Earlier today on this 4th of July holiday, Hot Toys announced their 2013 Toy Fair Exclusive Captain America Star-Spangled Man Version sixth scale figure! Hot Toys isn’t the only high-end Marvel collectible manufacturer feeling patriotic, today, though! As part of their Online Comic Con 2013 celebration, Sideshow Collectibles announced their Iron Man 3 Iron Patriot Life-Size Bust today and revealed their first preview photo of the gorgeous piece!

Some people would think that in an economy that isn’t exactly at its strongest, there would be no place for $1000 life-sized superhero busts. Those people would be wrong, and Sideshow Collectibles will continue their tradition of releasing 1:1 scale busts with this incredible Iron Man 3 Iron Patriot life-size bust.

The only word I can think of to describe the sculpting and paintwork on this Iron Patriot bust is “awe-inspiring”. For me, this is easily the most impressive 1:1 scale life-size bust I’ve ever seen from Sideshow Collectibles (and that’s saying a lot given some of their amazing offerings).

Sideshow Collectibles is lagging behind a bit with some of their Iron Man 3 products, and at this point it’s likely that the bust won’t be coming until spring 2014. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though–this life-sized Iron Patriot bust is going to be expensive. Based on the design seen in the preview photo, I would estimate that this bust is going to cost an absolute minimum of $799.99, but more likely it will cost in the vicinity of $999.99.

This isn’t the first time James Rhodes has shown up in 1:1 form. Sideshow released an Iron Man 2 War Machine life-size bust in 2012 that has become exceedingly rare and which has sold for over $1300 on eBay recently (when you can find it at all). Taking that into consideration, $1000 straight-up for the Iron Man 3 Iron Patriot 1:1 bust doesn’t seem quite as bad. It’s still well out of the range that I’m willing to spend for any one high-end collectible, but I know a lot of collectors are already drowning in puddles of their own drool just looking at this Iron Patriot bust preview image.

The prototype for this Life-Size Iron Patriot bust looks like it’s essentially finished, so look for this bust to go up for order on the Sideshow Collectibles website later this month. I’ll post an update with the specifics on the Sideshow Iron Patriot Life Size Bust, including the price and release date, once the Iron Man 3 Iron Patriot bust goes up for sale.