The armor that started it all. Iron Man Mark I. This particular Hot Toy is the second release of this armor. Most notably it has an improved head sculpt. Standing at just over 12 inches, this bad boy makes a statement on your shelf. Over the past few years I have collected quite a few Hot Toys. The first I had ever seen was the original version of this figure, and I had always regreted not picking him up. Lucky for me, Hot Toys did this new release.

First and foremost, the details on the Mark I are incredible. Underneath it all is Tony with denim pants and his leather welding jacket. Tony’s new head sculpt is the best I have seen thus far. Shielding him from the bad guys using Stark weapons is a layer of very detailed metal (plastic) plates. Plenty of tiny little details, springs and wires. Lots of extras for interaction. The Mark I’s chest and a red LED on his forearm light up. Hidden missles and a brand new base.

All in all this is an amazing figure. Definitely in my top three. 10 outta 10 and all that jazz. If you are looking for a way to show your love to Iron Man. I recommend you pick this one up. They are a little hard to find, I recommend trying out the Secret Compass before they sell out.

How about a little more inspiration to buy one:

No offense to Jon Favreau, I think he’s great, but this looks as though it’ll be the best Iron Man film yet. The stakes don’t look like they’ve ever been higher for Tony, which is exactly the right way to follow up the spectacle of The Avengers. Bring him to his lowest point and show how he does.

This film hits in April and it’s already too far away.

Facebook fans of the Iron Man fan page got an exclusive look at the Teaser Trailer this morning, but now you can watch it too!

We don’t see a whole lot in this teaser, but we now know that the world premier of the full length trailer hits this Tuesday, October 23rd. I will be anxiously awaiting its arrival, as the Iron Man movies have been my favorite of the Marvel features (with the exception of The Avengers…that’s probably in my top 5 favorite movies of all time at this point).

What do you think we’ll see in the upcoming film? Shout out in the comments below!

Before I go, here’s a larger (clickable) version of the awesome set photo shown at left.

This was unveiled earlier today at NYCC. It looks like Marvel is trying again to catch up to DC with their animation department.

And maybe The Clone Wars has spoiled me from digital animation.

Here’s the official synopsis:

This is the ultimate Marvel Animation Studios Super Hero team-up starring iconic Marvel characters, Iron Man and Hulk. Audiences will enjoy an adrenaline rush as they see their favorite Super Heroes as never before in this all-new groundbreaking Marvel CG-animation movie experience available only on Blu-ray™, DVD and Digital platforms. Marvel’s Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United is an incredible pairing of Hulk’s brute strength and Iron Man’s high-tech intellect. Presented in the mighty Marvel manner, their combined force is unstoppable in this feature-length original animated adventure.

Comic Book Movie is reporting that during a Walt Disney investors conference call it was announced that Joss Whedon would be returning to write and direct “The Avengers 2.” The chairman and chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger, also said that Whedon is involved in a live action TV show that will be on ABC set in the Marvel movie universe!

It seems as though we are building towards Thanos in the Avengers 2, here is the mid credits sequence from the Avengers that gave us our first look at the big purple baddie!

For those of you that were unable to attend Comic-Con this past week. Or for those of you that did and weren’t able to get into Hall H. Here is the official video of RDJ making his oh so awesome entrance to Hall H at Comic-Con this past Saturday. I’m starting to think that Tony Stark the character and Robert Downey Jr the man are both one and the same!

The Marvel Studios panel opened with a video showing their presence at San Diego from 2007 until now. It ended saying that phase one is over and phase two begins NOW!

