The moment that it was revealed that The Mandarin would be the primary antagonist in this summer’s “Iron Man 3” movie, speculation began to run rampant as to whether or not Hot Toys would produce an Iron Man 3 Mandarin Movie Masterpiece Series figure. While it would only seem logical for Hot Toys to make a sixth-scale figure of The Mandarin, I’ve heard numerous people insist that the Hot Toys Iron Man 3 figure line would be limited to the various armor suits seen in the movie. Luckily, Hot Toys decided to step in this morning and remove all doubt…

As gorgeous as every Hot Toys Iron Man armor produced has been, the increasing number of Iron Man Hot Toys figures has brought with it a wave of griping and pessimism. Many collectors are complaining about Hot Toys pushing aside other licenses (such as the Hot Toys X-Men First Class line) in order to concentrate on more Iron Man figures. This led to some fans even speculating that there would be no Movie Masterpiece Mandarin figure released by Hot Toys for Iron Man 3, despite the fact that Hot Toys produced the villains from both previous Iron Man movies (including the insanely huge, complex, and expensive Iron Monger sixth-scale figure).

This may have led to the assertion that Hot Toys made today, where they officially announced that a Hot Toys Iron Man 3 The Mandarin Movie Masterpiece Series sixth-scale figure was in the works. Though all they had to show off was one teaser photo (that looks so good that I honestly thought it was the Mandarin promotional screenshot for the Iron Man 3 movie shown above and not a photo of the actual figure), Hot Toys obviously sensed it was important to assure fans that the legendary Marvel Comics super villain would be making his Hot Toys appearance at some point.

No price, release date, or further details of any kind are available pertaining to the Iron Man 3 Hot Toys Mandarin Movie Masterpiece Series 1/6th scale figure at this time. It seems likely that the Mandarin MMS won’t be released until early 2014 at this point, but it’s possible Hot Toys is further along with the figure than we know. I’ll post an update with more details as soon as Hot Toys releases more information about their 1/6 Mandarin Iron Man 3 Movie Masterpiece figure.