Sony shocked everyone earlier this week when, after numerous delays over the last year, they actually moved the released date for the Venom 2 movie forward to October 1st! That means Venom: Let There Be Carnage will now be in theaters in under a month—and what better way to celebrate than with some new(-ish) merch, right? In a wildly unexpected move of their own, Kotobukiya is bringing “Renewal Editions” of their ARTFX+ Venom and Carnage statues back up for pre-order with new paint, new heads and even all new bases! Do these new additions make these 1/10 PVC statues worth their new higher prices?

When I woke up this morning, I thought I might still be asleep and dreaming when I saw that Kotobukiya was doing something they’ve never done before with their 1:10 scale Marvel ARTFX+ statues line: bringing back old figures with new tooling as Renewal Editions.

Now, Renewal Ver. figures aren’t something unheard of from Koto—they’ve previously done them for Batman (DC), Attack on Titan and other series—but it’s definitely a surprise that it’s happening for the first time ever to the ARTFX+ Marvel series (which, by the way, has not seen a new non-Premiere statue released in a couple years now).

That said, reworked versions of statues that were pretty good to begin with isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Let’s take a look at what Kotobukiya has done!

First up, we have Venom. While the 2017 ARTFX+ Venom statue was strongly based on the Marvel NOW! modern look for the character, Koto has gone with a look that’s both more classic and also more realistic for the Venom Renewal Edition figure.

The new paint job on this Koto Venom statue gives it a whole new life and feel—if I wasn’t intimately acquainted with the original release, I could probably be fooled into thinking this was actually an all-new release. The gritty, realistic paint is an infinite improvement over the deco on the first edition. Unbelievable how much of a different a new coat of paint can make!

This particular style of portrait for Venom is not really my cup of tea for the character, but it’s almost the exact same look that we’ve seen on other recent merch for the character, so I suspect someone at Disney/Marvel must be pushing for this appearance. The horrific spaced-out-teeth look is “fine” and probably an improvement on the original Koto head sculpt, but I still might have preferred something more iconic.

The Kotobukiya Carnage Renewal Edition is overall less of an upgrade than the Venom is, in my opinion—although it does make one change that I think is a huge improvement over the original ARTFX+ figure.

Along with the new environmental terrain base, more realistic paint deco and closed-mouth head, Kotobukiya has (thank God) removed the “cloven hoof-looking” three-toed feet that the original Carnage ARTFX+ statue had. I HATED those hooves four years ago, and I am grateful to see more normal and less ridiculous-looking lower body on this revised Carnage figure.

As far as the new head sculpt goes, I think that this one is a big step down from the first release, unfortunately. The open-mouthed portrait was the iconic comic book look for the serial killer symbiote, in my opinion, and the closed-mouth look—especially with the black teeth—simply does not feel quite as on-model. There’s still a monstrous, gory realism to the head—it’s just not the look I envision in my mind for Cletus Kassidy.

The Kotobukiya ARTFX+ Renewal Venom and Carnage statues are now up for pre-order, and are scheduled to be released in summer 2022. These are priced at an MSRP of $94.99 each, which is a $25 increase since the first Venom and a $15 increase over Carnage’s initial release. Given the explosive rise of pricing industry-wide over the last year or two, I’m legit okay with these prices—good size and improved products that remain under 100 bucks is fine by me these days. If these were priced any higher, I would not be saying the same, but I think a modest hike is alright half a decade later.

Any thoughts on this surprise move by Kotobukiya, Marvel collectors? Anyone miss out on the original releases of these symbiotes and pleased to have another crack at them at affordable prices? And are there any other past Marvel ARTFX+ statues you’d like to see reissued with the same Renewal Edition upgrade treatment?