Bowen Designs

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First established in 1978 (first incorporated as Bowen Designs, Inc. in 1991). 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 the best known and respected sculptor in the industry. Currently, Bowen Designs consists of many more people and often employs freelance sculptors due to the large amount of product being released. Bowen's line of Marvel statues and busts was largely responsible for a new era 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 until Bowen Designs came upon the scene. 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. This was also due to Marvel comics flooding the market with similar licenses. 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.

Contents

[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. A Phase IV has recently been confirmed by Bowen Designs.

[edit] MYTHOS Editions

The MYTHOS line was conceived as a way for Bowen Designs to release statues related to licenses that are in the public domain. This includes mostly mythology based pieces so far. Being untied to any sort of license agreement, this gives the sculptor and designer free rein over all aspects of the character sculpt.

[edit] Sculptors

Sculptors employed by Bowen Designs for various projects include:

  • Randy Bowen-main sculptor
  • Tim Bruckner
  • Ulises Cantu
  • Rick Force
  • Stephen Hickman
  • The Kucharek Brothers
  • Thomas Kuntz
  • Jim Maddox
  • Barsom Manashian
  • Tony Mcvey
  • Mark Newman
  • Gabe Perna
  • Ruben Procopio
  • The Shiflett Brothers
  • Erick Sosa
  • Carl Surges
  • Neil Surges
  • Ray Villafane

And many others...

[edit] See also

  • Bowen Designs Marvel Mini-Busts
  • Bowen Designs Marvel Statues
  • Other Bowen Designs Sculptures

[edit] References