Just sold off entire hot toys Iron Man collection and switch to King Arts.

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Jessedart

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Just a little quick story for those considering possibly buying King Arts Iron Man figures. I've been collecting hot toys Iron Man figures for some time but to be honest with you I've been less than thrilled with some of the pricing over the past few years. It's obviously a very expensive Hobby when figures are $300 average and some more. I've also felt pretty disappointed when I spent almost $400 or more on some of the exclusives like the Iron Man Mark 7 stealth only to open the box and feel that very lightweight plasticky not incredibly high-quality feeling figure that was $400. When I saw King Arts come out with their line some time ago part of me was a little bummed out because I thought that was actually the perfect size for an Iron Man Hall of Armor collection for lots of reasons but since I've already invested in hot toys what can you do.
Well what I actually decided to do rather than continue to support a line that I think is actually overpriced for what you get and at a size that really does eat up real estate fast I decided to sell off my entire collection and replace those armors with the same figures from King Arts. But what I wasn't prepared for was how much better and I mean much better I think they are.

To Give you an idea on what I mean let me start with some of the small things that to me say a lot of big things about a company. The stands that come with all the King Arts are in my opinion much much much better than the hot toys stands in both engineering features and quality. For example all the stands have light up bases no matter what figure you're buy ,they didn't rip out all the electronics and light features just to save on money and when you place the figure on the stand it automatically lights up.... very cool.

Or, like having a trapdoor to cover the screw hole meant for the stand is just the attention to the finer details I mean, so if you're not using one of the poles that screw into the base there's no open threaded hole left visible, that shows extreme attention to detail and quality in my humble opinion. And what about that threaded Rod to hold up your figure, well it's substantially off the charts better than any of my hot toys had.
The top of the mount is solid diecast with a multi-angle ratcheting pinion to put it in many more positions , and of course the inside of the grabber is all rubber lined so it doesn't scratch your figure , this is much much better then the brackets I had for my hot toys. Then lastly something as small as this is in my opinion, is simply wonderful. They have a little separate plaques with the name of each armor on it that simply attaches magnetically to the front of the base, that's pretty smart because they can make the bases all Universal and then just give you the ability to decide if you want the name of the armor on the front of the stand. And if you don't want the name on the base and you just want it plain it's just a matter of not attaching the magnet plaque. All in all I can tell you just from holding the base and the rod and the stand alone I had a smile on my face ear to ear.

And now the most important thing the figure. Let me start by saying and this is just one person's opinion but I believe the 1/9 scale that I have it in hand is vastly and overwhelmingly Superior for a line like this because it's just the right size to give you all and I mean all of the details you would expect but it takes up a fraction of the space and it allows you to display more pieces on a Shelf. And of course going with a smaller scale some may feel to be a downgrade if you lost any details from 1/6 but I'm here to tell you absolutely not in any way whatsoever is there any detail lost and in fact I almost want to say it looks sharper crisper and has more details if that makes any sense. Again I've owned both and I can tell you that there are small details that just blow me away. And as far as the paint job is considered I'd say it's a tie straight up , these figures are painted absolutely one hundred percent as well as any hot toys that I had in my collection I have absolutely no feeling of any downgrade of any kind. But what I can tell you is an actual upgrade is the fact that these figures seem to have much better articulation then the hot toys did. I mean come on, my Mark 3 diecast didn't even have an angle rocker... that's pathetic, these figures can get into more poses easier than any of my hot toys Iron Man figures could ever have. Then some of the small things like having lights in the bottom of the feet is simply awesome especially if you have him in a flight pose.
As far as the accessories go I would say they're equal if not greater than the accessories I had with a lot of my hot toys figures and the quality is as good if not better.

Getting back to some of the smaller details that tell a lot about the company, the fact that they included an instrument to help install the batteries is a godsend because like many of us I've had batteries go flying when I try and shove them into my hot toys figures with my big fat fingers.

And now for the real big difference. The price. These figures all with lots and lots of diecast that feel absolutely First Rate and premium in your hands are all under $200. And when you're collecting a line that's named the Hall of Armor where you have many if not dozens to obtain that savings is absolutely huge. I imagine if you're just a 1/6 scale collector and that is the most important thing for you and you have a lot of space this may not be for you. But if you are more of an Ironman collector and you want as many armors as you can possibly afford and display and you don't want to break the bank doing it, and you don't want to sacrifice any quality or details in anyway , this line is absolutely for you.

