Need some advice on buying an Iron Man suit

Hello,


I am thinking of getting an Iron Man suit. It's to wear sometimes to cons (not that often) and for the rest to display.
I have looked around on the internet, including this forum and currently am looking at this suit:
https://joetoyss.com/products/cosplay-iron-man-mk43-avengers-full-body-armors-1-1


I was wondering if anyone has this one or has bought from the same vendor and what you think about this suit/vendor.
I am a bit on a budget, and this is the cheapest I could find. But I do want to buy a quality product so any suggestions are welcome.


Thanks a lot in advance!

I know someone who have bought from them .Watch his video. https://youtu.be/fqjH7sh26P0 on unboxing review joetoys iron man MK43 custom armor. He did some research before purchasing as well. It turns out this vendor is a good choice ,at least their suits are worth of their prices. Hope this is helpful.

Thanks, it does help. But do you know what he thought of it after the unboxing? In the video it was only half the suit. Curious what he thought of the rest. Thanks!

There is no way I would pay that sort of money for a EVA foam suit.
I just don't think it would be durable enough.

seems like a lot of money for a foam suit. That kinda money would buy you an unpainted (but better quality and stronger) fibreglass suit which would last much longer

He will do a full video about this suit . Looking forward to watching that.
There are different kind of EVA foams . From the video you can see that they used thick EVA and add wires inside ,which make it durable for both wear and display .
Fiberglass is certainly more durable than foam, but with much more higher price. They can make it in fiberglass as well.

Yeah, that's a lot of money for a foam suit. Fullbodyarmors has been doing a pretty good job with their plastic armors. Either that or look up a few of the cast resin/fiberglass options in the project runs. I have three foam suits and I would never pay that much for foam.

Thanks all for the replies! @feather890704, thanks, looking forward to seeing that!

@mracole & Psicorp7: If you say it's a lot of money for a foam suit, do you know of any cheaper foam options? or a fiberglass/plastic option that's a bit cheaper than fullbodyarmors? have looked around but couldn't find any

FYI, i was also looking at this site: https://the-armorfactory.com/products/iron-man-mk-42-armor but with initial & full payment it's 2000$ and it's also foam

Darthy1980 said:

@mracole & @Psicorp7: If you say it's a lot of money for a foam suit, do you know of any cheaper foam options? or a fiberglass/plastic option that's a bit cheaper than fullbodyarmors? have looked around but couldn't find any

FYI, i was also looking at this site: https://the-armorfactory.com/products/iron-man-mk-42-armor but with initial & full payment it's 2000$ and it's also foam

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Message IM Nation in this thread in the project runs for a custom foam suit.

https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=178366&page=30&highlight=iron+man+armor

I say that it is over priced in that the foam will break down over time and your $1,200 will be down the toilet if you plan on wearing it very often. Standing on a dummy it will last quite a while but will still become brittle with age. So spending $2000-3000 on a plastic/resin suit is more money but there is a greater value in what you have bought. You can wear it, put it on a dummy and then wear it again over and over with much less wear and tear and your investment will lose less value over a much longer period of time. I would never pay more than $1,000 for even the best foam suit. Foam suits also have almost no resale value after you have worn them and creased the paint and bumped them around. The higher end resin and fiberglass suits will usually bring almost their full value on resale.

Hi,
I have a MK11 suit that is 80 % fiberglass and 20% ABS plastic with leds in eyes,arc reactor and palm repulsors,happy to send pics,best fits between 5ft11" and 6ft2".

- - - Updated - - -

sorry MK111 suit

Psicorp7 Thanks for the reply, I hadn't taken into account that foam doesn't have a long life. I guess I'll take another look at buyfullbodyarmors.com and weigh my options, a bit over what I was hoping to spend but I understand your point. Did you get one of yours at fullbodyarmors? @HELLsbellboys: looks great, where did you get it if I may ask?

I made it myself except the helmet which is a converted Avengers marvel helmet,thanks and good luck with your hunt.
Bruce

Suggest you check out Joyce's stuff at www.superqueen.cc. A bit more than the foam suit you're looking at but a huge step up in quality. I think her Iron man Mk46 comes in under $2,000.

There's sort of a saga for buyfullbodyarmor.com here on therpf:

https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=218403&page=1

Keep in mind the dates.

