ULTRON was the seventh Hot Toys figure that I added to my collection. I had a goal at the time of collecting my Top-10 favorite MCU characters, which meant I was still missing The Winter Soldier, Rocket, The Black Widow, and Hela, but this figure suddenly went on sale and the price was significantly slashed, so I went ahead and asked for ULTRON, and I received ULTRON for my birthday in 2019, and he was a wonderful addition to my collection!
As a comic book fan, I like ULTRON for the simple reason that ULTRON is a robot fueled by Artificial Intelligence and I’m fascinated with those kinds of ideas. This fascination dates back to my childhood with things like Transformers and The Terminator films capturing my imagination. It is remarkable how many things actually exist today that were once relegated to science fiction, and robots are one of the biggest representations of that. The idea that mankind in our efforts to both cheat death and create life will unintentionally create the very thing that will destroy is not a new idea, but it does seem to get more relevant year-by-year, and it is this general idea that serves as the narrative for ULTRON. In the Age of Ultron film specifically, Tony Stark creates ULTRON to serve as Earth’s greatest weapon against looming threats, but when ULTRON becomes sentient, ULTRON deems The Avengers to be the greatest threat to the planet and targets them for termination.
I really love Age of Ultron as a film, and I really loved James Spader as the voice of ULTRON. A robot makes for a great antagonist against superheroes because its metal and isn’t really alive in the traditional sense and therefore can’t really be hurt or killed. I mean, how does one “turn off” a machine that is sentient and that can access the worldwide web? Defeating an entity such as this goes well beyond the act of dismantling, and makes for an extremely formidable foe, even for a Hulk!
ULTRON is a great looking figure that you really can’t fully appreciate until you get up close to it. The intricate detail throughout this Hot Toys figure is remarkable. There are so many individual mechanical parts that work together to allow ULTRON to function as effectively and as fluently as he does. ULTRON is plastic, but the silver paint used to create the figure looks metallic and is even reflective at certain points. ULTRON stands right at 18-inches when placed on his accompanying stand (a circular Avengers logo with a light-up feature), and he is 16-inches without the stand, so ULTRON does tower over most of the other Hot Toys figures that I own. ULTRON furthermore boasts several light-up features throughout his body which emit a series of red lights. The lights are most effective within ULTRON’s head as its eyes glow blue in front of the red backdrop of the lights and this causes a neat effect where it appears ULTRON’s eyes follow you when you stare at its eyes and move from left-to-right.
There are a couple of things about this figure that a lot of collectors may take issue with. For one, since he isn’t diecast, ULTRON is not the sturdiest figure. It’s difficult to get ULTRON to stand without the assistance of a stand, and this is probably due to what is a very top-heavy body sculpt. Beyond that, ULTRON is not all that articulated, which limits the types of poses one can display ULTRON in.
I got a fantastic deal on what is a very unique Hot Toys figure, and I don’t know that we are ever going to see this specific version of ULTRON in a MCU film again, though I would love if we did. That fact makes this ULTRON figure a rarity and an absolute must-own for collectors who are fans of the character and I’m really glad that I added this ULTRON figure to my collection when I did.
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