Hey folks,
I hadn't seen any pictures of these six suits yet, so I thought I'd share. I'm not much of a photographer, so please excuse the quality. I’m also relatively new to the hobby, so please take my mini-review with a grain of salt. Finally, I apologize for the length of this post, but I thought I’d get them all out of the way at once.
The attached pictures are (from left to right) the two Toymaster suits, Hot Toys’ “Man” suit, and Triad’s Uptown suits. I also looked at the Agent Crimson suit from Triad, but I'll include that in a second post (I've met the maximum of photo uploads). All of the suits are pictured on the same body, a Hot Toys TrueType with the Man Suit’s extra neck and the Tony Stark head from Iron Man MkIII, so that they can be compared more directly.
Toymaster suits:
These each came in a sort of garment bag, folded in half, with in-scale cloth handles (and a tiny velcro strap to attach the handles together) and the name of the company written on it. They both come with a coat, pants, a shirt, a vest, a tie, a belt, shoes, and socks. They both seem to be of relatively good quality, made from thin material that layers well. However, one belt loop and the Velcro on one shirt came loose almost immediately, and one of the belts just broke.
Shirts: The shirts attach with Velcro, but only at about the top 1/3, and have buttons that are only slightly too large and that only go about ½ of the way down the shirt. The collars are small and well proportioned. The sleeves are sewn shut, which means that you have to take the hands off of your figure to get it on, but they also don't slide up the arm too much when you put the jacket on. They do slide up on the chest, making the neck look tiny, but some futzing will fix that.
Ties: The ties are an elastic band with the tie glued to the front. The black suit's tie has a silvery trim around the edge, which makes it a little interesting but less versatile (it wouldn't work with most other suits). The brown suit comes with a bow tie. The elastic on mine is loose, so it hangs off the neck, but that may be a unique issue.
Vests: The vests are very nice, but a little large. They close by way of snaps attached directly behind the slightly oversized buttons. They have a nonworking adjustment strap on the back; I wish that this was functional, so that the size could be adjusted.
Jackets: The jackets are surprisingly snug, considering how the rest of the suit fits. They close with a single snap sewn under the buttons (so the buttons are on the wrong side when the jacket is open). The cuffs are sewn shut (no velcro) and have three nonworking buttons. The weirdest thing about these suits is the lapels. They are well-proportioned, but they have this odd shiny black appliqué at the edge, making them look like a tuxedo jacket. Like the black suit's tie, it makes them a lot less versatile than they would be otherwise.
Pants/belt: The pants fit great and hang nicely. They have working pockets and close with both Velcro and a snap. The snap is a little big and makes the front of the pants stick out a little. The belts are leather (or pleather; I can't tell), with a working metal buckle that is slightly large. They were easy to get on and are the right length (i.e., they don't wrap too far around the figure or stick out right at the edge of the buckle).
Socks: The socks are simple black tubes. They are the kind that go over the foot (not the kind for boot-feet). They fit fine and go about 1/3 of the way up the calf.
Shoes: The shoes are the same for the two suits. They are somewhat cheap-looking, made from a very shiny (p)leather, with a glued-on heel (which broke off of one shoe of each pair of mine; I just glued them back on). They fit well on the feet, and would fit a HT, BBi, or Dragon figure just fine (but not the sasquatch feet on a DiD figure). They have real laces, which are very, very long (I tied them in front, then behind the ankle and fed the laces up the pants; this hides them pretty well).
Hot Toys “Man” suit:
This suit is comparable to the Bank Robber Joker's suit. It came with a jacket, pants, a shirt, a tie, a belt, shoes/feet, socks, sunglasses, and a neck. It fits well (I have it on an old TrueType, not the slim-shouldered version) and with more futzing than I have the patience for, it would look very natural. The neck fits the larger joint in the Tony Stark head included with the Iron Man MkIII. It is a bit wide at the bottom; it fits into the joint cavity on the body but rubs against the throat-part of the chest.
Shirt: The shirt closes with Velcro, but has nonworking buttons all the way down. The Velcro is in three small patches, instead of one long piece, and it doesn’t extend all the way up the shirt, so the collar cannot properly close. The cuffs have velcro, with one nonworking button on each.
Pants/belt: The belt is (p)leather, with a metal buckle. It actually looks like an in-scale version of a real buckle, instead of a square piece of bent wire. The pants fit well, and have working pockets, and the Velcro is not visible when they are closed.
Jacket: The jacket has real pockets, two working buttons to close the front, and three nonworking buttons on each cuff. The cuffs are sewn, not Velcro. While I appreciate the realism of the working buttons, this jacket is a pain to close.
Shoes/socks: The shoes are boot-feet, cast in a solid semi-gloss black. The socks are black tubes with both ends open (to accommodate the boot-feet).
Sunglasses: The sunglasses are made of a single piece of aluminum with dark film for lenses. You have to bend them yourself. Mine broke right away (the film tore loose almost immediately) and they looked pretty bad (and didn’t fit on the head at all).
The coolest thing IMO: The tie is a real tie, not an elastic strip. Some poor guy actually had to tie a four-in-hand knot on this tiny thing (as part of the futzing, it could use a fresh knot). It is in scale and looks great.
Triad Uptown suits:
The Triad Uptown suits come in a plastic bag with a cardboard peg-holed top stapled to it. They come with a jacket, pants, a vest, a shirt, a tie, and shoes. There are some nice details in these, like the pinstripes on both suits and on the blue shirt (dark suit).
Shirt: The shirts close with Velcro and have no buttons. I actually like them without the buttons, since no one seems to be able to properly size them. The collars are not too large, but their shape is just a bit… off. I’m not sure how best to describe it, but the other suits’ collars seem better tailored. The cuffs are sewn shut.
Ties: As you can see in the photos, the ties are HUGE, especially the red one that comes with the dark suit. They are real ties, like the HT suit, but these ones are way bigger. The knots can be retied better, so that should help, but they will still be very wide.
Vest: The vests fit very nicely. They fit snugly around the waist but are not too tight to fasten. They close with a single snap under the two sewn-on buttons.
Jacket: The jackets are well-sized, but don’t close. They have three sewn-on buttons on the right (and correct) side of the opening, but what looks like buttonholes on the other side are just stitches. There are no buttons on the cuffs.
Pants/belt: The pants fit very well, with a well-hidden strip of Velcro to fasten them. The belts are a good size, with a buckle similar to the Toymaster suits (square) but smaller. I had to punch my own belt holes, though. The belts have only three holes pre-punched in them, and none of them are in a convenient place to fit this figure.
Shoes: The shoes are the same for both suits. They are rubber or vinyl reddish boots (Beatle boots) with some nice stitching details molded in. They are a bit snug on HT feet, but I managed to get them on.
In conclusion (finally!), if you have to get one of these suits, and the cost is not a factor, get the Hot Toys suit. If you need two or three, get the Triad suits too. If you have any questions about these suits, or if I didn’t cover something you are interested in, just let me know. I'll post the last one soon.
Nate
