Yes, but I would argue that based on this precedent, if you are wanting a 'less popular" character if you wait for blogger photos to show up, it is less likely to be produced period.
Oh, to be clear, I'm not talking about folks who wait for final release to make their decision. I'm talking about everyone who has an active preorder for any figure. The security of knowing "I've given Hot Toys money, I will get my figure" is officially gone.
I'd be surprised if Mantis was cancelled given she is due to release by the end of June so must be in production by now, and I know a lot of collectors like myself will have ordered her to complete the team.
I don't see Mantis getting canceled as (a) there were likely plenty of pre-orders by people wanting to complete their GoTG collections and (b) she should be much further along in the production process. And Supergirl is way more popular than the two they canceled - plus HT already responded to public criticism and reworked her sculpt. Canceling the figure after that would be a very bad look.
It is possible that Sideshow allotment sold out but in asia they got little to no PO's, it could be that they did sell fine but other licensor issues resulted in cancellation (issues with a certain actor could have resulted in plug being pulled). Could be (for young barry flash) that the likeness right for that specific appearance was pulled and rather than release a figure with generic head (like the old HT Terminator or Aliens marine) they opted to pull the plug. Could be HT cost cutting in the production side to help avert some financial issues so they aborted two figures they deemed least vital. Maybe it really is that they failed to sell and the sideshow "sold out" thing is merely a stealth timed window for po's and they simply failed to sell enough during the allotted time window.
