THE TWELVE AGES OF ULTRON - THE ELEVENTH AGE
TONY STARK'S BIG GIANT HEAD
THE ELEVENTH AGE
In the eleventh Age Of UItron
Joss Whedon gave to me
Eleven wipers wiping
Ten broads a leaping
Nine blasters blasting
Eight ladies chilling
Seven spiders spinning
Six gaussed a-laying
Five Mandarins
Four brawling nerds
Three drenched men
Two mortal foes
And a Rocket in a Groot tree
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Okay, if Tony Stark had his way it would be the female Avengers polishing his helmet, and there would bikinis and buckets of suds.
But he'd just seen the ten broads a leaping and decided that maybe now wasn't a good time to bother the ladies!
Anyway, the rest of the Avengers assembled to help Iron Man come clean again after a dust up.
I shot this one at night, using a couple of battery powered butterfly lights and a small LED torch. I hung the lights and camera off the vacuum cleaner wand, which happened to be handy, suspended between a couple of chairs. The mighty world of marble table top is the surface we usually keep our potted cacti on.
The Players (Left to Right):
THE THING - (Ben Grimm) An 18 cm (7 inch) Toy Biz tie-in figure from the 2005 Fantastic Four movie. So, yeah, you can see the likeness to Mike Chiklis, who I thought did an excellent job portraying Ben Grimm on screen. It's got 18 articulation points and has sound effects that sound like stompin' and/or clobberin'. Like Sue Storm and Reed Richards (used in previous Age Of Ultron photos), The Thing is better known for being part of the Fantastic Four than as an Avenger, but he has, when called upon, assembled with the best of them.
SPIDER-MAN - (Tsum Tsum) This is one of the new 'stackable' collectible toys which are basically a small cylinder with licensed character faces on the ends. The name comes from the Japanese verb tsumu meaning "to stack". Which they do. Don't ask me why; totally clueless! But it makes a very useful sponge for the Ever-Lovin' Blue Eyed Thing to polish with. This one was brought back for me from Japan by Zero-G co-host Megan and it was inside a pack of lollies.
WONDER MAN - (Simon Williams) A 16 cm (6 inch) 2006 Toy Biz figure from the Legendary Riders Series 11. It's got 26 points of articulation and represents the Avengers "Hollywood Hero", who first appeared in Avengers comics as early as 1964 and later went on to become a West Coast actor and invulnerable stuntman. Nathan Fillion has appeared in Guardians Of The Galaxy II in mock cinema lobby movie posters, where he's posed as Simon Williams playing assorted roles.
ANT-MAN - (Hank Pym) One of the founding Avengers, this tiny figure came with the Marvel Select Black Widow figure I used in the previous Tenth Age Of Ultron. Pretty handy for tight spot cleaning! Besides, Hank can never apologise enough for creating comic-book Ultron in the first place, though not the movie one, which is all down to Tony Stark and Bruce Banner.
WAR MACHINE - (James Rhodes) Tony Stark's best buddy, since the 1960s, well, up until Thanos killed him in the comics in 2016. This figure is one of the magnificent Revoltech ones. I thought it would be neat if his gatling gun was equipped with a buffing pad...
This is the Sci-Fi Kaiyodo Revoltech 16 cm (6 inch) Iron Man II Movie War Machine #31. It's the Mk II suit James Rhodes borrowed from Tony Stark, tricked up by the U.S Air Force, with additional hardware by Justin Hammer. The figure is one of the particularly cool Revoltech range, with their highly flexible ball and socket joint system. It has 18 points of articulation, an evocative matte gun metal finish, and like all the Rev's is just a beaut bit of kit.
IRON FIST - (Danny Rand) "Wax on, wax off!" Iron Fist came straight out of the 1970s Western fascination with Eastern Martial arts, reinterpreted in Marvel superhero terms. Iron Fist gets his own Netflix series in 2017. He pals around a lot in the comics with Luke Cage and Misty Knight, who are already in Netflix series, so he should fit right into the streaming television 'verse in both his own show and The Defenders team-up with Daredevil and Jessica Jones. This figure can easily be modified to accept a transparent articulated arm 'flight stand', say, from one of the Iron Man figure range, so that Danny can be more authentically posed executing one of his spectacular spin or leaping kicks.
