When it was announced a couple months ago that Kotobukiya was going to be producing Avengers Age of Ultron ARTFX+ statues, my gut feeling on the line was “Meh. It’ll take a lot for Kotobukiya to impress me with movie-based ARTFX+ statues.” Well, today Kotobukiya unveiled the very first two Kotobukiya Avengers Age of Ultron ARTFX+ statues, and it’s time for me to open my mouth and eat some crow, because both are absolute must-buys: the Avengers Age of Ultron Kotobukiya Hulkbuster Iron Man and Hulk ARTFX+ statues have now been revealed!

If Kotobukiya was looking to knock collectors’ socks off (or knock the dollars out of their wallets), then I think that they absolutely picked the best possible two statues to kick off the line with! The titanic throwdown between the Hulkbuster Iron Man Mark 44 and the Hulk is the most-anticipated aspect of this summer’s Avengers Age of Ultron movie, and collectors are literally ready to throw money at high-end collectibles depicting the Hulkbuster.

Had Kotobukiya kicked off the lineup with just museum poses of the core six Avengers in ARTFX+ statue form (again), I likely would have passed on the line. But starting off with an action-posed Hulkbuster vs. Hulk pair of statues? Yeah–I’m in.

The Kotobukiya Hulkbuster Iron Man ARTFX+ statue is easily the best-looking Hulkbuster collectible that we’ve seen revealed thus far (the in-developlment Hot Toys Hulkbuster looks nice, but the prototype is still rough at the moment). The paintwork on this Hulkbuster Kotobukiya statue is absolutely gorgeous, with shiny red and gold paints used for the suit and appropriately copious amounts of paint weathering adorning the armor.

At a mighty 11.5″ tall, the Kotobukiya ARTFX+ Hulkbuster Iron Man statue is very likely to become my favorite ARTFX+ statue ever made!

Meanwhile, the new Avengers Age of Ultron Hulk ARTFX+ statue is also looking pretty snazzy! I was very pleased with last year’s comic-based Kotobukiya Hulk ARTFX+ statue, and didn’t necessarily feel like I was going to need another 1/10 scale Hulk statue anytime soon (certainly not one in stylish striped pants), but the synergy between this 9.5″ Hulk statue and the new Hulkbuster makes it a must-buy for me.

Rather than the plain black bases that all of the Kotobukiya Avengers NOW ARTFX+ statues came with, we’re getting detailed destroyed terrain based with both of these statues, which look absolutely spectacular. I’m not one to gush about statue bases, but these are definitely a step up and a huge improvement over the previous ARTFX+ Avengers statue bases.

The Kotobukiya Avengers Age of Ultron Hulk and Hulkbuster Iron Man statues should be up for order later this month, with an as-yet unknown release date. Just looking at these statues has me bouncing up and down with anticipation, though, so I sure hope that Kotobukiya is going to be able to get these into our hands before the end of 2015!

How do you like the first two Avengers AOU Kotobukiya statues, Marvel collectors? Did Kotobukiya make the right choice with these action-oriented Hulk and Hulkbuster ARTFX+ statues, or would you have preferred museum poses for the same characters (or different characters altogether)?