Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece 1/6 Mandarin Figure

[spindrift]

This may be the best sculpt HT has done this year- the pics are so real looking....just amazing

 

[Lawrence]

This may be the best sculpt HT has done this year

This year? How about ever?

 

[robbiethepainter]

Ever.

_______

 

[coors83]

Ever.

_______

 

[SixthScaleEdward]

Ever.

_______

Can't stop looking at it.

 

[JonEl]

Loving what he adds to this shelf.

 

[robbiethepainter]

Can't believe this thread is so dead.
Here are some more. Glasses are not stock for those that don't know.

 

[dw316]

^^^^ Like a boss. Just awesome! If I have the $$ to spare, I would love to pick him up. Hope he doesn't sell out fast.

 

[sander_hurk]

Can he sit well in his chair? I find that most hot toys have some difficulty sitting.

 

[karamazov80]

Outfit and sculpt look magnificent. Just not a character I would ever want to own a figure of.

 

[SixthScaleEdward]

Can't believe this thread is so dead.
Here are some more. Glasses are not stock for those that don't know.

So that's why they look exceptionally good.
Where'd you get them?

Can he sit well in his chair? I find that most hot toys have some difficulty sitting.

Yeahp, I'm just not bending the hips that much to preserve the pants.

 

[robbiethepainter]

So that's why they look exceptionally good.
Where'd you get them?

I made them.

 

[Jaycepticon]

Outfit and sculpt look magnificent. Just not a character I would ever want to own a figure of.

Yeah, I have no problem buying characters from horrible movies as long as they're awesome, design-wise but I completely despise the joke that is Trevor that I can't even bring myself to even consider him, although he does look like a fantastic figure, no denying that much.

 

[karamazov80]

Kind of a bummer that Hot Toys got trolled by Shane Black here I'm sure that if they knew what the character would end up being, they wouldn't have gone ahead with development. But by the time they knew what was going on, the machine was already in motion and they had probably sunk so much into the development that they couldn't back out. But I guess those are some of the risks you take when you are trying to develop products for reasonably current films. I know some companies didn't bother producing figures of Ducard from Batman Begins, thinking that Watanabe was going to actually be Ra's al Ghul.

 

[SkyIScrape]

Kind of a bummer that Hot Toys got trolled by Shane Black here I'm sure that if they knew what the character would end up being, they wouldn't have gone ahead with development. But by the time they knew what was going on, the machine was already in motion and they had probably sunk so much into the development that they couldn't back out. But I guess those are some of the risks you take when you are trying to develop products for reasonably current films. I know some companies didn't bother producing figures of Ducard from Batman Begins, thinking that Watanabe was going to actually be Ra's al Ghul.

Or they contacted Marvel and asked, hesitantly, what it would look like when the Mandarin shoots fire from one ring and ice from another so they could sculpt it. Feige told them "Actually, our interpretation of the Mandarin is going to be a deception, but he's played by Ben Kingsley and looks amazing." So they said "Cool. That's why we make figures. Because they look great and help create visually appealing displays from popular films, which makes us profit. Not because we agree or disagree with specific film adaptations that many people confusingly want to be exactly like racist and ridiculous comic book caricatures". But I'm just guessing, too. I wasn't in the room.

 

[Invictus Sol]

I think Karamazov's scenario is more likely, to be honest. Doesn't look like the sales for this figure are anything to crow about, judging by how slow this thread's moving. Maybe he'll end-up like HT Angelica, with Sideshow literally giving him away.

 

[karamazov80]

Yeah, Hot Toys is really big on taking risks.

But though it's irrelevant to my point, more tired debate about whether or not comic Mandarin should have been portrayed in the film is always welcome of course.

 

[Jaycepticon]

I gotta agree, I'm sure HT was just as excited as the rest of us when we saw the trailer and would've never guess there was trolling going on. Considering it also takes about a year to make these figs, it probably wasn't even finalized by Disney/Marvel yet.

 

[SkyIScrape]

Yeah, Hot Toys is really big on taking risks.

But though it's irrelevant to my point, more tired debate about whether or not comic Mandarin should have been portrayed in the film is always welcome of course.

Your point is that if they knew the Mandarin twist they wouldn't have made the figure, right? And the twist has now affected how many figures they'll sell, because sales are the ultimate reason behind which figures they decide to produce.

If we're guessing how HT selects which characters to produce I would think they do it based on a complex combination of general popularity (in all known mediums), screen-time, relevance to the plot, and, most importantly, how great it would look shrunken down to 1/6 scale and put on a shelf. So the Mandarin wasn't the 'mastermind' villain. Why would that point alone affect his sales and how could we possibly know, even if it did, considering we have no idea how many they produced and how it compares to other figures whose production numbers we also don't have? Angelica appears to have been a bit of a problem since she's still in stock at SS and she's being given away frequently, unlike the majority of other releases. Maybe Mandarin will follow suit, but I doubt it since Marvel is a hot property, however we'll have to wait and see. If they start making enough figures to make a profit AND keep a few extras in stock for years to let people buy them for retail whenever they want then, as a collector, I would be okay with that and I wouldn't think it reflects poorly on either the character or the company. But that's irrelevant.

And don't get bent out of shape by the Mandarin debate resurfacing - you used it as the basis for your suggestion and observation, after all. And I disagreed. If Batman Beings was the pseudo-sequel to the third highest-grossing film of all time and was expected to make close to a billion dollars, maybe they would have made the decoy Ra's or taken a 'risk' and made the League of Shadow's Ducard, the secret mastermind. We'll never know and can only speculate. After they release Joker 6.0 or whatever maybe they'll surprise us and do a Ducard and Ra's since Batman, like Iron Man, is popular, and if they want to make money they'll bleed the Nolan films dry before people start moving onto the Snyder interpretation.

So no, while I hope HT employees were just as surprised and entertained by IM3 as I was, I don't think, had they read the script when they were deciding which figures to produce, they would have skipped on making the Mandarin. He looked stunning, his character is well-known and (ultimately) controversial, and he was important to the plot. If anything, I think they're mad that Marvel didn't tell them Killian would be such a prominent character and now they're rushing to produce a base body that glows orange.

 

[ronri]

So no, while I hope HT employees were just as surprised and entertained by IM3 as I was, I don't think, had they read the script when they were deciding which figures to produce, they would have skipped on making the Mandarin. He looked stunning, his character is well-known and (ultimately) controversial, and he was important to the plot. If anything, I think they're mad that Marvel didn't tell them Killian would be such a prominent character and now they're rushing to produce a base body that glows orange.

I agree with this. HT seemed more likely to capitalize on the Mandarin considering how, despite being a twist character, the very concept of the Mandarin was still essential to the plot not to mention from a design standpoint, he's very visually appealing. Hasbro is still producing a Mandarin figure even after IM3 came out. Heck based on their description of the figure, it seems HT at least acknowledges the twist and reinterpretation of the character. That said, I still highly doubt they would have abandoned making the figure considering how the very notion of the Mandarin was so well-advertised and still serves as a very front-and-center unique take on a "villain". Again if anything, I'd say HT is more likely bummed about not knowing about Killian's true nature as the main antagonist. Admittedly I do hope that HT will make a figure of Killian especially since Shane Black DID in fact say that Guy Pearce's character is actually the MCU's take on the Mandarin (complainers be damned and all).

Interestingly I do find it funny how the general idea of the supposed ethnicity/race of both respective decoys for Killian and Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul actually seem to be reversed in comparison to their original depictions in the comic.