Despite the fact that the Kotobukiya only announced their ARTFX+ X-Men 92 Figures line earlier this year, they’ve made it no secret that they’re going all-in with this series of 1:10 PVC statues right off the bat. And so, even though there’s still loads of villains and ancillary characters to make, all of the core members of the X-Men Animated team have now been accounted for: the Kotobukiya Gambit & Rogue ARTFX+ two-pack is now up for order!
Of course, just getting animated-style figures of Remy and Rogue isn’t enough. They have to be absolutely perfect to their cartoon appearances, right? Are they…?
In the case of the Gambit ARTFX+ Statue, I would say “definitely”. The smirk on Remy’s face, the cards secretly charging behind his back, the olive color of perfection picked for his coat… Koto absolutely, positively nailed Gambit.
Rogue… is close to perfect, but not quite there, in my opinion. I don’t like the clear flight stand for her foot (which is hugely obvious), her face seems a bit too elongated, and Kotobukiya somehow forgot to put the black ‘X’ logo on her chest. I still really like the Rogue figure and it’s a definite buy for me, but I wouldn’t mind the unlikely event of Koto making a few revisions to her before she ships.
As usual, this two-pack is carrying an MSRP of $89.99. That’s about 10 bucks more than the standard price Kotobukiya is charging for one comics-based ARTFX+ figure these days, so even with the decreased detail on this series, I think the price-point is pretty reasonable (especially since you can get a pre-order discount ordering early).
Now, with the official solicitation of Gambit and Rogue, all of the primary members of the core 1992 X-Men Animated roster have been accounted for. That said, I imagine many collectors will want some characters to complete the comic book X-Men Blue and Gold teams in cartoon form as well, which means we’ll still need Koto to make:
- Jean Grey (Jim Lee costume—not Phoenix)
- Psylocke
- Colossus
- Iceman
- Archangel
With just five characters left to go to complete those teams—and all five of them being A-List headliners—I think there’s a very strong chance we see all of these covered by Koto. Fingers crossed! (I’d also like to see Morph, although I don’t know how realistic that might be.)
The Kotobukiya X-Men Rogue and Gambit ARTFX+ statues two-pack is now up for order with a $10 discount at BBTS, and is scheduled to be released in March 2019. My much-anticipated Jubilee and Wolverine set should be arriving any week now, so I’m really looking forward to being able to assemble my Animated X-Men 92 team over the next half a year (and change)!
Are you satisfied with Koto’s takes on Gambit and Rogue, Marvel collectors? Anyone passing on the other packs in this series and just opting in for this two-pack? And now that all the main characters from the cartoon have been covered, which characters (if any) would you like to see the line to expand to include?
Has Jean Grey been announced? Because she’s kind of a major player.
She went up for sale last month in her Phoenix costume. Hopefully we get her standard costume sooner than later!
Oooh, I figured that was just because its Phoenix, and Phoenix is awesome. Yeah, one thing that always bothered me about action figures was that they always gave us Phoenix, instead of Jean. While I adored Phoenix, I really yearned for a Jean Grey as a kid. So I do hope to see her in this collection.
I’m looking forward to Archangel!!
Would be nice to see Nightcrawler and Cable as well. I’m looking forward to getting some Villains. Apocalypse, Sinister, Juggernaut, Magneto, Sabertooth, Sauron, Omega Red, Blob, Mystique, Sentinels. With that being said, these are overpriced and I’m waiting to see how they do in the secondary market. Two packs should be $60-$65.
Besides the 5 to round out Blue & Gold Teams there needs to be a Morph 2pk Good and Evil Version or at least Evil Morph & Mr Sinister 2pk. Magneto and I think Longshot & Dazzler would look great released in this style