Kevin Feige came out and announced the following movies and release dates:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier 4/4/14 Guardians of the Galaxy 8/1/14

The Guardians of the Galaxy team will consist of Star Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Rocket Racoon and Groot

We were then introduced to Edgar Wright who says he “Always thought that a great film was to be made of Ant-Man.” He then showed us the very bad ass rumored test footage that he filmed.The scene starts with a tiny Ant-Man in an air duct looking at two guards guarding an elevator. He starts running down the hallway and grows to normal size until the guards pull their guns. He then shrinks back down and we see him on the barrel of one of the guards pistols running down it. Punches the guard in the face with a nice ripple effect and proceeds to jump over the other guard grabbing his tie. He flips the guard backwards through a glass window and proceeds to get on the elevator while “It’s a Small World” plays as the elevator music. This test footage was pretty amazing! Wright told us that “Ant-Man will kick your ass, one inch at a time!” and proceeded to leave.

The Iron Man 3 portion of the panel then started. Kevin Feige was inturrupted by music as Robert Downey Jr ran from the back of the hall down to the stage decked out in a Tony Stark suit and Iron Man Glove.

He then asked three questions. “How much do I love you? How much do you love me? Then why aren’t we watching any footage yet?” After which we were treated to the first footage of Iron Man 3.

The trailer starts with Tony Stark talking to his hall of armor about introducing their new baby brother. He holds out his hand and the armor which is in pieces starts flying to him attaching itself. I believe this is our version of Extremis.The pieces of armor start knocking him around all over the place. After the armor completes itself we cut to a scene with a returning Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan. He goes on about about how he quit because people knew him as being the bodyguard for Iron Man and goes on about his new “super friends.” We see Don Cheadle and Gwyneth Paltrow returning. The Stark estate then gets bombed and falls into the ocean. The trailer ends as we see the 10 Rings of power and our first shot of Ben Kingsly as the Manderin saying “As you cry out for mercy, you will be silenced.”

RDJ then introduced Shane Black, Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau to the panel. “This guy IS the Manderin,” Shane Black said of Ben Kingsly.

Marvel surely brought their A game this year as far as bombshells dropped! I can’t wait for phase two of the Marvel Studios projects to commence!

Day 2 of Comic-Con started off with 3 big panels in Hall H. First up was Big Bang Theory. They started us off with a gag reel. There was the customary Q and A in which we really learned nothing, but fans got to have fun and talk to their favorite celebrities. Later on in the panel they brought an astronaut out to offer actor Simon Helberg, who plays Howard on the show, a trip to outer space. He declined, so they offered it to one of the many people who asked questions in the Q and A. A young lady won it and will now get to fly into space. All in all there wasn’t much learned, but we got a few laughs.

The second panel of the day is the one I looked forward to the most, AMC’s The Walking Dead. Which kicked off with a kick ass trailer for the upcoming third season where we got to see plenty of Michonne, The Governor, the prison, and a returning Michael Rooker as everyone’s favorite racist redneck Merle Dixon! The trailer gave me the chills and I may have wet myself a little bit! The Nerdist, Chris Hardwick, was the moderator for the panel which included Robert Kirkman, Andrew Lincoln, Sarah Callis, Laurie Holden, David Morrisey, Norman Reedus and others.  We then got the same Q and A treatment in which we learn nothing about the upcoming season that we didn’t already know, but got to know the actor’s favorite moments and opinions about their characters. However we did learn that the show’s third season will start on October 14^th, 2012.

-uFA

Lastly for me in Hall H was the Game of Thrones panel. The author of the novels, George R.R. Martin, was the moderator. On the panel were the actors who play  Danyrus, Rob Stark, Catlin Stark, Ygritte, and Theon. I’m not bad mouthing his work, however George Martin seemed to be a very awkward moderator and to me came across as a dirty old man. We got the usual fandom in the Q and A. A recap video of season 2, and a video introducing us to the new members of the cast including the bombshell that Diana Rigg will be playing the Queen of Thorns. To close out the panel we got a date for the series return next year, March 31^st 2013.

The Walking Dead seemed to be the best panel of the day because the rest didn’t really give us much in terms of info or footage for the upcoming season. All in all not much was learned, but I didn’t seem to mind. The pure geekdom and energy from the thousands of people there was amazing.

