1/6 Hot Toys - MMS 237D06 - Iron Man 2: 1/6th scale Whiplash Mark II Collectible Figure

[lotus000]

Well I caved and PO from Alter Ego since they have him for 367.99 plus 17.97 shipping. total 385.96 -Rewards coupon of 15.00 = 370.96

I always get the SSC pack out option which would cost me 25.00 for this figure. AlterEgo Double boxes them so, it works out a little cheaper for shipping too.

Now the wait till 2015

 

[robbiethepainter]

I've only been in the hobby 2 years, but every single pre-order I've been interested in, in that time, has been a minimum of 11 - 14 months. After a half-year+ of teasing, I'm just happy we finally have a pre-order. Lol, seems like no-one can look at the glass as half-full when it comes to these figures.

I agree, but maybe I'm a different kind of collector. At this moment in my life, this is a hobby forever for me. I'll get it when I get it. I also marvel at the complexity and the machine that is HT. I want everything fast but I also know that things take time. One of my favorite pics was from HT showing every single part laid out on a table of, I think the Mark 6. I think I counted over 300 different parts.

 

[Cap'n Cook]

Looks decent.

 

[morphosis]

I agree, but maybe I'm a different kind of collector. At this moment in my life, this is a hobby forever for me. I'll get it when I get it. I also marvel at the complexity and the machine that is HT. I want everything fast but I also know that things take time. One of my favorite pics was from HT showing every single part laid out on a table of, I think the Mark 6. I think I counted over 300 different parts.

Ya A lot of people on here don't have patients in this hobby. To me if you love a movie and character, you will want to buy it whenever it comes out. If they make a Ras Al Guhl from BBegins 20 years from now, Ill buy it in a second. But if you don't have the patients maybe its something that collector really don't really want or need anyway. A lot of people just buy whatever is "NEW", and don't really care about the character or movie.

And yes this stuff takes a lot of time to produce because a lot is made by hand. They just can't make a figure in a month and put it up for sale. Also Pre-Orders give them an idea of how many they need to produce. And since this Whiplash is really complex with die cast, its probably best for them to have long Pre-Order to see how many they need to make. Im sure after all these years they know during pre-order state how many they need to make for those orders plus having retail stock for the rest of the world who sells them. Im not shocked at all it will be like more than a year for this. But for IM fans, i think it will be well worth the wait. $400 by then wont be that bad, and eBay prices/secondary market will be way more.

 

[lerath666]

I agree with Invictus.
I do believe that the hate for diecast is misplaced. Sure it adds weight but thats it. I dnt hear any more cons.

Im really not torn by the price, could've easily been $400 but jeez. The price now, if someone really wanted it, its perfectly possible to grab one with budgeting

YAY! Broken record time.

Diecast is a cheap material often called "garbage metal" or " white metal" in metalurgy or jewlry circles. It's a Zinc/tin and sometimes bronze alloy. It is frequently used by aprentices in jewlry shops to learn and practice on, as it is a mostly worthless material that is avalible very cheaply.
It's very dense, somewhat soft ( as metals go. they add the tin to make the Zinc harder. Zinc is the primary ingredeant) it has a hard time holding paint, and as such is prone to scratching, flaking and chipping.

THAT SAID, Diecast products do tend to have a nice longevity, they just can wear eaisly if you touch it too much. it also tends to oxidise a dark " gunmetal " color.

Diecast adds to the cost of a product mostly becuase of the manufacturing process costs. the material itself is comparable to plastic in cost, and can be less expensive alot of the time.


So cons
Cheap material
Prone to paint wear
Prone to rust.
Heavy

Pro's
Durable
They no longer add lead as a hardener.

I DO like that the diecast use in these is fairly limited. i was under the impression that these had much more diecast in tehm than they do, so i'm more interested in tehm now. used sparingly, diecast can make some pieces very cool.

 

[GearheadSS]

I don't understand how one of the knocks on die cast metal is that it's cheap. Last I checked, plastic was pretty darn cheap too and we all seem to have no problem shelling out a bunch of money for plastic.

Just sayin.

I've had die cast cars for years and they haven't disintegrated into dust yet.

 

[Y4NK33 PL4N3T]

People are still whining about Diecast

 

[DFanatic]

People are still whining about Diecast

More like discussing it than complaining, really. My only problem with the diecast right now is that they are not making the whole thing (or most of it) out of diecast. Pretty disappointed on how much metal was on that War Machine figure.

 

[lerath666]

I don't understand how one of the knocks on die cast metal is that it's cheap. Last I checked, plastic was pretty darn cheap too and we all seem to have no problem shelling out a bunch of money for plastic.

Just sayin.

I've had die cast cars for years and they haven't disintegrated into dust yet.

its more that it's a misleading thing. people assume that diecast is an expsensive thing, and that serves to drive up the cost.
IF ANYTHING, addingdycast should be driving the price on these figures DOWN, not up. or simply staying the same price.

The increase in price is done with marketing hype targetted at that disbelief, and is essentialy the same as a conartist taking advantage of a rube.

NOTE: I'm not calling Hot toys a conartist here, that's more directed at the factory than anything else. Hot toys charges what they charge in part, becuase of what it costs them.

 

[Y4NK33 PL4N3T]

Hot Toys - MMS 237D06 - Iron Man 2: 1/6th scale Whiplash Mark II Collectible ...

Perhaps. I guess I'm tired of reading the same complaints/discussion ad nauseum in these figure threads since nothing new has been brought to the table.

How much more metal would you want, be willing to pay for, and why?

That figure is easily over double the weight of prior IM figures and the retail cost is already at an all time high.

 

[CrAZyVEgAsBoY]

its more that it's a misleading thing. people assume that diecast is an expsensive thing, and that serves to drive up the cost.
IF ANYTHING, addingdycast should be driving the price on these figures DOWN, not up. or simply staying the same price.

