REVIEW: Bowen Designs Shanna The She-Devil Statue by sash501
As promised, I'm continuing to do a review of all my bowens as a way to recharge my excitement in the hobby and as a way to give back to Bowen for designing these amazing pieces and give back to statue marvels for giving this hobby a true home.
Reviews created so far and their links are as follows:
If you can't wait for a certain statue to be reviewed and want to bump it to the top of the list, click my statue display link below, find a statue you want reviewed (new ones are posted further along in the thread) and send me a PM.
Box art will be included on newly shipped statues from this date forward, but older statue boxes are in my attic. They will be updated when I have time.
I will always try to point out something I would like improved or something that wasn't well done about a piece, in efforts to stay truely objective. This can be from a tiny flaw that you would never notice to an all over bad sculpt (haven't had any of the later thus far).
Lastly, a soda can will be used in each review for scale. I'm not going to post next to other statues, as they aren't part of the review, and other's might not have the statue I would scale the subject statue next too, thus giving them no real idea of the scale any how.
Without further adieu, I give you:
Shanna The She-Devil
Shanna may not be the most well known character in the Marvel Universe. In fact, although she started out with her own self titled comic, she quickly became a tie in with Kazar starting with Kazar #1. That being said, a lot of people don't even know who Kazar is, unless your a fan of the Marvel Universe. Weird that Kazar is more popular, as she is beautiful. The sculpt of her face really expresses beauty.
Produced by Bowen Designs and sculpted by Chuck Williams, this is number 43 of 500 and stands at 12.5 inches tall. Overall first appearances, the statue is a beautiful piece. The detail is unbelievable. For example, under her feat, where you barely see and only truly recognize if the statue is off the base, is dirt. That's right, her feat are dirty. Why you may ask? She's a barefoot Jungle Queen I'd answer.
The paints are perfect with one exception that I will talk about later. The skin tone of the figure is spot on, with the shadowing in the muscles as can be expected. To me this is a big deal considering most statues have very little skin color and mostly easy costume colors, this is A LOT OF SKIN and is well executed. Of course, pics don't do justice for the actual skin tone.
In addition to the amazing detail on the paints, the small details in the sculpt really bring this piece to the next level. For example, her knife is painted in a worn out fashion, but is also sculpted with a small ding in the center of the blade and it does seem to get sharper near the point.
In regard to the knife, the hand it is attached to removes from the statue at the wrist. not sure why this was necessary, but I had a hard time assembling it so you wouldn't notice that it was a separate piece
The spear lays upon her back and is removable. More importantly, the spear is installed through the hair line. I didn't notice this at first and was about to scream in frustration, thinking the factory had cast the hand in the wrong position.
A quick paragraph for the sexually aroused. Yes, her nipples point through the top, but this is only noticeable if you are looking/feeling for them. No she is not naked under the loin cloth. This is good, since Bowen couldn't sculpt genitals on these if they wanted to (I'm guessing) and it did make the Weapon X statue a little weird (I'll expand that thought on the Weapon X review). She is actually wearing a thong under the loin cloth, as is shown in the pictures below. However, the thong is paint only and the string on the thong does look a little off, but that's only when you are looking up her skirt from an inch away.
That being said, for people who enjoy the female body, she has a lot showing and is the epitamy of a perfect female body, IMHO.
The overall weight of the piece feels great. I don't think much of anything is hollow as she is a slender piece and feels heavy in your hand for a piece this size.
The base is stunning and owns at least half the beauty of this piece. Without it, the piece would be very bland. The detail here in amazing. The dinosaur skull (raptor I think) is well done and not ignored. The mouth of the skull is hollow and the dents for it's eye sockets and nostrils are painted very well. All it's teeth are accounted for.
The mossy log can be removed, but I don't know why you would want to, the paint and detail of the moss is exquisit. There is also remnants of a rib cage and vines that have grown off and down the sides of the base.
The big surprise with the base for me, was it's actually on legs. All my other Bowen Bases lie flat, but this one sits on four legs. It really makes the sculpt look more like a work of art. I would really love to see this trend continue, especially in the museum pieces.
The bad: Overall, this piece is stunning. Given the factory hiccups lately, Bowen should definitely continue to use this factory to produce more. There are no flaws with sculpt or paint that would be under the control of the factory, with the exception of the hair. The hair has some brown placed in it that doesn't look natural. That being said, she is a Queen of the Jungle, so I'll assume her hair is just dirty.