It's proving very difficult to find a vendor where there are not a bunch of negative views on.


Regarding IM Nation, I messages him and he offered to make a foam suit for 2300$, so that is more expensive than the foam suit i was looking at with almost a factor of 2 (although I'm sure it will be nicer). But then again the discussion on foam vs other materials plays up. And pay 2300$ for a foam suit ...


About fullbodyarmors I see a lot of negative comments (and some positive ones, but mostly negative) but they work with plastic I believe and not foam, so that is a plus.

I also looked at superqueen, and sent a message, but looks like those suits are also made of foam (no word yet back on pricing though)


I'm a bit lost to be honest

Mine is only $2,200 and will last a bloody long time can do the MK11 also

Darthy1980 said:

About fullbodyarmors I see a lot of negative comments (and some positive ones, but mostly negative) but they work with plastic I believe and not foam, so that is a plus.

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I'll go through my thought process I went through and why I ultimately decided to buy a buyfullbodyarmors(BFBA) suite.

A little over a year ago I decided I wanted to have an Iron Man suite. I had a 3d printer and the sky was the limit, so started searching for free files online. I came across some, and started printed. The ultimate quality of what I could make vs what I wanted just wasn't there, so I gave up. About 3 months ago I started my search again, and came across BFBA. I googled reviews and came across SuperDave's videos from 2015. I wasn't impressed and looked elsewhere. After another month of research/time I came to the conclusion that I wanted something that I didn't want to worry about lasting. I'm not the skinniest of fellas, though not heavy either (Think stocky), and I feared foam armor would just accentuate that, so I didn't want to go the route of foam. Through Wannabe's thread on here, I wound up buying some 3d .stl files and started printing. I loved the quality of the files, but the time it took for me (with little to no skill) was more than my wife would put up with. I also realized that even just the arm was heavy, I couldn't imagine how much a full suite was going to weigh. I also saw reviews about the amazing work Masked Rider was doing on his mark 42/43 run here on therpf.

I wound up in a discussion with an owner of one of Masked Rider's earlier suites who told me how amazing they are, but they are also fiberglass and heavy. He was only able to wear his suit for a couple hours before needing a break. Humm... I want to be a walking badass all day, not just 1 hour.

So, here's what I did, with the knowledge I had at the time:



Ultimately I decided I wanted a Masked Rider suite. I know, I know, not the highest score but the Quality of it outweighed everything else. Unfortunately he has limited spots on his run which has been going on for almost 2 years now. I sent a message and posted on the thread, and didn't get anything response. So I settled on the Armor Features being my next priority and went with BFBA, and put in the down payment ~ 2 weeks ago. They were running a deal with free shipping through the end of October(~$300 in savings) plus a kind soul here PMed me a discount code (3%) so that pushed me over the edge. The DAY after I put in my down payment I got a message from Masked Rider saying we could work something out. <sigh>.

Anyway, there's the saga of my purchasing BFBA... Over 1 year in the making.

Advice given to me: One thing I can say for sure is that any suit you get will need modding. Some quite extensively.

Your suit will require maintenance and TLC. In the end, YOU need to be happy with what YOU'VE purchased. As long as you're happy, who cares what anyone else thinks!

Edit:
(I had attached a pic of my 3D printed arm and decided not to post it, now I can't figure out how to remove the attached thumbnail oh well... )

hellsbellsboys: do you have any additional pictures, especially when it's being worn?

Bogie: thank you for sharing that, seems I'm not alone in not sure what I wanted to do When do you think you'll have the suit? Would be interested in your feedback. Most feedback I found about BFBA seems to be over a year old, and their site mentions they've changed some approaches so would be very interesting for me to get a view on a recent suit (I'm not in a rush).

Darthy1980 said:

@Bogie: thank you for sharing that, seems I'm not alone in not sure what I wanted to do When do you think you'll have the suit? Would be interested in your feedback. Most feedback I found about BFBA seems to be over a year old, and their site mentions they've changed some approaches so would be very interesting for me to get a view on a recent suit (I'm not in a rush).

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I was told if things progress as they have, the suit should be done by November 27. Then assume a few weeks for shipping. I’m guessing somewhere around mid to late December. I plan to provide my feedback to the thread discussing BFBA to update that thread with newer information.

That will be great, just to make sure you mean this one ? https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=218403&page=17
I'll keep an eye on that one then