For several years now, many collectors have considered the Hot Toys Marvel 1/6 figures to be the best Marvel figures on the market right now (and quite possibly ever). But maybe–just maybe–you’ve been waiting for something bigger than sixth scale. Something along the lines of a super-articulated Sideshow Premium Format Figure statue. If that sounds like you, you’re in luck–the 20″ Hot Toys 1/4 Iron Man Mark 43 figure is now up for order!

Hot Toys announced last year that they had acquired a license to produce 1/4th scale Avengers Age of Ultron collectibles. At the time, they hadn’t specified whether that license was to produce 1/4 statues or figures–but now we know for sure, as Hot Toys has  now announced their first ever quarter -scale Marvel figure: the 1/4 Iron Man Mark 43!

I am not a quarter scale figure collector, and as I have increasing space and monetary limits for my collecting, I’m hoping that I never become one. That said, this Hot Toys 1/4 Iron Man Mark XLIII figure looks gorgeous, and will make for a mighty tempting piece for Hot Toys to try to transition 1/6th collectors over to their new quarter-scale line.

The proportions on this Iron Man Mark XLIII Hot Toys figure look to be spot-on perfect, and the Robert Downey Jr. Tony Stark head is the best that Hot Toys has ever done (as it should be, with the increased size of the head for Hot Toys’ sculptors to work with).

While it won’t be quite as gigantic as the Hulkbuster Iron Man MMS coming our way next year, this will be the second-largest Iron Man Hot Toys figure ever released by Hot Toys, as it stands a humongous 49 cm (or 20″) tall. That’s a mighty big Iron Man!

All of the features we’ve come to expect from Hot Toys Iron Man figures will be present in the QS005 Iron Man Mark 43 figure, including extra sets of interchangeable hands, a ton of LED lights built into various areas of the armor, and over 40 points of super-articulated goodness!

And rather than coming with a plain old figure stand, the Iron Man Mark 43 1/4 figure comes with a super-detailed, elaborate base featuring a downed Ultron Sentry upon it.

I think that the Ultron Sentry wreckage on the base adds a lot to the piece, but if it distracts you, you’re in luck–the Ultron Sentry’s head and arm are both removable (and by “removable”, I mean that Tony Stark can be posed ripping them off–awesome).

Of course, the big question is: “How much is this beauty going to cost?” The Hong Kong price for the Hot Toys QS005 Iron Man Mark XLIII is $3400 HKD–the equivalent of about $440 USD.

After Sideshow’s markup for importing the figure, however, it’s retailing for $544.99 US. That ends up being about $200 more than the die-cast Iron Man Mark 43 figure–which is rather steep, even if this figure is more than 50% larger than the die-cast, sixth scale Mark 43 Iron Man.

The 1/4 Hot Toys Iron Man Mark 43 figure is now up for order, and is expected to be released in Q4 2015/Q1 2016. With the hype surrounding Avengers Age of Ultron and the increasingly large high-end collecting community, I’m very curious to see how quickly Hot Toys is able to sell through their first Marvel quarter-scale figure.

Are you excited about the advent of quarter-scale Marvel Hot Toys figures, Marvel collectors? Are you looking to get into collecting these 18″ giant figures, or is this new line just too big–or expensive–for your tastes?