The other flaws that I found, I think are simply flaws of the sculpt itself. The first, is that some of the ribs are clearly just stuck on the base and don't look like they are coming out of the ground as intended.
The second issue is the tree limb does not create a seamless attachement to the base. The seam for the limb is very clear.
The plus side, is the seam is hidden behind the skull, so unless you are turning her around to look at her rear, you won't see it, and let's face it, if your looking at her rear, your not looking at the tree limb.
The box isn't anything special. Bowen creates great boxes and collectors know what to expect. A picture of the piece on the front and sides, with sculpting information on the side.
Overall, an amazing piece. I thought the edition size would be lower, but lucky for those of you who now want one, she should be obtainable for a little while. She is beautiful!! Enjoy the rest of the pics.
Last edited by sash501; July 18th, 2012 at 03:36:26 PM..
Another well written and informative review, thanks Sash for the info and great pictures.
I liked this piece from the moment it was released. Even if you have no interest in comics and have no idea who Shanna is, this is a beautiful sculpture that could stand alone in any non-comic display.
Another well written and informative review, thanks Sash for the info and great pictures.
I liked this piece from the moment it was released. Even if you have no interest in comics and have no idea who Shanna is, this is a beautiful sculpture that could stand alone in any non-comic display.
Please keep the reviews coming!
Thanks!
I agree that the piece is beautiful enough to stand alone without knowing nothing of the character or reading comics at all. For people who collect dinosaur statues and the like, this could be a great addition to that too.
I will keep the reviews coming. I wish I could do more at a faster pace, but between taking the photos, uploading them to slow photobucket and then taking my time on hitting everything in the review it's about a 2-3 hour process.
I really enjoyed reading your review sash ... great job.
Yes ... I'm one of those who is not a big fan and doesn't know much about the character but ordered one after seeing it ... can't wait to get it ... hopefully next week.
Hi Sash,
I must admit that I am not very familiar with the character and will pass on this statue.
Your review was nevertheless an absolute joy to read and I enjoyed it very much.
Thanks for the great review and the amazing pics; certainly a job well done!
Excellant review and great pictures. I passed on this statue -- but I will be picking it up sometime in the near future. "sash501" what do you do for a living/work????
Excellant review and great pictures. I passed on this statue -- but I will be picking it up sometime in the near future. "sash501" what do you do for a living/work????
Great review Sash! I myself have been itching to get this beautiful piece. Sadly, my LCS told me that it is in transit and wont arrive till later this week. I will post pics as soon as I get it. Congrats!
that was a great review. You made me see and appreciate details that I would have frankly missed. nice job. I got mine but now I see it in a new light.
Very nice review! I have 1 sitting at home still boxed up and I can't decide if I'm going to open and keep her or sell her. But your review is leaning me towards keeping now lol
Very nice review! I have 1 sitting at home still boxed up and I can't decide if I'm going to open and keep her or sell her. But your review is leaning me towards keeping now lol
You should always open for inspection at least IMO. That being said, she's not for everyone so keep or sell based on your gut.
Great review, I just got mine last night and couldn't be any happier with her. She is a great archetype character- very much in the 50's jungle queen/Jane vein! My first exposure to the character was the "Superhero Women of Marvel" collection from the mid 70's..... My only issue with this sculpt was her foot peg not going into its hole all the way down to her foot, I corrected it after some frustration by taking a small flat head screw driver and shaving down the sides of the square peg hole, after a few attempts at that she slipped down on her base just fine, her weight distributed evenly through both feet in contact with it. Shes a fantastic addition to my "Women of Marvel" display!
Great review, I just got mine last night and couldn't be any happier with her. She is a great archetype character- very much in the 50's jungle queen/Jane vein! My first exposure to the character was the "Superhero Women of Marvel" collection from the mid 70's..... My only issue with this sculpt was her foot peg not going into its hole all the way down to her foot, I corrected it after some frustration by taking a small flat head screw driver and shaving down the sides of the square peg hole, after a few attempts at that she slipped down on her base just fine, her weight distributed evenly through both feet in contact with it. Shes a fantastic addition to my "Women of Marvel" display!
I didn't have that problem. Happy you're enjoying her as much as I am.
REVIEW: Bowen Designs Shanna The She-Devil Statue by sash501
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