That’s exactly how I remember Mandarin’s rings looking, too.
Remember the competently-sweded trailer for The Avengers we posted awhile back? The team behind it, Dumb Drum, have created another low-budget, shot-for-shot remake of a trailer. This time they applied their craft (supplies) to the Iron Man 3 trailer.
The way they dealt with the underwater scenes especially amused me, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say the one-second shot of the Mandarin’s fancy rings was the part that won me over. I just knew the Mandarin liked playing skee ball for the ten-ticket trinkets. People think it’s the rings that give him those powers. The ancient Chinese secret is that it’s really the skee ball games which imbue him with power. I’m not sure where I was going with this, but now I have three extra tabs open, shopping for skee ball machines.
The original trailer, for comparison: