Last month, we reported on the launch of the Stark Expo 2010 website for Iron Man 2. The Stark Expo will obviously serve as a backdrop for a portion of the film and as part of a backstory, but director Jon Favreau also used the Stark Expo as an opportunity to explore his past.

Speaking with The LA times – Favreau said,

“With the Expo I got to revisit where I grew up, which was across the street from Flushing Meadows Park. The whole Stark Expo is in Flushing Meadows Park, the old World’s Fair fairgrounds. I grew up looking out my window at the remains of the 1964 World’s Fair, and this was a way to represent that in our story. It’s a love letter to Queens — and Queens doesn’t get a lot of love.”

Favreau says of Stark Expo:

“The Expo dates back to the 1930s, but the last one was in 1974 when Tony’s father was still alive and Tony was just a kid, Now Tony is reintroducing this concept of the Expo at the start of the film and it’s presented [as] a part of peace dividend — now that Iron Man is keeping the world ‘safer,’ this is Tony’s way of turning guns to butter and changing the conversation about the future.”

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While on the topic of Tony Stark, Robert Downey Jr. recently told the Coventry Telegraph that he wants a full suit of Iron Man armor to take home.

Downey said,

“I have an Iron Man head at home and various other bits downstairs but my home isn’t a shrine to Iron Man. But I think it’s cool.

“The producers keep telling me that they’re going to give me a suit with all the bells and whistles but I still don’t have it. I don’t know, maybe I should get it in my contract. It would be great to have one at home – a talking point.”

He also admitted that he’s immensely proud to play Tony Stark/Iron Man:

“It’s mind-blowing to me because I’d always felt like I wanted to – and could – do something like this. I have probably taken Iron Man 2 more seriously than any other movie I’ve ever done, which is appropriately ridiculous for Hollywood.”