Why is that and which toys?
I meant that, being an Ironfan, I looked forward to getting Hot Toys versions of his villains. But the MCU treated them all poorly, so I never got to have my favourites from the comics represented as figures. Iron Monger/Stane was good enough, albeit massively changed. I like Bridges, but the figure's too expensive and clunky for my blood. Meanwhile Vanko/Crimson Dynamo was wasted and turned into Not-Blacklash-now-called-Whiplash. His look in the comics was cooler too:
I get why Rourke's pissed, as they changed everything from what the original IM2 was supposed to be. Moving on, much as I like Rockwell, his character never got a figure so I don't have a Justin Hammer. Iron Patriot was wasted as a repaint for Rhodey and didn't look nearly as cool as the comic version:
Ghost was changed so much that I don't even understand why they used that name. 616 Ghost was a corporate saboteur who was basically the Unabomber with a cool suit. Then he got a creepier redesign and became a fan favourite:
The MCU version has literally nothing in common with the character apart from them both wearing white and having red lights on their head. The powers too, kinda. But that's not Ghost. They destroyed the Mandarin with Slattery, then that Guy Pearce villain who was a one-appearance no-name from the comics. They also ruined AIM as all that was AIM about them was their name. And now with Shang-Chi they completely ruined the Mandarin. It's just a goddamn shame that Iron Man's an A-Lister and there's not one villain figure I want to buy and pair him with. I'm more interested in some day hunting down the Neon Suits to put in a Tron display, than buying the "canon" armours.
The Mandarin......
Now known as Wenwu.
They obviously did this to separate themselves from the shady character's racially portrayed past of Fu Manchu. But why drop The Mandarin name? Because it was associated with Fu? I doubt it is because of Trevor from IM3. No, because they don't want this character at all associated with the Marvel Comics Mandarin and upset those Chinese folk.
Meanwhile.... China still will not show this movie. Glad the rest of the world can't use the characters correct name to appease a box office giant for money... And still they said FU to Disney. Just like Mulan. They don't want American Made Asian movies. Even if made by and staring Asian Americans.
I predict this figure will also be around as long as Trevor was... (and Shangchi as well).
Looks great though.
I still don't get why the Mandarin was considered racist. Even in the old comics he's specifically distinct from the Chinese Government and does his own thing. He's LARPing as a descendant of Genghis Khan and wants to create an Empire. He's no more racist than the myriad of "country X stereotypes turned supergenius villain" types. By the same logic all the German villains (Skull, Zemo, Strucker, Zola, etc) are racist, Doom is racist, Midas is racist, Blofeld is racist, and so on. Hell, Dracula is the original "non-WASP foreigner who wants to **** our women" villain and he's a classic. I guess the Balkans and Germany should go file some complaints...
Fine, you want to distance him from the Fu Manchu look, I get it. The droopy mustache always looked silly anyhow. But comics Mandarin was a badass techno-sorcerer supergenius martial artist. I always loved that guy and I don't get why he's got to be trashed everytime. Hell, the armoured look from Armoured Adventures was great:
I'd have bought a proper Mandarin in a heartbeat. In a business suit, in his robes, in some type of armour, whatever. But I'm not buying a guy named Wenwu, who's dressed in blue, wears bracelets and is not a long-haired techno-sorcerer. I hope at least Armour Wars and Ironheart, much as I don't care about Cheadle's Rhodes or Ree-Ree, give us something like Hammer in a suit (Titanium Man rework? Detroit Steel?) or Zeke Stane. Something!
It's telling that I was Iron-crazed for nearly two decades, and I still only own a single HT Ironfig; the Endgame suit. Nothing about MCU Iron Man was appealing to me. Even their versions of classic suits (Silver Centurion, Ultimate, Extremis) sucked. Rescue going purple and being churned out in a haste was underwhelming too. Maybe one day I'll get a War Machine just to have one, but Cheadle simply sucks so much at the role. Now that I think of it, I don't have a Widow either, and I used to love SHIELD. But I suppose that was mainly because of Fury & Stark. Same as my Marvel Horror phase, once the years pass, you're left with maybe one or two wants instead of wanting the whole lot. I guess that's natural. They count on the hype getting us to buy stuff that 5 years later we'll look at and go "eh". I'd still buy a 616 Fury and the Iron Foes I mentioned above, but I come to same conclusion egarding the majority of properties we get into; eventually you spread yourself too thin and from the 10, 15 characters per theme/property you "like", it's really only 2 or 3 that really stay with you.
IDK - Tony Leung is considered an icon of Asian cinema, so there will probably be more demand for this than you think. Maybe not as much by collectors stateside, but we're not the only market.
Leung's a darling of the 90s/00s indie scene all over the world, but I doubt the people who loved Chungking Express want to buy a Not!Mandarin dolly for 250$+ shipping & taxes. The Asian market loves robots most of all. Even something made distinctly for the Asian market, like Captain Harlock, never sold all that well. He might do better there, but not to the point of rivalling some flashier and more well known characters. I love lots of actors too, but I'd not pay 300 euros if I didn't care for the character and/or design. I might be tempted, but much as I like Jake Gyllenhaal, I'm more likely to go back and buy a Dastan since I already love the old PoP games, than to get a Mysterio.