Founded in 1992 (first incorporated as Bowen Designs, Inc. in 1991), Bowen Designs was a company dealing in the creation and sale of entertainment-based collectible statues. Most Bowen products released thus far are based on

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

characters, but products based on independent comics and movies have also been created. The primary designer and sculptor for Bowen Designs is

Randy Bowen Founded in 1992 (first incorporated as Bowen Designs, Inc. in 1991), Bowen Designs was a company dealing in the creation and sale of entertainment-based collectible statues. Most Bowen products released thus far are based on Marvel Comics chara ...

. He started as a

garage kit A garage kit (ガレージキット) or resin kit is an assembly scale model kit most commonly cast in polyurethane resin. They are often model figures portraying humans or other living creatures. In Japan, kits often depict anime characters, and ...

creator and throughout the years became a well-known sculptor in the industry. Currently, Bowen Designs consists of many more people and often employs freelance sculptors and prototype painters due to the large amount of product being released. Bowen Design's produces mostly statues and busts based on heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe.

The Marvel License

Bowen Designs' tie to

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. Phase 5 was the last phase to be produced, leaving Bowen Designs future with the Marvel license in the dark. Attributing factors to the lack of renewal for a Phase 6 may include Marvel being acquired by Disney. It is unknown if Bowen Designs will pursue a renewal of the Marvel License, or even if Disney/Marvel would be open to it. Randy Bowen recently announced that the company will come back at some point with new statues, but the announcement failed to specify what kind of statues or what properties any future productions might encompass.

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 The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

. 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.

Sculptors

Sculptors employed by Bowen Designs for various projects include: *

-main sculptor *Tim Bruckner *Ulises Cantu *

Stephen Hickman Stephen Hickman (April 9, 1949 – July 16, 2021) was an American artist, illustrator, sculptor, and author. Biography Hickman's professional career was launched in 1972 when he got a job creating T-shirt designs for Shirt Explosion in Lanham, ...

*The Kucharek Brothers *Thomas Kuntz *Jim Maddox *Barsom Manashian *Tony Mcvey *Joseph Menna *Mark Newman *Gabe Perna *Ruben Procopio *The

Shiflett Brothers {{Unreferenced, date=February 2016 The Shiflett Brothers are Texas based sculptors working in the comic book and gaming industries. Life and career Brandon (born December 19, 1968)and Jarrod (born August 7, 1972) Shiflett began their sculpting c ...

*Erick Sosa *

Joy and Tom Studios Joy and Tom Studios, Inc. produces hand sculpted prototypes for the pre-painted statues and collectibles industry. The company, located in Sanford, Florida, was founded in 1983 by Joy and Tom Snyder. Their portfolio of work consists of many stat ...

*Carl Surges *Neil Surges *Seth Vandable *

Ray Villafane Ray Anthony Villafane (born 1968) is an American sculpture artist. Villafane was an art teacher for 12 years in Bellaire, Michigan, before becoming a full-time sculptor in 2006. He gained national attention in 2007 when he competed on and won F ...

And many others...

Prototype Painters

Prototype Painters employed by Bowen Designs for various projects include: *John Ficchi *Saul Alavrez *Randy Lambert *Dan Cope And many others...

Products

*Gargoyle

References

Bowen Designs Official Site

Statue Forum

Statue Marvels
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090515222929/http://www.statuemarvels.com/ , date=2009-05-15 Marvel Comics action figure lines Action figures Toy companies of the United States