We found this great infographic in our inbox about the Iron Man armors portrayed in the three Iron Man movies and the Avengers. It shows enough factoids about each to perhaps extend the Trivial Pursuit line to include an Iron Man edition. Oddly, the Mark 42 is notably absent from the list. The Iron Man infographic is from Costume Discounters, of all places. I guess they would like to do a brisk business in Iron Man and other super hero costumes, and I wish them the best of luck.
The last portion of the infographic shows the new Iron Man 3 armors revealed before the movie opened (minus the Mark 42 of course). And we know Hot Toys is working off this list, since they’ve already announced the Iron Patriot, War Machine, Red Snapper, Heart Breaker and Igor as upcoming releases.
It got me thinking, which of the three remaining armors will they make next? But more importantly, which do you want next?
I think I already know, but let’s see what you guys have to say. Of course, there’s a ton more armors featured in the movie (spoiler, if you somehow managed to miss all of the Iron Man previews they showed in the last few months), so this list will probably grow even longer – anyone know a site that lists them all?
Icon Heroes has really been on a tear in recent days. Their Castle Grayskull Polystone Environment is coming out this month, and they’ve just announced another Masters of the Universe item – the He-Man Mini-Bust Paperweight.
Keep your papers safe from Eternian winds with the Icon Heroes Masters of the Universe He-Man Mini Bust Paperweight! Based on the 1980′s Filmation television series, He-Man wields his power sword atop a Castle Grayskull tower base defying evil. Designed and sculpted by Joe Amaro and the Four Horsemen, this complete piece comes with sheath and Master of the Universe logo. Cast in high quality polystone, the He-Man Mini Bust Paperweight stands approximately 12 inches tall from the bottom of the base to the tip of the Power Sword. This makes a great addition to any desktop or Masters of the Universe collection. Available September 2013. SRP $60.
We were lucky enough to chat with Nate Baersch, designer of the Icon Heroes Castle Grayskull a couple days ago, and it’s a special treat for us to chat today with Joe Amaro, who designed and sculpted this mini-bust in collaboration with the Four Horsemen. Joe is noted in the collectibles community for his MOTU-inspired creations, like his Manta Raider collaboration with Rudy Obrero. His professional credentials include a stint at Jazwares. Joe was gracious enough to answer our questions about the mini-bust and some of his other projects.
You may know him as Baena at many of the toy and collectible forums, but Nate Baertsch is also an accomplished illustrator, and happens to be one of the designers behind the Icon Heroes Castle Grayskull Polystone Environment. Nate recently got one of the Icon Heroes Castles off the production line, shared these pictures, and kindly answered some of our questions.
AFP: How did you get involved with Icon Heroes for this project?
Nate: Dumb luck! Okay, that’s not entirely true. I’ve had a good working relationship with the Four Horsemen since somewhere around 2007? I started out doing packaging art for their Seventh Kingdom line. Ramathorr was the first painting I did for them, and to this day still one of my favorites. Over time my work with them has increased from packaging artwork for their figures, to occasional design sketches and concepts for figures for the variety of lines that they work on. Over time, and meeting up with them when I could at conventions, we’ve established a good working relationship and friendship, as we all love all things MotU and general super fantastical spacey geeky goodness. A lot of “geeking out” about MotU lore, Seventh Kingdom, their other properties, Outer Space Men and now Power Lords!
Batman & Robin (1997), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, and Chris O’Donnell, nearly put the DC Comics Batman franchise into the ground for good. Joel Schumacher had just rolled off of the extremely successful Batman Forever (1995), but somehow managed to put together what’s arguably the worst Batman movie ever made. On IMDb, Batman & Robin is rated by users at 3.6 out of 10, by far the lowest of all the live action films by Tim Burton, Schumacher, Christopher Nolan, and even the Batman (1966) movie based on the campy TV series.
With the final pre-order window coming to a close on Monday, I’d like to take a pulse check on where you stand on Castle Grayskull – and no, that’s not a flimsy attempt at escape ledge humor. Up until Toy Fair, we had seen drawings, foam mockups, and teasers – now that the first painted prototype has been shown, what’s the verdict? Has seeing the Castle changed your mind one way or the other?
It’s no secret – I am tremendously excited for (and a little scared of) the collaboration that 3A Toys announced with Marvel Comics on Friday. My re-entry point for toy collecting started with 6-inch Marvel Legends, but 1/6 scale figures have started to break my toy budget wide open – Hot Toys and 3A Toys are the main culprits. With the Marvel movies, Hot Toys might as well take my ATM card and PIN, and now 3A Toys will threaten to do that with its re-imagined comic book figures.
Fans of 3A know that they’ve got a very unique style – for those of us with mainstream taste, this combination with Marvel might seem odd. That’s one of the things on my mind as I reach out to Ashley Wood. Ash is the artist and design force behind 3A Toys. I’m sure there’s many more questions, but I wanted to know what Ash thinks of when he thinks Marvel, and how that’s influencing the Marvel figures 3A is making.
AFP: What were some of the Marvel Comics you first read? Have any personal favorite books, teams, or eras of comics? What books are you reading today?
Ashley Wood: I always enjoyed the Avengers, Spider-Man, Iron Fist, Marvel Team-Up, the X-men, Captain America, Tomb of Dracula, Daredevil and so on. The late 70′s to mid to late 80′s are my personal golden period. But I’m very fond of the Tales of Suspense with Kirby Captain America stories in them. I kinda collect the trades from that personal golden period now, but that’s mainly due to not visiting comic shops like I once did and not knowing what the great titles are.
Jedd-the-Jedi got to meet a few of the good folks at Hot Toys during the Singapore Toy, Games & Comic Convention back in September. Over the weeks that followed, Jedd put together an interview with JC Hong, who is the chief painter and production director for Hot Toys. There’s some very interesting stuff on how 3D technology is affecting their business, and how the US and Asian markets are different. Read on!
Jedd: Hot Toys designers, artists, sculptors and painters are known for their stunning attention to detail, capturing tiny nuances in faces, costumes and props that the regular person wouldn’t be able to catch. How much access do you have to conceptual art, costume/prop designs, set photographs etc. when working on products licensed from movies? Can you walk us through the creative process that goes into creating a Hot Toys figure?
JC Hong: The Hong Kong team is very good at searching for photos, fully checking details, and giving good opinions to us. Most of my job is on human faces. For creating a collectible figure, communication is very important.
Election Day may be over in the US, but for Masters of the Universe fans, a new campaign is just beginning. No, it’s not the push for pre-orders for Castle Grayskull, although I expect we will see some of that as we close out the final week of pre-orders (at least to hit the minimum to proceed). This vote is about which heroes and villains should appear on the box art for the castle.
Mattel has announced Castle Grayskull for Masters of the Universe Classics! It will be offered as a “thermometer” pre-order on MattyCollector.com this fall, and if it hits the minimum threshold it will ship next fall. I groan every time I think of the awful thermometer graphics, but for a $200 item I can’t fault Mattel for this approach. They’ve said Castle Grayskull will be based on the Mark Taylor prototypes. If you’re not a He-Man historian, that just means it will be based on the designs that were used for the playset that came in the original Masters of the Universe line.
The big question is this – since this is a big ticket item at $200, will you buy it?
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