As part of my custom Iron Man series project I did a research on the net for different versions of Iron Man and came across Amalgam's Iron Lantern 5700. After reading the informations on Iron Lantern 5700 I said to my self, "Hmmmn? I should custom a Modern Iron Lantern"! (more of proto type like). This Iron Man isn't just a statue, you can pose him in different ways, comes with cool sound and light up features.

For this custom figure I used Repulsor Iron Man Mark III 12" action figure as the base figure. The first thing that I did was crack this baby open, then carefully replaced the not so bright orange chest LED and replaced it with a green 5mm 16000MCD LED. Once the chest LED was replaced I then replaced left arm's LED. Since the right arm did not have an LED I also wired it up with an LED. Wait I'm still not done with the LED. I wired up two more LED's so that his eyes can glow. By the way just a little warning, these LED's are intensly bright so don't stare directly on any of these LED's.

With his helmet I basically took an existing Iron Man action figure that came with the detachable helmet and modified it to have a detachable mask. In order for the embede LED's inside his eyes to glow, I used a clear acrylic raw block and machined it with an aid of special program to form his head. After I used Artist acrylics to create a special flesh color blend and carefully painted his face to give it that realistic look.

Press the clear button on his chest, and he says various lines, including "I am Iron Man", "repulsor blasts", "target engaged", and "auxiliary power". This will also light up the palm of his left and right hand, depending on the line.

Moving his left arm will also activate the light on his palm, as well as firing sounds.

Finally, his left heel is actually a button. Push it inward (which is going to happen ever time you set him down), and he starts making wooshing flying sounds. Move him around while he's making these sounds, and additional take off and landing sounds will be heard. This is the motion activated part of the feature, and it works pretty well. Kids will enjoy swinging him around, although if he could actually take a decent flying pose (other than holding his hands over his head), it would be a lot better feature.

If the figure doesn't move for 15 seconds or so, the flying sounds shut off. Of course, since the darn button is his heel, the sounds will get constantly activated if you have the switch in the On position. That got pretty annoying pretty fast, and I had to leave the sounds/lights off most of the time when I was working with him.

This figure takes 3 AAA batteries, which are included and fairly easy to swap. There's a small switch on his back that can be turned ON or OFF.

Once all the parts put together I used little bit of apoxie sculpt to smooth things out and sanded all the joint out to prevent paint rubs. As usual I use Testors Model Master Acrylic paint due to it's bodys' soft plastic parts. I only use high quality paint to prevent paint fades, chipping, cracking, etc.

This is a masterpiece, a work of art that took me one month to complete! (I started the project July 31, 2008)