Hot Toys – MMS132 - Iron Man 2: Mark VI full spec and pics

[Calcifer]

In order to get two Mark VIs, something had to give....its Whiplash right now although that might change once I see it in hand.

You would rather have 2 Ironman MVI's then have 1 Ironman MVI and a whiplash?! .. i think some people on this fourm are just plain crazy somtimes

..and ya i know the VI has 2 display options ...but still!?

 

[The Mike]

Plain crazy that I've been an Iron Man fan since I was 8 and my goal was to have a display of the various Marks in the various display possibilities that I skip over a villain who isn't even a mainstay in the actual books to make sure my already established display idea continues? Yeah....I see how that's crazy.

 

[darthviper107]

I'm curious about the articulated set of hands, I wonder how well those work

 

[Natrix]

Inflation? Are you kidding? Battle-Damaged Mark III just came out 5 months ago; inflation doesn't account for a 12% price hike in 5 months. At that rate we'd be paying $330 for Iron Man 3 figures in two years. Or to look at it another way, we would have only paid $90 for the original Mark III. And regarding parts, most of them are just duplicates of parts they had to cast anyhow, painted differently. He doesn't have $25 worth of extra parts over the Mark III Battle-Damaged, and the Mark IV certainly doesn't have $20 worth of extra parts over the original Mark III.

Somebody down the line figured they could charge an extra $20 per figure and collectors would gladly bend over and take it; it may have not been Hot Toys, though. It could be Marvel charging extra licensing fees, or even Robert Downey Jr's people charging a fat likeness fee.

Then again, seeing as how the cost of a Predator has also gone up $20 since the classic Predator was released, maybe it is Hot Toys that's taking us for more per figure.

Production costs are rising as well. China isn't as cheap as it used to be either. Notice Sideshow's prices creeping upward as well?

SHANGHAI (AP) -- Factory workers demanding better wages and working conditions are hastening the eventual end of an era of cheap costs that helped make southern coastal China the world's factory floor.

A series of strikes over the past two months have been a rude wakeup call for the many foreign companies that depend on China's low costs to compete overseas, from makers of Christmas trees to manufacturers of gadgets like the iPad.

Where once low-tech factories and scant wages were welcomed in a China eager to escape isolation and poverty, workers are now demanding a bigger share of the profits. The government, meanwhile, is pushing foreign companies to make investments in areas it believes will create greater wealth for China, like high technology.

Many companies are striving to stay profitable by shifting factories to cheaper areas farther inland or to other developing countries, and a few are even resuming production in the West.

"China is going to go through a very dramatic period. The big companies are starting to exit. We all see the writing on the wall," said Rick Goodwin, a China trade veteran of 22 years, whose company links foreign buyers with Chinese suppliers.

"I have 15 major clients. My job is to give the best advice I can give. I tell it like it is. I tell them, put your helmet on, it's going to get ugly," said Goodwin, who says dissatisfied workers and hard-to-predict exchange rates are his top worries.

Beijing's decision to stop tethering the Chinese currency to the U.S. dollar, allowing it to appreciate and thus boosting costs in yuan, has multiplied the uncertainty for companies already struggling with meager profit margins.

In an about-face mocked on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Wham-O, the company that created the Hula-Hoop and Slip 'n Slide, decided to bring half of its Frisbee production and some production of its other products back to the U.S.

At the other end of the scale, some in research-intensive sectors such as pharmaceutical, biotech and other life sciences companies are also reconsidering China for a range of reasons, including costs and incentives being offered in other countries.

"Life sciences companies have shifted some production back to the U.S. from China. In some cases, the U.S. was becoming cheaper," said Sean Correll, director of consulting services for Burlington, Mass.-based Emptoris.

That may soon become true for publishers, too. Printing a 9-by-9-inch, 334-page hardcover book in China costs about 44 to 45 cents now, with another 3 cents for shipping, says Goodwin. The same book costs 65 to 68 cents to make in the U.S.

"If costs go up by half, it's about the same price as in the U.S. And you don't have 30 days on the water in shipping," he says.

Even with recent increases, wages for Chinese workers are still a fraction of those for Americans. But studies do show China's overall cost advantage is shrinking.

Labor costs have been climbing about 15 percent a year since a 2008 labor contract law that made workers more aware of their rights. Tax preferences for foreign companies ended in 2007. Land, water, energy and shipping costs are on the rise.

In its most recent survey, issued in February, restructuring firm Alix Partners found that overall China was more expensive than Mexico, India, Vietnam, Russia and Romania.

Mexico, in particular, has gained an edge thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement and fast, inexpensive trucking, says Mike Romeri, an executive with Emptoris, the consulting firm.

Makers of toys and trinkets, Christmas trees and cheap shoes already have folded by the thousands or moved away, some to Vietnam, Indonesia or Cambodia. But those countries lack the huge work force, infrastructure and markets China can offer, and most face the same labor issues as China.

So far, the biggest impact appears to be in and around Shenzhen, a former fishing village in Guangdong province, bordering Hong Kong, that is home to thousands of export manufacturers.

That includes Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology, a supplier of iPhones and iPads to Apple Inc. Foxconn responded to a spate of suicides at its 400,000-worker Shenzhen complex with pay hikes that more than doubled basic monthly worker salaries to $290. Strike-stricken suppliers to Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., among many others, also have hiked wages.

Foxconn refused repeated requests for comment on plans to move much of its manufacturing capacity to central China's impoverished Henan province, where a local government website has advertised for tens of thousands of workers on its behalf.

But among other projects farther inland, Foxconn is teaming up with some of the biggest global computer makers to build what may be the world's largest laptop production hub in Chongqing, a western China city of 32 million where labor costs are estimated to be 20 to 40 percent lower than in coastal cities.

Given the intricate supply chains and logistics systems that have helped make southern China an export manufacturing powerhouse, such changes won't be easy.

But for manufacturers looking to boost sales inside fast-growing China, shifting production to the inland areas where many migrant workers come from, and costs are lower, offers the most realistic alternative.

"The new game is to find a way to do the domestic market," says Goodwin.

Many factories in Foshan, another city in Guangdong that saw strikes at auto parts plants supplying Japan's Honda, have left in the past few months, mostly moving inland to Henan, Hunan and Jiangxi, said Lin Liyuan, dean at the privately run Institute of Territorial Economics in Guangzhou.

Massive investments in roads, railways and other infrastructure are reducing the isolation of the inland cities, part of a decade-old "Develop the West" strategy aimed at shrinking the huge, politically volatile gap in wealth between city dwellers and the country's 600 million farmers.

Gambling that the unrest will not spill over from foreign-owned factories, China's leaders are using the chance to push investment in regions that have lagged the country's industrial boom.

They have little choice. Many of today's factory workers have higher ambitions than their parents, who generally saved their earnings from assembling toys and television sets for retirement in their rural hometowns. They are also choosier about wages and working conditions. "The conflicts are challenging the current set-up of low-wage, low-tech manufacturing, and may catalyze the transformation of China's industrial sector," said Yu Hai, a sociology professor at Shanghai's Fudan University.

 

[Spanbauer]

Production costs are rising as well. China isn't as cheap as it used to be either. Notice Sideshow's prices creeping upward as well?

If the extra money they're charging is going straight to the factory workers, then that's great. They deserve it. Unfortunately we don't know if that's the case, or if $19 of that extra $20 they're charging per figure is going straight into some suit's already overflowing pockets.

 

[vareika]

darn...mark 4 or mark 6....

 

[Demimatt]

darn...mark 4 or mark 6....

Im going for the MK4, I feel that with the Tony Stark portrait (not in a helmet) with the sunglasses and doughnuts can be more fun, then just the MK 6 with diff body parts. + Youll save alot more.

