Engadget Mobile, LG, and Stark Industries want you to have a $1,500 Iron Man phone

If ever there were an LG Shine to live up to its lofty name, this would definitely be it. We'd like to introduce you to the Iron Man phone -- presented here by our boy Robert Downey, Jr. -- based on the Shine slider as sold by AT&T. Unlike the garden-variety Shine, the Iron Man edition trades up to a deep red case with gold plated highlights and a solid 18K gold battery cover to commemorate the launch of the film in style. That's plenty enough element 79 to give this thing some serious heft. We're not bragging, though -- we want you to have it.

The phone is valued at a princely $1,500; twenty are being given away by LG directly -- we've got the twenty first. How do you pry it out of our hands? Easy: we want to see just how nasty, disgusting, and close to complete breakdown your current face candy is. Send us a pic and tell us a little bit about your poor, dilapidated phone and the long journey it's taken to its current state of disrepair. We'll pick the saddest entry and let you retire that terrible thing for something just a little flashier.

One word of advice though: don't bother breaking your phone or taking a photo of your dad's Dynatac or something, that's not what we're looking for.

Check out the gallery to see shots of the very Iron Man phone that could be yours, and don't forget to enter. Good luck!

The rules (yeah, there are always rules)

• Send us your original photo. If we find your picture elsewhere on the internet, you will so be disqualified. Don't test us here, we've seen every picture of every phone. Ever.
• Email submissions to contests [at] engadget [dawt] com with the subject "I am Iron Man!" And for the love of our inbox, please keep your images 1MB or under, ok?
  
• You may only enter this contest once. If you enter this contest more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc.
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Entries must be in by 11:59PM EDT, Sunday, May 18th. After that, give us some time to sort through the entries and pick out the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it).

Engadget Mobile, LG, and Stark Industries want you to have a $1,500 Iron Man phone

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 12:40PM]

This is the first time I have ever wished my phone was older and more beat-up!

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 12:47PM]

Looks great. Sign me up!

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 12:57PM]

Time to find that W800 of mine :)

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:03PM]

if someone came up to you and said, 'you didn't win', would you feel bad?
what is someone came up to you and said, 'wow dude, your phone is so crappy you can have mine!' EXCITEMENT, maybe!!
.... what if they then noticed you used Rogers, and they used Verizon... and said... "oh , wait, my phone is locked. too bad canuk..." and walked away, givng their phone away to some kid in a riced up civic instead.

-------------------------disappointment!!------------------


seriously, its almost too painful to read this blog knowing im missing out on all these contests because im canadian. :P Motorola C350 here. 4th generation used. i thought i had a chance...

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 2:26PM]

an LG shine be awesome, but after reading some of other comments here about their 'ghetto' phones, i gotta say, i'd be happy just to have theres! i end up missing half my calls due to the ringer volume being so quiet, i have to clear my incoming text messages at the end of the day due to my phone running out of space for them!! and my reception sucks ass. i dont even want to experience what its like for the person at the end of the line. anyways, anyone got a 'ghetto phone' they dont want anymore, i'd be happy to upgrade to it. punrkrawker at gmail.com

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:08PM]

Damn me and my VENUS!

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:06PM]

Very Nice!

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:06PM]

Nice! I wouldn't mind one of those.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:08PM]

Getting this phone would be awesome, and very timely considering that my current phone (a first-gen LG Chocolate) is showing signs of eminent failure after 2-3 years of impressive service.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:11PM]

I have just one question. Is it GSM or CDMA?

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:41PM]

The AT&T logo tells me it's GSM

[Timerider Posted May 5th 2008 3:14PM]

That sucks, no GSM where I live. Largest coverage area my ass.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:16PM]

In the words of that lady in Napoleon Dynamite... "I want that...."

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:18PM]

Pick me! Pweeeeeeeeeeeze!!

[ack154 Posted May 5th 2008 1:18PM]

Oh... my Helio Ocean is a bit beat up (story to go with it). Just have to get home and get a pic!

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:23PM]

I don't think anyone can best my PEBL :p

[(Unverified) Posted May 7th 2008 8:35AM]

yeah i agree my 1st PEBL is beat to shit and i never dropped it, i fell asleep with it on my chest (cause i was texting late at night) and i woke up to peeling paint, scratches on the back, i guess they dont like oil from the skin ewwwwww. I want to enter.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:32PM]

Count me in!

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:36PM]

I never win any of this stuff :-(

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:43PM]

I have to enter this! Now to find my Motorola E815.........

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:47PM]

Really? $1500?

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:50PM]

I think my iPhone might have a scratch on it. Do I win?

