{"id":28000,"date":"2014-05-26T01:48:22","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T06:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=28000"},"modified":"2014-07-01T00:44:10","modified_gmt":"2014-07-01T05:44:10","slug":"hot-toys-mms-195-iron-man-3-iron-patriot-review-24-pics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=28000","title":{"rendered":"Hot Toys Iron Man 3
Iron Patriot Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> If you follow IAT on Facebook<\/a> or Twitter<\/a> (you do, don\u2019t you?) then you probably already know that I\u2019ve caught the Hot Toys bug. I spent a long time staying away from sixth scale. I\u2019m not a fan of soft goods typically. Plus, the figures, by definition, are big. And they can be expensive. I could go on, but essentially I spent a long time looking at the cool stuff that Sideshow, Hot Toys, etc. were putting out and thinking is was nifty, but not for me. <\/p>\n

Until two years ago, when Hot Toys veered a little too close to my interests with figures from the 1989 Batman film. I love that movie, warts and all, but I particularly love the designs. I bought Joker & Batman. That started a trickle. Reeves Superman. Go Hero\u2019s Shadow. Hot Toys Indiana Jones. But then it dried up. I decided that when I would dabble in Sixth Scale, it would have to be things that I absolutely loved. Things mostly from my childhood. The upcoming Robocop. The long, uncertain Batman Returns figures. Or the even more uncertain Back to the Futures ones. That was my line in the sand. <\/p>\n

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Well, here we are in an Iron Patriot review. Obviously, I crossed that line. It\u2019s Marvel\u2019s fault. And their damn movies. DC has sent me all but running into the arms of Marvel in recent years. And this during a time when the Marvel films have been… stunning might be an understatement. After a Marvel blu-ray marathon a few months ago, I came to the conclusion that I\u2019m more than likely going to look back on these movies as fondly as I look back on my 80s favorites. And I\u2019m going to want to have killer toys to remember them by (it\u2019s what I do). So I talked to my wife and then we (I) started the wallet-crushing saga of assembling a sixth scale Marvel shelf. I don’t need every release or even that many of the ones I’ve missed, but I\u2019ve grabbed more than a few. <\/p>\n

But I haven\u2019t reviewed any of them. Not one. If I\u2019m being honest \u2013 they\u2019re intimidating. I know twelfth and eighteenth scale pretty thoroughly. But sixth scale? My lightbox isn\u2019t big enough for one thing. Adjusting the clothing to be just right. Heck, just knowing what I\u2019m talking about – is there special vocab I need to learn? It sounds silly. It probably is. But sixth scale sort of became my private thing. I bought & reviewed the little guys, gave \u2018em fun reviews and kept the biguns to myself. Well, that needs to stop. <\/p>\n

And I\u2019m cheating a bit here with Iron Patriot. There are no clothes. No little oddities. The good thing about Hot Toys Iron Man obsession is that they\u2019re churning out giant figures with no soft goods. I feel like I have a better handle on that. It’s a 6″ figure at twice the size! I can review that! I think. <\/p>\n

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Among my earnest HT collection, I have three IM Armors. My first was the Midas Armor released late last year. There\u2019s just something I enjoy about the all-gold armor and it easily became my first purchase. I may get around to reviewing it, but suffice to say I loved everything about it \u2013 except the weight. It kinda feels hollow and just didn\u2019t jive with being an \u201cIron Man\u201d. Then I found out about Hot Toys Die-Cast series. I had to try it. <\/p>\n

And why not in the form of this great melding of Captain America & Iron Man? Iron Patriot first appeared in the comics as Norman Osborn (i.e., Green Goblin) during part of the Civil Infinity Gauntlet Invasion or some such. I don\u2019t know if it was cool when he showed up, but the idea is solid and I loved that Iron Man 3 adapted it. As stated several times at IAT, I do love War Machine and I lament losing that to Iron Patriot (it\u2019s cool, but not cooler). I do admit that the IP color scheme looked excellent in the movie and now enjoy that it\u2019s now faithfully recreated on my shelf. <\/p>\n

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I haven\u2019t gone and researched stills from the movie to say that with confidence, but it looks pretty damn faithfully executed to me. It\u2019s like having a not-so little version of Iron Patriot just pop out of the movie. The sculpting is fantastic throughout with little details acting as eye candy just about everywhere. <\/p>\n

The real gem for Hot Toys is typically the likenesses though and this figure doesn\u2019t disappoint in the department. Obviously, the IM head looks amazing! But while the head in-use when you open the figure has a light-up feature, there is also a second head with two face plates (one sculpted to be down and the other up) which attach to the figure with magnets. On this head, there is a fantastic little Don Cheadle visage. He even already looks annoyed with Tony. It\u2019s great! One face plate covers that up for normal posing, but the other uses those same magnets higher to give the look that it’s open. It also has ome raised panels on the face for when adn if we need them. <\/p>\n

