By the Luck of Hyrule

I was out & about with my family today at United Square & as I was passing by the Toys "R" Us there, something caught my eye. It was a gashapon machine for figures from the first Nintendo DS Legend of Zelda game, Phantom Hourglass. At $2 a turn/figure, I thought, "What the heck! A PH fig will be nice for this fan of the game & the LoZ series." $10 & 5 turns later, I managed to get the complete set without repeats. WHAT GREAT LUCK! I've never experience that before. The last time I tried my luck to get a complete set of LoZ: Minish Cap gashapon figures, I ended up spending more than $30 & not completing 1 set with the secret figure!

Anyway, here's the Phantom Hourglass set:





Link (with Phantom Hourglass)



Captain Linebeck (with Green Rupee)



Tetra (with Heart Container)



Biggoron with Gongoron



Phantom (with Force Gem)

Weapon X

Bowen Designs' tidal wave release of Wolverines statues have started! First to arrive are the Classic Tiger-Stripe costume & the Brown costume Museum Pose Wolvies. That will be followed by 4 more, Unmasked Tiger-Stripe Museum Pose, Unmasked Brown Action Pose, Tiger-Stripe Action Pose & Original/First Appearance costume Action Pose. Last but not least, a BD Collectors Club Exclusive Tiger-Stripe Museum Pose X-Belt variant. Bringing the grand total of new Wolverine statue releases to 7! Talk about an over-dose of Adamantium.

I've decided not to be crazy & collect them all but instead, choose one that I like most & just buy that one. I know I don't want any of the Action Pose Wolverines cause I don't like the bases, & they'll look outta place besides my Iceman & the other BD X-Men FS. So that'll leave me with the Museum Pose ones & after comparing between the 2 that just arrived, here's some differences that I could spot:
1. The paint use on the face of the Brown (B) version looks too reddish giving it a sun burnt look, but the Tiger-Stripe (TS) version looks too pale in comparison. However TS looks fine besides the other Bowen FS.
2. The chest muscles of B are "less developed" than TS's, thus TS looks more muscular.
3. The eyes of B are painted smaller than TS's, which gives TS a fiercer look.
4. the "ears/horns" & hunch of the pose are different on both versions, I prefer the overall look of TS.
After considering all the above, the Tiger-Stripe version is clearly the one for me. Those still on the fence on which to buy, I recommend putting both side by side to do a comparison, then make your decision. Wolverine feels small when placed besides the other Bowen FS but he is usually depicted as smaller & shorter than most male Super-Heroes in the comics, so the size of the statue works fine for me.
















Wolverine too comes with a "booster" base but unlike Cap's, it is not interchangeable with the "X" base. It is only used to boost the height by stacking under the X base.