This is the Hasbro 16 cm (6 inch) 2015 Marvel Legends Avengers Allfather Odin Build-A-Figure Iron Fist figure, with 24 articulation points. Did I mention that you can complete the Allfather figure as a variant King Thor Odinson? Pretty clever!
CAPTAIN AMERICA - (Sam Wilson) Probably not Sam's finest hour! This is the 16 cm (6 inch) Hasbro Marvel Legends Cap from the 2016 Toys R' Us Exclusive triple figure pack that also feature Vision and Kate Bishop. It's a very solid sculpt of Sam Wilson in his own variation of Captain America's iconic uniform and of course, comes with the traditional shield. It does, however, not include a set of wings, which is a shame, and I can see myself having to scratch build a pair, and maybe a Redwing falcon as well, perhaps when I get around to making the Pet Avengers.
WOLVERINE - (Logan) Full yellow and blue spandex but with claws sheathed in long cotton wool dusters. (A variation which surely would come in handy for cleaning up the X-Men's Danger Room, or indeed around Avenger's Mansion on Jarvis's day off.) This is the2008 Hasbro 16 cm (6 inch) Wolverine (as drawn by Jim Lee) from the Wolverine & Forge Marvel Legends 2-Pack. It comes with two head sculpts: grumpy, and REALLY grumpy. You can swap out the clawed hands with 'rectracted claw' hands too, which presumably will make him less grumpy.
CAPTAIN AMERICA - (Steve Rogers) Steve in one of his World War II uniforms, as usual, directing the action. I haven't gotten over him and Winter Soldier beating up Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War yet, and now he turns out to have been a Hydra sleeper agent, all along! (It's complicated! Okay, a living Cosmic Cube retconned his existence. Maybe not that complicated!)
This is the 2014 Marvel Legends Infinite series 16 cm (6 inch) Captain America WWII Figure, based on the M.C.U uniform as seen on screen, with 22 articulation points. It's very nicely done, though could use an option to make the shield sling on his back.
SENTRY - (Robert Reynolds) One of Marvel's most physically powerful, albeit highly conflicted, heroes with an origin that played with meta fiction and comic book publishing, as he had retconned himself out of existence! As one of Marvel's several 'Superman' analogs this is a mighty figure, with the power of a thousand exploding suns all ready to be unleashed at his psychologically troubled command. (Uh oh! Remember when Sentry made Ares a Rebuild-A-Figure in the Marvel Siege story -arc?) He looks like he could ten rounds with the Hulk and walk away with a troubled frown...
This is the 2015 Hasbro Sentry in the Avengers Infinite Build-A-Figure Allfather Odin Series. He's scaled at a beefier 17 cm (6 and 3/4 inch) as befits his larger than life character.
HAWKEYE - (Clint Barton) About to snap one of his team mates with a rolled up towel. Stay classy, Clint! Hawkeye in his classic purple clobber, though once again we don't have an individual arrow to pose with apart from a quiver of moulded in shafts. Once again, from the 2015 Hasbro Sentry in the Avengers Infinite Build-A-Figure Allfather Odin Series with 25 articulations. I sure gave that toy wave a work out in this piccy!
IRON MAN HELMET - This is the 2016 Marvel Legends Series Iron Man 1:1 scale Cosplay/Display helmet. It's fully wearable (though lacks padding) and features a removable visor, with light up eye pieces and closing/opening sound effects. The visor can be fitted in the opened or closed position using built in magnets, which is 'ironic', considering that one of the comic book character's original powers was the ability to project super-magnetism. It's not, incidentally, particularly comfortable, as helmets go, to wear.
Yes, they are using the Hasbro Titan electonic Ultron's head as a bucket. The ladies really went medieval on his shiny metal butt in the Tenth Age Of Ultron!
