Ultimate Cyclops Bust

The X-Men are possibly the most popular and successful group of super heroes, though the original creation by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby wasn't a runaway success. The original launch of the title in the early 1960's did okay, but eventually the book ended up becoming reprints of older issues until something all new and all different happened with Giant Size X-men #1 in 1975. From there the title became the hottest in comics, and has spawned a plethora of spin-off series and characters. Recently, Marvel Comics has been re-inventing the wheel (or more accurately re-inventing the comics audience) with the series of 'Ultimate' books. Something all-new and all-different has happened to the X-men again in the Ultimate X-Men comic.

The X-Men (even though they weren't even all men) are a diverse group of characters, and the leader of the team is found in Scott Summers. He differs greatly from 'Slim' Summers that graced the pages of the original X-Men in that he's buff, with huge arms and a decidedly more contemporary haircut and look. He still has the signature visor that keeps his deadly optic blasts in check through the ruby quartz lenses, but he's younger and his costume has a more modern look.

Diamond Select (DS) has chosen Cyclops to join Storm, Spider-Man and the Green Goblin as part of their line of Ultimate Busts. The character names are familiar, though long time comics fans may not instantly recognize them with their 'Ultimate' look. Marvel has launched the series of books to draw in new comics readers by basically starting over with their stable of characters by bringing them to a new audience without the years of continuity that may have seemed daunting to new fans.

DS's Cyclops mini-bust is dynamically posed with him about to unleash his optic blast, and stands a full seven inches tall. The base has an 'x' logo that is damaged on the front though pristine on the back. Cyclops can be displayed with his visor towards Magneto, and both busts compliment each other similarly to the Spider-Man and Green Goblin mini-busts from Diamond Select. This bust is also scaled to the other busts in the DS line, so there isn't an issue of scale when displaying several of the busts together, unless you have walleye. If you are an insect with compound eyes remember we love you when you take over the planet.

David Cortés was the sculptor for this bust, and his work has been seen by many toy fans in the work he's done for Toy Biz and on the Lord of the Rings Cave Troll (aka, "gotta play with his lip guy"), as well as on other busts like Ultimate Magneto. While David only sculpted one of these, DS has decided to add to his total so there will be around 10,000 pieces, all complete with a matching set of luggage and a full color certificate of authenticity signed by the aforementioned Mr. Cortés and Adam Kubert. Okay, there's no luggage inside, but the back of the COA is blank, so if you compulsively doodle you won't mess it up for later display. There is a battle-damaged version of Cyclops that is limited to only 500 pieces because that's all of them that would let themselves be beaten up.

The statue is available at many fine (and probably at least one not-so-fine) comics shops. This statue retails for $50 and comes packed in a cardboard box that has various pictures of the piece on the outside along with sculptor credit. The box contains pre-formed Styrofoam pieces that are almost a negative image of the bust if you look long enough. If you look too long you'll see a large boat.

More Pictures of Cyclops