-deserved 3.5!
But if you can manage to score him for $170 or under (and it is doable,
check the where to buy section), then I think he’d definitely be worth
a full score.
Fun
Factor - ****
Care and a steady hand are the order of the day here, but if you can
trust yourself with delicate models, there is one heluvalot to be
appreciated here. And the interchangeable elements mean you will have a
hard time deciding on what combination of accessories to use and what
pose to actually put him in… but you will have a ton of fun arriving at
your final choice.
Or if you are like me, you might find yourself spending a lot of time
re-posing him every day, looking for that elusive ‘perfect pose’… while
your wife or significant other watches from the sidelines, occasionally
tutting and shaking her head. Some people just don’t know art when they
see it!
Overall
- ****
Hot Toys had some problems with this figure, but the problems weren’t
with the engineering, instead they were to do with the licensor
approving the final ‘reveal’ face for the helmet with the lifting
face-plate.
It would seem Mr Downy Jnr, his agent or an over zealous studio bod
took exception to showing the actor in anything but a passive
expression. I admit this is a shame as the early preview pics of Ko
Juns sculpt used in a Hong Kong magazine looked most impressive. They
were never ‘officially’ shown in the Western media, but of course in
these days of global communications, most of us hard-core collectors
had seen in within hours of the magazine hitting the stands. However at
the end of the day, if the licensor decides to pull the plug on
something, you can guarantee there is pretty damned little anyone can
do about it… ultimately these are the people you have to keep sweet to
ensure they let you keep the license.
Well I’m glad to say HT did manage to keep them sweet, but at the cost
of us actually getting the new Ko Jun head. And although it’s a shame,
not least for Hot Toys, after all the hard work they put into making
and then trying and re-trying to get it approved, we still get a
fantastic looking figure out of it!
So for me this is definitely a figure that more than deserves the
highest of praise, I look at it and it makes me smile, it’s the kind of
figure that reminds me why I’m so into 1/6th, and if it can do that
then how can it be worthy of anything less than a full score.
He is after all the perfect ‘man doll’, it’s basically a guy wrapped in
a hybrid of a fighter jet and a sports car… what is not to like!
Where
to Buy -
Sideshow sold out in a flash where they had the regular
version for
$189.99 or the exclusive
for $194.99. Or you can try Michael’s sponsors
below-
Urban
Collector
- $169.99
Big
Bad Toy Store
- $189.99
or try
eBay where I’ve seen a huge swing in prices ranging from $195
to $310.
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This product was provided free for the review by the manufacturer.
Photos and text by Jeff Parker.
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