Iron Man Anniversary

I’ve been at my current place of employment for 25 years this past October. That hardly seems possible cause I feel like I lived an entire lifetime of careers before I started this one but … it’s true. I’ve only been alive about 20,000 days and have worked for the same company for 9,000 of them! The back story looks like this. In early 1994, the owner of the company where I was the acting VP of Marketing shared with me that he had “sold the company”. I was asked to stay on as they transferred ownership over the next 6 months or so. I did that and at the same time got my name in the hands of an executive placement agency. They called to share an opportunity with a small company that I eventually accepted a position with. That “small company” grew to become a top 20 privately held company in the US. None of us saw that coming. I have certainly been blessed to have the job I’ve have for all these years and even more blessed to have it with a wonderful company. I’ve had the opportunity to run Stores, Organizational Change Management, Marketing, Fuel Analytics, CRM/Loyalty and several others. It’s been challenging for sure, but in the words of an oft-used quote – it’s also “been a great ride.” The actual day of the anniversary was very nice. My lovely wife enjoys celebrating moments both large and small and she surprised me at the office with some balloons and a beautiful plaque. Blessed indeed

What the heck does my job have to do with Pinball you say? Well in this case nothing – except the fact that one of the games I own is ” Iron Man” and I love to collect all things related to the games I own. So when I received a gift card from my company in return for my 25 years of service, I bought an Iron Man statue with the money. Of course I did. Who wouldn’t?

The whole interest in 1:1 statues began before I finished the new Pinball Loft. Late last winter, Tami and I were just getting ready for bed and were using our tablets to look for lighting fixtures for the new house when I happened to see a picture of a full scale 1:1 Spider-man. I quickly got lost in the hunt for more info (squirrel!) as she continued to search for fixtures. I found the Spider-man on Ebay at prices around $5,000+. It sure looked cool. Spider-man was sitting on a lamp post – the top of his head was over 8 feet in the air! He was colorful, detailed and realistic looking too. Through research I soon discovered the item to be made by Rubies Costume company and that it was an official Marvel licensed product. I thought I’d check to see if Amazon offered the same item or any other (less expensive) versions. The first hit on Amazon was the exact item BUT … it was 1/3rd the price of any of the items on Ebay. I whispered over to Tami, showed her the picture (to which she said “cool!”) and then asked if she thought it would be a good idea to get one for the new Loft – she said yes! I ordered the Spider-man and he showed up just a few days later in perfect condition!

Fast forward to September of this year and the Pinball Loft is complete. Our new house is finished and we are officially all moved in. Spider-man looks fantastic up there and is one of the things that “wows” people when they walk in (still wows me too!). So my work anniversary rolls around, I am given a one-time gift for my service and it’s all mine – what to do? The answer is start searching for a partner for Spider-man. I began with the games I own. Simple internet searches quickly ruled out games where no manufacturer had yet built a 1:1 scale of the associated super hero, talent or personality. There were no 1:1 scale Stay-Puft Marshmallow men from Ghostbusters. There were no 1:1 scale X-men (that I cared about). There were no 1:1 scale KISS figures (that I could afford!). The one that DID come up again and again was Iron Man. Over the years there have been several versions of a 1:1 scale Iron Man. Over course there are also MANY versions of Iron Man as well. When I narrowed my search into a certain price band, the name that came up (again) was Rubies. Seems they had just released a version of Iron Man themselves. Licensed through Marvel and manufactured the exact same way my Spider-man was made. Very cool. Now I just had to find the best price.

The price search took about 2 weeks on and off. There were quite a few places that had the item for sale. Ebay, Amazon and a few independent retailers as well. There was also an online costume company – and they had the best price. I waited a few days and they had a site-wide sale of 15% off and using that coupon code I purchased Iron Man that day.
I received an order confirmation and quickly thereafter a shipping tracking number. Things seemed to be going real well – or so I thought. I watched as the shipment moved from “tracking info received” to “order picked up” and was pleased to see it headed my way. I was then shocked when just a few days later my shipping notice was marked “Arrived”. Not seeing the huge box on my porch I began the usual rounds of the ranch looking for where else the FedEx driver might have dropped it off. Pole Barn – nope. Other house – nope. Down by the gate – nope. Behind the house – nope. OK, so clearly it did not “Arrive” – then where was it? I checked the shipping tracker again and read the destination. Bummer. Iron Man was shown to be delivered right BACK to the original shipping address. He had gone in a circle from the warehouse he left right back there again.