I can tell you after selling off over 15 of my hot toys figures, the experience I had opening these was very different. For example there have been figures that were very expensive from Hot Toys that upon opening them left you feeling a little underwhelmed like the recent all white Sub-Zero version or some of the sideshow exclusives that seem to be creeping up in price constantly.

Yes, they're nice but when you figure out what you're paying for them, sometimes you can scratch your head and say I just paid how much for what.
Contrast that to opening up one of these and saying the exact opposite. In the case of the king Arts figures I feel like I'm getting a lot more than what I paid for and that's not a feeling I have had in recent years with some of the hot toys figures I bought .

On a small note there's another little difference that's worth mentioning is that the fact that these came out long after hot toys started a lot of the issues that plagued hot toys early are completely devoid here. You don't have to worry about any Pink Panty issues and you won't have to replace your earlier armors that had less-than-stellar design sculpting and materials with newer replacements. I'm sure everyone out there who bought an original Mark 3 Mark 4 Mark 5 Mark 6 etc will be replacing them with the better diecast versions when they come out. With these King Arts you're already getting their very best right off the bat

So this wasn't meant as a rant against or bashing hot toys in any way it's more of a two enthusiastic thumbs-up for King Arts. There's also this feeling I get from the quality of the box to all the materials in it and around it that King Arts knows that hot toys owns the market. And sometimes the guy who comes in second have to try twice as hard just to get his footing stable. That's something that's difficult to describe unless you're actually holding the figure opening the box and looking at the presentation but I can tell you that there's a feeling you get that they know that they're not going to be in first place anytime soon so the trying to give you a lot more for your money to entice people into possibly considering a smaller scale line. And that's obviously not the feeling you get when you open up another repaint at a premium price devoid of accessories and light up features from the number one guy. Just saying

In the end I'll say this. These are as detailed as well painted probably better engineered better bases and smaller, less expensive, and much easier to display.
For me it was a great move and if you haven't started a collection yet and you're thinking about starting one, and you love Iron Man I would probably look here first.
 
If it makes you happy, good for you. :clap

I may try this out, the innovations you mention, even as small as the name changing plates sounds great and I remember being impressed by a video of the shoulders movements of one of these, I think I saw on Budget Starks page.

How is this company at delivering promised product?
 
Good for you man. Have fun with your collection.

I will stick with Hot Toys since its not only them making 1/6 scale figures. I like to mix-match.

Can't really do that with 1/9 scale since there isn't that much variety.

If you only collect Iron Man, then it works!
 
I say to each his own but I'll stick with 1/6 since there are more accessories available for them.

I'm not talking about just common items like guns and clothes.

There are some really obscure items made in 1/6 scale such as the working Sega Grand Piano and a Eames Lounge chair I found for our dio.
 
Plus King Arts just cancelled some of their HPP figures, didn't they? So you'd be out of luck collecting that set, while HT seems to be pushing forward ev
 
I like their Ultron Prime/Ultimate Ultron figure. I wish HT would have painted the eyes like KA did.
 
I collect Hot Toys and have had several Iron Man figures. I have also bought a few King Arts figures including the Hulkbuster. The Hulkbuster was pretty impressive and very well done but I did have issues with the shoulders not rotating correctly and one eventually broke. I got a replacement and then subsequently sold it. I have the King Arts Mark 43 and ended up giving it to my 7 year old son since it seems more like a toy to me than Hot Toys offering. Opening up a King Arts 1/9 scale doesn't have near the wow factor as opening a Hot Toys 1/6 scale. The details in my opinion aren't nearly as good on the King Arts and the smaller scale just doesn't impress me all that much. I can understand if you are short on space and want to save money that King Arts can be a good alternative. I personally would rather pay $50 to $150 (average difference for non die cast and die cast) more for the corresponding Hot Toy just so I can feel that wow factor when I open the box. This is also another reason I am collecting the 1/4 scale Hot Toys. I say to each their own.

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I bought their 42 last year. It was a really nice figure, but not quite hot toys quality IMO. Their latest figures are probably a bit better. I don't think the quality to price ratio is very different when comparing the latest hot toys diecast figures (~$130-$150) and even plastic figures (~$50-$60). The 1/9 King Arts are $100 more than the 1/12 Comicave diecast (I think it was Comicave that cancelled some figures, not King Arts, but have not really been keeping up with King Arts news), which are nice figures as well. Both examples you listed were for exclusive figures that were based off old designs, so I don't think those are fair comparisons in terms of price/quality.

