I had a quick search, but couldn't really find anything overly helpful as to its origin. I did fine one page on wikipedia that mentioned it, and it listed it as American English, so I presume that it's at least the Americans and the English.
Yes, I have the varia, gravity, and phazon statues. They even have the same sequence numbers on them because I ordered them all way early. The phazon one is cool because it lights up. The varia one is getting old, and goes for $399 on ebay sometimes, even though I think I paid $125. I think they made fewer gravity statues, so it should end up going for even more than that someday. Phazon is still around $200 because it isn't very old yet and some merchants still have it. If I ever part with them, it would have to be the whole set at once because of the sequence numbers. I'd let it go right now for about $1000, but I seriously doubt I would ever find anyone who wanted to pay that.
If I could afford it I'd would totally pay that for them. If my vague estimations on exchange rates is anything near sound, that's about what I'd expect to pay for all three anyway.
This auction is over, so the full page is no longer viewable - but there is a thumbnail and it shows the winning bid at $102.50. It's a fucking flimsy piece of plastic that I'm assuming you hung up somewhere in a store as a promotional decoration back when Super Metroid was actually in-store. $102.50 for THAT !!! Metroid collectors are hardcore.
PS - I betcha it was whats-his-face (if you're reading this, I apologize for not recalling your screen name atm) over at MDb who ended up buying it. I think he's the most hardcore 'troid collector I've ever seen. Whoever it is, it must be nice to have enough money to justify buying this.