I started to worry, so I researched a little more on this company and found a (admittedly old) website of reviews that were not glowing. In fact, one of them was from a disgruntled customer that had the exact same thing happen to them. Item showed shipped and then received right back to the place of origin. I called the company the next day and explained what I saw on my end and why I was worried. They could not have been nicer. They asked me what I wanted them to do to fix it. Did I need another shipped expedited? I was blown away. I simply asked that they ship it to me (not themselves) and that I was not in a particular hurry. They said they would and within a few minutes I received an email confirming it.

This time, Iron Man made it! Within just a few days I got a call from a FedEx driver asking for our gate code and stating that he had a huge box strapped to a pallet for delivery. I gave him the code and asked him to place in under cover on our porch as it was going to rain later that day. He promised to be extra careful because (as he said) “I don’t want to break Iron Man!” I didn’t think to ask him how he knew what was inside but when I got home I found the box marked on the outside with a checklist for all the Iron Man parts- turns out our FedEx driver does not have ESP after all.

One thing I noticed right away was the large sheet of paper on the outside of the box marked “Feiermeier, Nürnberg/Bavaria”. That’s odd. I live in Tennessee, not Germany. How did that get there? It’s also marked with a Order number and PO number that has nothing to do with my order. I did a little research and it seems that Feiermeier is a costume/party store in Germany. Looks like a large operation too. I can only guess that at one time the Feiermeier folks wrote an order for a bunch of these and they were either refused or returned. Just a guess but this giant box originally shipped from the Rubies Phoenix AZ location to Germany, then made it back to a warehouse in Cudahy, Wisconsin and eventually ended up on my front porch. I’m just glad he’s arrived and think it’s pretty cool he’s traveled the world to get here.

A full day went by (a rainy one) before I could start the process of un-boxing. I got home at a decent hour the following night and planned to get him un-boxed and set up. I quickly changed my clothes and grabbed a box cutter. It’s always a little nerve wracking deciding how and where to cut the box without accidentally slicing into the item inside. First I cut the single plastic strap that was holding the box to the pallet. Then I made a cut near the edge, peered inside and saw it was safe to cut the entire length. With the box now open, I could quickly assess the other cuts I needed to make to get the exterior opened up. In no time at all I was staring at a headless/body less Iron Man completely wrapped in bubble wrap, with a large cardboard box propped on top of his legs. The cardboard box was sitting on a scrap of blow molded black foam that was used specifically as a “table” to give a spot for the box to rest upon during shipping. Tucked in between his legs where what appeared to be his arms.

A few minutes later, I was able to get the box off of his legs and remove both the cardboard surrounding him and the pallet under him. I could now grab his legs and easily lift/carry the base portion of the statue up into the game room. I grabbed his leg assembly and lifted it by locking hands just under his crotch – wincing a little (for him) in the process. Tami grabbed the door and I was on my way to the Loft.

I got the legs section carried up to the second floor of the Pinball Loft without incident. There I began the tedious process of removing the protective plastic. It was in 2 layers. The first was a heavy plastic that was both wrapped tightly around each piece and was taped in place. The outer wrapping was all bubble wrap. It too was tightly wrapped and taped. The process for getting the 2 layers off was straightforward but slow going. Find the tape area, poke it with my knife to cause it to split, tear that section of plastic to allow it to loosen and gain distance from the Iron Man piece, then slice the plastic lengthwise. Rinse and repeat about a hundred times. The only time the work slowed was when I was cutting directly around the poor guys crotch. Something about a razor sharp knife in that area just gave me the willies and I was a degree more careful as I cut the wrapping free!

The cardboard box I found stacked on his legs when I originally opened the shipping box contained both his torso and his head. They too were wrapped in the same fashion as the legs were. At the base of the legs I found a very small box that had 2 long hex head bolts in it and the Marvel authorized certificate of authenticity (translation = piece of cardboard) taped to the outside. I set aside the bolts for later and put the certificate in a drawer.

