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!