I then closed out my day by returning to the floor and demoing Marvel Heroes. Marvel Heroes will be a new free to play game that is in the style of Diablo. It will be online, and you’ll get to play with other people. The characters available to me in the Demo were Wolverine, The Hulk, Scarlett Witch, and Iron Man. It seemed like a perfect blend of Diablo and Ultimate Alliance. In the demo level Professor X tasked me with fighting the Purifiers and Sentinels to get to William Styker before Magneto. Well in true comic book fashion of course the villain got there first and I ended up having to save Styker from Magneto in a cool boss fight. There will be a beta soon, and I will report back with more about the game then.

Disney CEO Bob Iger has announced that Avengers 2 is now officially a “go.” With opening weekend sales well above $200 million (and that’s only in the US!) we were pretty sure this announcement was on its way.

With the current lineup set for Iron Man 3, Captain America 2, and Thor 2 – most guesses put the tentative release of Avengers 2 for sometime in 2015.

If you still haven’t seen The Avengers (are you CRAZY?) then I really, honestly am telling you that you should get out there and see what is sure to be the most awesome movie of the year. It climbed my top movies list all the way to the top 5 along with Empire Strikes Back, Last Crusade, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I spent most of the film laughing, cheering and clapping along with everyone  around me in a completely packed Los Angeles theater. The whole night was one of the best real movie-going experiences I’ve had in a long time – one where I spent every second absolutely engrossed in the film. I was actually relatively shocked after it had ended that it had really been almost two and a half hours long. Usually, I’m not a huge fan of long movies, but I didn’t want The Avengers to end.

Also, since not many people have commented on this yet, I wanted to say that I was pretty happy with Colbie Smulder’s performance as Shield Agent Maria Hill. If you haven’t seen this awesome photo circulating around the internet yet please allow me to share its awesomeness with you:

Have I really not convinced you to go see The Avengers yet? Watch this and re-consider:

Now available on DVD is the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Marvel Animation Iron Man Anime. This series originally aired on G4, but it is now available to own with bonus materials.  We recently held a contest to give away two copies of Iron Man as well as the X-Men Anime, and the winners Richard and Andrew have been notified.  Thanks to everyone who entered!

I actually don’t watch a lot of anime unless you count Sailor Moon, but I do love animation, period.  And the Iron Man series is very well done, in my opinion.  Tony Stark is wonderfully portrayed as a confident and wealthy American in Japan who also happens to be a superhero.  There is an ease and grace in the way that he moves that I find a bit more elegant than the portrayal by Robert Downey Jr. in the live-action feature films, but both are equally intriguing.

I also liked the use of occasional soft lighting in scenes.  I think it’s most often used when hinting at a romantic interest, but it was really done beautifully, and I have never really seen an animated comic adaptation just look so pretty.

If you choose to listen to the English dub, Adrian Pasdar (Heroes, The Lying Game) is Stark and Iron Man.  However, when given an option, I always prefer the original language and therefore read the subtitles and try to listen out for the little Japanese I know.  It’s easy to switch between the two, though, and I think both voice casts are great.

The plot centers on Stark as he arrives in Japan to build the Arc Reactor, which is a power plant that will provide free energy to the world.  He also plans to retire the Iron Man persona, but his plan is thwarted by the Zodiac group.  He must battle cultural differences, Mech monsters, and handle the press.  The latter isn’t too much of an issue, though, since sparks (forgive the pun) fly between him and a local newspaper reporter.

There are 12 episodes and the bonus features are:

·      Re-Imagining Iron Man explores the plot and themes of the anime series.

·      21^st Century Hero: The Technology of Iron Man introduces fans to Tony Stark’s high-tech suits and gadgets.

·      Special Cross Talk round table discussion with the creators of the Iron Man and Wolverine anime series.

·      Voicing Tony Stark, an interview with Japanese actor, Keiji Fujiwara.

I really enjoyed this series and would recommend it.