It was almost a full year ago at New York Comic Con 2014 that Kotobukiya made their grandiose reveal of their next Marvel ARTFX+ statue series: the Marvel NOW! X-Men. The highlights of that black & white Adi Granov concept art for me were Magik and what I thought to be my favorite costume for Magneto. My heart plummeted when it turned out to be a different Magneto costume, but Koto has come through in the end: the exclusive Kotobukiya Magneto White Costume statue is now available for order!

I really, really love the Marvel NOW! Magneto white costume. This is the costume Magneto wore during Brian Michael Bendis’ earliest (and best) issues of Uncanny X-Men–and far more importantly, the outfit that two-star Magneto dons while dominating every other character in the Marvel Puzzle Quest mobile game.

So when I saw the black and white preview artwork for the Kotobukiya X-Men ARTFX+ statues line last fall, I incorrectly assumed that Koto was planning a mass release of the white Magneto costume. I was wrong. As it turned out, it was actually the black Magneto costume (from the “Magneto” solo series and “AXIS”) that Kotobukiya chose for their regular release.

Now that’s not a bad choice–there’s plenty of fans who really love Magneto’s black costume and also his comic book series–but it just didn’t make sense to me for the solo Magneto costume to be part of the Marvel NOW! X-Men team lineup.

I was pretty heartbroken about this selection, but I had hope that we’d get a variant Magneto as some sort of exclusive. And Koto has not let me down, as a white Magneto costume variant statue recently appeared for order online!

Kotobukiya still has not officially announced this Previews exclusive variant yet themselves on any of their official pages, but it has been posted for order by a few online retailers. This Magneto variant has surprisingly pre-sold out on Big Bad Toy Store already (something that does not usually happen for Kotobukiya statues), so I have a hunch that there are quite a few big fans of Marvel Puzzle Quest Magneto out there besides me.

Theoretically this exclusive 8″ 1/10th scale figure will be displayed at NYCC 2015 next week, so check back during the event for hi-res in-person photos of this Magneto statue if it does appear there!

The Kotobukiya White Costume Magneto ARTFX+ statue is now available for order, and is expected to be released in February/March 2015. As I mentioned earlier, this particular statue is already sold-out at BBTS, so EE is your best (and maybe only) choice for pre-ordering White Magneto at the moment. As the statue is a Previews exclusive, comic book and specialty stores should be stocking this figure as well once it’s actually released in the winter.

Is anybody out there (besides me) totally psyched about getting the opportunity to own this Kotobukiya Magneto White Costume variant, or are you okay with the Black Costume Magneto (or perhaps no Marvel Now Magneto at all)?