Iron Man (Samurai Armor)
Yeah, this armor has never been in the comics. In fact, it's pretty ridiculous that a man in a flying suit armed with lasers would use a sword. But yet, I have many ideas why this armor would exist:
- Designed for a duel with the Mandarin for complete control of China
- Created as a display piece for Tony Stark's offices
- It's a specially-created armor designed to handle the fabled enchanted sword of General Tso
- A Halloween costume that Tony put way too much work into
- It's the proper Iron Man armor to fight ninjas
Seriously, the desire for this custom started when I first saw the helmets for the Classic Cylon Minimate, and thought that with a little modification, those would make a pretty cool samurai helmet. And then I thought of the old Samurai Armor Iron Man action figure from the 90's, and I knew what I had to make.
Unfortunately, the Cylon helmet didn't work as well as I'd hope. While the smart thing to do would have been to stop there, I ended up redesigned my idea during a staff meeting, and with much cutting, gluing and decal-making later, I created a Samurai Iron Man.
The Recipe
Samurai Armor Iron Man is made from a repainted Minimate. His helmet is a Magneto helmet, modified with Magic Sculpt and thin plastic. Thin plastic was also used to create his shoulder fins, mounted to the arm bands from a Razor Cylon. Thicker plastic was cut to create his chest and leg pads. His skirt comes from a Chun-Li Minimate. The band details on his skirt, arms and legs were made from plastic bands cut to size and glued to the Minimate. Iron Man's sword comes from the fine folks at Marauder "Gun-Runner", and was painted by me. All other details are added with water-transfer decals.Bonus Armor - Japanese School Girl Iron Man
This custom is from my wife, Sarah. When I started working on Samurai Iron Man, she was inspired to create this custom as a companion piece.