The heyday of busts may be over, but you wouldn’t know that from the newest round of Marvel Diamond Select Toys solicitations! Along with an 11” MODOK Marvel Gallery figure, the latest DST solicits include not one, not two, but -three- busts: Wolverine, Venom and Moon Knight! Should any of these new statues be bound for your collection?
I still mourn for the golden age of Bowen Designs mini-busts, which combined economical prices and small spatial footprints to serve as a statue gateway for myself and thousands of other burgeoning collectors. Mini busts are largely a thing of the past from most modern manufacturers, but Diamond Select Toys is keeping the tradition alive with several concurrent ongoing lines of busts.
And there’s something for almost everyone in this assortment of head and upper body sculptures!
The headliner for this group, at least for me, is the 1:2 scale Legends in 3-D Moon Knight bust. This bust is officially based on Marvel Comics Moon Knight and not the live-action MCU version, but that’s well and good by me—I much prefer the comic books version anyway.
With a $225 MSRP, this Moon Knight is among the priciest pieces in the resin Legends in 3-Dimensions lineup ever, but I’m okay with that since this statue has a fancier base than most other entries in the line and is one of the few pieces in it with a cape. The textures on the costume look phenomenal, and I’m just really pleased with this bust all-around.
The slow-burn Spider-Man Animated Series busts line gets its fourth villain with the long-expected arrival of Animated Venom! We got a Marvel Legends Venom with the animated-style red and blue highlights a couple years back that proved to be popular, and I’m sure DST hopes this Spider-Man TAS bust will follow suit.
The $120 MSRP on the Venom Animated bust was downright shocking to me, and I’m really not sure where this line will go from here if this kind of pricing remains.
Finally, the Marvel Comics 1/7 bust line continues with Wolverine in his brown costume. The price is right at just $90, and this is a bust certain to get limited repaints as exclusives, but at this point I think the market may be well-saturated with busts of Logan. The claws and open-mouthed portrait do look great, though.
At a glance, you might think that there are really four busts in these new solicitations, but this final piece is actually a full-body statue of the big-headed one himself, MODOK! At 11” tall, I think this deluxe Marvel Gallery MODOK PVC statue will fit in seamlessly with collections of Marvel Select or Marvel Legends figures.
MODOK is not a character I ever felt like I needed articulated, and the details and complementary base and effects really bring this $75 PVC to another level. If we’re not getting a new Marvel Select figure this month, this is the next best thing!
The Marvel Gallery MODOK, Animated Venom Mini Bust, Wolverine Mini Bust and Legends in 3D Moon Knight bust are all up for pre-order now and are scheduled to ship this summer. Given how sensational the Moon Knight 1:2 bust looks and its paltry LE 1000 edition size, I could see it being a surprise early sell-out.
Anything from this quartet of new Diamond Select Toys products pique your interest, Marvel collectors? Anyone planning to add any of these items to their shelves?