The flame of the once mighty Marvel mini busts collecting world has all but gone out following the end of Bowen Designs a few years back, but Gentle Giant Ltd. is still fighting the good fight with an occasional bust or two. And after debuting it at SDCC 2018, they’ve made good on the promise of their next bust: the Gentle Giant Cable mini bust is now up for order! Oh, and fear not, Skottie Young fans: the Marvel Animated Storm Statue is ready to PO as well!

To say that Marvel mini busts are a dying breed would be a bit of an understatement. Whereas we were getting four or five dozen new busts every year a decade ago from Bowen Designs, these days we get one or two mini busts per year (and that’s one or two per year total, mind you—not one or two dozen).

So when Gentle Giant Ltd. announces a new Marvel bust—even if it’s for a character I already have in bust form—I take notice. Gentle Giant showed off two such busts at SDCC 2018 (the other being Carnage), and now the first of the two is up for sale—Cable!

While I already own a classic X-Force Cable Bowen Designs mini bust—which I think is downright awesome—that doesn’t mean I don’t have room in my heart (or on my shelf) for a more modern, Blue-and-Yellow X-Men costume Cable mini bust.

At 9.25” tall to the tip of Cable’s gun, this is one of the taller mini busts out there, and definitely doesn’t feel like the ripoff that some similarly-priced Gentle Giant mini busts do (I’m thinking of you, $120 Maz Kanata!).

I think the head sculpt on this Cable Mini Bust might be divisive for some folks, but I actually think it’s pretty interesting. I can’t remember the last time (if ever) we got a resin Cable sculpture without his trademark closed-mouth, grumpy scowl. The growling, gritted-teeth expression on his face feels pretty fresh, honestly.

The only thing about this Cable bust I feel pretty cold on is his techno-organic left arm—it looks a bit too smooth and cartoony for my tastes, in contrast to the highly detailed paint deco on other parts of the bust.

In comparison to the metal arm, the paint detailing on Cable’s guns and harness look downright amazing!

But hey—not into mini busts? Gentle Giant has something new to solicit this month for you, too, Marvel Babies fans: the 5.75” Skottie Young-styled Storm Statue!

The Skottie Young Marvel Animated statues series is my favorite line of statues going today (no lie), and I can’t believe we’re already up to the 20th release in the series! Storm is based off the variant cover to Storm #1 and will be the fourth X-Men character released (after Magneto, Wolverine and Cyclops).

Ororo Munroe is such a regal, majestic character ordinarily that seeing her chubby little Skottie Young design is just ridiculously fun. I love her poofy mohawk and huge, blanked-out eyes!

In a world where dropping 600 bucks and up on statues has become the norm, nothing brings more of a smile to my face that getting one of these lil’ 60 dollar resin masterpieces in the mail every few months. Love this line!

Storm and Cyclops were the only two pieces from the line that debuted at SDCC this year, so hopefully we’ll have many months of exciting mystery announcements for the Animated series to look forward to now until New York Toy Fair 2019 in February!

The Gentle Giant Ltd. Marvel Animated Storm Statue and Cable mini-bust are now up for order, and are scheduled to be released in Q2 2019. Pre-order discount-wise, EE is offering free shipping on Cable, whereas BBTS has POs open for both pieces at around 10% off.

Are there any Marvel mini busts fans left in the house besides me, or am I all by my lonesome? If you’re still into busts, who would you like to see Gentle Giant tackle after Cable and Carnage? And for the massive Skottie Young following out there: what characters do you hope we see in Babies form sometime soon (*cough* Gambit Loki Rogue *cough*)?