S.H. Figuarts Iron Man 3 Iron Patriot

I've been meaning to write about this figure for a while seeing as I've had it for several months now!

SH Figuarts do great work and are well worth the money to have imported from Japan. The articulation, accessories, paint application and sculpt are all top drawer on SH Figuarts figures and this Iron Patriot is no different.

Firstly, Iron Patriot comes with six repulsor effects that can all be attached to his palms or bottom of his feet.

He also comes with his minigun that attaches to his back, which also comes with a blast effect that attaches to it.

And as far as hands go, we get 4 different pairs. There are closed fists, blaster hands with pegs to attach the repulsor blasts to, blaster hands without pegs, and flat palms.

Iron Patriot himself is just a class act.

The paint is gorgeous and metallic, with flecks throughout adding to the realism. This figure looks metallic though it's not - the feet are die cast metal though to keep the figure balanced and to stop it from falling over.

The paint is also incredibly clean and neatly applied.

Iron Patriot's minigun fits nicely into one of two slots on his back. The gun is also articulated so it can sit flat against his back or angle it over his shoulder ready to fire.

The articulation on Iron Patriot is great. The head looks up and down and left and right. His shoulder armour is articulated so the shoulders aren't hindered at all. The shoulders have a ball joint inside and out so it's almost like a butterfly joint giving his arm a great range of motion. Elbows are double jointed and the wrists are articulated. There is an ab crunch and waist swivel.

There are articulated flaps at his hips so that his legs aren't hindered when moving. His hips have double joints, again almost like a butterfly joint so there's a great range of motion forward, back, and outwards. There's a thigh swivel, double jointed knees, articulated flaps at the front and back of the feet, ankle pivot and hinge and toe articulation.

This figure is one of the jewels in my collection, I absolutely love it. It's almost flawless as far as I can see - the only 2 things that are missing for me are: the eyes and arc reactor look as though they should light up, but I guess if they did this figure would cost even more! And secondly, I wish it came with it's own flight stand - that would make it.

If you can afford this figure, I'd say it's well worth picking up. Of course you can get about 3 Marvel Legends for the price of this one figure, but I'd recommend this over those all day - especially with the prices that some of the rarer Marvel Legends can hit.

Go Figure!

S H Figuarts Injustice: Gods Among Us Batman

Bandai Tamashii Nations have started to produce figures for the videogame Injustice: Gods Among Us through their S H Figuarts line. And when I saw just how cool these things looked, I found it very hard to turn down Batman.

Batman is one of my favourite superheroes (isn't that the same for EVERYONE?!) but I like getting him in some different costumes, and a new armoured up suit, complete with die cast pieces, had to become part of my collection.

Batman comes in a nice window display box, which shows the figure inside off nicely and displays the accessories. And Batman comes with a few.

Batman comes with several interchangeable hands (one of which kind of holds his grapple gun)

The grapple gun is surprisingly over sized. I really would have thought it would fit nicely into Batman's hands, but nope, it's sadly too big to fit well.

The grapple gun also comes with 2 attachments. A grappling hook and a grappling hook on a bendy wire

There are 2 batarangs which re nicely sculpted

Batman also has an interchangeable head. It really adds to Batman's overall look I think. It gives him this fantastic armoured up, ready to do battle look

And lastly, this isn't so much an accessory, but you also get Batman's cape which comes in 3 sections. Unfortunately the cape is a hard plastic mould which means you can't really pose it. In saying that though, it does look really nice. It's got a nice blue tinge to the blackness and the tears and tatters on the bottom are sculpted really nicely.

You can put Batman's 'middle' cape on separately but he looks much better with all 3 pieces clipped into place.

The work that's gone into this figure is just great. The details and paint work is just absolutely brilliant, and those details go right through the figure.

The gauntlets on Batman are incredibly sharp, as are the points of his ears but they look amazing!

Batman is super poseable too which should be expected from SH Figuarts. His head rotates and there's a joint at the base of his neck, his shoulders have a ball hinge joint, there's a bicep swivel, elbow joint and swivel, and his hands rotate round, up and down.

There's an ab crunch, swivel, hips swivel, double jointed knees, his ankles swivel rotate and pivot. And his cape swings out. In 3 places. Really, there's no lack of articulation in this guy!!

But for me, as much as I love the articulation, the best thing for me about Batman is the look. The gorgeous silvers, greys and blacks used on this figure look amazing, and the metallic blue on his armoured mask really pops.

There are a few die cast metal pieces on this figure too - the thigh guards and the ankle bracers. These help give the figure some nice weight and help him stand nice and steadily.

DC heroes, Marvel heroes, Star Wars and more coming your way soon! Go Figure!

SH Figuarts Super Mario and Diorama Play Sets A & B

I've mentioned before my love of Mario so I was super excited to pick up these the other day from a shop! In the UK! Seriously, this kind of stuff is not usually found in these parts! These are the three sets currently available made by S.H. Figuarts from Tamashii Nations and Bandai and I was lucky enough to pick them all up from Forbidden Planet.

Here's the really nice window box packaging it comes in, front and back

Mario looks incredible, seriously, like he's been lifted straight of Super Mario 3D World.

Mario has great articulation for a little guy. You can't really move his head but that's ok, his arms move round from the shoulders and have a great joint at the elbow and his wrists swivel. No waist rotation but his hips swivel, his knees bend really far and his ankles move his feet up and down nicely. You can get him in some classic Mario poses.

Along with Mario, you get a super mushroom

Again, this little 'shroom looks as though it's been lifted straight off of the screen. Sharp paint and sculpted little eyes and white spots.

You get a question block

Solid yellow with white sculpted on question marks, and the rivets are a light brown.

And finally you get a super shiny coin with a small stand

This coin is SO SHINY! It's very cool though, and the little clear stand is a great, much needed, addition.

The first play set we'll look at is the Diorama Play Set A, which comes with a grass green base

This has three separate peg holes but has two small plugs so you can cover a couple at once, a really neat touch

It comes with a couple of pieces needed to pose Mario with, the blue piece plugs into his back and the clear stand goes from bas to back

Three blocks, two brick blocks and a question block

These also come with a clear stand so you can get your display going

You also get a beautifully sculpted and painted goomba and another coin, this time with a taller stand

Diorama Play Set B is also full of cool extras so that you can get a great looking Super Mario display on your shelf.

The big things are the two warp pipes, one tall and one short. The tall pipe is deeper whereas the short pipe is much more shallow. The great thing here is, you can switch these out so you can move the deeper section out, putting the shallow section on the longer pipe body.

Spare hands that are easily switched out

You get a koopa shell and clear pegs that can be held in the spare hands

You get a second goomba!

And you get another coin, that has two stands - one tall and one short, bringing the coin count to three!

Putting all three sets together, you get some very cool displays

Seriously, I'm in love with these sets. They're just brilliant. If you can pick up all three, I'd highly recommend it. If however you can only afford Mario, he's well worth a buy. These guys are a little pricey, but I think it's brilliant that they were all packaged and sold separately. It keeps the cost down and means you don't need the accessory packs if you don't need them. I think I'll probably take more pictures of these sets and post them up here in the future, this guy is really good fun to play with!

I really hope SH Figuarts get to do more of these sets with other characters - Luigi, Bowser, a full koopa, Toad, a Boo with a flight stand, the options with this are almost limitless!!

Good luck hunting these down, but if all else fails, there's always online.

Go Figure!