X-Men, Assemble!!!
April 5, 2008
These statues are from Bowen Designs and feature some of the most recognisable characters in the X-Men Universe. As you can see, I’ve got the Gambit/Rogue couple (back from the cartoons!), Beast, Wolverine and Iceman (my favourite childhood superhero!). Of course, who can forget the father of all badass bad guys, Apocalypse!!!!
Here, you have the usual suspects lineup, with Apocalypse in the center:
You cannot imagine how awesome they look together in real person! Their presence is quite astounding!
Closeups below on some of the individual pieces.
My opinion of Bowen’s Rogue is that while the composition is pretty nicely done, I can’t say the same for her facial sculpt. Her features look a little weird, I can’t quite place what’s wrong with her, but it just doesn’t give me a correct feel. Her mouth appears wrong as well. She looks like she’s wearing boxer’s teethguards.
However, the colours are cartoon accurate and her body is nicely done. Her hair looks like it hasn’t been washed for days and have clumped up, so it looks a little chunky but overall still acceptable.
Bowen hit a home run with this Gambit. Everything about this scuplt is just perfect. I have some issue with his pink lip gloss look, but I’m just splitting hairs here. Speaking of which, his hair is so much prettier than Rogue’s. She should find out where Gambit does his hair.
I love this Gambit statue, and I think he’s a winner. The metallic sheen of his knee high armoured boots is fantastic, and I absolutely am in love the flaming Ace he’s holding. As far as museum pieces go, I’ve never been a big fan, but this…this is really nicely done. Pictures normally don’t do this piece justice!
The couple together, as they should be. This pair, in my opinion, is priceless. And they’re MINE! w00t! It’s not often these two statues can be found together.
Here, we have Iceman. While I’ve been a huge fan of Iceman from my childhood days, I have to say, this sculpt and doesn’t do much for me. I’ve taken issue with the painted eyes and mouth. He looks like he’s wearing eyeliner and black lipstick. In my opinion, they should have just left both these features unpainted and concentrated and sculpting a more chiselled face, and allow the light and shadow to show up the facial features naturally. The belt buckle looks cheap and plasticky, and it is also my opinion that it should have been left unpainted.
One interesting thing I’ve noticed, though, is that he appears to have a very slight blue tinge to him. I think that’s one detail that has going for this piece.
While I’ve never been a big fan of Beast, the sulpt and composition of this piece took me by surprise. The detailing of his face and expression is amongst the most animalistic that I’ve seen. The texturing on his body is expertly done and the composition simply brings this beauty alive!
And here, we have Apocalypse! Standing with dark foreboding, a museum pose is all this guy needs to impose his presence to anyone’s collection, and there is simply no exception here. He takes centrestage with ease. The paintjob is excellent, as is the facial sculpt. I can easily say this guy is my favourite piece from this haul.
Gambit comes in a distant second compared to this guy, but still, I’m glad to have all the pieces I’ve collected thus far. To be quite honest, I’ve never been a big X-Men fan. Synn’s the one who’s more into them. Still, I did occasionally watch the cartoons of old, and Rogue and Gambit did leave an impression. While I didn’t totally like this museum pose Wolverine, the character has always held some fascination for me. I still think my CS Moore Wolverine was sculpted and composed better.
Christmas has come early for me this year with this starting set of Bowens! I’m now super broke, but super super happy. I’ll be walking on air for the next few days.
Now, to clear out some cabinet space for more statues. Tee hee…
