Review Comp Part.1 -- Hot Toys Iron Man Battle Damage !

Uncle Loong · **Posted:** Thu Apr 15, 2010 8:51 pm

Hey guys, here is a small games to encourage more people enjoy their toys.

To those customers who bought their IronMan Battle Damage
from XL-Shop, or other XL's direct dealer shop. Please keep your purchase receipt.

This comp is very simple.

Do a good review on IronMan BD in our forum, you will have a chance to
win a piece of " Hot Toys member Exclusive Iron Man Mark3 Crushed helmet. "

here some simple rules,

1. Review can write in English, Chinese or Malay ( We are 1 Malaysia mah )

2. Review must post with photos

3. Must give Mark at the end of the review (10 Marks is the highest)

4. Don't write too long story, make it simple and nice.

5. Please post your review in this thread, 1 forumer can only entry 1.

6. No reply or chat allowed in this thread.

7. Entry date : 16 April 2010 until 16 May 2010

8. Only 1 winner. Winner must show his/her purchase receipt (online
customer can use the Order Number) when collection their prize.

Uncle Loong will judge on the final, good luck ~!!! hornest

p/s : Is a game for fun and to promote the hobby,
since there is only 1 prize, tat meant other will all be "loser.
I hope to see everyone join with a open heart,
if "lose also no bad feeling. Please bear in mind if you prepare to join this comp.

lets have some fun !!

quiksilve · **Joined:** Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:01 am **Posts:** 1011

Here is a personal review and some pics from me on Iron Man Mark III Battle damage, hope uncle and you guys enjoy the read. :0~

Packaging - **** (out of 5)
The packaging box for the iron man mark III battle damage is by far the most unique and eye catching among all the other boxes in the iron man movie masterpiece series.

I like the feature where you can open the outer box to reveal the inner chest piece of the mark III. Even before you get to the actual figure it already feels like there is so much detail put into the packaging design.

It comes in a flip open double window design which makes it easy for you to see the figure, clean mask, battle damage mask, chest piece, two in fact one weathered and battle damage the other clean with some scuff marks and also a base that replicates where Tony battled it out with Iron Monger at his Stark Industries factory rooftop where a bigger version of the arc reactor was located.

Sculpting and painting - ***** (out of 5)
No doubt the sculpt for the open helmet is the same sculpt found previously on the mark II. But lucky the HotToys team did a revamped on the skin painting to give it a more updated and human likeness finishing, take for example skin tones and slight touch of blood that help breath life into Tony's head.

Painting on the mark III suit now is more accurate to the movie hotrod red colour now, with reflective and shiny finishing. The scars and battle damage effect found on the suit on the arms and legs to me using a term called 'book matching'. Which means certain damage design on the left arm and leg is the same or reverse on the right arm and leg. This is understandable as the HT factory need production to be smooth and cannot be custom painting every piece of leg and arm in a different damage design.

The battle damage chest piece is given a non reflective finishing to match its weathered look, where as the clean chest piece is given a slightly dusty finishing.

Articulation - **** (out of 5)
Articulation has improve more on the pelvis section by using a softer compound rubber, this gives more freedom to posing and moving the upper legs.
Hands articulate well enough for a variety of poses but you do need to be careful so that you do not scuff the beautiful paint.

Accessories - ***** (out of 5)
This Mark III battle damage is by far the most fully equipped suit released by HotToys. First we start off with the ejective shoulder mounted micro munitions pod location on the left and right shoulder. These pop upwards when you slide the front piece of each shoulder plate downwards.

Next is the ever iconic expendable wrist gauntlet opening on the right arm that saved tony's face from a rain of bullets. A very well made and intricate design for a figure this size. One side flips open and the other push outwards.

Then there is the flight propulsion system that comes with fully deployed air flaps and built in metal flaps, this really adds and pushes the level of detail again. Its good that the air flaps are detachable this time round so that it doesn't get snap or damage easily.

And not forgetting the re-engineered airbrake deployment system and pop flare pods that saved Tony from being shot to kingdom come by two of the F-22 raptor. It comes with two opening flaps on each leg, to reveal more detail of the inner working of the leg mechanism. The pod flare pods twist clock wise on the left leg and anti-clockwise on the right leg, it closes nicely with a click to keep the design streamline when not in use. With so many accessories, this is why its a blast to just fiddle and play around with the mark III.

Fun Factor - ****1/2 (out of 5)
New or old collectors who previously had the normal Mark III will definitely love all the extra details and accessories that comes with this figure. Its a really fun figure that has been revamped and updated. It was a great touch to for HotToys to add in the base for this figure. For those that missed out on the first Mark III its your second chance to get it in your hands now before its too late again.

Value - **** (out of 5)
Its the best value for money mark III any collector can buy in the market right now. With huge improvements and accessories added, and also a new paint finishing to boot who wouldn't want one. sumpah

Overall - ***** (out of 5)
I really love that HotToys remade and improved on the mark III suit to bring it to another level of detail in the 1/6 figure industry.

Personal Score Recap:
Packaging - ****
Sculpt/Painting - *****
Articulation - ****
Accessories - *****
Fun Factor - ****1/2
Value - ****
Overall - *****

Final score: 9 out of 10

Note: Only review unit from ToyHunters comes with full base, and is for illustration and review purposes only.......... Just kidding :lol:

tatuche · **Joined:** Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:35 pm **Posts:** 10052

If I'm right, you borrowed all the bases from your friends... not buy from ebay.com or buy 6 IMM3 BD :evil:

BeastX · **Joined:** Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:01 am **Posts:** 3712

The good, the bad, the mediocre.... and some points
A comparison of HT BD Mk.3 review against HT very own first batch first version of IM Mk.3 (which has spawned 2 other figures MK2 and Gunmetal using very similar mould with slight variation).

Almost all parts (exterior) of the MK3 have changed except for maybe the head sculpts/face plate/hands sculpts/feet/abdomen/pelvic/thighs.

HT BD Mk3 Improvements, "the bad" and the "so-so"(changes apart form the obvious Arm/Shoulder/Hip/Chest/Air-break gimmicks):

1. Added a ball articulation at the neck base, added breakage to the neck (soft rubber & hard plastic parts), moving light LED/batteries/switch to hard-plastic neck (Pic_7, bottom, Pic_6, left). Same ball neck size between the old and new Mk.3 but the New heads ball-socket is about 4mm higher/deeper (Pic 7, Pic_8 and Pic_6, left). Heads seems to be the same sculpts released as before with Mk.3 and Mk.2. (Pic_7, top). Using BD Mk.3 heads on the older body, may not be all that suitable, will result in shorter than usual neck.

2. Shoulder from a minimal horizontal forward & backward movement to a ball socket on BD Mk.3. Shoulders were also lowered to accommodate the micromunations pod, this cause the shoulder armor to be block by the clavicle armor (Pic_1, red circle), when you bring the arms in close to the body. My copy's right clavicle armor popped-off (Pic_1, green box, HT's bad QC) to show you the bad alignments causing shoulder armor to be pushed to the side at the left shoulder but not on the right (missing armor). The closes the arms to the body without affecting the shoulder armor is to lower the ball joint so the armors parallels as in Pic_6, right. I will mod BD Mk.3 to increase the height of shoulder armor a little, over the clavicle armor.

3. The heel armor of BD Mk.3 does not move to accommodate the foot being pushed back as the old Mk.3 (Pic_4). It'll instead split open the leg as shown. I will mod this too.

4. The arms can bend further from about 80 degrees to a-bit more than 90 degrees. Hard elbow joint not rubber covered in BD Mk.3. Wire from the batteries for the LED at the hand is exposed (Pic_3, green square). Switch moved from the upper arm to the forearm (Pic_3, red circles). Slimmer right elbow joint to accommodate the thick gimmick of the right forearm.

5. Maybe not so obvious, an additional flap that can open on the BD Mk.3 (Pic_5).

6. This is minor, the movable part of the chest armor was not retained (Pic_1, blue square). Understandable with the replaceable/switchable armor and the "improved" ball socket shoulder.

