Did Chris Evans Get Plastic Surgery?
It’s been more than seven years since we last saw Chris Evans play Steve Rogers in Avengers: Endgame. Evans was 38 in 2019, and he’s 45 today. That’s worth remembering before we start comparing the new Hot Toys head sculpt with the Captain America we’ve had on our shelves all these years.
Many of us remember him in the Endgame Captain America suit or his Infinity War suit with that rugged beard. If you look at the comparison photo below, showing Chris at 38 compared with how he looks today, the Hot Toys head sculpt starts making a little more sense.
We’re also having this conversation before any of us has seen the finished film. We don’t know what other expressions or scenes might stand out once we’ve watched him play Steve again. When the Avengers: Doomsday trailer hit YouTube, plenty of fans were surprised by his appearance, and rumors started flying around about whether he got Botox or plastic surgery.
The discussion picked up enough that media outlets such as Yahoo reported on the Chris Evans plastic surgery rumors. Some fans wondered whether he’d gone under the knife, while others simply said it was due to aging, his new beard or the lighting. In the reporting, there was no confirmation from his reps that he got plastic surgery.
The more I look at this new Hot Toys Steve Rogers head sculpt beside recent photos of Evans, the more I can see him in it. That wasn’t my first reaction to the reveal, and some of the promotional shots still don’t do it any favors. But I don’t think this is as simple as saying Hot Toys forgot what Chris Evans looks like.
Sometimes the Photos Are the Problem
The image below is a great example of how important it is for Hot Toys to choose which promotional shots to use and which ones to get rid of. Looking at this photo, the head sculpt looks like a total fail to me. I can imagine plenty of fellow collectors seeing it and immediately thinking Hot Toys had really screwed this one up.
You start to wonder who is approving these photos and whether they’re paying attention to what they’re putting out. The angle, the lighting, the blue background and that wide-eyed expression all work against the figure. No one should have let this image leave the boardroom.
JC Hong to the Rescue? Well, Maybe…
A few hours after Hot Toys revealed the figure, JC Hong shared photos of the actual prototype head sculpt. By then, I think the promotional photos had already done the damage.
Hot Toys’ official Facebook and Instagram pages reach millions of collectors, much more than JC’s own pages. He has a dedicated following, but plenty of collectors who saw the reveal might never see these photos. That’s a shame, because you can see how much better the head sculpt looks in some simple photos of it held in hand.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Hot Toys needs to include simple in-hand photos when it reveals new figures. Keep the promotional shots, but give us these views too. I want to see what the head sculpt actually looks like without dramatic lighting getting in the way, and I know I’m not the only collector asking for that.
Now look at the Avengers: Doomsday still from GQ Magazine below. You can see the similarities between 2026 Evans and the head sculpt much more clearly. Are they spot on? Absolutely not. But the resemblance is there, and it’s easier to see than that blue-background promotional photo would have you believe.
We’re still looking at a prototype, so Hot Toys has time to make improvements. The question is whether they will. I’d like to see more photos of this head sculpt on the figure before deciding how much it needs changing, because these different views have already changed my first impression.
The Head Sculpt Better Be Amazing With an Outfit Like That!
Brown boots, brown trousers, a brown jacket and a black T-shirt. It’s a big change from the Captain America suits we’re used to, and there isn’t much here to distract you if the head sculpt sucks.
Mjolnir helps identify Steve, but the face is going to be one of the first things you notice in a display. With an outfit this simple, the head sculpt and body need to look great together.
That said, I can see this outfit growing on me after watching the film. If Steve has a great scene wearing these clothes, I might end up wanting this exact look on the shelf. We’ve all had figures become more appealing after seeing the scenes they’re based on.
Hot Toys Has Been in the Hot Seat Before
This isn’t the first time a Hot Toys head sculpt has stirred up drama in the community. Let’s take a look at three of their greatest hits.
Iron Man Mark 85 and the “Tony Stank” Replacement
The Iron Man Mark 85 caused the biggest drama of these three. Hot Toys advertised a newly developed Tony Stark head sculpt with authentic Robert Downey Jr. likeness, then released a noticeably different production head sculpt in December 2020.
Collectors weren’t happy. The narrower face, different jaw and nose proportions, expression and hair all came under fire. It didn’t take long for “Tony Stank” to become the nickname everyone remembered.
After serious backlash from the community, Hot Toys stepped up and offered customers an exchange. I can’t remember them offering a head sculpt exchange like that before. The replacement used a Mark 50 head sculpt with modified hair.
The exchange wasn’t one simple worldwide process. Hot Toys Hong Kong, Hot Toys Japan and Toysapiens, Sideshow, and authorized retailers handled their exchanges. Japan’s replacement head sculpts didn’t finish shipping until December 2021, a year after the figure was released.
Hot Toys did something about the complaints, which I give them credit for, but collectors still had to go through the exchange and wait. That experience is why people get nervous when a prototype head sculpt like Steve Rogers drops. If it looks off to them, they hold back on preordering to see whether Hot Toys actually fixes what they’re unhappy with.
Ant-Man and That Stupid Smile
I remember when the Ant-Man and the Wasp figure was announced. My first thought was that Hot Toys had either lost the rights to Paul Rudd’s likeness or was pranking the community.
That smile was ridiculous. The huge mouth, exposed gums and large-looking teeth took over the whole face, and the eyes didn’t seem to be smiling along with it.
I hoped it would change before release. Instead, that was the exact head sculpt that came with the final production version.
To this day, I still wonder whether something happened behind the scenes that pushed Hot Toys into releasing it. For me, it’s one of the worst head sculpts Hot Toys has ever released.
Iron Man Mark VI 2.0: He Looks High
The Iron Man Mark VI 2.0 is another head sculpt I’ll never understand. Some collectors liked the faint smile and thought it was a great Tony Stark likeness. I wasn’t one of them.
The goofy expression looks like Tony got into Grandma’s special brownies and then remembered he had to go save the world.
Whoever signed off on that expression needs to take another look at what collectors expect from an Iron Man figure. It’s 2026. If you’re paying $450 for one and that’s the head sculpt you receive, you shouldn’t have to talk yourself into liking it.
It almost makes you want to try some of Grandma’s special brownies yourself, just to forget the pain.
