Hot Toys is preparing to lay siege to collectors’ future dollars when they unveil a multitude of new Movie Masterpiece Series sixth scale figures this week at San Diego Comic Con 2013 including Heartbreaker Iron Man, Gemini Iron Man, The Lone Ranger, Tonto and more. But that’s not all–they’ll also be showing off a now fully-painted final prototype figure to add to one of the most successful Hot Toys lines ever–it’s the long-awaited Avengers Hot Toys Chitauri Footsoldier figure! And could the Chitauri be joined by a Hot Toys gamma-powered alter-ego figure as well this week…?

It was almost a full year ago that Hot Toys debuted the early prototype of the Avengers Chitauri Hot Toys figure. Since then, there’s been virtually no updates on the figure and little assurance that the alien warriors would ever be released at all. The usual doom and gloom discussions followed, with many collectors concluding that the Hot Toys Chitauri Footsoldier Movie Masterpiece Series figure must be can cancelled.

But at long last, we have confirmation that not only is the Chitauri Footsoldier Hot Toys Avengers figure still on the release schedule, but the fully painted Chitauri prototype will be on display–fully painted and ready for production–for the very first time at this week’s 2013 SDCC!

I know a lot of fans have been hoping for the Chitauri to be “value-priced” at $200 or less, or are even hoping for $300-$350 Chitauri Footsoldier Armybuilder two-packs, but I just don’t see any way that feasibly in the cards. The Chitauri aliens are big characters–Predator sized–and with current Hot Toys pricing, it’s bordering on the impossible that the Chitauri Hot Toys sixth scale figure will cost less than $200-$220.

Besides the Chitauri Foot Soldier, there’s one other Hot Toys Avengers Movie Masterpiece figure that we’ve seen early prototypes of but not seen any progress on lately: Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). The last time the higher-ups at Hot Toys discussed the Bruce Banner Hot Toys figure, they said it wasn’t ready to show yet because the Mark Ruffalo likeness hadn’t been approved. Could the Avengers Hot Toys Bruce Banner Mark Ruffalo figure finally debut this weekend at SDCC 2013 alongside the Chitauri? We won’t have long to wait to find out!

San Diego Comic Con 2013 begins tomorrow night–Wednesday, July 17th–with this year’s SDCC Preview Night. We may see the new painted Chitauri Footsoldier unveiled as early as then–and who knows what (or who) else could be on display alongside it? And if you want news, updates and photos from SDCC sent straight to your Facebook Newsfeed, be sure to follow Marvel Toy News on Facebook!