Toy OTD: Kitchen Sink Press, Bowen Designs "The Girls Of R. Crumb Statue": Catholic Girl (2001)

I think this was a great idea - a series of limited-edition maquettes featuring some of Robert Crumb's fantasy women - but apparently it collapsed along with Kitchen Sink. Did poor sales scuttled future releases? I think this originally cost about $125, which is less than many of the current Bowen pieces, but maybe the higher-end statue market hadn't sufficiently emerged yet. Whatever the reason, Bowen never made another Crumb girl statue in this 11" scale.

It's a shame, because this is a real beauty! Kent Melton does his usual fantastic job, capturing Crumb's style perfectly. It's a simple pose, but Mr. Melton preserves the subtle attitudes and weight distribution from the source art.

The paint work is also well executed, especially the color choices. There's a nice retro feel to the whole piece, due to the muted palette - accurate to the original comics, yet not as bright. Of course, the face needs special care, and the work here supports the sculpt extremely well.

I do think the base could've been simpler, but Bowen/Melton get extra credit for designing the branding plaque in Crumb's handwriting. It performs the prerequisite labeling function, but supports the style of the statue very well!

Since this piece has been sold out for eight years, be prepared to shell out the big bucks! There's the unsigned version in an edition of 3,000, and a signed version in a much more limited edition of 100. The signed version is for sale on eBay right now for $515.00, and it looks like there might be an unsigned one for auction here. Otherwise, save your money and cast out those eBay search nets... good luck!

Toy OTD: Bowen Studios' Inhumans Mini-Busts: Karnak, Quicksilver, Crystal, Triton and Gorgon

I don't know if these characters were all that popular with Marvel collectors - most of the ones I have were marked down significantly. I'm enough of a Fantastic Four geek that I scooped up as many as I could get!

As with most of the Bowen products, the posing, paint work, and sculpts are really great (Bowen is one of my favorite Marvel merchandising companies). They get a little goofy with the thematic base designs, but at least they don't plaster names or logos on any of them. The likenesses are right from the comics, adapted in a very appealing way.

You can get several of these online right now - Triton is on eBay for $29.95 + $8 shipping, ditto Karnak for $19.99 + $9.50 shipping, Gorgon is $32.00 at ccgarmory.com, Crystal is $39.95 + $9.00 shipping on eBay, and Quicksilver is $37.00 + $6.50 shipping there, too (It'll be $114.99 + $9.99 shipping at wizarduniverse.stores.yahoo.net if you want the green-costumed variant). I seem to remember buying these for even lower prices, so keep your eyes peeled at toy shows and comic conventions!

Toy OTD: Bowen Designs Invisible Woman Statue (Half-Visible Version, 2000)

One of the first superhero comic books that I ever read was an issue of The Fantastic Four, and it's still one of my favorite Marvel creations. They hooked up with Bowen for all their statue and mini-bust needs, and DC's still playing quality catch-up. DC Direct may be improving, but Marvel's added Sideshow to their cool manufacturer list!

Anyway, I waffled for the longest time before I finally bought this statue. It wasn't too bad in terms of price (though I'm sure I could've paid less if I'd bought it earlier), and action figures just can't do the whole half-visible thing nearly as well. The sculpt is nice, and the paint work is strong, too. It has the added feature of the later statues - the figure itself can detach from the base, making cleaning and transport easier and less risky.

As you might imagine, there's two other variants of this statue - fully painted, and fully 'invisible'. To be honest, I don't know why the others even exist - the half-and-half version is definitely the way to go! Why not do the entire run that way?

At any rate, I think I paid around $200 for mine, but there's one for sale on eBay that's currently at $47.00 + shipping. Good luck!