My immediate thought was that they’ll probably pull this ****** stunt with Iron Man as well. An unmasked Tony Stark version.
Iron Man, Spiderman, Wolverine, etc.
If the character is popular enough, has an unmasked appearance, or costume change, variants of any and all kind will happen.
This is the perfect market for HT, quick small limited production runs, lack of detailed paint or costume fabrics makes production a breeze, is it a little scummy? Maybe a little bit.
I’d say be thankful you know variants are inbound, so you can better navigate through releases. If you know your comics, they won’t be able to pull a fast one on you, unfortunately for me, they weren’t ever my thing.
It was always to happen, there’s no actor to pay here. I say those interested in this line lucked up that they showed their hand so early on. Still have the ability to sell the versions you don’t like in favor of those you do with it being so newly introduced to your collection.
Imagine the alternative, you go deep into the line, buy every release thinking it’s the only version releasing and then 6 months of radio silence goes by and they announce all new variants of everything you bought, with the kicker being they all look ten times better than they load you bought and posed for six months.