It seemed like the wait would go on forever, but I finally blinked and reopened my eyes to discover that the week of San Diego Comic Con 2013 has arrived! While many companies are keeping their biggest surprises safely under wraps until the show begins, Hot Toys is on a mission to get fans excited with a series of teasers. And today we’ve got their second SDCC 2013 Iron Man 3 teaser: it’s the just-announced Hot Toys Iron Man Gemini Armor Mark 39 Movie Masterpiece Series figure!

UPDATE 7/17: The Iron Man 3 Gemini Armor MMS has now been revealed at SDCC 2013!

Leading up to the arrival of “Iron Man 3” in theaters this summer, fandom was ablaze with seemingly endless discussion and speculation as to which of the Iron Man armors would feature significantly in the “Iron Man 3” movie and how. One of the most talked-about armors of all was the gorgeous Gemini Iron Man Mark 39 armor, the Sub Orbital Suit.

The Iron Man 3 Gemini armor was one of the earliest shown and most publicized of all the Iron Man 3 armor designs, leading many to believe it would play a key role in the movie (perhaps with Tony Stark traveling into deep space for a portion of the movie). After all, since this was the only Tony Stark armor from “Iron Man 3” to receive a Funko POP! Vinyl figure, clearly the Iron Man Gemini suit must be important, right? Right…?

Well… no. Actually, the Gemini suit appears for split-seconds in the movie and does little to nothing. I saw “Iron Man 3” twice on an IMAX screen and I genuinely haven’t been able to spot the Iron Man Mark 39 Gemini armor on-screen yet… at all. But hey, the suit’s design is still super slick, right?

Hot Toys must feel like the suit still has some life and popularity left, because they’re willing to invest tens of thousands of dollars into the development of a Movie Masterpiece Series Gemini Iron Man 1/6 scale figure, which they’ve now released their first teaser photo of. Also, the rumors I’m hearing are that this Sub Orbital Gemini Iron Man Hot Toys figure is going to be a plain old, non-diecast Movie Masterpiece Series figure.

Could it be that the Hot Toys Iron Patriot and Iron Man Mark 42 Diecast MMS figures are experiencing slow sales, leading Hot Toys to see the error of their ways? With the Iron Man Igor armor and possibly the Gemini armor to both be released as regular plastic MMS figures, does this open the floodgates for more non-diecast Hot Toys Iron Man 3 armors? As this is the first new Iron Man 3 armor announced since the movie was released, it’s entirely feasible that announcements were put on hold in order to start developing the armors with little screen-time as regular MMS figures instead of Hot Toys diecast MMS. Hopefully we’ll find out in just a few days!

The Hot Toys Iron Man 3 Gemini Armor Iron Man Mark 39 Movie Masterpiece Series sixth-scale figure is expected to debut at San Diego Comic Con 2013 later this week. I’ll post a plethora of photos of the Gemini Iron Man and all of the other Marvel Hot Toys figures shown on the event after the show opens and they’re unveiled for the world to see. And you can ‘Like’ Marvel Toy News on Facebook to have news, photos and updates sent straight to your Facebook Newsfeed!