Bowen Designs’ Colossus (Super Chrome Version)!

I just bit the bullet and paid big money for this baby.

I present BD’s Super Chrome Colossus:

I’ve been looking to add more X-Men to my growing collection of this series by going after the more recognisable characters and this guy was up for grabs on Evil Bay. He normally goes for much more and I decided I’d be able to live with the minor defects that were raised by the seller for the price point he was offering. Even better, he was more than willing to ship to Singapore!

For a heavy hitter, this statue was surprisingly light! And my first impression on laying eyes on him was ‘SHINY.’

 

Yes, the super chrome version of colossus is a real sight to behold, and the chrome really adds to the realism of the character.

Unfortunately, while the chrome is a nice touch, it is not evenly done. I can’t say if this is limited to a factory defect on my piece, but I could see areas on the statue where the chrome was not as evenly applied as the rest. I couldn’t get the pictures to show up this difference though.

Sadly, these areas mar the overall beauty of the piece.

Facial sculpt is acceptable, but not spectacular. Ironically, much of the facial details are lost in the shiny chrome of the piece. It’s only upon closer inspection that you can see the furrowed brow and steely determination in Colossus’ eyes.

The pose of the piece (I suppose this is a museum pose) is unimaginative at best. While I may possibly be biased against museum poses, I believe there are museum pieces that do truly convey a sense of presence, eg. Classic Thor, Classic Captain America, Gambit, to name a few. Unfortunately, for this offering, there seems to be something sorely lacking that I can’t quite place my finger on.

Musculature is perfectly done, and the statue does convey the relative size of the character to the rest of the X-Men.

All said, I still feel Colossus is a worthy addition to any X-Men collection, the two redeeming factors being the chrome and the musculature. I’m glad I did not go for the painted version because I feel it detracts from the feeling of the original character, and lessens the presence of the statue. I’d think it would have just reduced the allure of the statue even further.

It isn’t until he stands next to the rest of the X-Men pieces that I have that Colossus really jumps out at you. After my next review, I’m planning to take a nice long video of my X-Men collection sitting pretty in my re-arranged cabinet. Until then, you’ll have to make do with a teaser picture.

A teaser for for next statue review:

Teaser for my Avengers collection, by the way (couldn’t resist taking the shot since I was already there with the camera on hand):

 

Project MiniMe: Entry 0027

As is typical of most Chinese babies, Emperor Tristan had his head shaved in the morning so that he could greet his adoring subjects when they arrived in the afternoon for a party in his honour.

I was secretly worried Tristan would be cranky during the shaving, but he was uncharacteristically asleep through the whole thing, so things went relatively well.

The Phua Clan descended on Punggol Central later in the early afternoon to celebrate Tristan’s coming of Full Month’s age.

And as usual, baldy was asleep through most of the whole thing. Sigh.

There was food, though, so everyone had their fill while waiting for Tristan to return to Planet Earth. 

 

And when he finally did, we got a very happy grandmother…

Blackforest cake was also on the menu.

And we finally managed to get a picture of ourselves as a family together! Yay!

And at the end of the party, most of the clan was whacked.

But, of course, we all know who did the real work. Entertaining adoring fans can be a really tiring job.

 

Project MiniMe: Entry 0026

Tristan has been gulping down the white stuff like nobody’s business.

According to the milk tin, an infant his age should be doing 120ml 5 times a day, but dammit the little man is doing 120ml 6 times a day! And sometimes, I give him 150ml for his 6th meal. Go figure.

Of course, there are times when his appetite wanes:

Then there are the times when he plays with his food.

And looks smug doing it. Sigh.

And on occasion, he flashes his famous Pained Look.

Sigh.

Project MiniMe: Entry 0025

Bath Time!

The Ninja needed to get ready for his bath:

Here’s Tristan after drying his hair, lol.

He almost panics whenever we try to put him in the water, lol.

Tristan’s expression when we wash his *ahem* package.

And finally, nice and clean!

 

Recent Music Interests

With all the time Synn and I have been spending at home, Lush 99.5 has been our constant companion.

Needless to say, some tracks occasionally come up that we’ve been enamoured with. Two such examples below:

James Bright Feat. Rachel Lloyd – Little Things

 

The Sundays – Here’s Where The Story Ends

 
I’m such a sucker for their voices. Melts my heart.

Project MiniMe: Entry 0024

As mentioned earlier, the last couple of weeks have been a smoking blur of this:

this:

 

this:

 

this:

 

this:

(warning: picture may not be suitable for the fainthearted) and THIS.

So THIS is where Osama Bin Laden has been sending his suicide bombers to for training. Who knew.

But Synn and I do, on occasion, get rewarded by moments like these:

 

Oh, and of course, his occasional MTV moments. Tee Hee. 

DC Direct’s Superman Vs. Wonderwoman

I was lucky enough to score this beautiful Vs. piece when I bought my Bowen Classic Hulk.

