Surf's Up!

When Bowen Designs released its first Museum Pose Silver Surfer FS (Full-size Statue), there were 2 versions available: Painted & Chromed. For this new Action Pose Surfer, BD managed to strike a balance between the 2. This new paint job is not as shiny as the Chromed (chrome makes it hard to see the details in the sculpt) & not as flat looking as the Painted. Furthermore, the Action Pose sculpt is just spot on!















The Surfer fits in quite nicely with my Sideshow Fantastic Four Diorama:





The first two BD Silver Surfer statues are commanding rocket high prices in the secondary market now, I foresee this one going in the same direction.

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.

The Immortal Captain

2007 was the year we lost one of Earth's Mightiest Super-Hero, Captain America (aka Steve Rogers) was assassinated in the comics. What better way to honour the memory of Ol' "Winghead" than a new Cap statue sculpted by Randy Bowen. Actually, Bowen Designs released 2 versions of the statue: Classic & World War II. I'm glad that I'm able to get my hands on the Classic as quite a few shops got their orders cut, likely due to the added demand brought on by Cap's death. Personally, I prefer the pose of the earlier Cap statue that Bowen did, as it looks more noble and more befitting of the Cap. The details & paint on the new one is better done though.














This Cap statue comes with 2 bases which can be stacked to increase the overall height (as seen in the first photo) or used separately. I'm not really fond of the "booster" base as I feel Bowen overkilled it with the stars. It looks more at home at a circus than under Captain America. The other base however, is more appropriate for a American Hero, sculpted with what looks like a United States Presidential Seal. But, sloppy paint kinda ruins it, & it's not just on mine as I seen quite a few with similar plight.






Here's Cap with fellow Avenger, Thor:








AVENGERS IN SINGAPORE! (added on 24 Feb 2008)

photoshopped wallpaper:

Credits: Mr. Daniel Cheong for the background photo

The Iceman Cometh

Out of the thousands (millions?) of Mutant characters that exist in the Marvel Universe (currently down to less than 200 thanks to the Scarlet Witch), 5 will always mean more to me than the rest. They are the 5 original members of the X-Men, namely: Cyclops, Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), Beast, Iceman & Angel. The Iceman Bust was my first ever Bowen Designs purchase & when BD announced the Iceman statue, I know I must have it! The Iceman statue comes in 2 versions, the regular (frosted) version seen here & the more limited Web Exclusive Clear version. Iceman was never clear in the comics so I've preferred the normal version. Besides I find the clear version looks more like Glass-man. lol














Sorry for the poor photos as my crappy camera tends to overexpose the bugger.

The Mighty Thunder God

The Norse God of Thunder has always been one of my favourite Marvel Heroes & I've been wanting to get a cool Thor statue for a while. When I saw Bowen Designs' third full size statue release of the Mighty Thor, I knew that's THE ONE! What I love about this piece is the whole look, simple yet powerful. The first BD Thor statue was in a "action" type pose & the second statue was exactly the same, with the inclusion of interchangeable heads (commonly referred to as the "change-o-head" version), which made me prefer the simple look of the new one. Sky high prices of the earlier statues also left me with little choice. :P All 3 Thor statues were sculpted by the man himself, Randy Bowen.
























Comparison shots with the Mad Titan, (Bowen Designs) Thanos: