Well, I was finally able to open my armory up last night, after receiving it last week and then leaving town on holiday.
First off, as others have said, this thing is so well packaged it took me nearly 30 minutes to work my way through the multiple layers of wrap and padding.
Toystrike do an amazing job preparing this thing for shipment. As well, Toys Legend do a fantastic job securing everything: clamshell trays snuggly surround nearly every element of this thing. Every tray and door is covered and secured with scotch tape. Takes forever to remove it all, but glad they do it.
Initial impressions of the quality of this piece are very good. The armory has decent weight to it, and all the doors and drawers have a firm, solid movement to them. Nothing is chintzy or brittle. The backdrop is nice - good quality image and very sturdy. Too big for me to use though in the detolf and I wasn't ready to chop it up to make it fit as it doubles as the exterior of the box. Paint apps are top quality. Everything has a nice, slightly weathered feel with occasional rust or oxidation spots. The accessories are really impressive, although I did replace the sticky bomb guns with the Hot Toys versions I had on hand. Interesting to note, my back panels are on the film-accurate sides unlike some of the other member's armories. I was relieved that I didn't have to remove and swap them.
The front drawers are a bit undersized and should be closer together, but not a deal breaker.
The suit is about what you'd expect. Hollow and a bit stiff, but it does the job. I removed the stock cowl and neck and replaced them with a cowl/neck from the MMS71 I had in my old armory. The boots have been removed and stand on either side of the legs. The hands are still in the package. The left arm does stray slightly, but I didn't feel the need to heat it up and try to reposition it. The gauntlets are a bit twisted, but there's no easy way to remedy it so it's staying that way for the moment. The suit hangs about 1/2 inch off the base and seems soundly connected. The lights are placed a little haphazardly, which bugs my OCD a bit, but I'll deal
. They cast a warm, yellow tone as opposed to a cooler blue. The switch is accessible on top however, with little clearance between the armory and the top of the detolf, it's a struggle to get my fingers in there to activate the lighting.
All in all, this is a total win and a bargain for what you get. I built my own armory 3 years ago and always wanted to improve on elements of it (integrated lighting without cables, back panel accessories, etc) and this does all that. Including the suit is brilliant and straight out of the box, this thing makes for a very nice display.
Only had time for a couple quick phone pics, not much new here:
Haven't been paying attention to eBay prices on this but I would wholeheartedly recommend picking this set up while you can.