The general consensus I’m hearing about the new Marvel Legends Sabretooth figure that went up for pre-order this week is that fans think the first appearance look is novel… but what they really want is a buff 90s styled Sabretooth. While it may be another year (or more until Hasbro gets to that iteration, fans wanting a killer representation of Creed in this approximate scale sooner aren’t entirely out of luck. The recent X-Men Iron Studios Sabretooth statue is just about the right size figure, and a real beauty of a 1:10 statue as well…

I’ve always been more into heroes than villains, so given that Wolverine is one of my least favorite X-Men, it’s not a plot twist that his villainous counterpart isn’t high on my list either. As a kid, Sabretooth was one of a select group of early Toybiz X-Men figures I had zero interest in. I passed on his first, second and even third versions of his action figures.

It wasn’t until the Age of Apocalypse comic books showed us a heroic Sabretooth that I started to warm up to the psychotic killer. That, and playing as him in 90s Capcom fighting games. Nothing like gutting M. Bison with ol’ Victor Creed!

Over the years I’ve gained more respect for Sabes, and I got my first-ever statue of him a couple years back—the spectacular Sideshow Premium Format Figure 1/4 that was sculpted by Martin Canale for Sideshow Collectibles. But as much as I love that statue, I never felt like it quite captured “my” perfect representation of 90s Sabretooth.

This new Iron Studios Sabretooth statue doesn’t have that problem. At a glance, there’s no doubt that this is Jim Lee Sabretooth through and through—which is precisely what (I think) a majority of X-men fans are looking for in a sculpture of this character.

As usual, this latest addition to the Iron Studios X-Men Battle Diorama Series (BDS) comes in a nicely-colored graphic art box that does an excellent job spotlighting the piece inside.

The resin Sabretooth BDS itself comes in just two pieces: the figure and the base. Sabretooth has a metal rod in his foot that effortlessly slides into the base, and the figure is light enough to be maneuvered without any problems (even by weak, half-blind me).

I’m over Sentinel debris bases, but at least this is a destroyed Sentinel hand and not yet another head. The “freshly severed and destroyed “ orange-painted side of the hand base is rather distracting and I’m not a fan at all, but otherwise the base looks superb (even if Sentinel bases have been run into the ground at this point).

This statue was limited to being produced for a span of time rather than a specific number, so there’s no numbering on the bottom of the base. Even without a set number, sold out characters like Gambit, Colossus and Omega Red are all getting expensive and hard to find, however—I suspect Sabretooth will follow this trend as soon as all specialty stores are sold out of him.

The portrait on the Sabretooth Iron Studios statue is pure win. The fanged, crazed smile looks almost gleeful, making Creed look suitably malevolent. I think this might be the best Sabretooth head sculpt I’ve ever seen from any company. Love it.

The dynamic pose looks like it’s ripped straight from a Marvel comic book cover. I love how Sabretooth is menacingly flexing one hand and getting ready to slash and maim an adversary with the claws on the other. Creed is looking positively lethal and intimidating here.

The detailing on this 1/10 scale statue is a triumph. There’s little stitching details running down the “seam” on Sabretooth’s costume, his “mane” looks appropriately floofy and fur-like on his back, and the paint wash shading really makes the sculpted, bulky musculature pop. Despite being well under half the size, this might be as detailed (or more!) than my Sideshow Sabretooth statue. Amazing.

I’m not shy about admitting that most of my vision is shot since my strokes and I can sometimes miss some things, but this piece is so terrific that it’s really hard for me to find any major flaws in it even after a lengthy examination. The work Iron Studios is doing at this scale and price-point is really unbelievable.

Overall: In my mind, this is the best Sabretooth statue ever released. The vicious sneer, dynamic pose, lethal claws, intricate sculpting detail and perfectly-proportioned powerful anatomy are all dead on. The orange edge of the Sentinel hand base is rather jarring, but it only slightly brings down an otherwise phenomenal piece. Well worth its $170-ish MSRP and one of Iron Studios’ best early X-statues. Great stuff.

GRADE: A