Kotobukiya's Marvel Panel at Wizard World LA

Kotobukiya’s Marvel Panel at Wizard World Los Angeles was a fantastic highlight of the show. Koto’s own Frank Supiot presented the company’s plan for their Marvel license, while ToyFare Senior Editor Zach Oat moderated questions from the audience. Loads of news and information was presented, but no photography was allowed during the panel.

As already stated in our Toy Fair coverage, Koto intends to create Marvel collectibles in seven product categories: ArtFX Statues, ArtFX Theatre, Fine Art Busts, Fine Art Statues, One-Coin Mini Figures (Yupon), Bishoujo Statues, and Bookends.

Before beginning to dive into the products, a moment was taken to assure fans that Koto’s style would follow classic comic adaptations, not necessarily the wild interpretations Koto previously did for their Diamond Select Marvel statues. It was also confirmed that Koto will be THE primary producer of high-end Marvel goods going forward. While Koto already announced that they’d be releasing product from this year’s Iron Man and Hulk Films, they also assured fans that they will be doing product from Punisher War Zone.

Though no specific characters were announced in some lines, details were released for several of the other categories. Fans of the ArtFX Statues can look forward to a vinyl model kit of the Mighty Thor, with interchangeable bearded and non-bearded heads and hands. In fact, each comic-based ArtFX Statue will include an “Energy/Power” hand which features the character’s power on display with translucent plastics. Each comic statue will also have two bases, a detailed environment base and a universal name base allow all characters to be uniformly displayed.

Looking at previous Marvel films, Koto will also be producing a Blade ArtFX Statue based on the character’s appearance in the films. The Blade piece will feature interchangeable human and vampire heads, as well as removable sunglasses.

Koto is planning to use the ArtFX Theatre line to recreate some of Marvel’s most important and memorable comic milestones. In the current issue of ToyFare magazine, fans are being encouraged to not only vote on current Koto ideas for the statues, but also submit their own ideas for upcoming ArtFX Theatre pieces.

The first wave of one-coin mini figures, based on the designs of Japanese artist, Yupon, is set to debut this fall, and fans were given the first wave’s 6 “known” characters: Dr. Doom, AIM Agent, Phoenix, Thing, Spider-man, and Nick Fury. 2 mystery characters will also be included with each wave. The figures will be blind-boxed, but the countertop display assortments will include all 8 figures and an additional army builder Unit (AIM Agent, in the first wave’s case) per display, ensuring that all characters have relatively equal availability to fans.

The Fine Art Statues coming this year will surely excite fans, as Koto has plans for both The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man pieces. Both Hulk and Abomination will be featured in the movie line, each with a half of a Humvee and connecting bases — giving the statues the appearance of a single piece with the two titans looking to smash one another with parts of the vehicle. As a bonus, the Abomination will also include an alternate head for the Hulk, so that those who buy both statues will have a unqiue diplay opportunity for the Hulk character. Not to be outdone by the Hulk products, the Iron Man statue will feature LED lights.

Fine Art Busts will surely please both comic and movie fans, as ALL the busts released will be featured in the same 1/6 scale. This of course means that the Hulk bust, due out this year, will tower over the Iron Man movie bust, which features LED lights; and each of these busts will be in scale with the upcoming Daredevil and Cyclops comic-based busts. The comic bust bases will also be reversible, with the character’s name on one side, and a mini-sculpure of their civilian identity’s face on the other. Koto intends to do many classic X-Men at the beginning of this line as well, touching on some characters who have not been made in bust form for many years.

Though no specific characters have been confirmed for the Bishoujo Statues, Frank Supiot did confirm that they would be sexy versions of character in costume, not nude. Also, Koto still plans to follow through with the single-bookend model, wherein only one bookend of a given team is sold at a time, allowing fans to create any set of 2 bookeneds they’d like.

- C.J. Stunkard