“I just pay for everything and design everything, make everyone look cooler.” – Tony Stark, Avengers: Age of Ultron.
I wasn’t a fun of the Mark XLII armor in Iron Man 3. I just didn’t like the gold being the predominant color, even if it did serve some of the thematic elements of the film. I bought the figure, of course. That’s how the Build-A-Figure things get ya. The shiny blue Iron Monger was a great figure, I would’ve bought any six figures to get him (did I ever review that guy?). Hmm. Anyway, I still had the old Mark XLII laying around (I’m bad at selling things) and that came in handy since Mark XLIII is… a repaint.
Now this is no fault of the figure, the movie costume appears to be only slightly modified in the film as well. The main change being that the colors have been swapped back into a more traditional scheme. It looks better. Even though the figures are near identical, I’m drawn to the Mark XLIII more. And, I can finally replace the Mark VI in my display.
The sculpt is a good representation of the movie armor from what I can tell. I haven’t seen Age of Ultron yet, so I don’t know how the Mark XLIII fares or if there have been any more extensive modifications made since XLII, but suffice to say the figure looks good. The flakes in the plastic give the figure a nice shimmer and the gold paint finishes the look. That said, the paint could be a little better. It seems like sloppy armor paint has just been a thing since Iron Man 2. Mine came out better than most of the others I’ve seen at TRU luckily. The chest and repulsor tampo are well done too. I think the only visual thing I don’t like is the dull gray shoulders. They blended out better on the heavy gold figure, but they contrast with the red. If the film version is that way, I may be unnaturally distracted by it! Ruin the whole film…
Okay, so the big thing here. It’s in nearly all the pictures! It’s probably the main selling point that makes this IM unique! It’s something that could probably be better, but, again, it’s a start. Or, in this case, a Stark. We finally have an ML with the visor open to reveal Tony’s face. In theory, it’s beyond awesome. In practice, it’s close. The technical details are still fantastic – the helmet looks great. The face plate looks sharp up there. Continue to Page 2…
meh. I didn’t much care for him and thought the “open mask” still covered half his face. Add in it was a repaint of the previous movie armor that I wasn’t a fan of, and this guy went right back in the box.
There is another IM and War Machine planned for the HBIM wave, but I’m not sure which designation it has?
otoh, I got my ticket for Thursday evening!
(pending any possible interruption via kidney stone. ugh.)
I like this take on him much more than the Iron Man 3 version. Face paint looks rubbish though, if I get him the mask will be staying closed.
*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA* *snork* Oh, fate, what a cruel joker you are. Or maybe Loki is hanging around.
See, I’ve been asking around about a problem I have with my Iron Man. He looks kinda hunched over. He can’t really look ‘up’, either head I don’t know how you got some of your poses but mine cannot do that. I asked if I had a frozen joint, if the base of the neck inside the armor might have a hinge or something, and nobody would reply.
So as I was getting ready to write this comment, I got my Iron Man, gave ONE MORE little push to check for that neck hinge, and POP! The chest piece EXPLODED off the figure! Arms and ‘clicker’ part and neck and shoulder pads ALL OVER WHOOSH!
Welp. I now know there’s no hinge point for the neck piece.
So what’s the issue here? The neck post somehow too short? The socket in the head too deep?
(and don’t worry about my Iron Man falling apart. I guess I was wrenching that neck part harder than I thought, wanting to free that imaginary frozen hinge. I’ve got plenty of tools and glue to fix that. Pretty impressive how that all goes together I must say.)
OK, OK, I dun figgered it out!
The neck is two parts after all! The ball and post is supposed to hinge forward and back. See, on mine, it all looked like one part. I got out my trusty X-Acto knife, carefully ran the blade along the mating seam and presto, I was finally able to move that thing so it didn’t look like Tony was always doing the Walk of Shame.
I can’t figure what happened. Maybe when the sonic sealer was being run on the chest it got a little close to the neck or something. So, problem solved!
Glad it all worked out in the end, but thanks for this information! It’s honestly nice to know.
There is a Mark 45 in the film, at least from the S.H. Figuarts preorder there is anyway. It looks a lot like the Bleeding Edge armor and the Extremis armor had a baby.
I only got this figure because I’m a sucker for movie Iron Man armors. Not sure I’m going to try to build Thanos yet. I have both legs (got the AoU Cap too because, well, I don’t know) but I don’t know if its worth chasing down the other parts as I don’t care for the rest of the figures in this wave.
The only figure in this line that I would’ve passed over if not for the BAF piece was Batroc. I’m a big Spider-Woman fan, and I love the movie figures (for a while, in my broke 20s, I made a vow to myself that I would only buy movie-based figures as a way of limiting my collecting. I’ve long since given that up, but I still enjoy the movie toys). Of course, I still haven’t seen a Spider-Woman or Hellcat, though everyone seems to have at least one or two Iron Man or Hulk figures hanging around.
I wish the mask was more open (or could be opened and closed on its own). As it is now, I don’t really know how Tony Stark can see without his field of vision being compromised by the mask. Like you, though, I far prefer the red with gold highlights as opposed to the other way around. I just won’t be using the open faced helmet.
Yeah, accurate or not, his back doesn’t look as good as the older figure’s. With nothing to break up the red but his “socks” and the Hulkbuster face, it looks like he’s wearing metal longjohns.
Ha! It totally is a Hulkbuster face!
Truth, don’t collect movie figs. (Spider-verse an exception from that so have the 2nd film one still) Easy buy and resell to.have the Thanos piece. That is an improvement but, still on the drawing board.
The legs of your IM weren’t floppy and loose? Considering he’s the same as the previous figure, I found the joints on mine to be terrible.
My Mark XLII legs were loose, XLIII is definitely better out of my two.