The choice ship of the Star Fox team is now a collectible statue set to drop later this year.

Fox McCloud and the Star Fox team made their debut back in February 1993 with Star Fox for the Super Famicom/SNES. Using the power of the cartridge’s internal Super FX chip, Star Fox was the first Nintendo-developed title to feature 3D polygons. The title follows the four-pilot Star Fox team through their interplanetary quest to defeat the supervillain Andross, a scientist who declared war against the planet Corneria after his banishment to Venom. The Star Fox saga is primarily grounded in the rail-shooter genre, however franchise entries Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet and Star Fox: Assault expanded the gameplay formula to include third-person action-adventure elements. The cancelled SNES title Star Fox 2 expanded on the original title with basic tower-defense and first-person mechanics; a prototype is available online as a ROM file, and can be played through a compatible SNES emulator.

The Star Fox team has an arsenal of vehicles at their disposal, with a bipedal walker, tank, and the Great Fox warship; the upcoming Wii U installment Star Fox Zero even adds a gyro-copter for smaller infiltration missions. Regardless of platform, one Star Fox vehicle has withstood the test of time, and is considered one of the most recognizable ships among video games- the Arwing. This gray-and-blue ship can achieve speeds surpassing Mach 4, and is incredibly agile thanks to the internal G-Diffuser System; the G-Diffuser System allows the Fox pilots to handle extreme force, even in the most daring of maneuvers. Different incarnations of the Arwing allowed for various wing transformations; the original Arwing could fold its wings into two legs for land-based movement; later versions featured “All-Range Mode”, allowing the wings to outstretch for advanced movement. Both Dinosaur Planet and Assault featured a new Arwing design, with a sleeker fuselage and twin split-engines accented with multiple lights.

The Arwing is marginally outclassed by the Wolfen, the choice ship of Wolf O’Donnell and the rival Star Wolf team.

Collectible manufacturer First 4 Figures is immortalizing the iconic Star Fox ship with a new statue expected to release later this year. The first Star Fox item in their series, the “Arwing” statue is modeled after the Star Fox 64 3D version of the iconic ship; featured in the 3DS remake of Star Fox 64, this Arwing features intricate ship-detailing, decals and the Team Star Fox insignia. Each statue stands 12″/30cm tall from the base to the tips of each engine, with a wingspan of 18″/45cm; at 12″/30cm deep, each Arwing statue is hand-painted and cast from high quality polystone resin. As with all First 4 Figures collectibles, every statue is hand-numbered along with a corresponding “certificate of authenticity”, allowing the owner to purchase the same unit number of the next item in the series.

An alternate “Exclusive” version is also available, featuring purple LED lights within the Arwing’s main engine.

First 4 Figures has not revealed how many of each statue will be manufactured, however both the standard and Exclusive versions can be pre-ordered for $279.99 and $299.99 respectively.

The Star Fox 64 3D Arwing statue from First 4 Figures is expected to begin shipping in Q4 2016.

Source: First 4 Figures
Images courtesy of Nintendo, First 4 Figures