You can pick this suit up from a dealer or through ebay for around $35 - $40, not cheap by any means. But if you're looking for the ultimate Stark, this might be it...or is it?

Packaging - ***
The suit comes in a small, fairly non-descript box. It is collector friendly, in the sense that you can easily remove the suit and various parts and put them back later if you're so inclined, no harm no foul. It's also very easy to store, and the suit is kept relatively wrinkle free.

Quality - ***1/2
Each piece of the suit is made from very high quality materials, with generally top notch stitching. 

The tie and shirt are made from a very thin material, and the tie is actually tied, just like the real deal. That makes it possible to slip the knot up and down, tightening or loosening it with ease.

The buttons are in scale, as are the pockets and lapels. The shirt and pants are held closed with the very thin Velcro we've seen Hot Toys use in the past, and this works extremely well. However, the jacket uses the actual buttons to close, and this is going to be a point of failure over time. Probably over a very short time, in fact.

The tiny buttons are very difficult to get in and out of the tight button holes. They are also held in place with very thin threads, and one of mine started to come loose with just one open/close cycle. Putting them in place and removing them just two or three times is probably going to wear the threads out, and you'll be searching on the floor for some very tiny buttons. I know Hot Toys is trying to be as 'real' as possible, but in some cases, that's not the preferable or wisest route. 

What that means is you'll select one way to display this coat, and leave it that way. Odds are good that your selection will be open, since that's how Tony wore the suit in the movie.

While the shirt is held together with the Velcro, as I mentioned, there is nothing at the very top to close the collar. No snap, no Velcro. Again, going based on the way it looked in the movie, that's fine - Tony didn't have the tie all the way up during the key scene. Still, I'd like more than one option when displaying the figure, and because of the tailoring (more on that in a minute), it's not possible to use the knot of the tie to hold the collar together convincingly.

The belt is made from leather, and is as close to real as you can get. The buckle works great, and several holes are pre-punched.

The included sunglasses, like the rest of the suit, are intended to look exactly like their movie counterpart. It's always tough to pull off good looking sixth scale glasses of any kind, and hot Toys made these from extremely thin sheet metal to get the look. The are a little big on his face, but I rewatched the movie this last weekend with my son, and they are much closer to proper scale than I originally thought.

Rather than give you shoes to go over the TT feet, they give you actual shoe-feet. Pop off the regular feet and pop these on, and you get all the articulation of the TT ankle. The sculpts are good, and there is clearly a left and right.

Because there are no feet, you can't use regular socks. Instead, Hot Toys gives you two tubes of material that slip on over his ankles, to make it appear as though he is wearing socks. The do the job fine, although I doubt anyone is going to be too concerned if he has socks on or not.

While it might seem like I mentioned several quality issues, in fact these are all fairly minor. I do wish that the collar had a way to close, but other than that, there's no real issues with the actual execution of materials and workmanship here.

Tailoring - **1/2
Ah, but then there's the tailoring. How well does the suit actually fit? It might look great on the store mannequin at the Men's Warehouse, but if it doesn't look great on you, it's not a very good suit, is it?

Unless you kit bash a body from another Hot Toys figure, the only HT body available right now for you to use is the standard male version. That's what I'm using here, and unfortunately, it's not a body designed to wear something like a suit.

This is a body designed for heroic outfits, not Wall Street outfits. The shoulders are extremely wide, making it very difficult for any sort of suit coat or dress shirt really look right. As you might expect, both of these are stretched at the shoulders, and the wide appearance makes him look a bit pin headed.

The rest of the outfit is a much better fit, and the pants in particular fit great. They have a very natural hang, and just about the perfect length.

My other issue with the fit goes back to that annoying collar. It's tailored a bit too large, sticking up too high above the shoulders. Without any way to close it, you can't really force it down, either, so you're stuck with the height.

Hot Toys knows the collar sits pretty high too - it's why they gave you that extra neck post. You might be wondering why it was included, since you get an identical one with the standard TrueType body. Ah, but not quite identical...this neck is slightly longer, to help bring the head up above that big collar.

BTW, the neck ball is also slightly bigger on this post, since the post was larger on the light up neck of the Mark III.

It's true that it's not completely fair to judge the tailoring on this body, since it's not a body well designed for such a suit. It's the only TrueType body you really have right now though, unless you kit bash another figure to get a more appropriate frame.

However, later this summer we'll be treated to two new TT bodies sold individually - one with narrow shoulders, and one that's slimmer overall. I have both of these on pre-order, and when I review them, I'll included photos and a discussion about this suit, to see if there are improvements in fit.

Value - **
You might get a deal and pick this up for $35, but most places are selling it for $40 - $50, and that's some serious green for a basic outfit. This really shouldn't cost more than $25, but because of the specificity of the scene and character, it commands a higher price. 

In fact, the sixth scale suit market tends to run in the $40 range, oddly enough. There are other offerings from companies like Triad Toys and Saturday Toys, but you can expect to pay almost as much. If you're on a budget and not looking for an exact scene match, your best bet is to snag one of the less popular suited figures from one of the major companies, and use the outfit for your Stark kit bash.

Things To Watch Out For - 
Take your time bending the temples of the glasses inward. As I said, they are scored to make this simpler, but you don't want to bend them repeatedly at this point as they'll easily break.

And don't forget those coat buttons. They won't last long if you button and unbutton the jacket multiple times, so I'd pick a look and stick with it.

Overall - **1/2
Some are going to feel I'm being too harsh on this suit, and that it really deserves another half star overall. It's very true that using the standard TrueType body to judge it hurts it's overall score. It's also certainly not a cheap outfit, and with that kind of price tag I expect great things.

I do promise to revisit this suit on the new bodies, as part of their review later this year. I fully expect that it will look much better on the slim body, or at least the narrow shoulder version, and we could see a whole star improvement in this overall assessment. It will also be an opportunity to not just review the bodies in general, but to give you some idea of which of the two you should pick up to make the ultimate Tony Stark.

Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Quality - ***1/2
Tailoring - **1/2
Value - **
Overall - **1/2

Where to Buy -
None of my sponsors is carrying this, but you can find some good deals on ebay if you are patient.

Related Links -
Check out my reviews of both the Mark III and Mark II suits. These are currently my favorite figures for 2009, and it's going to be tough for anyone to unseat them!

Discussion:
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