Hot Toys | The Avengers | Iron Man (MK VII)

I was curious to see exactly what Marvel had in mind when they decided to boot up their new movie universe with Iron Man. He wasn’t exactly on the top of the list of characters, but I was still anxious to see exactly how the movie would turn out. The end result was something remarkable and really propelled Marvel to the next level with a lot of the success due to portrayal of Tony Stark by Robert Downey Jr.

As is a common theme with me, I passed on the first Iron Man figures from Hot Toys. I was really impressed, but by the time I wanted the Mark III, he had skyrocketed in price and I just wasn’t willing to fork over that much cash (although that doesn’t seem to affect me as much these days, unfortunately) at that period. I craved to have one only because I admired the craftsmanship so much that I just couldn’t comprehend how they were able to pull it off.

Iron Man 2 came around and again I passed on the figures. I didn’t care for the Mark IV version so I just didn’t put an order in. As more time went on, I started feeling regret for not getting the Mark III or the Mark IV figure and just when I started to look at possibly obtaining one, Hot Toys announced the Avengers Mark VII version and I was sold. It was always my favorite look from the movies even though he really didn’t use it all that much. I just really liked the design especially since they went back to using the circular Arc Reactor.

As the figure goes, I don’t really know what more to say. It’s fantastic. I still don’t know how they did so it just must be toy magic. I’ve read opinions where they think the eyes of the mask are too big, but I just don’t see it as that big of a deal. If I saw the movie only once with no reference material to look at, I wouldn’t be the wiser. I just truly have nothing more to say about the appearance because it’s just so good. Like the appearance, the outfit, or in this case armor, is spot on. It’s an engineering masterpiece to not only make it look accurate, but function as well. It would be so easy to make a statue that looks this good and yet it’s a fully functional and articulated suit of armor. A lot of collectors are tired of Iron Man figures, but to get them this good is nothing short but amazing. They’ve also added a number of LED features like the eyes, the Arc Reactor, and the repulsors on both hands. The outfit also has a number of moving parts like the flaps in the back which just raises the bar even further.

The paint work is stellar with vibrant colors and even the brushed metal work looks fantastic. It looks almost like painting a car because while the parts are plastic, it looks like armor. It would be so easy to go with some bad paint, but the work here is amazing and looks just like the armor on screen. There is virtually no slop at all and what’s even better is there is no bleeding when the LEDs are turned on.

Considering what you’d expect to be limitations from the armor, he can still pull off most of the usual Hot Toys poses and even achieve a flying pose if desired. About the only thing he might not be able to do without scratching or damaging the armor is a full sitting position. I haven’t tried but I think it might even be able to do that. I’m just not brave enough to have the plates rub against each other. Like I stated, the fact it’s a fully functional suit of armor is mind blowing. I love the work on the hands as one set has articulated fingers which allows Iron Man to do some pretty cool repulsor poses.

Iron Man comes with an assortment of hands, including the 90 degree hands to replicate the flying pose. You also get an alternate head of Robert Downey Jr., alternate armor pieces that have a damaged effect and some missile attachments for the shoulders and wrist gauntlets. You also get If you got the Sideshow Exclusive, you also got a holographic miniature of the suit. It’s a lot of extras and you can achieve a lot of different looks to your liking.

He might feel a little fragile since it’s armor made of plastic, but he’s actually quite sturdy. Some of the newer figures use die cast metal, but I actually like the plastic since he’s actually not too heavy and he holds up well together. The elbows are a little unusual as it uses a flexible rubber to help the articulation, but I think that’s the only area that could get damaged over time. The plates are also really close together so if you’re not careful, you could cause scratches.

It truly is a work of art and even though a lot of collectors are sick of these Iron Man figures, this is the one for me and I’m extremely satisfied. It might not win figure of the year with people, but there is no way this figure would have existed 10 years ago.