What are the coolest full-size statues?

[fantastic_four]

What do you guys think are the best full-size statues? I've been seeing some nice bootleg statues lately, and I see that FINALLY Diamond is associated with a decent statue with the Art Asylum Hulk piece, which I think is much better than the Bowen Hulk statue. I'm still ticked that Bowen lost their license with Marvel...Diamond is mostly wasting their possession of it.

 

Keep in mind I don't mean busts, just full-body statues (I HATE BUSTS!!! Who chopped their arms and legs off?!?!!?). I'll post a full list of the ones I think are outstanding when I get the chance, but in the meantime, this is my all-time favorite statue, made by the Franklin Mint:

 

 

The base could be better by being the corner of a building or some other naturalistic piece from Spidey's usual environment, but the detail, pose, and paint quality of this piece are absolutely stunning!

[Kevin Boyd]

That's a nice Spidey piece... is it new?

 

The Art Asylum Hulk is very nice... I'll probably get it sometime this summer.

 

I have a full set of Bowen full-size Marvel statues, I think it was pretty dumb of Marvel to ditch the Bowen contract as I wish he had been able to finish off the rest of the new X-Men, in particular. There's always rumbling that they may go back to him because the Diamond select stuff tends to sit... they look pretty awful. I may still get the Thanos one, but the others seem pretty lackluster. However, the Moore sculpted ones do stand out - Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy look fantastic, so there's hope for improvement in the line. I hope he does a Black Cat...

 

DC Direct statues aren't that great either, and they are way overpriced. The Green Arrow statue was ok, but that's about it. Their new line of mini-busts aren't bad though... I have Batman, Robin and Batgirl and I'm now looking forward to getting Hawkman later this summer.

 

Kev

 

 

[g-man]

i know u are not a big fan of the bowen busts but Apocalypse and Galactus are great as are Man Thing and Bullseye. The Ultimate XMEN busts/mini statues are nice as well (I have Storm & Colossus).

 

I have the Wolverine full size and the Captain Marvel by Alex Ross. I am considering the Jim Lee batman statue if i can get it for under retail ($195).

[Foolkiller]

The full size bowen statues were pretty nice... especially the Daredevil and the Iron Man... but they were all good. The diamond direct stuff has been garbage with the exception of the Thanos statue which looks good.

 

DC direct statues are hit or miss. I liked some of the ones from years ago, but more recently they haven't looked that good... I'm not even that big a fan of the new Batman statue designed by Jim Lee... maybe it will look good when it comes out though.

 

 

[HighVoltage]

ff,

 

That's an awesome Spidey statue! Any info you've got about it would be appreciated!

 

My fave is the Doctor Doom statue by Bowen - I think it captures the essence of the character perfectly & the sculpt is so awesome! 2nd place would be the Bowen Hulk statue - I happen to think that one looks great too. The Hulk really looks like he'd rip your head off!

[sckao]

I have two full sets of the Justice League Maquettes...but I don't generally collect statues. (I just watch the show and I found out the maquettes were used as animator models for the animation.)

 

I don't even know why I have two sets... you just start collecting one set... and suddenly you end up with two sets and assorted singles... Crazy. (plus some DC Direct statues that were tossed in for free with some transactions.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fantastic_four]

I love the Galactus bust, and most of Bowen's busts look great...but I just hate busts as an art form. I don't mind a bust if it's full-sized like they used to be in the ancient Roman-Greco days; the Alex Ross Spidey full-size head bust looks nice. The forthcoming full-size Hulk bust looks too grotesque, which is also true of the face on the Bowen Hulk statue. Both of them make the Hulk's face look horrific like Frankenstein, which while possibly accurate, isn't something I want to look at on any regular basis. The Art Asylum Hulk looks much more attractive.

[fantastic_four]

The Franklin Mint Spidey statue came out in the mid-1990s. Once every few months you see it pop up on ebay and it usually sells for between $400 and $1000, depending upon how many have been up for sale recently. I've only seen one since I bought mine about a year ago, so I imagine one could jump back up to the $1000 range now. I got mine for $400 about a month after the Spidey movie; there had been 3 or 4 others for sale right around the movie that went for around $600 to $900, so I guess the zealots got theirs and I rode their coattails.

 

I think the Franklin Mint one looks better than the Bowen versions...it's fairly big, it's got better detail, the material feels more solid somehow, although I'm not sure what it's made of, and Spidey's pose is absolutely stunning. He's crouched down in a very spider-like pose, with his arms sticking up somewhat like the front two legs of a spider do when it's in a defensive posture. The pose displays his flexibility very well, whereas the Bowen ones don't...the pose is reminsicent of the freaky body positions Ditko and McFarlane are famous for putting Spidey into, although the clarity of lines look more like Romita's style than Ditko or McFarlane.

[TomG]

How about this one!

