Bowen & Other Statues In General

[IMJ]

It's been several years since I paid attention to the statue market, which I looked into today a bit. It wasn't shocking to find that Bowen Designs, once the king of comic statues manufactures, doesn't even exist anymore. With organizations like Sideshow and their often over-the-top products, or Kotobikuya offering statues with high production value but priced like a Bowen from 2001 (think 75 bucks), I can see how it must've gotten tougher for Randy and his crew to maintain market share.

Oddly enough, I'm thinking that Bowen made a big mistake by adding arms to their mini-bust lineup. This might sound silly at first, but consider that Bowen may actually have reduced rather than added value. Was a bust with arms actually still a mini-bust, or were you spending more to buy half of a statue? Previously, collectors could summarily say that they had a bust, rather than a statue collection. Busts with arms didn't look as good on the shelf next to your traditional mini-busts, either. And when that traditional Grecco-Roman era, upper torso-with-a-head configuration was lost, so was that footprint in which mini-busts previously fell nicely into an invisible square plane when displayed. Also, many of Bowen's mid-2000's busts-with-arms are widely unattractive - Iron Man busts reaching out to this or that, busts of villains with arms flailing. Sure, the statues now had added personality, but this was also an oxymoron which, ironically, reduced the iconography or archetypal nature of what a more static, non-emoting character bust represented. I think Bowen might've been able to continue operations, even to a smaller niche crowd had they maintained a more organized and universalized approach to their lineup.

And instead of branching out horizontally to other IP's, Bowen simply went purely vertical with Marvel, maybe mistakenly thinking that they were branching out by increasing statue sizes and price points. I also think that the advent of incredibly sophisticated 12" figures (think Hot Toys) was a strong contributor to a declining statue market as well.

As for other companies, I'm a little surprised that Sideshow has survived this long with their strategies as well - notorious for awful customer service and price gouging, they rely purely on shock value for the next biggest item with the highest markup. On the other hand you have Kotobikuya who has maintained a market share through pricing accessibility, although they rely quite a bit on the movie markets for inspiration. But by comparison, I'd be surprised if Bowen ever came back to the market as a full fledged statue company. It seems to me that statues are now viewed as anachronistic, and that previous statue buyers have moved on to super-high-end 12" figures before they possibly bow out completely from this kind of buying pattern.

Do you guys think that the statue is dead?

[superman-prime]

i have a few bowens from back in the day
i dont pay attention but am suprised they are gone as well

[maraxusofkeld]

Randy Bowen ended up going through a bitter divorce and that is what ended the company. I also believe that Marvel (Disney) would not have renewed him for a new phase. Near the end, the last year or so, he barely had any statues available for sale.

[superman-prime]

[grendeljd]

The one & only Bowen statue I have always coveted is the Grendel Prime one. Not that I don't like Bowen's statues or anything, I'm just not a statue collector. But dang, that Grendel Prime full figure looks so good.

It's a shame to hear he has had a rough go lately.

[geocarr]

The one & only Bowen statue I have always coveted is the Grendel Prime one. Not that I don't like Bowen's statues or anything, I'm just not a statue collector. But dang, that Grendel Prime full figure looks so good.

It's a shame to hear he has had a rough go lately.

I agree that Grendel Prime is a beauty and I am a big Grendel fan. I still have the first Hunter Rose statue I pre-ordered and bought brand new when it was first released in the 1990's.

[grendeljd]

The one & only Bowen statue I have always coveted is the Grendel Prime one. Not that I don't like Bowen's statues or anything, I'm just not a statue collector. But dang, that Grendel Prime full figure looks so good.

It's a shame to hear he has had a rough go lately.

I agree that Grendel Prime is a beauty and I am a big Grendel fan. I still have the first Hunter Rose statue I pre-ordered and bought brand new when it was first released in the 1990's.

That's awesome dude! The Hunter one is pretty cool too! There are three statues in total from that time, aren't there? I seem to recall seeing a Christine Spar statue as well.

[geocarr]

The one & only Bowen statue I have always coveted is the Grendel Prime one. Not that I don't like Bowen's statues or anything, I'm just not a statue collector. But dang, that Grendel Prime full figure looks so good.

It's a shame to hear he has had a rough go lately.

I agree that Grendel Prime is a beauty and I am a big Grendel fan. I still have the first Hunter Rose statue I pre-ordered and bought brand new when it was first released in the 1990's.

That's awesome dude! The Hunter one is pretty cool too! There are three statues in total from that time, aren't there? I seem to recall seeing a Christine Spar statue as well.

Yep! Hunter, Christine, and Grendel Prime. There's also a 20th anniversary Hunter statue with a depiction of the Argent the wolf behind him, and a three pack of busts. That's all the Grendel statues I know of.

[grendeljd]

The one & only Bowen statue I have always coveted is the Grendel Prime one. Not that I don't like Bowen's statues or anything, I'm just not a statue collector. But dang, that Grendel Prime full figure looks so good.

It's a shame to hear he has had a rough go lately.

I agree that Grendel Prime is a beauty and I am a big Grendel fan. I still have the first Hunter Rose statue I pre-ordered and bought brand new when it was first released in the 1990's.

That's awesome dude! The Hunter one is pretty cool too! There are three statues in total from that time, aren't there? I seem to recall seeing a Christine Spar statue as well.

Yep! Hunter, Christine, and Grendel Prime. There's also a 20th anniversary Hunter statue with a depiction of the Argent the wolf behind him, and a three pack of busts. That's all the Grendel statues I know of.

Same here - I think that's all of them. I'm still only interested in the Prime one. I've been contemplating getting some Grendel tattoos done lately.