Bowen Designs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bowen Designs is a company dealing in the creation and sale of entertainment-based collectible statues. Most Bowen products released thus far are based on Marvel Comics characters, but products based on independent comics and movies have also been created.

The primary designer and sculptor for Bowen Designs is Randy Bowen. He started as a garage kit creator and quickly moved up to being a well-known and respected sculptor in the industry. Nowadays, Bowen Designs consists of many more people and often employs freelance sculptors due to the large amount of product being put out. Bowen's line of Marvel statues and busts was largely responsible for a new age in collectible statues. Previously, comic statues were cheaply made, and the detail in both the sculpt and painting of these pieces was lacking. No comfortable medium had yet to be found between the price point, quality and edition size. Frequently, pieces were "limited" to 10,000 or more units and sold at a price that could not be maintained after the 1990's speculator market died down. Now, the collectible statues market has grown by leaps and bounds and includes various other companies who have each found their niche in the market.

1 The Marvel License
2 Sculptors
3 See Also
- 3.1 References

[edit] The Marvel License

Bowen Designs' tie to Marvel Comics began as early as 1997. In May 1998, Bowen released the first Bowen Marvel Mini-Bust in the line (The Hulk). In December 1998, the first in a series of Bowen Marvel Statues hit the market (Daredevil). The license once covered mini-statues, done much smaller than Bowen's other Marvel statues, but few were released and the mini-statues were not revisited. The Marvel license periods were broken up into "phases," where a new phase was started upon confirmation of renewal of the license. As of January 2007, Phase III is drawing to a close. The existence of a Phase IV seems likely, but is has not been confirmed.