A large part of why I enjoy prowling the aisles of T.J. Maxx is that they sporadically get shipments of older stuff I never thought I'd see again. Or as in the case of today's review, something I had never seen ever.
This is Stark Racing Armor Iron Man, a figure in the 3 3/4 inch Iron Man 2 line that, while a repaint, is a fantastic repaint! Essentially copying the design of Stark's racing jumpsuit seen in the movie and applying it to a suit of Iron Man armor, the figure is a ridiculously ambitious and awesome paint scheme for such a small scale figure.
A lot of this review is going to be about the deco because it never ceases to amaze me. Tony has tons of tiny printed lettering all over his suit, including his last name no less than six times, either on it's own or part of "Stark Industries" graphics, three large S's and the number 11 on his left shoulder pad.
I am really so blown away by how tiny some of the lettering gets, such as this "Stark Industries" label on his right forearm. The main plastic color here is a beautiful metallic sparkle blue, offset of liberal paint applications of black and silver to mix it up.
The racing suit theme just tickles me for some reason, if I were Iron Man, I'd probably end up wearing this suit all the time just because. The backing card claims Stark wears this armor during an annual competition he holds where any company can attempt to challenge his designs and has apparently never lost. It doesn't mention the exact nature of this competition, but it amuses me to think of Stark completely smoking whatever vehicles or armor prototypes competitors might bring.
"Away!"
Articulation is pretty standard for the line; ball jointed neck, torso, shoulders, elbows, hips (sorta) and ankles with swivel wrists and hips and double jointed knees. The neck is really stiff and somewhat limited in range unfortunately and the hips are those incredibly awkward joints Hasbro has been using on their Marvel properties lately that always makes me afraid I'm going to break a figure's legs off when trying to pose them.
Stark Racing Iron Man's main accessory is a large launcher with a translucent pink rocket. The spring is tight and the missile fires pretty far, the launcher itself clips securely to either forearm and he can do some pretty cool firing poses with it, as seen above. Besides the launcher, Stark includes the standard gray display base and three "Armor Cards", clear plastic cards with sections of the armor printed on them that when layered together display the entire schematics of the suit. These cards were designed to be used in a mobile command center vehicle released in the line that I kick myself for not buying on clearance now.
As much as I love the figure's paint scheme, I have to point out issues in it's application. You can clearly see above that Stark has a large scrape in the silver of his faceplate, as well as chips missing from the silver inner arm sections, sloppy silver application to the vents on his chest armor and some silver missing from the panels on the front of his thighs. Even after noting all this however, I still grabbed him because I love the idea and paint scheme that much. It also helped that he was the only one on shelves and I didn't want to pass on an awesome figure I had never even seen before.
Overall, I would grab this figure if you're an Iron Man fan, he's too cool to pass up! I got lucky and found him at T.J. Maxx for six bucks, but he seems to be available online for around fifteen. Which is maybe a bit much, but that decision really depends on how much the figure impresses you personally. Me, I would buy this armor again if they repainted it in the six inch Iron Man scale in a heartbeat. My only advice is to take a good look at the quality of his paint applications if you can, or you might end up with a scuffed faceplate like me.
This is Stark Racing Armor Iron Man, a figure in the 3 3/4 inch Iron Man 2 line that, while a repaint, is a fantastic repaint! Essentially copying the design of Stark's racing jumpsuit seen in the movie and applying it to a suit of Iron Man armor, the figure is a ridiculously ambitious and awesome paint scheme for such a small scale figure.
A lot of this review is going to be about the deco because it never ceases to amaze me. Tony has tons of tiny printed lettering all over his suit, including his last name no less than six times, either on it's own or part of "Stark Industries" graphics, three large S's and the number 11 on his left shoulder pad.
I am really so blown away by how tiny some of the lettering gets, such as this "Stark Industries" label on his right forearm. The main plastic color here is a beautiful metallic sparkle blue, offset of liberal paint applications of black and silver to mix it up.
The racing suit theme just tickles me for some reason, if I were Iron Man, I'd probably end up wearing this suit all the time just because. The backing card claims Stark wears this armor during an annual competition he holds where any company can attempt to challenge his designs and has apparently never lost. It doesn't mention the exact nature of this competition, but it amuses me to think of Stark completely smoking whatever vehicles or armor prototypes competitors might bring.
"Away!"
Articulation is pretty standard for the line; ball jointed neck, torso, shoulders, elbows, hips (sorta) and ankles with swivel wrists and hips and double jointed knees. The neck is really stiff and somewhat limited in range unfortunately and the hips are those incredibly awkward joints Hasbro has been using on their Marvel properties lately that always makes me afraid I'm going to break a figure's legs off when trying to pose them.
Stark Racing Iron Man's main accessory is a large launcher with a translucent pink rocket. The spring is tight and the missile fires pretty far, the launcher itself clips securely to either forearm and he can do some pretty cool firing poses with it, as seen above. Besides the launcher, Stark includes the standard gray display base and three "Armor Cards", clear plastic cards with sections of the armor printed on them that when layered together display the entire schematics of the suit. These cards were designed to be used in a mobile command center vehicle released in the line that I kick myself for not buying on clearance now.
As much as I love the figure's paint scheme, I have to point out issues in it's application. You can clearly see above that Stark has a large scrape in the silver of his faceplate, as well as chips missing from the silver inner arm sections, sloppy silver application to the vents on his chest armor and some silver missing from the panels on the front of his thighs. Even after noting all this however, I still grabbed him because I love the idea and paint scheme that much. It also helped that he was the only one on shelves and I didn't want to pass on an awesome figure I had never even seen before.
Overall, I would grab this figure if you're an Iron Man fan, he's too cool to pass up! I got lucky and found him at T.J. Maxx for six bucks, but he seems to be available online for around fifteen. Which is maybe a bit much, but that decision really depends on how much the figure impresses you personally. Me, I would buy this armor again if they repainted it in the six inch Iron Man scale in a heartbeat. My only advice is to take a good look at the quality of his paint applications if you can, or you might end up with a scuffed faceplate like me.
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