Nathan's page that never gets touched at all, ever

Well, here they are! The XSZ Iron Man figures! Here’s a review.

BUILD These guys are all built exactly the same, and said build is hardly anything to write home about. Most interesting is the arm for the gatling gun, and most peculiar is the difference in forearm length.

PARTS The heads are actually quite good. The printing is decent, and the shaping is almost identical to Lego’s own. What’s interesting is how XSZ have used their version of the CCBS friction joint for the screw-in socket section.

What’s really worth getting these guys for is the recolours. Dark red is always a treat, but dark red size 4 shells are exclusive to this red figure. Also, dark blue CCBS is something dreams are made of - finally something the dark blue Skull Spider mask can go with! And of course, silver shoulderpad pieces… It’s a shame the black figure didn’t have those, too.

Everything else is pretty standard fare. The unique prints are great, and would work well with both Hero Factory and Bionicle MOCs. Be warned though, the moulding on the studs is a little lax, so the edges are a little less blunt than those of Lego studs.

FIGURES While built exactly the same, each of these guys have their own character. We have Iron Man, War Machine, and armoured Captain America… And some mysterious gent in black armour. He’s my favourite.

These guys are quite poseable, and as usual with XSZ, the joints are nice and tight. The ball shooters and stud shooters both work great, and spare ammo for the stud shooter is included.

Railroad BR Mk1 - Pre-production samples

Items shown:

R4350 - BR Mk1 Corridor Composite Coach

R4351 - BR Mk1 Corridor Second Coach

R4352 - BR Mk1 Corridor Brake Second Coach

SRP - £19.99

Livery: BR Maroon

Length: 270mm

Hand Decorated Pre-production sample

R3191 - BR 4-6-2 ‘Duke of Gloucester’ Class 8

Special Edition, DCC Ready, Loco Drive, Etched Nameplates, Cab glazing

Extra detail also supplied for enhancement by the customer

Available: July

In 1952, there was a gap in the Pacific Class ranks and Robert A Riddles, an executive at the British Railways’ Crewe workshop took the opportunity to design a new class of locomotive based on a modified BR Standard Class 7 (Britannia) to be known as BR Standard Class 8.  The prototype was fitted with a modified Caprotti gear and had three 18” x 28” cylinders.  The 67’8” long locomotive weighed 101 tons plus a tender of 53 tons.  This single member of the new Class 8, locomotive No.71000, left Crewe Works in 1954 and was named ‘The Duke of Gloucester’.

There were some fundamental design errors and undetected cost cutting deviations construction which contributed to the disappointing performance of the locomotive.  No more of the Class were built.  Locomotive No.71000 remained at Crewe North depot hauling boat trains until it was withdrawn on the 24th November 1962.  After years of open storage ‘The Duke’ was purchased for preservation in 1972 and underwent 16 years of restoration.  During this time design and construction issues were rectified, resulting in a vastly improved performance, especially over its old stamping ground of Shap, Settle and Carlisle.

The Kiss, today (23/10/2012) in Marseille, France. 

Two spotted hyenas hunting zebra unintentionally flushed a baby Thompson’s gazelle from its hiding place.