Review:
Firstly, I feel I need to start off this review by saying that this is a very nice statue (as usual with most SS statues). With that being said, it is not a GREAT statue and here are several reasons why:
1) Sloppy paint outside the lines.
2) Sticky gunk on the paint job that can mostly be removed with elbow grease.
3) The paint job for the armor is dull and not metallic looking like an XM IM MK 42 paint job.
4) For the pose IP is in...just like others have stated before, it makes no sense for him not to have some kind of rocket launcher or guns on the arm pointed out like he is going to shoot someone.
5) The light up feature while strong and bright is pointless for his arms due to how they are posed. The light feature is obscured.
Here are some features on the statue that range from very good to great!:
1) Very good light up feature that
comes with its own ac adapter and also 3 AAA batteries.
2) Just like what XM did with using a little base to hold the switch out upper torso....SS added the little barrel holder that you can place the 2nd head on to display (a nice little touch).
3) The face sculpt of Don Cheadle is very solid (worlds better than the IM MK 42 face sculpt coming soon from SS) but not on the level of the XM studios facesculpt. The head sculpt could really benefit from intrinsic resin simply because he has such a dark skin tone that it becomes a little too dark without flash.
4) Pretty cool pose and base is pretty solidly done.
5) Almost looks like a companion piece to XM STudios's IM MK 42. They look pretty good together.
Overall, the IP is a pretty solid effort....but it has it's fair share of problems that SS will chalk up to as battle damage, when in fact, the paint in some areas is really sloppy, especially when placing it side by side to the XM IM MK 42. Nevertheless, the light up feature is cool, but as you can see in both the flash and non flash duo pics, lights are NOT needed. The IM MK 42 from XM looks like light up without there being any.
I just want to say that I think it's about time SS up its QC on their statues. As their prices are increasing, so should their quality....not the other way around. I think I am going to keep this as it is a pretty nice looking statue and can be posed next to the XM one. The holder to place the other head not in use is always welcome. But SS has to stop their lack of QC with the its battle damage excuse for their Iron Man statues. Some of the stuff on there can pass for battle damage, but the sloppy outside the lines paints and the numerous sticky gunk and blemishes throughout the armor have got to be rectified for their future products. Enough is enough. Good thing is that all that isn't really noticeable from normal viewing distance!
Solid effort but SS can do better! At least their QC department can do better!
Out of 10, I give this a 7.5 out of 10. Very solid effort but sloppiness is evident and brings it down some. Nice little extras and kudos for including the AC Adapter.
