Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece 1/6 Mandarin Figure

[LipSmack]

There is no way HT knew about the twist before hand. Do you know how under wraps that must have been? Marvel wouldnt have wanted to risk any leaks, theres no way the only people they told were toy companies...

 

[ronri]

There is no way HT knew about the twist before hand. Do you know how under wraps that must have been? Marvel wouldnt have wanted to risk any leaks, theres no way the only people they told were toy companies...

Yeah despite my stance on HT not wanting to skimp on the Mandarin, I don't think they really knew about the twist. More so to do with Marvel wanting to keep it under wraps than anything else really.

 

[Silasya77]

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.

I feel it's just because of the execution of the characters. The Mandarin in IM3 was a cool idea but the execution sucked I guess. The real Mandarin was Guy Pearce and the fake one was Sir Ben Goddamn Kingsley whilst in the other hand Liam Neeson was the better actor (arguably) than the fake.

 

[boylost99]

i think it shows their lack of creativity to do that to such an important character. they must have gone and thought "oh we need a twist here, okay lets do a ra's twist for the mandarin!". twists are fine in movies but only when done right. IM3 did not do it right. the no magic part is just bull****. the mandarin can have technology too and some cool fighting skills to take tony on since they opted the no armor route (again mega fail). its the final IM and tony's not wearing an armor for most of it or at all. might as well be tony stark 3 or something. just my opinion though. still liked the action scenes. but that's all.

 

[Rorywan]

Got this as a surprise Xmas gift from the wife. Very impressed, one of HT's best in a while.

 

[Silasya77]

i think it shows their lack of creativity to do that to such an important character. they must have gone and thought "oh we need a twist here, okay lets do a ra's twist for the mandarin!". twists are fine in movies but only when done right. IM3 did not do it right.

Exactly

 

[boylost99]

Got this as a surprise Xmas gift from the wife. Very impressed, one of HT's best in a while.

indeed he is! congrats! you have a keeper (wife and figure)!!

 

[ronri]

I feel it's just because of the execution of the characters. The Mandarin in IM3 was a cool idea but the execution sucked I guess. The real Mandarin was Guy Pearce and the fake one was Sir Ben Goddamn Kingsley whilst in the other hand Liam Neeson was the better actor (arguably) than the fake.

Woah way different point than what I was referring to. I was referring to Ken Watanabe's decoy character possessing a more East-Asian appearance in comparison to Ben Kingsley's more Middle Eastern/Arabic terrorist sort of vibe for the Mandarin which I thought was interesting because in the comics it's actually reversed (Ra's Al Ghul being more Arabic and the Mandarin being more East-Asian).

If you must know, I actually didn't mind the twist myself as I find that they had very different intentions compared to Batman Begins anyway. In that regard though....

i think it shows their lack of creativity to do that to such an important character. they must have gone and thought "oh we need a twist here, okay lets do a ra's twist for the mandarin!". twists are fine in movies but only when done right. IM3 did not do it right. the no magic part is just bull****. the mandarin can have technology too and some cool fighting skills to take tony on since they opted the no armor route (again mega fail). its the final IM and tony's not wearing an armor for most of it or at all. might as well be tony stark 3 or something. just my opinion though. still liked the action scenes. but that's all.

I will respectfully disagree with your, and I say this lightly, ill-informed opinion. To say that they simply needed a twist and just copy-pasted the Ra's Al Ghul twist is just misguided considering the very different intentions and choice of emphasis in the story for both twists. What part of the Mandarin twist didn't they "do right"? The fact that it made a bunch of ill-informed fans so butt-hurt? The fact that people are basing their judgement on a film based on an expectation of wanting to see Ben Kingsley in such a role? If you've actually read enough modern comics of Iron Man you'll find that Killian is much closer to the Mandarin than you seem to imply (ethnicity/race aside) especially when you consider how he's much more focused on achieving the next step of human evolution through Extremis (something that the Mandarin has been shown as desiring in the comics) than the initial supposed intentions of Kingsley's Mandarin who simply reeked of anti-American sentiment and nothing else. As far as narrative purposes and storytelling is concerned though, I find that IM3 did the twist well enough.

Also "magic" rings? Are we still sticking with the old racist depictions of the Mandarin or the well-established explanation that he actually uses rings based on alien technology? Considering how the original use of the rings were meant to be more for parlor tricks until they just got blown out of proportion (akin to Bane's Venom in other media despite swearing against using it in later years of the comics), I don't see them as being a hugely critical aspect of the character when the Mandarin has always been shown more as a super scientist-martial artist combination than someone with gimmicky power rings (something that IM3 delivered at).

