We’re less than three months away from the release of the sure-to-be-blockbuster Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie, so it was only a matter of time until the floodgates opened up to let in the tsunami of high-end Captain America 2 merch! While Hot Toys and Sideshow Collectibles haven’t debuted any of their Captain America The Winter Soldier statues and figures yet, Gentle Giant has drawn first (and second) blood with their Black Widow and Stealth Captain America quarter-scale statues!

I’m really not that hard to please when it comes to Marvel movies–I loved Iron Man 3 and thought The Wolverine was a future classic. So it probably doesn’t mean a whole lot coming from me, but based on the trailer, the Captain America The Winter Soldier movie that comes out April 4, 2014 looks like it has the making of a superhero movie masterpiece. And if that does turn out to be the case, high-end collectibles companies like Gentle Giant are ready to sweep in and capitalize!

I never really connected with Captain America as a character until Joss Whedon’s take on the character in “The Avengers”, but that movie made me a Cap fan for life (at least of that version of Cap). So I am definitely pretty amped to see Chris Evans reprise the role of Captain America this year in a movie that looks far, far better than the first Captain America movie. And if the movie is as good as I hope, I will definitely be looking to buy some high-end Captain America statues from it!

In general, I think Gentle Giant Ltd. did a downright incredible job with this Stealth Costume Captain America 2 statue. The texture of Captain America’s stealth costume and the wrinkles in it look phenomenal. Not all of Gentle Giant’s Marvel statues are hits, but this is definitely one of the best Marvel statues that Gentle Giant has ever done.

Of course, now that I’ve praised it, I’m going to make my complaints about the Stealth Captain America statue. First off, as visually-interesting as the damaged shield they picked for this Captain America statue is, it’s not the one I want to see. I would have either liked the classic red, white and blue Captain America shield or the awesome blue and silver Captain America shield that we’ve seen on plenty of the Captain America 2 movie swag. The weathered-paint shield is a major turn-off for me.

The other thing that I’m less-than-thrilled with about this statue is the base. I’ve gotten really used to the highly-detailed and very cool terrain bases that Bowen Designs and Sideshow Collectibles have created for their statues over the years, so a clear base like the one the Stealth Captain America quarter-scale statue is standing on feels rather cheap to me. It’s also a bit peculiar that Cap is seemingly standing on air. The base isn’t a deal-breaker, but it doesn’t score any points with me either.

The Gentle Giant Captain America The Winter Soldier Stealth Captain America 1:4 Scale Statue is now available for pre-order, with a scheduled release date of late 2014. The MSRP on this huge 18″ statue is set at $399, but you can secure early pre-orders now for around $359.

I’m fairly impressed with this Captain America Stealth statue, but not quite blown away enough to place an order for it just yet. What about you, Marvel collectors? Will Gentle Giant’s latest massive quarter-scale statue be taking a massive chunk out of your income for 2014?