Many of you are probably already familiar with Kotobukiya, the company behind some of the finest statues and busts based off of DC, Marvel and Star Wars characters. A little bit of information that most Kotobukiya collectors seem to overlook is that Marvel Studios works exclusively with them. That's right, they are the only fine art sculpture company that Marvel Studios gives their designs to (including close work with Stan Winston Studios).
It started with Marvel's first independently produced film Iron Man:
Followed closely by The Incredible Hulk:
and finally Punisher: War Zone:
Next month, Kotobukiya will begin production on their latest Marvel Studios collector's item: The Mark IV ARTFX Statue for
Iron Man 2:
Alright, now it's time to speculate. Since Kotobukiya was the only company allowed to use Marvel Studio's designs for these figures and there are other Marvel films currently in production, wouldn't that mean that they would handle the next several films exclusively? If so, then wouldn't they have access to the costume designs to be used in those films?
Here are the images from Kotobukiya's next line of figures, based off of the Marvel Reborn series.
Here's the thing that strikes me as odd regarding this information: Only Thor and Captain America are getting statues even though Iron Man is just as important in the Reborn series. Could it be because we already have Iron Man film statues to match these or will we soon see a third piece for the collection? That, in itself, isn't enough evidence to make an educated guess; but when you add the fact that Marvel Studios is exclusively contracted to them, it makes it very plausible.
What do you think? Are these the costumes that Marvel Studios will be using for
Thor and
The First Avenger: Captain America?
[Make sure to zoom in on the pictures on this page. The detail work is really incredible, especially on the Mark IV Armor]