If you only collect Iron Man - King Arts may very well be the best choice. I collect more than Iron Man, so 1/6 is the preferred scale for me. 1/9 is somewhat of a new/odd scale for collectors so not sure what the market will be for them. Like others have mentioned, how sure can we be that King Arts will actually complete the entire line.
 
This was my conundrum when I first started collecting IM figures, but in the end I decided to go with HT due to more news, social media, reviews and at that time, KA had not released any yet, so the quality was unknown. IIRC only budget stark had news and videos on them.

Since there is no local KA dealers here in Australia, the price difference + international shipping wasn't huge enough to substantiate getting KA unless I was buying locally from HK.

I am very happy with my HT IM collection now, but I do find it very expensive and very hard to fit them into a Detolf with their bases, don't think that would be an issue with KA. Plus their Hall of Armour is now readily available compared to HT which are sold out.

But like you said, KA would be an extremely good choice for anyone starting to collect IM now.

I do hope KA doesn't drop off and keep pumping out good figures, the 1/9 Cap was a dud but love their Ant Man and Yellow Jacket.
 
Yeah I hope they keep on cranking them out too. I love the fact that they made figures like the Hammerhead that hot toys never made at least not yet, and I was able to get the midas without going after market pricing because I missed that HT one early on too. I can tell you from the six that arrived today they took up about the same amount of space as about 3 of my old hot toys because of the massive size of the base hot toys had. Again totally stoked , for me absolute the best decision.

And what I'm really really stoked about is that coming very soon this month or next month my favorite Mark 6 is do so I don't have to wait for hot toys to release their version and again tons of savings money-wise. In fact I found the Hammerhead and the War Machine Mark 2 for under $100 each brand new that's just stupid crazy.

So another thing I love about this line is it's going to be less collected and less desired by a lot of 1/6 crowd, which means you'll probably find some really good deals. Hot toys just the opposite, if you missed out on one of the figures, depending on how rare it was, you may have to pay crazy money prices on the aftermarket.
Just hope they continue.
Their mark 45 looks jaw dropping, love the much darker color tone too
 
I prefer 1/6. But they still look nice. My only complaint is that the armors are too clean for my liking.
 
As far as paint apps go there are visual differences for close-up video reviews on HT vs KA comparisons.
I'm not sure how noticeable they are on hand.

I am crossing other brands for lines like X-Men, some kitbashes for my photoshoots so I'll stay on the One Sixth camp
 
I am a fan of 1/9 KA as well, glad you are enjoying them Jesse. I only have Hammerhead so far, but I am planning to pick up some more when I find some deals. I really want the KA Mark 46!

I guess I'm strange but I like collecting multiple scales, so I'm not getting rid of my HT. While a lot of the new figure prices are getting crazy, there are still quite a few HT armors that you can get for less than $200 (Starboost, SC, and even Shotgun lately).

I also think KA has improved from some of their early figures. Their Starboost for instance has odd proportions. But yes I'm more interested in KA Iron Men going forward as both space and funds are limited.
 
While I agree that the price points on king arts is easier on the wallet ... it's a but unfair to use crappy exclusive repaints like the stealth and subzero Mark VIIs as the comparison ha


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just a word of caution, King Arts customer service is virtually non existent. if that matters to anyone
 
King Arts makes some nice figures, but they're FAR smaller and not all that much cheaper except for the overpriced exclusives that aren't even part of the House Party Protocol. It's nice that King Arts has released a Hammerhead and has a Nightclub on deck, but at this point I really doubt that Hot Toys isn't committed to giving us those as well. I'm gonna stick to my Hot Toys HPP, personally. :)
 
King Arts really needs to be cheaper to be a viable option for me. Considering most of the Hot Toys HPP, which is my primary 1/6 collection, can be had for $200 or less as it is, King Arts is not nearly cheap enough to make up for the size and quality- and I don't apply any imaginary value to diecast. My Figuarts Iron Mans are more appropriately priced for their size at least.

But on that note I've dumped all the non HPP 1/6 anyway, but for 1/4. I am going for maximum quality for just a few absolute favorite armors, Mk 43 and 42, and two from the original 7 if and when they make them.
 
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