Shartimus Prime takes a look at the new 1/6 Scale Avengers: Age Of Ultron Iron Man Mark 45 Die-Cast figure from Hot Toys.
Hey, remember Marvel's Avengers Age of Ultron? After over a year of the movie's blu-ray release, we're still getting new product with the Hot Toys MMS 300 D11 Mark XLV Iron Man 1/6th Scale Collectible Figure! The Mark 45 armor was my personal favorite armor from the film, and I can't wait to take a look at this figure.
IRON-PACKAGE
If you've seen one die-cast Hot Toys Iron Man package, you've pretty much seen them all. 2/3rds of the packaging is a clear plastic with Avengers Age of Ultron deco that wraps around an image of Iron Man with his repulsors blasting away on each side. On the back we get the signature "A" for Avengers and the cast and crew that made this piece. The lower 1/3rd of the package just has the description of the figure along with some embossed circuitry just for a little pizzaz. Lift up the top 2/3rds and we get the gray foam casing with etched text which actually carries the figure.
IRON-ACCESSORIES
Personally, I have been looking forward to having a Hot Toys Iron Man figure with the kind of effects parts we get with this piece. Before we get to that though, let's talk about that base! We get a little piece of Sokovia with a removable 50% of a destroyed sub-Ultron. This thing is cool! It's painted with as much detail as a center piece figure and even includes some articulation for the head and what's left of the shoulder. There are two uniquely built rods that can screw into the base. One rod is hollow metal and has a half crescent moon shape at the top to somewhat-securely grip the "Hall H" of the Iron Man figure. The second rod is the super-poseable dynamic stand that includes a felted clamp to grab the figure for arial poses. This is my preferred stand. We get the usual interchangeable hands (fists, articulated, repulsors), plus an extra set of repulsor hands with flame effects attached to them! These effects are on fleek, bruh'! The yellow to orange translucent fade looks powerful as all hell, and we also get a set of effects like this that plug into the boots! For someone that loves posing action figures, this opens up a world of opportunity for fun displays. And the lasers! These pink stems attach to the forearms of the figure and they look fantastic. I love the pink fade at the base of each of these. For those of us that don't like a clean looking Iron Man, we also get a battle-damaged chest piece for the figure. When you lift the chest plate you see an impressive array of circuits and "Iron-Guts" as I like to call them. Just a little added bonus.
45 freaken minutes of installing batteries? YEESH!! Compared to other Hot Toys figures, this was especially difficult because the screws were in there so tight. Mini-screwdriver and clear pick are included along with 12 LR batteries of two different sizes: 6 larger batteries for the head and back, and then 6 smaller batteries to give 3 to each forearm. We need tweezers! That is what really would help this battery installation go by faster. Another reason it took so long is because like a novice Hot Toys collector (which I'm not, but I did have a moment of stupidity here) I inserted the small batteries in the head and back when they were meant for the arms. Unfortunately, the forearm lights are dim . . . AGAIN. I'm hoping Hot Toys has some idea that this feature is lame with every delivery, because it seems like they have no clue that for every Iron Man figure, the repulsor lights have been coated in a thick layer or weak-sauce. Adding the effects hands is even more disappointing because with all the lights off in the room, you can barely see the yellow-orange color glowing.
I really think words can't do any justice for how spectacular this figure looks. There should be a pic below of which you may gaze upon the stunning work of Hot Toys. The red and gold colors are exceptionally vibrant with this piece, and they still managed to include tiny little brown nicks of battle damage through-out. This is a die-cast figure, so we're getting a lot of metal in this piece, and he is hefty. Not heavier than most die-cast Iron Men, but for some reason he is a bit more sturdy than some of the Hot Toys Iron Man past.
LIFTED & ARTICULATED
I'm very pleased with the articulation on this piece due to different parts of the figure being able to lift and slightly detach. We've seen this before and it's really nothing new, but it feels like these features have been slightly approved upon with Mark 45. Fluid head movement with the ability to look up. Great spring loaded shoulder pads to allow full shoulder movement along with armpit joints that can be pulled outward for more articulation. The elbows can shift down to allow for more movement (which I think is brand-new here), and the torso shifts apart in two places. We get the feature with the tramp-stamp button which allows the legs to move all the way forward for a sitting position. The knees are triple jointed and he has 2 knee pads. This is much better than having a huge ribbed knee joint. I love that the ankles shift down for more movement as well. Mark 45 knows how to ankle pivot splendidly.
HIGH ACTION FIGURES
This figure is tall! The Mark 43 figure from Hot Toys is not short by any means, but this Mark 45 stands a bit taller than that. I measured this guy to be over 13 inches tall, and that's more than what we're expecting in the 1/6 scale. Does this really bother me or take any points away from the figure? Nope!
IN CONCLUSION
I love this figure! I categorize it as an "If You're Gonna Get One." If you've been thinking about buying a Hot Toys figure and you think you can only afford one, you will be very happy with this. The only real downfall of this being your only Hot Toy is that it does not have a Tony Stark head to go with it. The likenesses of actors portrayed by Hot Toys is almost always a home-run, so you would miss out on that by getting this piece. At the same time, are you really going to leave this on the shelf with all those awesome effects and Tony Stark head on top? Nah.
Hope you guys enjoyed this written review. Let us know what you think in the comment section, and keep posing those action figures every day! Check out more images for this figure below in our
GALLERY!