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“Arriving on Earth from an unknown point of origin, the Iron Giant explores his new environment and befriends a young Hogarth Hughes.  But as aggressive actions are taken against him by the military, he must battle his violent programming to be who he chooses to be.”

Iron Giant is undoubtedly a classic, it’s success at the box office was modest at best, leaving it to become just a cult classic.  It would seem, however, that things are looking up, if the Giant’s inclusion in Ready Player One is anything to go by.  DST picked up the license to the the film (Iron Giant, not Ready Player One) last year, and put out a small handful of offerings, including one two-pack of Minimates, seen in today’s review.

Packaging

These guys use the standard non-Marvel blister packaging.  The design of this one’s not terribly exciting; just a lot of stretches of pure blue.  Surely there was some sort of cool retro ’50s styling that could have been done here.  Alas, it’s just a delivery device for the toys, so I won’t harp too much.

The Figures

Iron Giant

Obviously, it’d be weird to release this set without the title character, so here he is.  What’s still weird?  The size.  Minimates have long dealt with size restrictions, so it’s nothing new, but it’s still a little goofy to have a character with “Giant” in his name be so small, even if his ‘mate marks the fifth time such an occurrence has happened with a Minimate. Fear not, if you’re looking for a more properly scaled Giant, there are other options available in the form of DST’s own Vinimate release.

The Giant’s starting point is the basic ‘mate body, but he gets his own unique head, hands, and feet, plus an add-on for his torso and an extender at the waist for extra height.  In lieu of the usual legs, the giant actually uses a set of arms. It’s a really good idea in theory, since the Giant’s arms and legs in the film are clearly of similar sizes.  However, in practice, it just feels a bit off to me.  I think a lot of it’s got to do with the Vinimate being modeled with the standard legs, and perhaps throwing off my expectations.  Still, it’s not like the legs ruin the figure.  The new head is a very nice translation of the film’s design.  It’s missing his small dent in his forehead, but that’s minor.  There’s no doubt that’s the Giant’s head, though.  The details on the torso piece are notably sharper than you tend to see on such pieces, which was a pleasant surprise, and makes for a good looking figure.  Similarly, the hands, feet, and torso extender all fit well and do a nice job of translating the Giant into this smaller form.

The Giant’s Pain paintwork is okay.  Compared to the Vinimate, I found it a little bit lacking.  My biggest complaint is the consistency of the application.  The lighter grey is very thick and lumpy in a few spots and it makes him look a little bit unfinished.

For accessories, this guy’s only packed with a clear display stand.  Given the extensive tooling involved, though, it’s acceptable.

The Giant is okay, but sort of in a weird area of scaling and quality.  If not for the Vinimate, perhaps I’d be happier with him.

MMC Score – 6 out of 10

Hogarth Hughes

Interestingly, though he’s the focal point of the movie, Hogarth Hughes is actually quite a minor player in the original book.  For me, ol’ Hogarth here is this set’s real star.  He makes much more sense as a regularly scaled ‘mate, and even makes for a good accent to the previously mentioned Vinimate.

Like the Giant, Hogarth is built on the base body, at least in theory.  He uses the standard head, upper arms, pelvis, and upper legs, but gets the shortened forearms and shins, as well as the smaller torso piece introduced in the NBX line.  He also gets a unique hair piece, which does an awesome job of capturing Hogarth’s distinctive hair style from the film.

As far as paint goes, Hogarth’s is really clean.  The head has a really amazing rendition of his face, grinning and excited.  The body features a bunch of bold and clean color work, and he just really pops.

As with the Giant, Hogarth’s only accessory is his display stand, which is a slight letdown.  It’d have been nice to get his camera or the chunk of metal he uses to lure the Giant, but even an extra head with a different expression would have been appreciated.

Hogarth’s super awesome, though, and the set’s more than worth it just for him.  He looks fantastic with the Vinimate Giant!

MMC Score – 9 out of 10

Agree? Disagree? Why not vote for yourself below, or comment further over at the Minimate Multiverse MMC Review Forum.

As of this posting, this set is in stock at Luke’s Toy Store here.

Review and pictures by Glantern.

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