Ever since Sideshow Collectibles debuted the painted prototype of their upcoming new iteration of the Lethal Protector last July, fans have been asking when they’ll have the opportunity to place their pre-orders for the hulking 23” brute. Well, out of nowhere and with little fanfare, that day has arrived: the new 1/4 Sideshow Venom Premium Format Figure is now up for order! How much will this massive monster set you back, and is he worth the spatial and monetary cost? Let’s take a look…

Venom is one of the few Marvel villains that I expect to see new statues of almost every single year, so it wasn’t a stunner when Sideshow first announced they were working on a new iteration of the character last summer.

And just like in 2017, we are being blessed with a new Carnage PF as well. Carnage went up for sale last year, and now, after a lengthy wait, Eddie Brock is ready to join Cletus on our pre-orders roll call! How did this 1/4 Venom statue turn out?

As expected from the world’s most popular symbiote, the new Venom Sideshow statue is suitably bulky and muscle bound, with an insane amount of alien texture covering the powerhouse from head to toe.

Given the monstrous dimensions of this piece (23” high by 18.5” wide by 20” deep), I was near-certain the price-tag would be well over $700 in today’s resin market. To my astonishment, this Venom PF is actually retailing for “just” $650–only $25 more than the previous iteration from 2017 (my favorite Venom statue to this day).

Given how explosively prices have been riding statue industry-wide over the last couple years, I’d say that the MSRP on this is downright shockingly low. Sideshow must be expecting a huge amount of orders for this to bring down the production costs!

This statue has been sculpted by Martin Canale, who has far more hits than misses and has become one of my favorite sculptors thanks to his work on the X-Men Sabretooth and Cable statues from recent years. Canale has included a plethora of the gritty details that he’s so well-known for to this statue, including an impressively designed musculature and creepy symbiotic slimy tongue.

If you’re wondering why Venom looks like he’s stomping forward in a moat of mutagenic ooze, SS has concocted a story in their product description of how Eddie is lurking in the sewers beneath OsCorp, explaining the green chemicals and Goblin Glider debris. Whatever. I love crazy colors like neon green on my statues, and I think the ooze looks really neat and appropriate for a Venom statue, even if the story behind it is rather contrived.

Spidey gets a nod in this piece as well, as Venom is holding a torn-off Spider-Man mask in his outstretched left hand. The statue can be positioned to obscure the mask if you don’t like it, but I think it adds a hint of lethality to the figure.

General reaction I’ve seen to this product has been positive so far, with the primary criticism being that some folks dislike the head sculpt. I would have preferred an interchangeable McFarlane style head myself, but I think the portrait here looks great from some angles—and kind of smooshed-faced and less-great from others. It’s definitely not my favorite Venom head sculpt I’ve ever seen, but it is far, far from the worst.

A few folks have griped about the dark blue coloration mixed into the paint, but that sort of comic book-like shading is my jam and I far prefer it to a straight-up midnight black Venom. Your aesthetic preferences may vary.

The Sideshow Venom Premium Format Figure is now up for order, and scheduled to arrive in fall 2022 (September-November). That’s a lightning-fast turnaround time these days, and SS is one of the few companies I see that’s not regularly being hindered by delays on their own products. Get those 6-month payment plans started now if you know this is a must-have piece for you.

What do you think about this latest sculptural interpretation of Venom, Marvel collectors? How does this compare to the competing statues in the land (both earlier takes from Sideshow and from competitors like Prime 1, Diamond Select and XM) in your mind?