 

Spider-Man Statue

[Kevin Boyd]

I agree... that the sweetest looking statue I've seen.... surpassed only by the full-size Spidey head bust. It's eerie just how good it looks.

 

After that I would have to say that the next successful Spidey statue is the Bowen Spidey on the shattered building statue (meant to be displayed with the Bowen GG statue).

 

The Bowen standing Spidey is Ok but pretty dull... the black costume Spidey actually looks better. I think Bowen designs had a lot of trouble with Spidey's mask, as none of the mini-busts look that great. Seems that they could never get his head shape and eyes down properly.

 

The Atticus (french) Spidey stuff is awful.

 

The best Bowen statue is Dr. Doom. Other favorites include: Thor, Cap (SA), Iron Man (Modern), Phoenix (green) and the FF set.

 

My favorite Bowen mini-busts were: Vision, Baron Zemo, Bullseye, Venom, Galactus, & Moon Knight. I picked up Yellowjacket and Black Cat in Philly pretty cheap.

 

Kev

 

 

[fantastic_four]

Here are my favorite 10 Marvel character statues (click name to see a picture of each):

 

1) Franklin Mint Spider-Man

2) Bowen Thor

3) Bowen Doctor Doom

4) Attakus Silver Surfer

5) Creative License Magneto

6) Art Asylum Hulk

7) Bowen Daredevil

8) bootleg Spidey vs. Venom

9) Bowen Thing

10) Bowen Elektra

 

I didn't really wanna put the Elektra on the list, but I couldn't think of another one. I own the Bowen FF statues, and they've got some strikingly good qualities about them, but I don't really like McVey's (he's the sculptor) depictions of their faces...they look really upset for some reason and it's a bit disconcerting.

[fantastic_four]

How about this one!

 

Spider-Man Statue

 

I've seen the Blockbuster life-size movie Spider-Man in person when my local Blockbuster had it in the store. Before I saw it in person, I was thinking about getting one, but after seeing it, I didn't like it. His pose is kinda gay...no action stance other than the hands sticking out, and his posture is kinda slumped over for no real reason I could see since the stance is mostly straight-up. The material is very solid but the finish and paint job were obviously rushed. There's a lot of "unfinished" marks and bumps all over the figure, especially around the places where the different pieces of the statue were molded together. This unfinished quality to life-sized statues isn't uncommon, but there are other life-sized statues that are much more finely crafted. This statue looks great from a distance, but when you get up close to it, you can see the roughness. And since it's so large, it's hard not to miss the roughness.

 

I much prefer the life-size Spidey statue to the right of my text that came out a few years ago to promote the original Spider-Man video game for Playstation. The pose and body shape could be a lot better, but the paint job is very nice and it's a much more polished statue than the very rough Blockbuster version.

[clobberintime]

I love the Galactus bust, and most of Bowen's busts look great...but I just hate busts as an art form. I don't mind a bust if it's full-sized like they used to be in the ancient Roman-Greco days; the Alex Ross Spidey full-size head bust looks nice. The forthcoming full-size Hulk bust looks too grotesque, which is also true of the face on the Bowen Hulk statue. Both of them make the Hulk's face look horrific like Frankenstein, which while possibly accurate, isn't something I want to look at on any regular basis. The Art Asylum Hulk looks much more attractive.

Hmmm? Yeah boys - I'm lookin' for a cute Hulk figure with a real purhty mouth. And a man-thing too!

[fantastic_four]

Hmmm? Yeah boys - I'm lookin' for a cute Hulk figure with a real purhty mouth. And a man-thing too!

 

Well hey Mr. Deliverance, try buying this and convincing your wife to put it up on the mantle in the living room. It's rather gruesome!!! This Hulk looks like he's been in the morgue for about a week!

 

[ninanina]

Hmmm? Yeah boys - I'm lookin' for a cute Hulk figure with a real purhty mouth. And a man-thing too!

 

Uh, Cobberintime?

 

You okay?

 

I don't know, sounds weird.... a cute Hulk figure with a man-thing and a purty mouth?

 

 

 

 

[COI]

My "bootleg" Black Panther:

 

 

 

[fantastic_four]

My "bootleg" Black Panther:

 

The guy who did this one is the best bootleg artist I've ever seen. I wish Marvel would sign this guy...I don't know why they don't do more to get their characters out into alternative media like this. Why can't Diamond and Bowen share the license!?!?! Don't get why it's gotta be exclusive.

[murph0]

It looks kinda blue? Is that just the picture or is it one of those blacks that can appear blue in the right light?

 

Brian

[sckao]

 

Pretty cool... Is this an original sculpt? Or does Bootleg mean that it was lifted from a Spawn figure originally and made into the Black Panther?

 

 

 

 

[fantastic_four]

I say bootleg because they're a copyright violation...they're not created with an explicit license agreement from Marvel on the characters. Most of these things are created outside the US...I've seen a lot popping up on ebay from Mexico and South America for some reason. They high on sculptors down there, or just low on ethics?