With the huge announcement yesterday of Sideshow Collectibles becoming the official online and global distributor for Pop Culture Shock Collectible, Sideshow is slowly taking over the high-end statue world. And in the wake of that major acquisition, what better time for Sideshow to solicit the very first piece in a new ongoing series of Marvel statues? The Sideshow Exclusive Iron Man Extremis Mark II Statue is now up for order–the first piece in the all-new Adi Granov Series!

While Marvel statue collectors have been looking forward to seeing a variety of teased products at SDCC 2018 next week (including the full reveals of the new 1/4 X-23, Psylocke and Rogue statues!), one item that I don’t think was on anyone’s radar until recently–because we didn’t know it existed at all!–was the inaugural statue in a new series of Adi Granov statues.

Iron Man is perhaps the single most merchandised Marvel character over the course of the past decade, but props to Sideshow for finding an Iron Man armor permutation that’s a pretty drastic aesthetic departure from the rest for this first Adi Granov series release! Let’s take a look…

Now, a lot of collectors will likely hear that this piece is a 1:5 scale statue instead of 1:4 and immediately reject it. But looking at the dimensions of this piece and seeing that it’s already 21.5″ tall to begin with, I’m okay with this being a “smaller” piece. I’ve been really pleased with the slightly smaller display that the Avengers Assemble statues have taken up, so another 1/5 line of Marvel statues isn’t really a deal-breaker for me.

What might be a real deal-breaker on this first statue in the series, however, is the price. While $500+ is the going rate for 1/4 Premium Format Figures these days, I’m not sure that I’m ready to fork out $505 (or $520 for the Exclusive Version) for a 1/5 statue (that’s not monstrously huge like the Hulk) just yet.

I think the high price on this introductory piece is a real shame, as even though this is a good size and features a lot of detail and complicated elements, many collectors who would have bitten for a lower price-point for a first piece are probably just going to avoid this line as a whole for $500+.

The base for this Iron Man Extremis Maquette is incredibly elaborate and beautifully sculpted, but I think Sideshow might have been better served in this instance going with something simpler for the base that could have allowed for a lower price-point.

The favorite Exclusive item for EX statues to come with is typically an alternate head/portrait, and Sideshow went with the popular choice for this piece. The Exclusive Edition will come with both the regular helmeted head and also an interchangeable unmasked Tony Stark portrait.

Generally speaking, I like having switch-out Tony Stark heads for my statues and figures. In this case, I’m actually a bit lukewarm, however–given the dramatic battle pose that this Extremis Iron Man Statue is in, Tony having his face-plate open mid-fight just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. If I do go for this statue, I’d seriously think about going for the regular version and save myself 15 bucks, personally.

The Sideshow Collectibles Extremis Iron Man Mark II Maquette is now up for order, and is scheduled to be released in spring 2019. I’ll be paying close attention to any information that Sideshow shares regarding this new Adi Granov series at San Diego Comic Con 2018 next week, as my curiosity is definitely piqued as to whether this line is meant to cover other characters or just variations of Iron Man himself.

What are your thoughts on the newest addition to the Sideshow Collectibles Marvel statues family, Marvel collectors? Are you willing to consider statues in unusual scales like 1:5 at all, and if so, what other characters (or armors) would you like to see in the Adi Granov Series? Is this Extremis Mark II Iron Man Maquette something that you can picture in your collection?