7. Edit: Actually (upper thigh twist) of the legs on BD Mk.3 (Pic_2, left) and legs of the old body have the same approx. 70 degrees to turn outwards (Pic_2, right). However the joint was was quite tight on the BD mk.3. and be careful when you have the countermeasures at the hip deployed out as it may damage it when turning it.

8. Other points:
a) Seems same rubber/flexible material is retained for the abdomen and pelvic, but with better painting/finishing. Let's see it'll stand test of time or not.
b) Seems same pelvic and limited mid-abdomen articulation.
c) Insertion of air-breks and chest-plate are quite hard.

Ratings:
Gimmicks/Accesories: 5/5
Articulation: 3/5
Value: 4/5
Sculpt/Painting: 4.5/5 (Head sculpt fiasco/not-so random decals of bd effect)
Overall: 8.25/10

Pic_1

Pic_2

Pic_3

Pic_4

Pic_5

Pic_6

Pic_7

Pic_8

***********************************************
Reversion on Abdomen articulation on BD Mk.3..

Much-much improvement and changes to the abdomen to both exterior rubber and interior. The improvements are:
1. Almost TT-like range... can twist, turn, compress-extend sides (very minimal) & abdomen-front and back,.....seems to have at least a mid-torso TT joint range. Range of the abdomen is like Mk.4.
2. Exterior rubber coverings at the abdomen compose of 2 layers (was 1 with Mk.3 ver.1). Top layer borders the pelvic line, bottom internal layer extendes from the T of the pelvic to about mid-way up the abdomen. 2nd layer is exposed in Pic_9.

The abdomen is new, contary to what I review earlier...

Pic_10 posing for the abs range...

Pic_9

Pic_10

With this discovery, I change my articulation marks to 4.5/5

Overall points will therefore be.... 9/10.

more......
new missile assembly for the left-arm of BD Mk.3. Full missles/1 mid-point support (instead of 2 at sides). Right arm still uses the one on MK.3 ver.1/Mk.2.

update 17/5/2010: Dissecting BD Mk.3.
http://www.xl-shop.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=6816&start=62

minky · **Posted:** Tue May 11, 2010 6:45 pm

Hot Toys 1/6 Iron Man: Mark III Battle Damage ver.

Up until now, I've never done any review by request, or for any kind of benefits other than my own personal amusement. I've done some in the past, but I haven't written one... in like 2 hundred years~ But with some motivation this time; courtesy of Uncle~ here's mine.

First of all, I'd like to apologise for the crappy pictures. I realised I'm not very good at setting up lightings, and the pictures looked all blur blur when I uploaded them into the computer~
"I already gave my Best, and I have no regrets....you know, I have no professional training of photography and dancing, so~ "

Okay~ seriously."The Battle Damaged Iron Man Mark III", I was kind of expecting Hottoys to do something like this, but at the same time was kinda like "WTF Hottoys~!! Another variation~??!?". But luckily the new version adds just enough features to be considered a new figure instead of simple re-deco of the first one, to made me want to buy a second MK3 figure.(That's how weak I am...-_-")

(Tony Stark head without helmet borrowed from the first Mk3 version.)

Everything Hottoys did on the original Mark III, they've managed to take it to a new level with the Battle Damaged(BD)version. The first thing that I've noticed was the paint job. I was told that mine was the revised paint apps' version. Where the initial release in Hong Kong, people did a lot of complaining. The new color scheme in my opinion is a lot more movie accurate and glossier. The color is much more consistent throughout the different material used on the figure(for now~). There's little bit of silver & black wash here and there mimicking scrapes with metal showing underneath, which gives the BD version a more realistic weathered look. And I like that a lot~!!

Next up is the widely debated 'Damaged helmet', or the open face plate helmet. A lot of people were outraged when they realised that it's a re-used MK2 sculpt.(Can't really blame them though~) But I was so biased by all the improvements on the BD, the re-used headsculpt din't really bother me that much. Besides the obvious color difference from the mk2 ver', the face was also re-painted to look more battered with a bit of red(blood) paint. The removable face plate is painted to look like there's blast marks, but this part of the paint job I really don't like; It looks nothing like in the movie~ And just like the Mark II version, the mask piece is held by magnets hidden inside the head and behind the chin piece. And also like the mk2, the magnets don't really hold the face plate that well in the 'open' mode. Even with the new paint aps' the face sculpt is still more 'Suck' than 'Stark'(Get it~? Tony Stark, Tony Suck...... nevermind~). I didn't liked it before on the MK2, and I still don't like it now~ I'm going to display it with the mask closed anyways.

Another re-use sculpt is the regular 'clean' head with the light up eye function. Again, this is fitted on a big illuminating ball joint which doesn't give you the kind of poseability that one would expect from a 'ball joint'. But unlike the previous version, the neck is now a seperate piece connecting to the torso via a ball joint. Which means, the neck now has it's own bateries and switch. While this design offers better poseability, the connection is really loose that whenever I try to pose the head, the whole neck tends to come off. (This may not be case on your given piece though.) And it still can't turn it's head up far enough for flying poses.

From the head down. I could honestly say the BD Mark III is a completely reworked figure. Almost every part of the figure has a new feature.

Lets start with the chest piece. It comes with two interchangeable chest armor. One dented/damaged with scorched mark, and the other undamaged. The dented one has a less glossy finish in tandem with the damaged sculpt. Both fixed on to the chest via two triangalar pegs on the front and clips on to the side under the arms. The removable armor does make the chest area looks bulkier, but it also made the waist looks a little thin in comparison. The sculpts on the 'bare' chest were decent, but not alot to get me excited.

The shoulder pods were a nice gimmick. But the execution was a little bit clunky IMO. To retract it, you'll have to slide the armor that covers it open(this is a thousand times easier if you removed the chest armor first~), push the spring loaded pod slightly farward so you could bend the top pointing upwards, and use the included.. er... I call it the 'Transparent Stick Thingie' (officially it's called the 'function stick'.) and push the pod down with it, then close the armor. And you also have to be careful that the shoulder armor doesn't get in the way. To extend it , simply slide the cover forward and the pod pops up by itself.

Another gimmick is the Decoy Flare pods on either side of the hips. Mine's okay~ but I've seen a few others with a very loose locking machanism(actually I only saw 'one' other...), where it tends to spring out by itself whenever I tried to move the legs. And do make sure that you have it retracted before you try to swivel the thighs, or vice versa. To retract it, just push in along with those protruding thingies, and twist to lock it in place. To extend it, just twist it the opposite direction and it pops out.

The shoulders are fixed a little lower and closer to the torso now, narrowing the gap that were sported on the first version. But unfortunately this also causes the shoulder armor to knock in to the chest and other piece alot whenever you try to pose the arms.

The arm missiles were kind of an issue to me. "WHY IS IT DEFFERENT ON BOTH ARMS~!!" The one on the left is of a new and nicer design where you don't have to flip the missiles forward. But they've used the old version 1 design for the right arm, but has a new fuction where you could open the side out and turn it into a makeshift shield. Having an asymmetrical design for both arms just seems a little bit odd to me. The elbow is now double jointed, except it doesn't bend like them. It only allows an extra of about 5 degree bend(from 90 degree of the previous version), and it leaves a big gap with visible wires inside. So, a bit of a minus there~

The 'air brake' flaps on the back and calves are all newly engineered on this version. The ones on the back has a more intricate design and some added metal bits. And you'll want to read the instructions first before bending anything here. My only complaint is on the lower flap of the legs. It opens up just like the top part, but opening or closing the tiny 'door' flap at the ends is a difficult and terrifying thing to do, you'll want to be extremely careful here. You're told by the instruction to use the 'function stick' to pry it open. My advise is to push it from behind to open it. Once opened, it made the lower part of the legs look extremly thin from a certain angle(like there's no Tony inside). And when it's closed, try not to bend the feet too far back as this will cause the ankle cover piece to pop off. And fixing it back is anothar very scary thing to do~

Finally, the accessories. Besides the swappable chest piece, there's also a pair swappable fists, a pair of relaxed hands, a pair of splayed open hands, and a 'flesh'(ungloved) left hand. The 'Roof top' diorama base I dig alot~!! And I wish Hottoys would include this kind of diorama style base more often than the usual boring black oval shaped base with the name plate~ Normally you only get these with a "variation".

