Hot Toys vs. Kotobukiya vs. PI

[machine_74]

So, a little background here: I have been a Star Wars collector for years, and with the advent of the Marvel movies, I've become an IronMan/Marvel collector. I have some Hot Toys Busts, Bowen Statues, and misc other things.

I've been monitoring Sideshow Collectibles for weeks and they have come out with a lot of new pieces due to Iron Man 3 coming out.

I originally looked at Kotobukiya statues of Avengers Ironman, etc. and for $100 those seem like great bang for the buck, while not poseable. For that price range the Hot Toys Busts are doable.

Hot Toys itself then seemed to have exploded, with most figures are between $200-300. The metallic Ironman and Iron Patriot pieces look awesome.

Then I saw the Play Imaginative site in Asia. Damn. A lot of cash but what quality.

Here's a link to the PI ones (rumored $700 USD)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj69t_uMIrM

My question is this: if I want to continue my collection, what ones offer the best quality for the money? $700 is ridiculous; can you even buy them from the States? If I go for the US ones; are the Hot Toys metal ones seemingly worth it, or would I be better off buying more pieces for "cheaper" money?

I thought I'd go right to the source and ask the experts. Thanks...

--Machine


ps If anyone has any advice on displaying, such as LEDs under acrylic stands etc (I'm a sucker for lights) please post forthwith.

[built2shred]

If your just going to keep them in a glass display case and not get on the floor to play with them I would say go with the statues... Besides you really can't pose them in the case since you need their crotch stand to secure them in place so that reallly limits what poses you can do. To bad they didn't put magnets in their feet with a metal standing area...

[ReplicantSavior]

First time hearing of Play Imaginative. I guess they have the 1/4 Iron Man license for Iron Man 3. I guess these will make it over here soon or there's always eBay.

Honestly, I prefer statues. I only have one Hot Toys figure. It's the 89 Batman. It's cool and I didn't really have to pose him. It comes down to poses and if you like seeing a stand. Because with Hot Toys, if you do a cool pose chances are the figure will need the stand.

[machine_74]

Originally Posted by ReplicantSavior

First time hearing of Play Imaginative. I guess they have the 1/4 Iron Man license for Iron Man 3. I guess these will make it over here soon or there's always eBay.

Honestly, I prefer statues. I only have one Hot Toys figure. It's the 89 Batman. It's cool and I didn't really have to pose him. It comes down to poses and if you like seeing a stand. Because with Hot Toys, if you do a cool pose chances are the figure will need the stand.

I have a feeling eBay will be about double, maybe $1200-1500. Not my style

I do love the metallic ones by Hot Toys, trying to justify the $300 price tag when statues can be had for $100 (but PVC).

[msisaac]

Just watched that PI video. Man, those figures do not look that good. Definitely not $700 good. I realize these are just prototypes, but usually the prototypes look great and the production pieces fail to live up to that. These prototypes look bad. Seam lines don't match up on some parts, paint application is mediocre, and that Red Snapper suit looked TERRIBLE at the shoulder joint. That's the kind of quality I'd expect from Mattel or some other mass-production toy company. In my relatively limited experience with HT, I can't imagine those kinds of big problems showing up even in production pieces.

Now, I can't speak for the actual production pieces from PI, but if the $700 price is correct and those prototypes are indicative of the quality you'd get in the production piece, I'd say steer clear of them. That's way too much money for something so mediocre. HT are expensive enough, especially with the new die-cast series, but the quality is incredible. If you have the means, I highly recommend them. If you don't care about posing them, I'd say get the statues. The price is good and the quality on Koto's stuff is usually pretty good. I have the Mark III and the Mark VII statues from them and I'm very happy.

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