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:51PM]

Damn....i live with my old sony ericsson T300 it came out when i was in grade 6 junior school and thats when i got it ...for my 10th birthday..and it was 1 of a kind A COLOUR SCREEN!!!! And guess what..i still have it..its crap that i live in europe :(

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 1:53PM]

o ye btw i am now in year 4 senior.....so its been 5 years and it had many showers i.e my little sister putting it into the tub ;(

[gp Posted May 5th 2008 2:02PM]

Yep, but keep that yucky guy at distance, please.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 2:04PM]

does the phone still have to work?
my nokia 3310 rly looks like crap :D

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 2:05PM]

uh huh, $1500.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 2:07PM]

Gimmie!!

[Ryzvonusef Posted May 5th 2008 2:13PM]

I have an old panasonic gd70, that is bound to qualify, but unfortunately, I myself don't qualify, since i don't live within the 50 states...sigh! think of the irony...

[tweak Posted May 5th 2008 2:23PM]

There's nothing about that dumb phone that makes it worth $1500. F*** that.

[Chris Posted May 5th 2008 2:27PM]

Quick and easy solution, then: don't try to win it.

Did I mention that the entire back of the phone is solid fricking gold?

Chris

[ack154 Posted May 5th 2008 4:15PM]

Chris,

Sometimes the solid gold isn't worth the solid gold it's made from to some people. :)

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 2:37PM]

My Apple iPhone is a lemon, i need a new phone :P

Sorry the pun :P

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 2:31PM]

This is so perfect, i've been dieing for a new phone, my current (in use, and PRIMARY) phone is a moto krzr k1m with the screen RIPPED OFF!!!, i have to use voice dial and speakerphone and it sucks!

I'll post pics when i get home.

[VLangs Posted May 5th 2008 6:55PM]

yea i bought a nokia 7600 3 years ago, thought i was the man lol. well had to order it from europe and it's been my main phone since (ok i had an S710a, but a pool took care of that) so this phone is a monster. it's survived the following:

washing machine
lighters when i was drunk
falling on concrete (about a hundred times)
cracking the screen when it fell outta my pocket (bike riding)
and
geting drunk, walking trhough the woods. losing it in the pouring rain, then finding it the next morning looking sad over it's wet carcass and then joy when it turned back on :-)

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 2:32PM]

I am Iron Man, fyi

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 3:00PM]

Can we get another one of these contests with something a little more Verizon friendly (like a voyager)

cause my 1G chocolate actually is headed down death row

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 3:00PM]

So how exactly do they decide on 1500 dollars? I mean why stop there? If you're going to give away a more or less one of a kind thing for free, you have to assign a value to it, why stop so low? This weekend only we're giving away 5 3.2 million dollar spider man 3 commemorative slurpee cups!

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 4:29PM]

I think it might have to do with the $1325 of GOLD stuck to the back of a $175 phone.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 3:06PM]

I rather dislike these contest rules. Most any other company allows Canadians to participate, with the exception of Quebec, with their messy gaming laws.

It's about time for this travesty to stop, Engadget!

[Timerider Posted May 5th 2008 3:09PM]

I got a $20 nokia 2126 that I actually use (and an even suckier one that I don't). But I'm 17.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 3:09PM]

to shine or not to shine?
I want to shine..

[fernando Posted May 5th 2008 3:31PM]

I wont enter this contest, if only for my principles. No one will make me say my phone is bad, no one!

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 3:46PM]

Wow, I'm hooked!

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 3:49PM]

Pick me, pick me!

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 3:53PM]

Pick me please!

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 3:59PM]

Yep, this should be mine.

[(Unverified) Posted May 7th 2008 5:16PM]

Nerd alert! Drop that sucker and some unlucky chap will wish they'd gotten an iPhone instead.

Now how many of you are going to start scraping and burning up your old cellphones just to try to win this contest. Glue, thinner and a Dremel Moto Tool should be good for a start. Tossing it from a high building might not leave enough to show in a picture. Sticking it in a blender for a few seconds might just do the trick.

Dropping it into a cesspool would be really nasty. Pull it out and hold it next to your face and then take the picture. You might have a shot at winning.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 4:06PM]

I would much rather have the iPhone but instead of the apple logo on the the back put the Arc Reactor symbol on it

and instead of iPhone, place "iRONMAN"

Then paint the back with a nice high quality hot rod red automotive paint, all gold lettering, and a gold "chrome ring" but have it the paint color gold not bling gold, and instead og the "square" on the front for the home button, also make it the symbol of the arc reactor. As for the info underneath where it says "iphone" lets getting something like...Designed By Apple for Stark Industries.
Powered by Jarvis blah blah blah or something.

Just a massive iRONMAN edition iPhone would be very very nice. Maybe when the 3G iphones come out i'll convert my current 8GB model into a nice ironman edition... or something. who knows.

But come on an LG shine.... so many other phones...you should have atleast used a smart phone....

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2008 4:33PM]

i like how they have lg voyager commercials with iron man, claiming its his phone, when he uses a different phone in the movie