…Well, come on now. You didn’t really think that Kotobukiya was going to break their streak by not releasing a high-end version of Tony Stark’s final armor from Avengers: Age of Ultron, did you? That’s right–following up this year’s best-selling Mark 43 and Hulkbuster Iron Man statues, Kotobukiya is kicking off 2016 with the MCU’s most popular character as well: the ARTFX Iron Man Mark XLV statue is now available for order!

…Okay, yes. It’s another Iron Man. I’m sorry, guys. At this point I’m almost embarrassed whenever I have to discuss yet another Iron Man figure or statue that’s been announced, because there are simply so many of them now.

In fact, my first thought upon seeing the Iron Man Mark XLV Kotobukiya statue announced today was “Oh geez, there’s gonna be a lot of griping about another Iron Man”.

Hot Toys, Sideshow and basically every other Marvel licensee out there have given us what amounts to a glut of movie Iron Men over the past few years, so I can sympathize with those who were hoping for someone new to add to the Kotobukiya movie line.

That said, Iron Man is by far the most popular and marketable character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Koto has a good thing going with a burgeoning ARTFX “Hall of Armor” (minus the actual “Hall”). As long as statues of the various Iron Man armors keep selling, I see no reason why Koto should stop adding new ones to the collection.

And hey–if Koto is going to produce another Iron Man, it might as well be a good one, right? And this Iron Man Mark XLV ARTFX statue isn’t just good–it’s a great one.

While casual moviegoers may not have noticed that Robert Downey Jr. changed armors before going to Sokovia for the final throwdown with Ultron (my wife told me today she had no idea there even was a Mark 45 armor), there are definitely some major differences worth pointing out between the armors:

• Mark 43 is just a palette-swapped version of the Mark 42 armor, whereas the Mark 45 armor is a completely new design.
• The Mark XLV Iron Man armor features the first-ever hexagonal arc chest reactor, while the Mark XLIII has a standard round reactor.
• The Mark 45 is a much lighter and more vibrant read than the dark red of the Mark 43.
• Not only is the Iron Man Mark 45 armor much sleeker and more rounded than the 43, but it also has bigger and “friendlier” eyes (awwww)!

So yeah–there are certainly distinctive differences between these two armors, even if only us hardcore Iron Man lovers care about them.

The new Iron Man XLV (sculpted by M.I.C.) will come with the same sculpted display base as the XLIII came with, but apparently with less shiny silver paint used on the base. To make up for the less shiny base, however, I think this Iron Man is in a far cooler pose than his predecessor, which his hands angled upwards to show off his LED light-up palms. The statue will also feature light-up eyes and hexagonal chest reactor.

As with all of the Kotobukiya ARTFX statues (not ARTFX+–those are 1/10th scale), the Iron Man Mark XLV ARTFX figure is 1/6th scale and stands about 12″ tall.

With Bowen Designs out of the picture (for now), Koto is the only major company producing sixth scale Marvel statues to help feed hardcore fans of that size (like me!). If this was a $500 Sideshow quarter-scale Mark 45, I wouldn’t even consider it. But for this size and price-point…? Yeah, I’m in–even if it is “just another Iron Man”.

The Kotobukiya Iron Man Mark 45 ARTFX statue is now available for pre-order, and is scheduled to be released in January 2016. That’s actually a very short turnaround time by Kotobukiya standards, so I have to believe this statue has been in the pipeline for a while now despite just being announced today.

Anyone out there planning to pick up the Koto Mark 45 Iron Man sixth scale statue? If so, is it in addition to–or instead of–the other Avengers Age of Ultron Iron Man ARTFX statues?