Overall, the BD is by far the BEST representation of the Iron Man MK3 with things popping out all over~, to date. But the lack of bulkiness to the suit(remember it's a suit with a person inside) still bothers me a little bit. But, do I recommend this figure? If you're a diehard fan of Iron Man or the movie. Yes; If your a Hottoys completist. Definitely; And if you're not a fan. I'd say get it anyways if you got the spare cash. Because it's THAT cool~

If I were to give marks for this figure, it'll be a 8.5/10. Why~? Minus 1 mark cos I think there's still lots of room for improvements, and -0.5 mark for the re-use sculpt. Normally I don't like gimmicks on a toy, like things that pops out, or shoots spring loaded projectiles kinda thing~. Then again the Gimmicks, are what sets the BD apart from a lot of other figures; it's gimmicks that what sells this toy. But that also means there are alot of really fragile parts~ So, you might want to be very careful while playing with it.

So, that wraps up my review for the Hottoys Iron Man MK3 Battle Damage version. I wish I could go into further details, but that would just bored the heck out of you guys~ Well, I hope my review's been informative and you guys enjoy reading it, and I hope that I could do more in the not too distant future.

Thank you all for reading~

And for all XL-Forumers,'Work hard and play harder'~

Hey~!! Check out my totally EXCLUSIVE Mark 3 bust..... Huh? Huh?

.....never mind... sad-cloud

Ps: I really would like to win the prize... cos if not, I'd be a very very sad person, and I'll probably leave XL-Forum forever~ So, Uncle~ if you're reading this~ Pick me... cos if you don't, I'll cry... and I'll hate XL-Shop for the rest of my life....
:sad:

.
.
.
Or at least until my next order arrives~
:lol:

Uncle Loong · **Posted:** Mon May 24, 2010 1:00 am

Ok, entry closed. :yeah:

I nearly forgot about this, until some moderator warn me :

" hei, uncle, you still have a competition in da forum wor,
date over liao, so how ar ? "

Then I answer him ....
" Huh ? Got meh ? didn't I tell you we can't get the exclusive Helmet?
Si liao lah tis time !!!!! " :neutral:

Moderator said : " Jia lat liao tis time...."

Then I sound to him,
" mian kian (Okie, nemind), we change to other helmet mah, like
motor safety helmet, XL helmet, baseball helmet...no worries la,
our forumers very understanding one...."

Moderator then said :
" Huh ? u serious ah ~~~~

, Uncle I wanna resign my post before
u announce this, can ah ? "

Then I said :
" Mian kia, mian kia ...."

Uncle Loong · **Posted:** Mon May 24, 2010 1:08 am

Okie, bcoz there are too many participate (almost like 300) "shame1"

,
so it will take times for an old man like me to read (at least half year),
the result will be announced in mid June.

(and, at the same times, we need more times to find new helmet
for the winner mah

)

Uncle Loong · **Posted:** Thu Jun 24, 2010 4:37 am

Sorry to keep all of you waiting :salute:

And my final choice is .........dang dang dang dang ......

BeastX

as I mentioned earlier, this is totally my personal taste ok.

BeastX is the Winner!

====================================================

And After Uncle thought about the other 2 contesters hard work
[actually I scare minky scold me]

I've decided to prize each of them a Hot Toys TrueType Body !!

I hope everyone feel happy !!

p/s : Please p.m me your contact number, and I will have my staff to
contact your for prize collection.

Remember to bring your XL IronMan Battle Damage receipt with you
on collection.

Review Comp Part.1 -- Hot Toys Iron Man Battle Damage !

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