San Diego Comic Con 2018 is just a day away, but Kotobukiya must have figured “Hey, why not get a head start on the competition?”, because they decided to reveal two never-before-seen ARTFX+ statues today! And hey, it’s not just “another Iron Man” and “another Captain America” either. Instead, it’s two characters Koto has never captured in this scale before: the Kotobukiya ARTFX+ Gamora and Phoenix statues are now up for order!

It’s easy for some companies’ reveals to get drowned out in the chaotic onslaught of reveals that occurs each year at SDCC, so oftentimes companies will start making their reveals before the convention even begins.

Kotobukiya seems to be utilizing that stratagem this year for at least a few of their new product announcements, because they surprised everybody by fully revealing and soliciting two new 1:10 scale Marvel statues overnight: an Infinity War ARTFX+ Gamora statue and a an X-Men Animated Series Phoenix Statue!

I haven’t been secretive at all about the fact that I’m a huge fan of the Koto X-Men 92 series of low-priced PVC statues, and I’ve been particularly looking forward to their take on Jean Grey (as her 90s Jim Lee costume is a favorite of mine).

And so, when I saw that Koto had opted for a Phoenix Jean Grey instead of Jean in the costume she wears for the vast majority of the animated series, I was pretty bummed. The Phoenix Saga is a huge deal, no questions asked—but I think more fans would’ve preferred a traditional Jim Lee Jean Grey. Hopefully we’ll still get one down the road.

As far as the actual Kotobukiya ARTFX+ Phoenix Statue goes, well… it’s fairly cool. At over 9.4” tall, it’s far and away the tallest figure in the X-Men cartoon series thus far. The green and gold of Phoenix’s costume contrast and pop well against the flame effects piece, and the expression on Jean’s face definitely isn’t friendly-casual.

That said, even in the official prototype photos, there’s two very obvious seam lines on the Phoenix Force Effects piece that I’m not a fan of at all. The seams are rather distracting to me, and while I’m not optimistic, I sure would appreciate if Koto could fix how apparent they are before releasing this PVC figure. With the $80 MSRP on this Phoenix figure, I think Koto needs to work out the kinks.

The other pre-SDCC 2018 Marvel reveal was the second entry in a series I’d honestly forgotten was a series at all: the Infinity War ARTFX+ Gamora Statue! An Infinity War Thanos was solicited a couple months back, but this is the first time that we’re saying an additional character from the movie series.

Gamora is an interesting selection for this series, since she doesn’t fight in either of the two film-ending battles (for obvious reasons). Even so, IW gave Gamora her greatest role to-date, and as Koto has never released any kind of merch for the character previously, I’m pretty jazzed to get her here.

While the Iron Studios Gamora BDS Statue from Avengers Infinity War was a rare misfire from Iron Studios, I think Kotobukiya has done an outstanding job making Gamora look both deadly AND beautiful. I wish Gamora was posed a bit more aggressively—perhaps with her sword actually raised—but this is easily the best movie Gamora statue we’ve seen from any company.

The one big downside to the ARTFX+ Gamora is the MSRP: $99.99. Even though this live-action PVC obviously features a lot more detail than Koto’s comic-based and cartoon-based figures, 100 bucks for an 8” PVC statue is a hard sell—especially with Iron Studios doing resin statues in the same size for about the same price (and DST doing larger PVC statues for less than half the price).

I think I’m going to pick up this Gamora anyway, since I think this is the best version of her out there overall—but Koto’s increasingly high prices are definitely starting to wear thin with me.

The Kotobukiya Phoenix and Gamora ARTFX+ statues are now open for pre-order, with BBTS offering $5 and $10 discounts off each, respectively. Both pieces are scheduled to be released in January 2019–and with Koto being exceedingly good at meeting release dates, I would say it’s a more than a fair chance that we’ll have both just after the new year begins.

What do you think of the pair of statues unveiled as part of Koto’s pre-San Diego Comic-Con 2018 strike, Marvel collectors? Do either of these femme fatales figures appeal to you, and do you think that they’re priced appropriately for 1:10 PVC statues?