Hi all I don't post much but I have so many thoughts on this figure and I did do my homework by reading through all 36 pages of this thread, plus some of the older thread, so I feel entitled to give my thoughts.
I love this armor, and was anticipating preordering as soon as sideshow put it up, and even more so when I saw that it was die cast, because I like shiny metal things. But as soon as I saw it, I had kind of a sinking feeling, and it had nothing to do with the price.
I went and got my play imaginative die cast mark 7, and set him in front of me while I read through all the posts. In my opinion, the HT die cast line was born only after PI started showing off their figures, even though most of the PI figures were never produced. But it wasn't the die cast that scared HT, it was the superior sculpting. The PI figures were more, sleek, sexy, curvy, and just generally more bad ass looking than HT. I felt more like I was looking at Iron Man, and I would choose that over any amount of accessories, articulation, etc. When I finally got my hands on the PI version, I promptly sold off my toyish looking HT Mark 7. And the Mark 7 sold for $375, whereas I got the PI version for $300 + shipping on clearance from BBTS, which included a very much nicer than HT hall of armor. I was so pulling for PI to make it, and I feel the same way about Comicave.
However, the HT Iron Man figures did improve quite a bit, and I'm very happy with my Mark 42, Die Cast WM, Iron Patriot, and Heartbreaker.
But this one, It's just not right to me. It looks to me like they took a Mark 43 and tried to tweak it into a Mark 45. The most important thing, the sculpt, is just off, and it doesn't read as the sleek, sexy, curvy, and just generally bad ass looking design of the Mark 45. It seems rushed, which is probably pretty accurate given the myriad of complaints in this thread. I will wait and see, but my initial impression was to be very disappointed. I wanted it shinier, darker, sleeker, and totally clean without the paint chips and such.
I love this armor so I will probably shell out the cash if Comicave can produce that beautiful looking 1/4 version, although the eyes look kind of funky to me.
If not maybe that 1/9 King Arts version.
That looks great. Im super happy that I ordered him!
