Review – Randy Bowen’s Kongzilla

Year: 1998

About a month or so ago, Alex stepped into my office to tell me all about Kongzilla, an old statue he had discovered in a comic book. After a bit of online digging we managed to find a few of these on eBay . . . but no really good information or photos anywhere online. So Alex, as insane as he is, bought one on eBay. And yesterday he brought it over so I could get a good look at it and, as you can see, snap a lot of pics. There, now the internet has better photos of this fabulous Kongzilla statue.

Box

With a one-page comic by Art Adams, the box is massive and functional . . . and even a little attractive. Unfortunately, it’s not cool enough that I would display it, but as we all know you have to keep boxes for expensive statues or else you’re gonna have a tough time when it comes time to move. Make sure to click on the pics to enlarge the images; I saved these at a large enough size that you can read the comic.

Twelve Inches by Eighteen Inches

Standing at about 12-inches tall and stretching roughly 18-inches from tip of hand to tip of hand, Kongzilla is HUGE. This heavy statue is scary to handle, because it’s so large and bulky that moving it is an exercise in patience and slow, deliberate movements because the last thing you want to do is drop this guy.

King Kong + Godzilla Makes us all Happy

I love when artists create bizarre mash-ups, and this combination of two giant monster icons shows that a lot of thought was put into the best way to merge these two designs into one. The head, especially, is a wonderful blend of ape and lizard beast. I took a couple of tight shots of the monster’s head to give you as close a look as possible at this creature’s great sculpt.

Spiny, Spiky, Stabby

Notice the fins along Kongzilla’s back and how pointy they are. I have no idea how many hours went into sculpting these fins, but Bowen did a spectacular job on the fine details. And that doesn’t even get into how tight and cool the scales across the creature’s body are. Overall, a gorgeous work of art.

Paint

When you spend over $100 on a statue or toy, you expect only the best. And again — at the risk of being told I always give positive, glowing reviews — if this was my statue I would be perfectly happy with the paint. I would have liked to have seen a little more dry brush work across the scales, but what’s here displays great and would look cool in any toy or statue collection. And with a little work you can even have Kongzilla holding a victim in one of his massive hands. But that’s not paint talk . . . the paint is good. There, that was a deep and thorough review of the statue’s paint quality, right? Ah, just shut up and look at the pics.

Closing Thoughts

There’s never a lot to say when it comes to statues. As long as there are plenty of good photos than any words written are little more than worthless nonsense. So I’ll shut my own trap now and let you enjoy the pics.

Thanks, Alex, for bringing this over so I could get a look at it and snap these photos. I’m sure a lot of people out there appreciate the fact that there are now better pics of this statue online.

Philip Reed would love to see this reissued. The sculpt is every bit as strong today as it was back in 1998. Come on, Bowen, give us more Kongzilla!