With the legs and torso free of their plastic wrapping, I could begin assembly of the statue. The torso, arms and head all have a plastic PVC pipe (painted black) molded into each end. These rigid pipes mate with a similar diameter hole drilled into the foam on the statue itself. There is a hole right in the middle of the legs assembly in order to seat and mate the torso – that was step one and it went off without a hitch.

With the torso in place, I next proceeded to unwrap each arm. The arms each have the same PVC pipe and these mate into drilled holes in the top area of the torso. The difference here is that the pipes are also drilled crossways to accept that hex head bolt once pushed into the the torso. The bolts are slid in vertically and downward from the open neck area. Once the bolts are in position, the arms can not be pulled off of the torso without first removing them. When the head is added as a final step, the bolts are hidden from view

There are only a couple of online reviews that discuss the Iron Man Rubies statue. Every retailer offering it for sale shows that one of the features of the item is that it “lights up”. I was excited to see that in action but none of the reviews provide any details on how it worked. I did know that it was a battery operated function. I wasn’t too excited to hear that because my Spider-man (from Rubies as well) is lit via an AC “wall wart” – it’s super convenient and batteries are not. I quickly discovered the only real downside to this beautiful sculpt – it takes batteries, it takes batteries in 3 places, it takes batteries in 3 places that are hard to get to (insert sad face here). To be honest, it’s not a deal breaker just a disappointment. I will probably replace the battery supply with an AC/DC wall wart in the future. It looks like each battery compartment takes 2 pieces each of a 3 volt lithium coin cell battery. I can find a million 6 volt power supplies online so getting a power supply is easy. I would then need to run supply wiring to each of the battery boxes (there are 3 total) and tap into the wiring. The supply wires to each battery box are easily accessible so this is not an insurmountable task. It is, however, one I’ll need to be careful with because the LEDs in the statue are not replaceable.

In just a few hours or so I had the entire statue put together. I slid it into position right next to Spider-man. It fit – barely. This is a large item – not nearly as tall as Spider-man but due to the pose, much wider. After positioning him, I replaced my stanchions and red crowd control strap to keep little kids and clumsy adults away.

It should be noted that these Rubies items are not indestructible. I would not call them fragile but they are pretty close to that designation. The layer of plastic over the foam is relatively thin and it can crack. I also know that if someone was to run into the arms on these that they would likely split, crack of break off the PVC mounts. It’s just not worth it having them exposed to handling by folks that would not know the level of delicacy inherent to the design. Best to warn everyone before they enter the Loft. My standard goes like this “No kids upstairs without an adult, no kids under 12 without constant supervision and no one, EVER touches Spider-man or Iron Man. The Pinball games are a completely different story – anyone (and I mean anyone) of any age can play ANY game they like. Just keep the drinks in the drink holders and play away! I even have a few stools available for the youngsters to use to reach the flippers.

As is customary here on the ranch, when finished un-boxing something this large … it’s off to the burning barrel! This time there was no way all of the cardboard would fit so I leaned it against the barrel and with a flick of the thumb had flames leaping 20′ high into the air. In just minutes only ash remained

So what do I think about it now that it’s here? For the price I love it! I love the battle damage paint job that makes him look like he just fought the Iron Monger. I like the detail of the sculpt. It’s a level of detail that makes him appear real – not a cartoon version of IM but a movie version. He looks perfectly “balanced” with his hand outstretched. It’s not as easy as you might think to get a sculpt to look that natural but this one does. The base of faux rocks he is standing on is just enough to give him some context in the room. The sculpt detail is also a full 360 so if he was in the middle of a room, he would be just as convincing and nice to look at from any direction. 

What would I change? Just a few things and one of them you already know. The lighting needs to be AC supplied. Batteries never really work for permanent display items and this is the epitome of “permanently on display”. I would also brighten up the red and the gold color that was chosen for his paint job. It’s a little dull. It’s probably screen accurate but IM is supposed to be a “wow” figure – make him pop with color.

That’s it! I’d buy him again given another chance to decide. If you had told me in 1994 that I would still be working for the same company, I would have trouble believing you. If you followed that up with the words – and you’ll use the anniversary check from that same company to buy a full scale Iron Man statue – I would have called you crazy. Yet it happened that way. In the end, I think he is a great conversation piece for Pinball Loft newcomers and for any fan of the Marvel franchise. I’m glad he’s here.