Iron Man Mark XLII

Iron Man 3, wasn`t that good, it was pretty much Kiss Kiss Bang Bang set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I wasn`t that into the look of the Mark 42 for quite a while, but it`s grown on me.

Box time, it`s rectangular, it has cardboard, polystyrene and a plastic sleeve.

It opens like the Iron Patriot and War Machine Mark 2 boxes and includes the usual branding and list of people involved in the making of the figure.

After opening you get the figure and all the accessories pack up nice and snug with plastic coverings to protect them from snow and tornado`s, probably.

Under the main styrine box there`s an extra plastic section containing the stand, batteries and instructions.

Hot Toys now include the batteries for the lights separately for you to put into the figure yourself, I recommend doing it in the head of the figure for hours of fun, trying to put in 3 tiny batteries while avoiding the super strength magnets on either side, it`s a bit like that operation board game.

The figure itself has a ton of detail, and has quite a good amount of diecast all over.

The legs have a gimmick where you press a big button on the figures bum the legs will drop allowing them more posability for sitting, crouching and so on.

To facilitate the extra posability in the legs, the hips have two pieces that are on double hinges that lift allowing the legs to raise up higher.

The arms also have extra posability by pulling out the shoulders, and there`s an armpit joint that pulls our even further.
Finally you can pull the arms down at the shoulder.

The rest of the figure has most of the usual articulation from the Iron Man line, including the “torso stretch” they`ve been using since the Mark 4.

The legs have double joints meaning the feet can almost reach his bumhole, but not quite.
The feet can be pulled down slightly giving more movement.

There are a ton of accessories for this figure, though most of them are clean and damaged armour pieces, a few hands, the stand and instructions.

The stand has a new gimmick I haven`t seen before, the footwells have a little articulation by moving slightly inward, the stand lights up but no batteries are included and I couldn’t be bothered to unscrew it to find out what size they take, I assume its 2 AA batteries.

This is my first time with the new “blast” hands, that Hot Toys have been using on Iron Man figures since the Mark 7.

I do wish they`d put some articulation into the wrist part of the fully articulated hands so they can lift up, maybe one day.

These hands come with different wrist armour pieces that are molded lifting upwards.

The forearms have different armour pieces that come in two halves then attach by magnets implanted in the skeleton, there are 4 pegs that line up on the armour to prevent sliding and this makes sure the arms are as solid as they can be.

The right arm comes with an extra forearm piece with a missile ready to fire, it doesn`t remove or have any gimmick, it`s just for looks.

As with all Iron Man figures (excluding the Marks` 1 and 5) the figure has air flaps on the back, I was surprised at how nicely they fit when not opened.

I`ve had issues with the Mark 2, 3, and 4 with these flaps never staying flush against the back of the figure, but the Mark 42 has little clips making sure they stay down.

Here I come to my first issue with the figure, the pin that holds in the left flap was loose and eventually fell out and i couldn’t find it, this was after having the figure for 3 days and only moving the flaps twice.

Luckily the flap will stay in with friction, even when it`s opened, but it won`t take much to make it fall off.

Under the chest armour is the usual technical detailing included in most Iron Man figures.

One of the major features of the figure is the battle damaged armour pieces, sadly these only cover the chest, head and arms.

The arms both have replaceable forearms, and the right bicep has a damaged piece also.

There are two helmets in the set, a light up clean version and a battle damaged version with the tony stark face sculpt inside.

There are also two face plates, clean and damaged, these can be used on either helmet.

To activate the light up feature in the helmet you need to take off the face plate, then remove the top part of the helmet to reveal the switch, then replace all the parts.

I think they did this to add more articulation in the neck, but I can`t see how the Mark 42 has benefited from this as it still can`t look up.

The Tony Stark head sculpt is up to Hot Toys usual standard, there`s little I can complain about it, but the eyes do seem to be looking to the left slightly

As usual the face plate can be placed on the helmet with magnets.

In my quick description I called this the “Milky Bar” armour, it`s a reference to a white chocolate bar here in the UK (I`m not sure it`s out in the US), I was not fond of the colouring.

Over time it`s grown on me, having the Mark 42 in hand I now feel it`s my favorite Armour in my collection.

I’ve damaged this figure slightly by not taking enough care with the diecast parts, as the clean shoulder plates are diecast, by moving them I`ve scratched the piece underneath and part of the flap behind the arm.

So I warn others to take a lot of care in how you move the diecast parts around to avoid catching and scratching.

No matter how much I tried, I just can`t get the proper “ground pound” pose, I`ve seen other reviewers have problems recreating this and wondering if the promo pics were faked in some way.

This is the best I could do…

I`m impressed with the strength the legs and feet have to keep walking poses and such, most figures ive tried this with fall over without a stand, the Mark 42 doesn’t need no stand!

I like this figure, it`s got a lot of weight to it which you can really feel if you hold one of the plastic Iron Man figures in the other hand, in a way it makes my Mark 4 feel cheap.

I wasn`t sure of the whole diecast thing when they announced it last year, I`m now completely sold on it, more of this please!