Now, I’m not normally impressed with DC Direct’s offerings usually, but this being sculpted by Ray Villafane, who did a few other amazing pieces (Bowen Magneto, Bowen Logan and Sabretooth companion piece, and the upcoming Superman Vs. Darkseid), meant that I simply couldn’t pass up the chance to own such a dynamic piece for such a reasonable price.

When I took hold of the box, I was immediately surprised at the weight of the thing, or the lack of it to be precise. This statue is light! However, the dynamism of the piece captured my imagination from the get-go.

The detailing of the cape as it billows around is pretty damn amazing, and looking at my collection, I realised that the only other statue I own with a cape is Thor, and his looks like its just being slightly lifted by a small breeze. Here, the cape on Supes looks like its positively alive!

I found it immensely hard to take nice closeups of either superhero because of the tight angles and my lousy camera (maybe time to upgrade?). I’d rather spend my money on more statues instead of a new camera, though, teehee.

One thing I did not like about this piece is how the eyes of the opponents do not appear to meet. Supes looks like he’s looking a little off from Diana’s eyes, more like he’s looking at her hair, or possibly even her knee. Diana, however, does look like she’s looking at Supe’s eyes.

The paintjob on this piece is nice, but not outstanding. It looks too clean to me, and the lack of shading and shadows on this piece leaves it looking a little too two dimensional to me.

However, looking at this piece always leaves me breathless from the sheer dynamism of it.

Project MiniMe: Entry 0023

With all the sleep deprivation that Tristan has put Synn and I through, we figured why not put our waking hours to good use.

I present, Pavarotti Phua:

In years to come, I hope to embarrass Tristan in front of his (hopefully many) girlfriends, lol.

And Tristan, if you’re reading this in 20 years time:

IT’S PAYBACK TIME, MY BOY, ROFLMFAO.

Love, Mom and Dad.

Project MiniMe: Entry 0022

As the people around me would know, I’ve been on extended annual leave to help Synn take care of Tristan for the last week and next.

The past few days have been a flaming blur of soiled diapers, colic, boogers, milk powder, baby bathing, and sleep deprivation; but details on that later. Unfortunately for us, respite from this does not come easy and when it does, it comes in this form:

Which we can’t really enjoy because we’re so exhausted, we snatch whatever sleep we can.

However, Synn and I got a pleasant surprise in the form of a little hamper courtesy of the guys from work:

 

Synn gets a little bouquet of flowers as well, but in her sleep deprived state, she didn’t care much for it, so it went to sis, haha.

 

So off the wrapping went, and Tristan is now the proud owner of his very own rocker.

 

Which he promptly made use of.

 

Synn and I also got an overdose of disposable diapers for Tristan’s use, and a cutesy little bunny that came along.

 

Recently, Tristan has been pretty enamoured of the teddies we’ve been placing in front of him. I’m not sure if he can actually focus on the things in front of him, but he certainly seems pleased with the teddies, reaching out to touch them, and smiling at them. On occasion he’ll grumble at them, almost as if wondering why the teddies aren’t responding to him, lol.

 

Bowen’s Classic Hulk

I recently managed to lay my hands on Bowen’s Classic Hulk statue.

I’d been in love with this piece ever since I saw it sometime back, but in between then and now, there were plenty of other pieces in front of this statue on my to-get list.

But out of sheer luck, there was one going for a reasonable price on the auctions, so I couldn’t resist and snapped it up as soon as I saw it!

My first thought when I laid eyes on the box he was in was, ‘Holy shit! That thing is HUGE!’

My next thought when I took him out of the box for inspection was, ‘FARK, this guy weighs a TON!’

Make no mistake about it, this guy is big, and he is heavy.

The facial sculpt detail on this piece is simply amazing! The Incredible Hulk’s expression has been captured perfectly as he prepares to unleash a deafening roar. His scowl is spot on and the intensity in his eyes is amazingly life-like and completes the glare! I simply love the detail given to his chompers as well.

This statue has such presence, and his pose has been captured as he prepares to pound whoever/whatever is in front of him into the ground.

Beautiful, imposing statue!!!! And such presence too!

With the Hulk’s addition to my Thor and Captain America, I’ve achieved three-quarters of my aim to collect what I feel to be the definition of the original founding members. As I don’t particularly like Bowen’s Retro Ironman, I’ll hold out for his upcoming Modern Ironman. You’ll notice I don’t bother with Bowen’s MiniBusts, so while Ant-man and Wasp were part of the original members, I didn’t bother with those two. Besides, not as A-list as these four, hehe. I simply can’t wait till I can take a picture of these four together. It’ll be awesome!

For those not already in the know, with Marvel’s Announcement regarding the dates of more Avengers movies, it’s simply exciting to know my recent acquisitions mirror what’s happening in Hollywood. I can already imagine the coolness of displaying my avengers statues on my console while watching the movies on my home cinema in the future, lol!

Yay, go me.