 

[minivader]

since HT is going for premium pricing, perhaps we should all make a suggestion to HT to make a bare bones base line for the collectors who just want to have a figure and not all the stuff that comes with it. seriously, who needs all the crap they add on to a figure? bunch of stuff I never use and just stay in the box and taking up space.

 

[tylerdurden]

okay, the official proto pics don't look as good as the pics in eddie wong's blog. the neck is too long and the torso looks slimmer.

and the price is kinda steep. approx 190usd in my country.

everything else looks damn good though. love the base--don't understand why anyone wouldn't. it's art.

also, good thing it's only coming out in Q4 or early next year. my wallet is straining under all the recent preorders...

 

[soubido]

already pre ordered mine

 

[Silent December]

since HT is going for premium pricing, perhaps we should all make a suggestion to HT to make a bare bones base line for the collectors who just want to have a figure and not all the stuff that comes with it. seriously, who needs all the crap they add on to a figure? bunch of stuff I never use and just stay in the box and taking up space.

I get what you're saying but this, but you're talking about preference. You might not use all the accessories but another collector might. I think HT's increase in price has many collectors feeling left out or perceived value of the figure isn't worth 214$ for them. That said, I've preordered mine via flex

 

[AW177]

Looks great but I prefer the look of the circular arc reactor so I'm gonna go with the Mk.4.

I agree, I prefer the circular arc reactor, that to me will always be Iron Man (I'm an old school fan). Plus not a fan of the price, BD, the weird circle arc reactor underneath the chest triangle, etc. I'm sticking w/ Mark IV.

 

[vodoun]

If the extra money they're charging is going straight to the factory workers, then that's great. They deserve it.

In a perfect world, I wish.

Unfortunately we don't know if that's the case, or if $19 of that extra $20 they're charging per figure is going straight into some suit's already overflowing pockets.

Hello fat cats, bankers, politicians, endless bonuses...

 

[minivader]

I get what you're saying but this, but you're talking about preference. You might not use all the accessories but another collector might. I think HT's increase in price has many collectors feeling left out or perceived value of the figure isn't worth 214$ for them. That said, I've preordered mine via flex

That's why I suggest a "separate" bare bones line. Similar to a car where there is always a starting point then as you move up on the price ladder you get more goodies/junks. It is a preference thing as you say. To me, I don't need a display stand, or multiple hands when they have articulated fingers. And I don't really care that much about the light up feature. It looks good but I really turn it on occationally with my mk3. So really, if HT make a bare bones ironman that looks good and moves great, then I wouldn't mind it doesn't come with several interchangable BD pieces.

 

[toyrewind]

I don't see the price increase justifiable with the Mark 6. It's basically the same mold as the Mark 4 with different paint app and some minor tweaks. I hope HT would consider the price point for their future releases. If this keeps up I'm afraid to say I have to stop somewhere down the line. I would love to continue collecting but as much as I hate to say this but reality bites as there are more important things in life than collectibles.

 

[Buttmunch]

If you don't want everything, part it out yourself. I doubt too many people can part out an Iron Man, so any parts you sell might be worth something.

 

[Demimatt]

If you don't want everything, part it out yourself. I doubt too many people can part out an Iron Man, so any parts you sell might be worth something.

With head sculpts and hands. But I feelt with leg panels and stuff I would imagine they would be hard to sell since they can only be used on that figure. Ive been noticing alot of support for the Mk4. hahah

 

[vodoun]

If you don't want everything, part it out yourself. I doubt too many people can part out an Iron Man, so any parts you sell might be worth something.

Then the world will be unbalanced and no longer neat and tidy.

 

[jye4ever]

Whew, just read every post i'm such a dweeb! double

Anyways, are the wrist lasers, forearm rockets and shoulder pods damaged or clean, I can't make it out.

I hate being such a blind bastard!

 

[Demimatt]

Whew, just read every post i'm such a dweeb! double

Anyways, are the wrist lasers, forearm rockets and shoulder pods damaged or clean, I can't make it out.

I hate being such a blind bastard!

comes with a clean arm and a BD arm. Although keep in mind all the clean parts still have scratches on them.