Hot Toys Iron Man 3 Mandarion action figure review

Hot Toys dips back into the Iron Man license with the release of the Mandarin. He might not be everybodies cup of tea, but at least he's not another MK suit. I do have more issues with this guy than usual, however - you can find my review at the usual:

https://www.mwctoys.com

Thanks for reading!

Michael
MWC

Good review Michael.

Fyi I found a typo: you gave the Outfit ** 1/2 during the review but in the Score Recap you scored the Outfit ***.

Whoops - fixed, thanks!

No problem

Nice review, the boots on this look like some ken doll version, so big and puffy... HTs has done better

Huh, look fine to me. Of course, they are unlaced and loose, like they were in the movie, but they don't look big to me.

I think the *** for the accessories is being too gentle. My biggest gripe is that he didn't come with a left trigger hand. Not because I want him holding a gun he didn't come with (yet another reason the score should have been lower) but because I wanted to recreate the poster pose they even used on used on the freaking box! Instead I had to settle for a mirror image of it and use the right trigger hand to achieve that pose. To me, that is just an amateur mistake and a high end, detail oriented company like HT shouldn't have overlooked that. Not to mention he didn't come with the gun he used in the early trailer - something that wasn't a movie spoiler or anything unknown before the film came out. Its one thing for a figure to be light on accessories when the character interacts with so few objects (and lets face it, there are some characters/figures that just don't have many accessories they can come with due to the nature of the character/film), but its another thing entirely when a character does only interact with a few objects doesn't even come with those key accessories.

That said, he is one of my favorite figures of 2013. The headsculpt and outfit are outstanding. Its just disappointing they would overlook things I would have considered givens. And take into account his chair is the only accessory he comes with other than alternate hands and its just aggravating. I mean the DX 13 T-800 comes with the thumbs up hand - its cool, but I'm not lowering my figure into a lava pit so its not really something that was a 'must have' accessory (I actually think Sideshow's PF exclusive is a brilliant way to capture that moment).




Great review and photos and always Michael!

Who's the Mandarion?

Why should hot toys stop overcharging? People come up with a ton of poor excuses as to why hot toys has the right to rip them off. It seems that no matter how much they charge, people continue to buy their products like candy. I wonder if there will ever be a point where people say to themselves enough! So far, I don't see that happening.

All we need is another company to start producing equally good product for less money. As big as super hero / sci fi movies are these days I'm sort of surprised someone hasn't.

I can't imagine a new company stepping into the market that could produce the quality figures Hot Toys are doing and do it for that much cheaper when you take into account their costs beginning to final production.

Best case is that they force HT to lower their asking price $25-$50 per figure, but odds are the quality won't be there so the majority will keep buying Hot Toys anyway.

I used to hope an existing company like Enterbay would suck it up and start doing top end Marvel & DC 1/6 figures but they seem content with doing obscure NBA players and whatnot.

Wor-Gar said:

Who's the Mandarion?

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And just last week, we got a review of the "Mandarine" in a different thread !

Wor-Gar said:

Who's the Mandarion?

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Mandarins black cousin

Michael Crawford said:

Huh, look fine to me. Of course, they are unlaced and loose, like they were in the movie, but they don't look big to me.

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looks laced up to me

What?!.. No accessory 1/6 cans of beer with this figure?.. Hot Toys, I'm outraged.. where is the loyalty to the source material?!