Hot Toys - MMS185 - The Avengers: Iron Man MK VII Official Specs & Pics

[hokietwo]

Yeah I'm not saying the market doesn't exist, I'm saying it's pretty small in comparison to the boxed figure market. Even with parting stuff you you get people like Toy Anxiety who part out only a handful of Predator 2s and yet still months after the release they still have almost all of the loose parts in stock.

I could very well be wrong, but I think a lot of it is a matter of skewed perception based on being involved in a sub-community that is largely based on 1/6 as a customizing hobby rather than collectables (this is particularly true of OSW). Sure the custom community is thriving and active but how many individuals are actually doing regular custom work that you see? A hundred people… maybe? Maybe less?

Forum communities in general are very misrepresentational as a whole of any market base for any product. You can glean information from them, but it's an easy trap to fall into listening to them too much. At least I have heard that said by people who know more about business than I do (which is basically anything about business). I have heard it said a few times though by different people.

And I am not knocking, you stating not knowing alot about business helps me understand you better. I work in distribution and have a lot of experience with products and marketing.

There's a science to polling such as correlation variables. This place is a gold mine to sample given the ecomonic logistical and potential buyer market for HT figures this place has.

If I worked for HT I would hound these boards for buyer data. Neatly available in 1 location.

There is no arguement on primary figures, but you would be amazed at accessory sales for our dollie collections.

 

[dedguy]

I deleted my last post because it's not really getting at what I'm trying to say. All I'm trying to say, is that I would be a little skeptical of any conclusive assumptions made about consumer behavior based on unmeasured personal perceptions. Particularly when those assumptions are made based on a possibly skewed sample group like a web forum.

I'm not saying you guys are wrong, I'm just saying you can't be conclusive about it since there's no solid information to base the conclusion on. Same thing goes for my argument.

 

[Wanderer]

Par the course on this forum. The odd poster passing off their opinions as facts. Quite funny really

 

[Viper245]

Just give me one example.

The rubber covering the joints. HT stopped using it for a while and now it is back. Rubber doesn't hold up very well under certain conditions over time and is prone to crack and tear.

it was moved inside the helmet because people where annoyed with the lack of proper neck articulation (AKA practically nothing) and the only way to increase the range of motion was to move it from the neck to the head. the old way (faceplate) with the magnets in the jaw and upper brow had its own share of issues. this helped eliminate the fitting issues caused by the old three magnet design

the BD will be the same thing. it is the exact same figure with a different paint job.

Thanks for the explanation. Even though I am not a fan of it's current placement on this figure, I now see why it was moved there.

 

[dedguy]

The rubber covering the joints. The stopped using it for a while and now it is back. Rubber doesn't hold up very well under certain conditions over time and is prone to crack and tear.

I'm not sure how that's cutting corners. I'm not happy about the rubber elbows myself. I hate rubber parts of figures since as you say it's prone to all sorts of issues. Also not happy about diecast for different though similar reasons… that doesn't make either cutting corners though. That's just a design/production decision they made.

To me, cutting corners would be something like if they used glue construction instead of screws or somehow we found they used lower quality plastic or reduced the number of paint operations. Cost cutting choices.

 

[Rorywan]

Sucks. Oh well. I'm sure at the end of the day in hand, or across the room on the shelf, this figure looks great dispite the larger eyes and mouth. That black crack is on a one inch head after all.

Absolutely man, it's a beautiful display figure despite some issues.

 

[Viper245]

I'm not sure how that's cutting corners. I'm not happy about the rubber elbows myself. I hate rubber parts of figures since as you say it's prone to all sorts of issues. Also not happy about diecast for different though similar reasons… that doesn't make either cutting corners though. That's just a design/production decision they made.

To me, cutting corners would be something like if they used glue construction instead of screws or somehow we found they used lower quality plastic or reduced the number of paint operations. Cost cutting choices.

I can see your point but to me using low quality rubber as a covering for the joints instead of a more durable and expensive alternative is cutting corners because the rubber is cheaper for them to produce.

 

[Barrow Roll]

I can see your point but to me using low quality rubber as a covering for the joints instead of a more durable and expensive alternative is cutting corners because the rubber is cheaper for them to produce.

Using rubber on the elbow joint was probably done to reduce visibility of the elbow joint, and using a softer rubber still allows it to achieve maximum posability. They most likely prioritized looks and posability over long time durability and that's also most likely a conscious design decision rather than a cost cutting measure.

 

[Viper245]

Using rubber on the elbow joint was probably done to reduce visibility of the elbow joint, and using a softer rubber still allows it to achieve maximum posability. They most likely prioritized looks and posability over long time durability and that's also most likely a conscious design decision rather than a cost cutting measure.

