Given the thousands of dollars of Hot Toys Avengers Age of Ultron figures that have gone up for pre-order in the past few months, I really thought that Hot Toys might be giving their collectors a week off from the financially-crippling onslaught of new pre-orders. But, as happens from time to time, I thought wrong. Not only is there a new Age of Ultron Hot Toys figure going up for order this week–but it’s a limited exclusive: the Sideshow exclusive die-cast Hot Toys War Machine Mark II is now up for order! But wait a minute… didn’t I already buy this figure…?

In one of the great merchandising bait-and-switches of all-time, Marvel told merchandisers that the War Machine Mark II armor was going to appear in the Iron Man 3 movie. As such, virtually every toy company out there, from Hasbro to Hot Toys to LEGO, went ahead and produced War Machine Mark II figures.

And then a funny thing happened–the War Machine Mark 2 armor never appeared in Iron Man 3, leaving a lot of collectors miffed about buying figures of an armor that only ever appeared in a comic book.

But it looks like Marvel Studios is finally going to right that wrong in the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie, as the War Machine Mark II armor will finally appear on-screen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! There’s just one catch: the armor is slightly different from the toys of it that were previously released, thus making the Iron Man 3 War Machine armors movie-inaccurate. Oy.

One of the first non-Avengers Hot Toys figures that I ever ordered was the die-cast War Machine Mark II figure (which I pre-ordered over two years ago–wow, time flies), and I was blown away by the incredible detail, poseability and heft of the piece when it eventually came out. Unfortunately, as beautiful as that figure is, it’s not going to be fully-authentic to what War Machine Mk II actually looks like in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

And thus, Hot Toys is now taking the opportunity to reissue that War Machine figure, but with newly repainted armor to make the figure screen-accurate–and some additions to soften the blow for fans who feel like they need to buy War Machine again now.

So what are the changes to this War Machine Hot Toys figure (which was already quite awesome to begin with, by the way)?

• The pinkinsh-red paint around War Machine’s chest reactor and eyes has been removed
• The matte grey paint on the original version has been replaced with a darker, glossier shade of grey
• An additional Rhodey head/Don Cheadle portrait is included with the new version (the original War Machine had no unmasked head)
• An Avengers Age of Ultron War Machine Mark II figure stand is included with the new version

And, well… that’s it. Not exactly a ton of changes, but it does give collectors a new stand, more accurate paint deco, and a James Rhodes “Rhodey” Don Cheadle head that was omitted with the previous version of the figure. I want my movie War Machine Mark II figure to be authentic, so I guess I’m going to sell my original (or keep it) and buy this new MMS290 War Machine Mark II.

There’s one other important thing, though: this is a Hot Toys/Sideshow Collectibles exclusive release, meaning that regular retailers like Big Bad Toy Store, AFX and so forth will not be selling this new Hot Toys AOU War Machine.

The exclusive Hot Toys Age of Ultron War Machine figure is now available for order, and will be available only through the Sideshow Collectibles website in North America. The figure has an expected release date of Q2/Q3 2015, with a specific date of August 2015 anticipated. And hey–since we’re already in Q2 2015, that’s really not too long to wait, is it?

What are your thoughts on the newly-modified War Machine Mark II Hot Toys figure, Marvel collectors? Is this a worthy addition to your screen-accurate MCU Hot Toys collection, a shameless money-grab, or somewhere in-between?