Bowen Designs and the Kucharek Bros pull out all the stops for M.O.D.O.K.!

There are some pieces that I buy because I love the character, some that I buy to complete a team or set, and some that I buy simply because they look freaking amazing. Tonight’s review, subject, the Bowen Designs M.O.D.O.K. Full Size Statue, definitely falls into that last category.

This piece was a Previews Exclusive - something I’m not entirely clear on the benefits of, since Previews is so accessible, either through your local comic store or favourite e-tailer. From what I’ve heard, many sellers had their orders of this great piece allocated, so I was very pleased that mine came through.

I first came across M.O.D.O.K. in the pages of the original Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and as I was a tender lad of twelve or thirteen at the time, I remember being a tad frightened of him. Jack Kirby certainly had a mind for the bizarre, and he brought his A game when he and Stan Lee created this insanely strange villain.

Bringing something as challenging as the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing to statue form sounds like a job for none other than the amazing Kucharek Brothers, who always seem to be up for a design challenge. They have most certainly risen to the occasion!

I could go on and on about the detailed sculpting on this amazing piece. The Kucharek Brothers have absolutely pulled all the stops on this one! M.O.D.O.K.’s face is a real triumph. He has all of his trademark wrinkles and a perfectly evil facial expression. His teeth are huge and beautifully sculpted. He very much looks like he’s just leapt right off the pages of a classic Captain America comic.

Around this fantastically sculpted face is body armor to die for - sculpturally (is that a word? It should be!) speaking, of course. There is a brilliant amount of detail in his headpiece, limbs, containment suit and amazingly cool chair. All of this is supported by a spotless paint job with perfect colour choices.

The character and base are separate pieces here, and the assembly is a large peg and hole deal. The tube that the peg goes into looks infinitely breakable, so I was very careful when putting it all together. There is some nice use of translucent materials in the base to depict M.O.D.O.K.’s chair “blasting off” - both an energy blast and smoke.

Apart from the great design, sculpting and paint, the other thing that makes this a breathtaking statue is its size. This thing is HUGE! I normally keep comparison pics for my Facebook photo albums, but I had to include one here by standing the well-known Bowen Wolverine statue next to this monster of a piece.

Pulling off something like M.O.D.O.K. really makes me think that Bowen can do anything, and definitely makes me excited for their upcoming Professor X in Hoverchair Statue! Of course, if they produce too many more of these oversize pieces, I’m really going to struggle for display space - but, hey, when have I ever let that stop me?

You can see more pics at Facebook, discuss this at the AFB Forum, and you can comment on this post to enter the July AFB Comment of the Month Contest!

Until next time!