A conscious design decision to achieve maximum pose ability will mean very little to me when a year or two down the line the rubber is cracking or tearing. I don't think many collectors constantly change the pose on their figures anyway and I would much rather have long term durability at the expense of pose ability then the reverse.

 

[hokietwo]

oh nos. Do we need to worry about arm rot like hulk?!?

Sorry, sorry..... bad joke.......

Pink elbows maybe.

 

[dedguy]

Out of curiosity, have there been any reports of rubber cracking and the like recently? I know there were issues with some Medicom figures about… I don't know four years ago? Whenever the Chun Li figure came out. The most recent rubber-decay issue from Hot Toys I'm aware of is the Mars Attacks dudes.

How's Leonidas holding up?

I don't know why you think soft flexible rubber is cheaper than harder rubber. As far as I know there's no relationship between cost and ductility in rubber.

 

[Viper245]

Out of curiosity, have there been any reports of rubber cracking and the like recently? I know there were issues with some Medicom figures about… I don't know four years ago? Whenever the Chun Li figure came out. The most recent rubber-decay issue from Hot Toys I'm aware of is the Mars Attacks dudes.

How's Leonidas holding up?

I don't know why you think soft flexible rubber is cheaper than harder rubber. As far as I know there's no relationship between cost and ductility in rubber.

I don't know for a fact that the rubber is cheap but we don't know that it isn't either. It's all just speculation on both sides at this point. It's a gamble and no one knows for sure how well it will hold up over time except maybe HT and they aren't going to clue us in anytime soon.

 

[Stealth V3teran]

pop the inverted plug out of the head and stick in a standard one to fit it to normal TT bodies

I know how to do it, the fact of the matter is it shouldn't need to be done even if it takes 2 minutes.

 

[lars10]

Hey Rorywan or anyone else with the Mark VII and other hot toy iron mans. Can you make the head sculpt and neck of like a mark IV work with this figure. Similar to the Mark VI avengers movie promo look. If you could let me know I'd be very thankful. Also how close are the golds and reds of the mark VI helmet to the markVII when they are displayed on one another? Does the coloring difference look dramatic in person?

 

[CrAZyVEgAsBoY]

I don't know for a fact that the rubber is cheap but we don't know that it isn't either. It's all just speculation on both sides at this point. It's a gamble and no one knows for sure how well it will hold up over time except maybe HT and they aren't going to clue us in anytime soon.

Yeah but your main point was saying that HT was "cutting corners" by using soft vs hard rubber. If your not sure if its even cheaper or even the durability of soft rubber over time then how can argue its corner cutting? As big as IM is for HT right now I'm pretty sure they added the soft rubber for a particular reason, and I don't feel it was to save to a few bucks. Don't get me wrong I have no doubt that HT like most major/big companies will try to save a few bucks if they can but as far as I can see so far there isn't anything they put/did with this figure that I would deem as cutting corners. Yes the IM mouth, eyes, and to a lot the RDJ head are off, which I too agree IMO too but that sounds more like a design/concept flaw more than anything else.

 

[badrat]

Wow, that's awful. How can they **** that up so bad this far into the game?

 

[Rorywan]

Hey Rorywan or anyone else with the Mark VII and other hot toy iron mans. Can you make the head sculpt and neck of like a mark IV work with this figure. Similar to the Mark VI avengers movie promo look. If you could let me know I'd be very thankful. Also how close are the golds and reds of the mark VI helmet to the markVII when they are displayed on one another? Does the coloring difference look dramatic in person?

Golds and reds look fine together. Haven't tried a mark IV headsculpt, you mean a RDJ head right?

 

[RIDDICK]

I'm actually surprised since IM is their pride and joy.

MHAHAHA
It's their cash-cow and nothing more otherwise they'd have done more accurate and less fragile figures.
___

Sort neck Stark! Can't see you could do much to make it better. But at least as we've seen in OMG's pics, the head will look good on other IM suits. Well I say good, as in it'll look a normal neck length, not that it'll look like RDJ.
Really a huge shame. I know lots of folk had a Stark bash planned.

Such a stupid post...
You just need to swap connectors

 

[lars10]

Golds and reds look fine together. Haven't tried a mark IV headsculpt, you mean a RDJ head right?

Awesome! Yes the RDJ head. Greatly appreciated my friend.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Rory, if you're still checking in, I admire your taste so I trust your opinion...if you've had enough time to try different configurations, in what configuration do you think VII looks best: fully armed or disgarded weapons (to see more gold)? BD or clean?