Hot Toys MMS 121 1/6 Whiplash Review

Hi all, today i'll be posting a review of the Hottoys MMS121 Whiplash from the movie IRONMAN 2. In this review i post a few special pics that i recently made with this figure but as I just started using photoshop so please bear with my beginner skills lol.

A little back story...Ivan Vanko(played by Mickey Rourke) the son of  Anton Vanko who collaborated with Howard on the first arc reactor,was deported back to USSR following his attempts to profit from the technology and died in poverty, explaining Ivan's desire for revenge on the Stark family.

Vanko built a exoskeleton powered by the arc reactor with two electric whips as weapons.

He then attacked Tony stark at the Monaco racing circuit but was defeated by Tony's Mark V Ironman.

He was later busted out of prison by Justin Hammer who forged Vanko's death in order to recruit him to program and upgrade Hammer's war drones.

Vanko agreed as they both share the same enemy but  secretly used Hammer's lab to build his own armor suit. At the Stark Expo he double crossed Hammer and used the drones and War machine to attack Ironman. When the drones failed, he don his Iron Whiplash armor and it took both Ironman & War machine's combined effort to finally defeat Vanko. 

If you haven't watched the movie IRONMAN 2 go watch it. It's good!!

The packaging for this figure is simple but effective: a outer cover that slips on & a inner box that displays the figure and credits on the back. The inner tray also packs the figure and accessory neatly and spaciously.

Out of the box you get the Whiplash figure, 1pair of whip holding hands, 1 pair of clenched fists, 2 bendable whips, 2 electric whip effects and a figure stand with Whiplash name printed on it. And that's it.

The battery for the arc reactor is located behind his belt and we need to remove 2 mini "+"screws to install.

Now the details of this figure is awesome....yes AWESOME!

I'll start with the head sculpt:

The determined look of Vanko is captured flawlessly here. The layered hair is very nicely sculpted.I have never seen a better Mickey Rourke head sculpt anywhere else.

Coloring is also well executed here.

I hope Hottoys release a Iron Whiplash with a Mickey Rourke head with his hair tied up.(fingers crossed hee hee)

Next we have the tattoos on this figure. He has a ton of them, almost every part of his upper body has a tattoo on them.

I just took pictures with his exoskeleton on but to really see the full tats you will need to remove his harness.

The colours of the tattoos look realistic and are highly detailed.

Next the exo skeleton: The level of detail being implemented here is precise and refined.

The exo skeleton is attached onto a faux leather harness worn on whiplash,s upper torso. The design is complex and there are mini details and joints everywhere.

2 cables connects to some more gadgets on his belt.

The exo skeleton is very fragile(in my opinion) so handle with extreme care when posing the figure.

The are at least 60 to 80 moving parts ()my guess only)on just this exo skeleton itself .

The arc reactor lights up as with the 2 transparent power tubes running along the left and right sides of the spinal area. Wished hottoys made the whips light up ....oh well can't have everything in life sometimes lol. I've seen some folks online modify his whips with EL lights and they look pretty cool. But in my case i'm happy with this just as it is :).

His wears whats remains of his burnt uniform on his lower area. Two holes are burnt out around the knees area exposing the knee guards.

The colour scheme is nice and contrasts the silver coloured exo skeleton nicely.

His unlaced boots are moulded and connected to his ankles via ball joints.

Last but not the least the articulations of this figure.Does he move/pose well like the usual hottoys truetype bodies? The appropriate answer to that question is not really.

First the new HT muscular body by itself already sacrificed some POAs in exchange for realism....he spots a double joint neck,chest area joint, waist area joint,a joint at each shoulder area, one on each elbow and the usual wrist pegs which holds the hands. That sums up the POAs of the upper body.

That sounds like decent POAs on paper, but the fact is the POAs at the neck, chest, waist, shoulders are all embedded underneath a soft rubber layer that mimics the human skin, thus they all don't bend alot. Only the elbows and wrists areas bend normally.

On top of that we have the whole exo skeleton that basically hinders most of the above POAs. So i'll have to say " if you want to pose dynamic poses with this figure....do so with extreme caution " its very fragile around the exo skeleton areas.

The POAs at the lower area are basically same as a normal truetype body. My whiplash came with a quite loose knee and ankle joints and they can only support the heavy upper body with the aid of a stand(unless i pose him straight) I tried to attempt  a squatting position but was unsuccessful as the areas around the double joint knees does not bend completely. But all in all the POAs for the lower area is ok by my standards.

The Whips are made of a rubber/soft plastic material with a bendable copper lining running along with it.

The whips bend and hold poses well but it's also heavy at the same time so support may be needed for dynamic poses.

 Overall impressions: What can i say? Except for the articulations department, this is a real Master piece.

Fans of Mickey Rourke or Ironman should get this figure. Just having him in your display case will add a new dimension of "cool" to your collection lol.

With all that said here's a few photoshop pics that i experimented on the past few days...hope you folks out there enjoy it and lastly have a nice day.



Whiplash Vs T-700