Hot Toys 1/4 Scale Iron Man Mark IV with Suit Up Gantry

[LipSmack]

People don’t really cross-shop the two scales. You either prefer one or the other or you like both and get both accordingly.

The simplest answer is honestly more likely to be corner/cost cutting.

Why make full head sculpt when just face do trick?

They know it’ll sell. And they’ll make the Mk VI with the same helmeted face sculpt and that’ll sell, too.

Iron Man being such a lucrative money printer for Hot Toys has unfortunately made a lot of Iron Man figures some of the worst priced, laziest, and least value for money releases for collectors.

I'm interested in this, even as I have all 1/6 versions, iron man 2 is really special to me. mk 4/6 are faves and I absolutely love when Iron Man's faceplate is raised, to me it's the epitome of a man in a suit, it's a real badass look and I'm personally so glad HTs went this route.

 

[The Green Goblin]

for the price this is going for, it really should come with the parts for turning it into the mark 6

 

[yacobschlomo]

A non posable statue is no really comparable to the quality and engineering of this

I have some Queen Studios (e.g., Thanos) and XM (Shogun, Transformers) pieces that I feel are higher quality than the QS Mark 43 I have and pretty much all 60+ of my Iron Man figures. 5 years ago, statues couldn't touch Hot Toys quality. But Hot Toys has stagnated and Statues have improved significantly due to more competition - this figure even seems like it takes a step back from something that came out almost 7 years ago.

If you want posability, Hot Toys is your only choice really, but if you want an incredible sculpt and great paint apps, some of the statue makers now put out better stuff.

 

[Phoenixblazes]

I still collect statues (200) as well as Hot Toys figures (100), and imo large scale statues will almost always ‘look’ more impressive on display than figures. In this case size does matter. However when it comes to figures (especially Iron Man) the paint quality control will almost always be superior with Hot Toys, as the closer you look on statues the more issues you can find.

When it comes to face sculpts on average you’re far more likely to get a superior likeness with Hot Toys, than with statue companies, but that has been changing ever since Queen and Infinity Studios hit the market. Though Prime 1 and Iron Studios have produced some good sculpts here and there, it’s not very consistent with them.

I find that Hot Toys can usually only be displayed long term in museum poses, as once posed the proportions can often look unnatural, whereas while statues are static pieces they obviously don’t have that issue. This difference is often highlighted if you display the two together close by.


I have many Iron Man statues, and while statues are my preferred collectable nowadays (especially silicone busts and 1/2 scales), the 1/4 scale Hot Toys Mark 43 is still a personal favourite of mine to display with the unmasked head sculpt, even above most of the Iron Man statues I have from Iron Studios and Sideshow. But the Mark 3 1/4 scale Hot Toys is a piece I regret ever getting.

 

[MedievaL]

All that whining about no headsculpt and I bet the same whiners are buying the figure.

 

[GhostAsparagus]

Ooooh baby, that gantry doesn't come cheap at $445 extra. The standard will still look great on the regular stand next to the others, though.

 

[freestylex06x]

None of their QS figures even sell well. The Mark 3 was on discount for 10% on Sideshow and so was the Spider-Man QS figure. This will be a shelf warmer for a long time with how they priced it.

Which makes me wonder why they keep making quarter scale figures. I remember the QS Spiderman figure was on sale at a massive discount from HK sellers even before it was available at Sideshow.

 

[tumbler_s]

space is a premium in asia, so HK sellers will have to let go fast before QA spidey becomes dead stock. iron man could be a different story but likely suffer similar clearance fate , just further down the road that's all

Which makes me wonder why they keep making quarter scale figures. I remember the QS Spiderman figure was on sale at a massive discount from HK sellers even before it was available at Sideshow.

 

[BurningRage]

That price

 

[rocbolt]

None of their QS figures even sell well. The Mark 3 was on discount for 10% on Sideshow and so was the Spider-Man QS figure. This will be a shelf warmer for a long time with how they priced it.