Also I personally enjoyed Tony out of the armor since it's very reflective of the many times in the comics that he has had to rely on his wits than his tech, something that I was glad that was highlighted in terms of creating a fresh new character arc for what seems to be his final film (at least in terms of the Iron Man franchise).

Again, I respect that it's your opinion, but I can't help but say that a lot of it seems very ill-informed which leads me to greatly disagree with it.

 

[boylost99]

Woah way different point than what I was referring to. I was referring to Ken Watanabe's decoy character possessing a more East-Asian appearance in comparison to Ben Kingsley's more Middle Eastern/Arabic terrorist sort of vibe for the Mandarin which I thought was interesting because in the comics it's actually reversed (Ra's Al Ghul being more Arabic and the Mandarin being more East-Asian).

If you must know, I actually didn't mind the twist myself as I find that they had very different intentions compared to Batman Begins anyway. In that regard though....



I will respectfully disagree with your, and I say this lightly, ill-informed opinion. To say that they simply needed a twist and just copy-pasted the Ra's Al Ghul twist is just misguided considering the very different intentions and choice of emphasis in the story for both twists. What part of the Mandarin twist didn't they "do right"? The fact that it made a bunch of ill-informed fans so butt-hurt? The fact that people are basing their judgement on a film based on an expectation of wanting to see Ben Kingsley in such a role? If you've actually read enough modern comics of Iron Man you'll find that Killian is much closer to the Mandarin than you seem to imply (ethnicity/race aside) especially when you consider how he's much more focused on achieving the next step of human evolution through Extremis (something that the Mandarin has been shown as desiring in the comics) than the initial supposed intentions of Kingsley's Mandarin who simply reeked of anti-American sentiment and nothing else. As far as narrative purposes and storytelling is concerned though, I find that IM3 did the twist well enough.

Also "magic" rings? Are we still sticking with the old racist depictions of the Mandarin or the well-established explanation that he actually uses rings based on alien technology? Considering how the original use of the rings were meant to be more for parlor tricks until they just got blown out of proportion (akin to Bane's Venom in other media despite swearing against using it in later years of the comics), I don't see them as being a hugely critical aspect of the character when the Mandarin has always been shown more as a super scientist-martial artist combination than someone with gimmicky power rings (something that IM3 delivered at).

Also I personally enjoyed Tony out of the armor since it's very reflective of the many times in the comics that he has had to rely on his wits than his tech, something that I was glad that was highlighted in terms of creating a fresh new character arc for what seems to be his final film (at least in terms of the Iron Man franchise).

Again, I respect that it's your opinion, but I can't help but say that a lot of it seems very ill-informed which leads me to greatly disagree with it.

i respect your opinion too but if you're into turning a character into something as a decoy, . Tony's armor is part of his wits and intelligence too. I am not saying its bad to see him out of it, but the end scene was just sad where his armors were getting destroyed by the extremis soldiers so easily. And you actually agreed with my mandarin point as i mentioned he could have been a martial artist with techno skills. So again, . Oh well. to each his own. I like trevor though. Funny but as mandarin it falls way short. Sir Ben could have been tony's heath's joker to bale's batman. That's why its disappointing.

 

[ronri]

i respect your opinion too but if you're into turning a character into something as a decoy, . Tony's armor is part of his wits and intelligence too. I am not saying its bad to see him out of it, but the end scene was just sad where his armors were getting destroyed by the extremis soldiers so easily. And you actually agreed with my mandarin point as i mentioned he could have been a martial artist with techno skills. So again, . Oh well. to each his own. I like trevor though. Funny but as mandarin it falls way short. Sir Ben could have been tony's heath's joker to bale's batman. That's why its disappointing.

I think you're missing my point in regards to the depiction of Mandarin. Your take on the character is greatly limited by your perception of Kingsley's depiction and seems to be only reliant on that, whereas mine falls squarely on the (confirmed) fact that Killian is meant to be the MCU's Mandarin (complete with martial arts and Extremis abilities), with the terrorist persona mainly acting as his proxy or "mask". In that regard, I'll retract my use of the word "decoy" since it gives a different implication compared to what the filmmakers were aiming for, in which case the supposed decoy was more of a "proxy" or channel to manipulate mass media than a literal decoy.

