Sunday, May 13, 2012

Hot Toys 1/6 War Machine Part 1

Forget style and color, Stark, more and bigger guns is better

I have no discrimination against any of my own collectibles - I like them all equally (which is why I got them in the first place anyway ^^), but this has got to be one of the most impressive and most awesome action figures in my collection. ^^


Hot Toys' Movie Masterpiece 1/6 scale War Machine from "Iron Man 2". ^^

Unlike Jill Valentine BSAA Ver. reviewed last December which I didn't really had too much trouble getting, War Machine was another one of those didn't-buy-fast-regret-later-luckily-still-find-new-one-at-reasonable-price purchase stories. ^^; I hadn't watched "Iron Man 2" when this figure was first announced, and I did managed to watch the movie and made the decision to go for this huge purchase, it was all gone. ^^;

For quite a while before May last year, I was pondering a great deal on whether I should get it from auction sites or online forum sellers at a blood-spilling high price - a few brand new unopened ones I saw were priced between RM800 and RM1,000, which wasn't surprising at all given the exclusiveness of Hot Toys' releases and high value as collectibles.

Realizing that its first release price wasn't as expensive as the price tags I saw, I was unwilling to give in to my own desire to own this figure. Luckily for me, a seller I know managed to bring in a few new ones from Hot Toys second or third batch production of War Machine and sold them at regular market price, which I was extremely grateful of. The price could be higher and people would still go for it nonetheless, but the seller didn't jack up the price because of the collection value and the item's popularity. That was how this Hot Toys' War Machine came to me. ^^ I did pay for a rather high shipping fee to get it sent over to me faster, but that was my own choice. ^^;



War Machine is my favorite among the many Iron Man armor suits from the two movies. Unlike Tony Stark's suits with weapons and special equipments concealed beneath armor pieces to preserve the smooth look of his suits' humanoid form, those obvious weapons mounted on War Machine's back and behind his forearms, plus the overall larger and polygonal design of his armors make him look a lot more intimidating than Iron Man, at least from my viewpoint. ^^

I really love the color scheme of War Machine's armors as well. It's definitely not as flashy as Tony's suits, but it seems a lot more practical in my opinion. ^^ The modesty in color design is perhaps why I like the "unpainted" Mark II better than any of the other combat use Iron Man suits. ^^





A compilation of clips from various "Iron Man 2" trailer, with quite a bit of emphasis on War Machine.
Video clip is from Youtube. Follow this link to the website if you can't see anything.

A look at the packaging and content of this Hot Toys figure in this posting. ^^



Side views of the box sleeve.


The product line's name "Movie Masterpiece" at the bottom right corner of the box sleeve's front.


Top and bottom views of the box.




A bit of preview on the back of the box sleeve.
The entire sleeve has a really glossy coating that makes it somewhat hard to take pictures of it without focus blur. ^^;


Sliding the main container out from the sleeve. ^^


With the sleeve flattened, it's much easy to spot the silhouette of Mark IV on War Machine's right hand side on the box art ...


... and Black Widow on his left.
Both Mark IV and Black Widow were released by Hot Toys in this 1/6 scale figure series.


Front view of the main container.


In before admiring the actual figure's details, the cut design on the container's front seem pretty interesting. ^^





The figure and most of its accessories can be seen through the window.


Side view of the container.


Production info of the figure printed on the back of the box.


Box open. ^^


The actual tray containing War Machine and all of his accessories.





Closer look on the figure and other parts inside the container.


With the top cover removed.


The mint feel of the figure can immediately be sensed. ^^





The figure and all of its accessories can be seen much clearer. ^^


(Left) The "Ex-Wife". ^^
(Right) Ammo belt for the back mounted mini-gun.



A straight-out-of-box display of War Machine.


Desiccant to keep the content dry before everything is unpacked.


A quick comparison with FG 1/144 Gundam Exia to see the massive size difference between War Machine and the model kits or collectibles I usually deal with.



Closeups on some of the details.




A standard Hot Toys display base, the exact same one in Jill Valentine BSAA Ver.


Very simple packaging for the manual. ^^





The instruction sheet shows how the various lighting gimmicks on the figure are activated and the ways to configure some of the accessories.


Both sides of the instruction sheet show the same thing, only in different languages of English and Japanese respectively.


A small "flat head screwdriver" is included to assist in opening up the collar panels.
Like the large space between Jill Valentine BSAA Ver's container and plastic cover, this little accessories added simply for user convenience is a very considerate design from Hot Toys. ^^


A tiny clear stripe to be pulled out from the back of the neck before the eyes' lighting gimmick can be activated.
The switch can be seen right below the back of the head.



Red light for the eyes! ^^


The Arc Reactor on the chest before its light is turned on.


A tiny clear stripe on the spine to be pulled out before the chest' lighting gimmick can be activated.


White light for the chest.


The switch for the chest light is inside a tiny slot beneath the mini gun's mount rack.
Not easy to spot, which is a good design to preserve the realistic feel of the figure. ^^


The chest's white light is very bright, as seen with the light shone on the paper background I used in the image above.
I'm sure being a torchlight in desperate situation is one of the functions assigned to this figure when it was first designed (not!) XD



With the eyes and chest light up. ^^

I couldn't take pictures of War Machine's front view when the light is on, as my shots were all blurred by the bright chest light. ^^ However, it's truly a spectacular sight to be amazed at. ^^

Still, the eyes and chest aren't the only two spots that can light up on this figure, both palms have that gimmick too. ^^ That and all other accessories of War Machine will be shown in the next posting. ^^

2 comments:

MSA-005K said...

Wow, that War Machine looks freaking beautiful. I'm about to go all in on Hot Toys for The Avengers.

Jose E. Barragan said...

I have the Mark 5 from Hot Toys and it's amazing...I've been trying to find the Mark 6 or the Mark 4 because I want to have one of the "classic"-looking Iron Men as well, but no luck so far...I guess I should have picked one up earlier, now they're sold out everywhere. :(