Hot Toys vs King Arts Collectables – Which Figures are Best?

King Arts is a relative newcomer exploding onto the scene of highly collectible action figures, with Hot Toys dominating the market. Both companies even make the same products so which are the best and which do you choose?

Hot Toys specialize in 1/4 and 1/6 scale collectibles made from modeling clay, while King Arts specialize in diecast 1/1 and 1/9 scale collectibles. Both products are of the highest quality, and attention to detail is paramount for both. The price for King Arts collectibles is slightly lower, but the choice will come down to preference at the end of the day.

This article will cover who Hot Toys and King Arts are briefly and then compare the differences to their range of high end scaled collectibles. Finally, we will actually compare three models that both companies have produced, taking a look at the differences and determining which one is better, if at all.

Hot Toys overview

This Hong Kong-based production house design, manufacture and develop all in-house highly detailed 1/6 and 1/4 scale collectible figures based on various media characters such as film, tv series, comic books, video games, and celebrities more. They are well known for producing what is arguably the most sought after collectibles in the world.

Hot Toys was established in 2000, so they have been dominating the collectible toy market for over two decades now.

King Arts overview

King Arts is also a Hong Kong-based toy company that specializes in creating 1/1 and 1/9 scale collectibles. King arts specialize in only making limited-edition collectibles, and that means that there are only ever a small limited number of collectibles per series.

For example, the Hulk Buster, which is limited to 300 worldwide. More so than that, they specialize in making diecast collectibles with their range, including up to 40 percent of figures made from diecast.

King Arts vs. Hot Toys

Both companies are based in Hong Kong, and 80 percent of toys distributed worldwide come from here. King Arts is relatively new in comparison to Hot Toys, although the owner Ringo Ho has been developing and manufacturing toys for over 25 years now.

As we can see, they both make highly sought-after collectibles from movies, but which are considered better. Let’s look at the differences and compare the two to find out.

What are the main differences?

The two companies’ main differences are that Hot Toys specialize in making 1/4 and 1/6 scale collectibles while King Arts specialize in creating 1/1 and 1/9 scale replicas.

As of 2015, King Arts only had rights to manufacture characters from marvel movies by acquiring the licenses required, while Hot Toys have rights to many franchises, including tv, comic books, video games, anime, and celebrities.

Hot Toy’s main line of 1/6 scale collectibles is made from special molding clay and plastic, while King arts collectible figures are primarily made from diecast metal.

The other difference is in price. Although both companies make figures that are considered expensive by toy standards, both are of high quality, designed for collectors. King Arts collectible’s prices are slightly more friendly on your wallet than Hot Toys.

One thing to note is that both companies make exquisite toys, and in terms of attention to detail and intricacy in their construction, it would probably boil down to preference and how much money you had in choosing which one to purchase.

Which collectibles can you compare?

Iron Man Hulk Buster

Probably the most infamous or famous pieces to compare to each other are the Hulk Buster collectibles featured in the Avengers movies. If you watch this video below closely, you will see both collectibles have pretty much the same detail as the other.

Take into consideration that because King Arts produces smaller models, some detailing will be different due to the fact that they have to consider how much space they have available on each collectible to work with.

Iron Man MK46

When comparing the MK 46 collectible (seen in the video above), the King Arts version features a push button on the back to enable the lights, and the chest area is significantly different. Another thing to note is that overall the King Arts collectibles have a cleaner and neater paint job, while the Hot Toys models have more realistic scuffing and detail. This is apparent when looking closely and comparing the two models.

Iron Man MK45

Comparing these two collectibles, we find that there are quite a few differences. The main differences are that the King Arts collectible does not come with a diorama but a base; it also comes with an additional battle damaged chest plate and shoulder pads.

The next thing to note is that the paint colors are significantly different when comparing the two collectibles. When looking at the ROM (Range of Motion), we can see that Hot Toys have an extended ROM when it comes to the limbs of the collectible.

Lastly, when the two are compared in detail, the Hot Toys variant looks to be significantly more detailed; however, this could be due to size and the available space to work with. This by no means makes the model for Kings Arts inferior, though.

Conclusion

We can conclude now that both manufacturers make incredibly highly detailed collectibles. The differences between the collectibles produced by each company come down to size, price, the material used for construction, and paint.

The detailing of each model is slightly different; however, you have to consider the size and scope of detail that King Arts can accomplish, creating a 1/9 scale collectible.

All in all, one is not better than the other, and it would boil down to which you prefer and how much money you have to spend.