The increase in price is done with marketing hype targetted at that disbelief, and is essentialy the same as a conartist taking advantage of a rube.

NOTE: I'm not calling Hot toys a conartist here, that's more directed at the factory than anything else. Hot toys charges what they charge in part, becuase of what it costs them.

I wouldn't totalty disagree with you, yeah I'm guessing the little amount of die cast they use in this or any figure isn't probably a whole lot more than what they may pay for plastic but it probably does cost a bit more and requires them to create brand new casting/moldings so I can see why it is $400 instead of say $350 or $375. But IMO the real factor that makes this worth soooo much is the fact that IM figures is the "hot" thing to own right now. They know people will pay for it, it happens time and time again. You have to remember that HT and SS is in business to make money and by the looks of it there doing pretty well and I don't really see this price hike going down anytime soon. I wouldn't say HT is a "con-artiest" per-say but they know they have something us collectors want and there one of the best in the business so they kinda have us the vice grips lol. Which is why in the end most of us bite the bullet.

 

[Invictus Sol]

More like discussing it than complaining, really. My only problem with the diecast right now is that they are not making the whole thing (or most of it) out of diecast. Pretty disappointed on how much metal was on that War Machine figure.

I don't think it being twice as heavy would be a good thing, at all. I was skeptical of diecast before we started seeing the WM MK II reviews, but from my perspective, they implemented it perfectly.

 

[lerath666]

I wouldn't totalty disagree with you, yeah I'm guessing the little amount of die cast they use in this or any figure isn't probably a whole lot more than what they may pay for plastic but it probably does cost a bit more and requires them to create brand new casting/moldings so I can see why it is $400 instead of say $350 or $375. But IMO the real factor that makes this worth soooo much is the fact that IM figures is the "hot" thing to own right now. They know people will pay for it, it happens time and time again. You have to remember that HT and SS is in business to make money and by the looks of it there doing pretty well and I don't really see this price hike going down anytime soon. I wouldn't say HT is a "con-artiest" per-say but they know they have something us collectors want and there one of the best in the business so they kinda have us the vice grips lol. Which is why in the end most of us bite the bullet.

They STILL need to make all new molds for plastic figures as well. no extra cost is incurred there. the ONLY MAJOR cost increase with diecast, is the machine that handles the material itself and PRESSES the Zamak into the molds. THAT'S expensive. But once a factory has that, it's as cheap, or in some cases cheaper than plastic for them to produce, as the molds for the pieces will hold up longer before needing to be replaced, and the relative low cost of Zamak.

Zamak being the "proper" name for Diecast metal

 

[CrAZyVEgAsBoY]

They STILL need to make all new molds for plastic figures as well. no extra cost is incurred there. the ONLY MAJOR cost increase with diecast, is the machine that handles the material itself and PRESSES the Zamak into the molds. THAT'S expensive. But once a factory has that, it's as cheap, or in some cases cheaper than plastic for them to produce, as the molds for the pieces will hold up longer before needing to be replaced, and the relative low cost of Zamak.

Zamak being the "proper" name for Diecast metal

Rightly so but like I said IMO the price factor really is on the popularity of the figure and right now IM is one of the hottest things HT's sells which is why there jacking up the price so dam much. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying were getting a cheap product here but they are marking up the hell out this bad boy.

 

[lerath666]

Fun fact about metal marketing and artificial value.

Gold and platnum are in the same catagory of artificial value as Zamak. Though, for different reasons.

 

[robbiethepainter]

I have read that diecast is more expensive because of the types of molds required. That the mold it self must be made from a harder material to get the same life as say a plastic or PVC mold. Even though they use a soft metal, the melting point is higher then plastics so it breaks down the surface of the molds faster. They can use the same molds as plastics but they will have a shorter production run. I also read that PVC uses aluminum molds which are easier to mill and finish which makes them cheaper. Diecast uses mild steel to get a better life span which is more labor intensive to do the finish work on.

I read this all from the internet manufacturing websites so take from it what you will.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Wow, HT is really becoming the master at finding ways to goose the price up just a wee bit more. Now $400 is the new $250.

We'll see $499 by year's end.

 

[franpincho]

Transformers MP01 Convoy- $100.00 (plenty of die cast)
Transformers MP10 Convoy-
$250 (not an ounce of die cast)

Again, I truly don't care about the material, I just want to see where the price increase lies. If it's a "they'll buy it anyway" reason (which I'm fine with, they can get away with it obviously) or is it that die cast is actually more expensive to manufacture toys with (takara might prove you differently).

Oh well, 14/15 months plus the delay- that's plenty of time to save up/redeem points for this beauty- I know that's what I'm doing.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Racetrack]

I'm just curious at what price point people here will be maxed out for a HT 12 inch figure they want? The price creep is just insane at many multiple times inflation.

Although I have paid more than 400 on some figures in the secondary market 300 or so is my limit. The only figures that would get me to pay more for would be a HT Marvel comics line.

Despite that I have Whiplash on my maybe list. It's almost hopeless to resist.

 

[DFanatic]

I'm just curious at what price point people here will be maxed out for a HT 12 inch figure they want? The price creep is just insane at many multiple times inflation.

Although I have paid more than 400 on some figures in the secondary market 300 or so is my limit. The only figures that would get me to pay more for would be a HT Marvel comics line.

Despite that I have Whiplash on my maybe list. It's almost hopeless to resist.

I got to my limit already. 3 bills for a figure like Iron Patriot is just preposterous. I'm probably done collecting most 1/6 scale figures and will stick with statues, props and the eventual special releases by HT (like BTTF). I'm skipping on figures from all the next Marvel movies.