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The sharp paint job further brings out the sculpt and makes him even more unique from the War Machine figure that he shares a ton of parts with. Now, I did have some paint issues here and there. The red paint line on one of the helmets has blue where it shouldn\u2019t be. There\u2019s a chip in the paint on one of the shoulders. The irony is that HT including a fair amount of wear & tear in the paint already to increase the accuracy and reality of the figure and these little defects almost blend out. There\u2019s a spot or two where I wonder if I scratched it or if it did indeed come that way. Essentially though, I\u2019m not worried about these little blips right now, but am hopeful he fares better than the Cap shield you\u2019ll see in the pictures. Sheesh. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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So it looks great, but what really sells me on these Iron Man armors is how well they move. The neck is on a triple ball-joint (base of neck, top of neck, & base of skull) and works fantastically. The arms have double-ball joints at the shoulder, bicep swivels, double hinge joints at the elbow and one-piece ball wrists. The legs have ball-hips, thigh swivels, double knees, and ball ankles. There\u2019s a high ab crunch too, but then there are some fun added features that really help the figure to move well. Pulling up on the torso reveals a second, lower ab crunch for deeper poses. Similarly you can pull down on the feet for more range of motion and perhaps the strangest one is a button on the figures lower back that lets the entire hip assembly swing down and forward for heavy crouches. That\u2019s amazing! <\/p>\n

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That said, the sculpt does block the articulation somewhat. The shoulders can be tricky as they need to have those big honking shoulder pads (which screw up every movie IM figure ever, I think) need to be coaxed out of the way for most poses. The hips and ankles fare better with flip-up panels that are there to get keep the sculpt accurate but to also let it get the hell out of the way. And they work great too. Iron Patriot can kneel down and take a convincing ground punching pose. How often do we see that? <\/p>\n

Accessorywise, Iron Patriot felt a little light. The main accessory is really part of the armor, the shoulder-mounted gun. It\u2019s a great piece with tons of detail and little warning decals. Even in its compact-size, it features four swivel joints and a huge meaning that it can be aimed in just about any direction you want. There are also several options on how it can slide into the figure\u2019s back for added range. <\/p>\n

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In addition to the Cheadle head and the extra two face plates, the figure also came with five alternate hands and one left-arm panel with a deployed weapon. All the extra hands are nice, but we don\u2019t really need all of them. The hands set to \u201crepulsor position\u201d are a must. The saluting hand is a great touch too! But with the standard hands coming articulated (add 28 more points the figure) things like the fist aren\u2019t really necessary anymore. I won\u2019t balk at extra goodies ever, but I\u2019m always cool with getting more stuff than we do. <\/p>\n

I also had one QC spotlight on the accessories. This isn\u2019t a big deal, but the extra left arm panel had its own red panel pop off during the photo shoot. It\u2019s not a dealbreaker \u2013 I can glue it back on myself, but I wanted to point it out because we sometimes think the more expensive toy the more it should be flawless. I\u2019d like that to be true, but a few little things that will keep it from being perfect. For the price, I think my Patriot is relatively free of concerns and I\u2019m glad the one bigger problem, this panel popping off, is something I can fix easily instead of a bigger problem (which, no doubt Sideshow would\u2019ve helped me to resolve). <\/p>\n

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Also included was the traditional light-up base. It\u2019s nice and good-sized the little engraved nameplate. It\u2019s a bit hard to display due to its size, but I like having it \u2013 the usual pole that functions as the figure stand is made of metal for this release. It does a good job holding the extra weight added by the die-cast. The base does light-up, but I haven\u2019t tried out any batteries in it just yet. <\/p>\n

Finally, there is also the light-up feature. This is a fun extra to the armors. The head, chest, and hands light-up. They\u2019re strangely bright (and my camera interpreted them as blue for some reason?), but I love having them in there as they really \u201ccomplete\u201d the figure. The only thing I didn\u2019t like terribly was that HT has switched installing the batteries to the consumer and a small screw driver is included. I don\u2019t mind doing this myself one bit, but I wish the button covers and switches were a little easier to get too instead of having to hide under something to be accurate. I worry I\u2019m going to break a clip on the helmet every time I have to get out the little included spatula and pop it off. <\/p>\n

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Overall, I love this figure. The die-cast parts (chest, elbows\/knees, lower legs) add some great heft to a sharp looking figure. The Cheadle head sculpt is, as expected, amazing and the innovations that HT has put into articulating prior armors have really shined through on the Iron Patriot release. It\u2019s just a blast to have, particularly when I partner him with an old, paint-flaking Cap shield (it matches his armor!) for a classic look. <\/p>\n

The only real drawback was the price: $310. I picked this up using pre-order and flexpay which is a godsend on HT releases, but that\u2019s still a lot of funds for one figure. Now, I\u2019m lucky enough that I wasn\u2019t buying HTs when they were \u201cCheaper\u201d a few yers ago, but I\u2019m reminded often of how they\u2019ve gotten more expensive. For $300+, I do at least appreciate the die cast and the heft included there, but a few more accessories would be nice. Still though, I can\u2019t deny I\u2019m addicted to HT Marvel now. The handful I\u2019ve bought have all been amazing so far and Iron Patriot is no exception! Too bad Cap is gonna want his shield back\u2026 <\/p>\n

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