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.