The Mk3 was a bad release, lots of wrong details, wrong color. I would have bought it myself but it was too far off

 

[rocbolt]

for the price this is going for, it really should come with the parts for turning it into the mark 6

The difference is mostly paint, you'd have to swap everything but the head and torso under the chest plate

 

[ironmcn]

I have some Queen Studios (e.g., Thanos) and XM (Shogun, Transformers) pieces that I feel are higher quality than the QS Mark 43 I have and pretty much all 60+ of my Iron Man figures. 5 years ago, statues couldn't touch Hot Toys quality. But Hot Toys has stagnated and Statues have improved significantly due to more competition - this figure even seems like it takes a step back from something that came out almost 7 years ago.

If you want posability, Hot Toys is your only choice really, but if you want an incredible sculpt and great paint apps, some of the statue makers now put out better stuff.

The quality improvement is the main reason I made that comparison. I've watched companies like QS get better with realism past two years, bringing their statues up to par with Hot Toys. I've also noticed that 3rd party figures are catching up to Hot Toys at a quicker rate. The gap between Hot Toys and companies like SL Toys, LIM Toys, SooSooToys, etc. has narrowed. We'll see if this competition pushes Hot Toys to focus more on these little details that might not matter to some but do matter to others.

Perhaps I'm also biased (hence my comparison) because I'm not someone who re-poses my figures often. Once I get them in a pose, they tend to stay that way unless I'm unhappy with how they were first posed.

 

[Dave_W]

I've got to think long term on this. There's no way I'd be able to get several more of the other 1/4 scales if I got this with the gantry. I'd rather save the space for a possible Mark 2 and 6 and I've already got the gantry in 1/6. It's a shame because at that size it really does have that wow factor.

 

[DarthAlias]

As long as new collectors are around to pre order things day 1, HT won’t ever change a thing lol. They know new collectors will buy new versions or variants with little changes compared to previous released figures because they ‘missed out’ and are happy to pay a higher inflated cost but less than market cost. Hence why many are buying MK 1 3.0 lol. Same sculpt but added metal and people are happy to pay versus $450+ for 2.0. This is the problem I have with HT and while we’d probably never see a 1/4 Gantry again unless maybe in the future. Doubtful. I’ll order this but at release when it’s discounted lol.

 

[RulerOfAsgard]

We can't get an accurate helmet for $1000

 

[Phoenixblazes]

I was stupid enough to buy the Mark 3, so I don’t need the Mark 4.

What do you guys think about buying the gantry alone and putting the Mark 3 into it?

 

[Spanbauer]

We can't get an accurate helmet for $1000
View attachment 554026

View attachment 554027

This and Mando are two quarter scale Hot Toys figures I cannot tell by looking at photos that it isn’t the sixth scale figure. Did they legit just blow up their 1:6 figure and call it a day? What if any improvements or features are to be had in this figure that weren’t possible at 1:6?

 

[RulerOfAsgard]

I was stupid enough to buy the Mark 3, so I don’t need the Mark 4.

What do you guys think about buying the gantry alone and putting the Mark 3 into it?

Doable and it would be screen accurate since HT was sooo graciously kind to include the interchangeable decal on the gantry base simulating the suit up scene from IM 1

 

[rocbolt]

This and Mando are two quarter scale Hot Toys figures I cannot tell by looking at photos that it isn’t the sixth scale figure. Did they legit just blow up their 1:6 figure and call it a day? What if any improvements or features are to be had in this figure that weren’t possible at 1:6?

Its also a factor of the originals not being that amazing, but the 1/4 Mark 42/43 absolutely blew the 1/6 out of the water. They were a drastic step up in detail, proportion, and engineering. They don't seem to have put that much effort into them since

 

[tumbler_s]

i am guessing, they need the black part to 'catch' the faceplate in place

We can't get an accurate helmet for $1000
View attachment 554026

View attachment 554027