In that regard, my opinion still differs from yours, since yours seems to be based more on Kingsley's Mandarin whereas mine is aimed towards Pearce's character who is the ACTUAL Mandarin. So no, I don't agree with your point.

Tony's wits have been shown beyond simply using his suits in the comics you know. In situations where he's deprived of his suits, he's engaged in hand-to-hand combat/martial arts, implemented sneaking tactics and pretty much all around improvisations. This isn't something new in IM3, but something that's been done a lot in the comics, so it's actually not just something random but a part of how he's portrayed in the comics. As for Stark's armor, I don't see how their weakness are unjustified considering how Tony has been making the suits non-stop with little to no sleep. Considering that kind of mental condition, I simply interpreted his suits being much more unpolished, even more evident when you look at the treasured yet very unreliable Mark 42.

 

[Jaycepticon]

Isn't the labeling for this figure wrong since Guy Pearce was the the IM3 Mandarin? This figure should've just been called Trevor.

 

[boylost99]

it was called trevor slattery too on the box i think, if i am not mistaken.

 

[boylost99]

I think you're missing my point in regards to the depiction of Mandarin. Your take on the character is greatly limited by your perception of Kingsley's depiction and seems to be only reliant on that, whereas mine falls squarely on the (confirmed) fact that Killian is meant to be the MCU's Mandarin (complete with martial arts and Extremis abilities), with the terrorist persona mainly acting as his proxy or "mask". In that regard, I'll retract my use of the word "decoy" since it gives a different implication compared to what the filmmakers were aiming for, in which case the supposed to decoy was more of a "proxy" or channel to manipulate mass media than a literal decoy.

In that regard, my opinion still differs from yours, since yours seems to be based more on Kingsley's Mandarin whereas mine is aimed towards Pearce's character who is the ACTUAL Mandarin. So no, I don't agree with your point.

Tony's wits have been shown beyond simply using his suits in the comics you know. In situations where he's deprived of his suits, he's engaged in hand-to-hand combat/martial arts, implemented sneaking tactics and pretty much all around improvisations. This isn't something new in IM3, but something that's been done a lot in the comics, so it's actually not just something random but a part of how he's portrayed in the comics. As for Stark's armor, I don't see how their weakness are unjustified considering how Tony has been making the suits non-stop with little to no sleep. Considering that kind of mental condition, I simply interpreted his suits being much more unpolished, even more evident when you look at the treasured yet very unreliable Mark 42.

hokay then.

 

[boylost99]

This mandarin figure is totally awesome though. And would get this over an andrian figure anyday.

 

[robbiethepainter]

If they did as good a job on Killian, I would get him too.

 

[ronri]

Isn't the labeling for this figure wrong since Guy Pearce was the the IM3 Mandarin? This figure should've just been called Trevor.

Funny part is how Kingsley was never credited as "The Mandarin" rather it was "Trevor Slattery" in the credits. So no one ever actually got credited as the Mandarin by title/name. That said, it should be noted that Shane Black did explicitly mention in an interview that Guy Pearce is meant to be the actual Mandarin, while the terrorist facade serves as his mask. Essentially he was saying that Killian is to the Mandarin as Tony is to Iron Man. Heck even back then, the actor for Savin (Killian's right hand man in the film) gave a huge hint to the twist and Killian's true role when he mentioned that Savin served as the muscle, while the Mandarin served as the mouthpiece, and that Killian served as the brains of the operation (this almost spoiled the twist for me actually, since I grew suspicious of Killian because of said interview before I even watched the film).

 

[boylost99]

If they did as good a job on Killian, I would get him too.

Only if he can glow red with extremis!! I would rather a pepper potts tbh.

 

[ronri]

Only if he can glow red with extremis!! I would rather a pepper potts tbh.

I think that's the only thing that will be hard to do with a Killian figure. While I can live with the Extremis effects just being conveyed through paint, it definitely wouldn't look as convincing as say, a light-up feature that glows through a rubber torso or something to that effect.

 

[boylost99]

I think that's the only thing that will be hard to do with a Killian figure. While I can live with the Extremis effects just being conveyed through paint, it definitely wouldn't look as convincing as say, a light-up feature that glows through a rubber torso or something to that effect.

Yup, light up will be a must buy with alternate light up head to go with normal head and battle damaged clothes and light up body.

 

[robbiethepainter]

Absolutely no interest in a Potts figure.

Light up would be cool but still a gimmick.