Review: Hot Toys Iron Monger

Friend of Fruitless Pursuits Luke 'Capey' Caporn recently got himself the Hot Toys Iron Monger figure from the original Iron Man film, and was kind enough to send us through a review and some photos. Let's all head under the cut for a look at Obadiah's monster!

Let’s face it, the Iron Man franchise, and by extension the Avengers franchise, must be putting most of the Hot Toys’ staff’s kids through college. The toys are downright spectacular, sell like hot cakes and have been coming out of the factory at record pace. Some fans of the company may complain they are putting out too many Tony Starks and ignoring other franchises, but screw ‘em, these things are amazing and I want them all.

Finally, 5 years after the film, and several Iron Man suits later, we get the villain of the first film, the mighty Iron Monger himself. Let me just say right off the bat, this thing is HUGE. You may think you have a fair idea of his size from the photos but you really don’t. When you finally see this behemoth in person you will be genuinely surprised. Obadiah Stane’s personal death machine is every bit as intimidating as it should be. It has a really good weight and is really solid. Not delicate feeling like my Mark IV. The only drawback to that is I literally have nowhere to store him. He currently sits in our dining room glaring menacingly as I chew my dinner. I can almost hear Jeff Bridges yelling “Hold still you little prick” as he fires pot shots off at me. 

The detail is amazing. Everywhere you look is intricate design and sculpting. Each joint has a series of pistons aiding it’s movement. Articulation isn’t too bad. You can get some decent poses but let’s face it, he isn’t that limber in the film either. The silver paint really pops. Not too shiny, but rough and menacing. Industrial. His back panels upon up to real a shoulder mounted missile launcher. Always great to see when the HT team throws in a feature that was in the film so briefly. As with other Iron Man suits they’ve put out this one features LED lighting. It’s everywhere you’d expect; eyes, arc reactor and palms. Also there’s a couple on the missile launcher and machine guns mounted on his wrists. These things are super bright and make an already impressive piece look even more impressive. 

Just when you think it can’t be any more amazing, you open up the front armor panels. With a little fiddling it all opens up and reveals a damn impressive Jeff Bridges headsculpt. At this point I’m assuming Hot Toys are cloning tiny versions of famous actors, beheading them, waxing them over and sending them to my door. Just wow. It even has a wee little necklace around his neck. Attention to detail to a whole new level. 

The cost for this bad boy may be high, but in my opinion is totally worth it. It really completes the Iron Man 1 line. Just make sure you have a plan of where to keep it. Now if we can only get Whiplash’s suit from the climax of IM2.