I’m an X-Men guy at heart, and “my” iconic X-Men are the Jim Lee X-Men designs that made up the 90’s X-Men squads. It was the 1990’s X-Men cartoon series that really got me hooked on reading superhero comics, and as such, I’m a total mark for any new X-Men collectibles from that era. So when Sideshow announced their next statue, I was both thrilled as an X-Men collector and despairing as someone with limited funds–the exclusive edition of the Sideshow Premium Format Jean Grey statue is now available for order!

Jean Grey is not one of my favorite X-Men characters. Her best stories were before my time, and I grew up with her basically just being Cyclops’ babe and second-in-command. That said, while I never had a particular affinity for Jean Grey the character, I love the Jim Lee Jean Grey costume. Love it.

Thus, when I heard Sideshow Collectibles was making a Jean Grey Premium Format Figure, my wallet prayed that it wouldn’t be a Jim Lee Jean Grey (while my heart secretly prayed that it was). It seems my heart won out, as the Premium Format Jean Grey statue has now been officially revealed!

Jean Grey will come with a traditional red X-Men logo base, which is a perfectly elegant and simple base for her to stand upon. I really don’t feel any need for a fancy, expensive base to distract from Jean, so I’m good with the standard logo base.

Thankfully, the Premium Format Figure Jean Grey is going to be much cheaper than the $450-$550 Thor and Hulk Premium Format Figures that Sideshow has put up for sale over the course of the last month. $359.99 is still nowhere close to “cheap”, but it’s a much easier price to swallow than the crazy $550 for the Red Hulk I pre-ordered a couple weeks ago.

The one thing that I’m really not digging about this statue is Jean’s eyes–or rather, the lack of pupils in Jean’s eyes. I know sometimes Jean Grey’s pupils disappeared and her eyes went all white when she was using her powers, but it doesn’t feel natural to me for her eyes to be all white on this statue.

I’ll deal with it, as the statue looks fabulous otherwise, but I wish at least one of Jean’s heads came with pupils in her eyes. And speaking of the multiple Premium Format Jean Grey heads…

I’m very happy to see that there will be a limited Sideshow Jean Grey Exclusive Edition version released through the website. This particular exclusive edition is especially enticing for me, as it’s a whole other alternate head for Jean Grey with her ponytail hair from the 90’s X-Men cartoon series!

I love both the comic book and anime looks for the 90’s era Jean Grey, so having the option of displaying Jean with her flowing long hair or ponytail is a must for me.

The Sideshow Exclusive Edition Jean Grey Premium Format Figure will go up for pre-order on Thursday afternoon 4/17/2014. I already have quite a few items on pre-order for this year, but I definitely don’t want to miss the exclusive Jean Grey Premium Format statue, so what’s a couple more months of Flexpay, right?

What do you think of the new Sideshow Jean Grey statue, Marvel fans? Are you hoping to add this Premium Format Jean Grey to your collection? Is this the version of Jean Grey you would have wanted to receive the Premium Format Figure treatment, or were you hoping for the Phoenix Jean Grey instead?