My favorite character in The Avengers movie isn’t Captain America or Thor or Iron Man or even Loki (okay, Loki is close). No, my favorite characters in Marvel’s The Avengers film is Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. Joss Whedon can make you fanboy out over a character like nobody else, and then make you curse Whedon’s name as he ruthlessly kills that character off. Luckily, you can’t keep a good S.H.I.E.L.D. agent down, and Phil Coulson will return to screens this fall in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series. And to celebrate the occasion, the amazing Hot Toys Agent Phil Coulson Movie Masterpiece Series figure has now been released!

In a summer where the Hot Toys Avengers Hulk and Iron Man Mark VII figures are arriving, it seems pretty ludicrous, but the Hot Toys Agent Coulson 1/6 scale figure is the one I am the most excited about–by far. See, I own an uncountable number of Iron Man and Hulk toys already (though admittedly none as big as the monstrous 18″ Hot Toys Hulk that just released overseas), but I don’t own a single SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson action figure. In fact, this is only the second Coulson figure ever made (the first of which being in the Diamond Select Toys Thor Minimates line).

So yeah, I was pretty psyched to tear into the box for Coulson. Let’s get to that…. Like all Avengers Hot Toys 1/6 scale figures, Movie Masterpiece Series Agent Phil Coulson comes in a plastic tray covered by a classy slipcover. Hot Toys opted for a nice blue and black color scheme for the slipcover, which is really as good a choice as any for Coulson.

There’s a slight ding on the top right corner of my slipcover, which I could have avoided by paying Sideshow extra for a more elaborate pack out–but, well, I really didn’t want to spend an extra $15 on top of another already-pricy (but oh-so-worth-it) Hot Toys figure.

The back of the slipcover is the same dull and boring credits text we’ve come to expect on these Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series 1:6 figures. And that’s fine–I’m not exactly looking at the back of these boxes very often (or ever) anyway.

Then comes the time to slide the plastic tray containing the actual Hot Toys Agent Phil Coulson sixth-scale figure out of the slipcover. That’s where the real fun begins.

Quick impressions of Agent Coulson? He’s every bit as good as the glamor shots of him Sideshow posted on their website. The suit and tie is especially a thing of beauty. A pretty big chunk of the orders for the Agent Phil Coulson MMS figure are probably not even for people purchasing the figure because they want Coulson, but instead because they want to stick their Dark Knight Rises Batman DX-12 Bruce Wayne head on Coulson’s suited body. And y’know, that’s not a bad idea at all!

At a glance, all of the accessories like the Captain America trading cards, walkie-talkie, alternate hands, name badge, and giant Ultimate Nullifier gun all look like they’re going to be tons of fun to play with. I can’t wait to bust this Agent Coulson out of the package and get to posing him!

From up-close, it is immediately obvious that Hot Toys has knocked the likeness for actor Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson) out of the ballpark. The Agent Phil Coulson Hot Toys figure’s head sculpt has come out vastly better than the Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man Mark VII Hot Toys head did (and most every other head in the Avengers Hot Toys figure line, for that matter). Bravo, Hot Toys!

The Avengers Hot Toys Agent Phil Coulson figure was exclusive to Sideshow Collectibles in North America and is now sold out. If you want your own Agent Coulson Hot Toys figure, I strongly advise getting on the Sideshow Wait List for Coulson right now. I’ve gotten nearly every Hot Toys figure I ever put in a Wait List request for soon after sell-out, so it’s probably not too late to get yourself a Hot Toys Coulson for retail. The production numbers for the Hot Toys Coulson are almost unquestionably smaller than the numbers produced of any other Avengers Hot Toys sixth-scale figure, and Agent Coulson is likely to become vastly more popular and desirable as a 12″ figure once the Agents of SHIELD TV series premieres this fall.