"YOU KNOW, MY DAD USED TO BUILD THESE CRATES...SAY, IS THIS THING ON?" The Invincible Iron Man/ Tony Stark rehearsing his presentation speech for the Hugo Awards at Aussiecon IV, the 68th World Science Fiction Convention, held in Melbourne, Australia in 2010. Mr Stark was in town to attend the re-opening of the former Stark Industries Melbourne plant, which was placed under caretaker management in the aftermath of the recent catastrophic events that led to the loss of his former manufacturing empire. The Melbourne plant has been reacquired by the new Stark Resilient group and, unlike many of the other former Stark assets, was retrieved substantially intact with minimal losses of trained personnel, stock or equipment, thanks to its being temporarily administered by an employee collective, chaired by Chief Divisional Projects Designer, Rob Jan. Mr Stark's Hugo speech included references to his father, Howard Stark, who attended the very first World Science Fiction Convention in New York, in 1939, where he and partner H. Hughes, demonstrated a prototype rocket propelled one man flying suit as well donating empty Stark Industries M4 Rocket casings to be used as awards, Iron Man is seen here standing in front of a field of larger than lifesized Hugo Award mock-ups, including the distinctive "Gojiracon" Hugo Award, from the 1954 Tokyo Worldcon, an event that generously raised funds to provide emergency bookshelf space for manga collections made homeless by the rampages of Gojira and subsequent giant monsters. The figure immediately behind Iron Man, of course, is the famous "Mighty Marvel Mecha" constructed by the Japanese Division of Stark Industries which successfully engaged, defeated and drove Gojira back into the sea in 1954, '55, '56, '57 and...so on. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I saw the Hugo Rocket Field Display at the Melbourne Worldcon I couldn't resist bringing in some Iron Man toys to visit! I mean, talk about "Man of Tommorrow" fitting right into "World of Tommorrow"!!

Lots of variations were on display including Titanium Man.