In the last years, the widespread diffusion of this hobby and the relevant increase of the number of collectors gave rise to fruitful collaborations between independent artists and private customers and a lot of original, beautiful pieces (as well as some alternative add-ons for the most sought-after pieces of the main Companies) were produced and promoted on the Web through the social networks. In principle, the lack of an official Marvel license should prohibit any production and/or release of these pieces and makes debatable to consider them as true collectibles; on the other hand, if the above mentioned collaborations (theoretically speaking) have no commercial purposes and a limited group of people decide to self-finance the realization of a piece, it is not clear to me what are the legal restrictions imposed by the copyright laws. Anyway, this practice is becoming more and more widespread and probably contributes on its own to popularize the hobby and to increase the number of fans. In this context, few years ago I purchased four little statues realized in Singapore, depicting small and very original caricatures of some key-figures of the Marvel Universe: Captain America, Wolverine, Hulk and Iron Man. In spite of the limited size (the statues are tall, more or less, 18 cm), the quality of the sculpt, the attention paid to details and the general painting are really awesome and, not by chance, the pieces went sold out very rapidly! Captain America exhibits the classic suit of the original Comics and a frontal, dynamic pose: the hero is represented in the running, with his bust forward, the body resting on the left leg and the right one bent backwards. The proportions of the body are just caricatural: both legs show powerful muscles but are clearly undersized compared to the huge and bumped pectorals, as well as the narrow waistline. The sculpt of the scaled upper part of the costume is amazing and also the painting of the suit (whose tonalities are very faithful to Comics) is very well done. Note the perfet folds of the suit on legs and abdomen, the traces of mud on the boots, the rubber sole design of the right shoe, the military pouches on the black belt at waist and the metallic tone of colors on the classic, circular shield. The base is very nice and depicts a rocky terrain, embellished with a bit of grass and a pole with barbed wire. In my opinion, however, the real strength of the piece is the face of the hero! The caricatural somatic traits are fantastic: the large mouth has hyper-defined and rounded lips, a huge and hooked nose is centered between protruding cheekbones, two sticking out ears and small blue eyes come out from the mask whle a just sketched beard marks the lower part of the face. Although Captain America is my favorite, the statue devoted to Wolverine is probably the best one! Logan is depicted in one of his most usual look, with a pair of blue jeans, some cowboy-style boots and a white, dirty undershirt with vertical lines, which leaves partially uncovered the hairy chest. Also in this case, the sculpt is outstanding: the body is characterized by slim legs and a thin waistline which contrast to a very large chest, hyper-defined muscles on front and back and an oversized head. The arms are characterized by bumped biceps, a lot of veins (sculpted and painted to perfection), a thick down on the forearms and the deadly adamatium claws in good evidence. The jeans are beautiful, with a bright blue on top and brown stains of mud at bottom, tightened at waist by a black belt and a buckle depicting the well-known X-Men logo. The face of Logan is a little masterpiece on its own. The character shows a black thick hair which covers the face contour at both sides; mustache and beard on chin are just sketched around the mouth, where gnarled teeth squeeze a burning cigar and the frowned expression is pointed out by the large eyebrows and the bumped wrinkles on nose. Also the base is very well done: it shows a rocky soil with a bright greenery scattered here and there and a frontal plate with the name of the hero. The caricature of the green Goliath is also a nice piece, although a bit undersized (in my opinion) if compared to the other ones. Hulk has a frontal pose, with the arms stretched along the hips and closed fists, well defined pectorals and biceps and even an outlined belly! The green color used on the figure is fine while the good sculpt points out the powerful muscle on arms and back, with veins on arms in good evidence and brownish traces of mud on feet, elbows and the tattered jeans. The ruins of a taxi and of a metallic beam are visible on the rocky base. The face exhibits a lot of wrinkles at the sides of the small black eyes and on forehead, a small squashed nose, very backward ears and a huge mouth, with a swollen lower lip and gnarled teeth. Finally, the Iron Man caricature shows the Mark I version of the armor, characterized by a lot of separated patches with a metallic appearance. Note the great attention paid to details: the raw aspect of the armor and the dents around the blue reactor, centered on chest; the belts at sides of both legs; the inner electric cables in the calf of the left leg and at the knees level; the engine on the back and the squared propective patches on forearms and shins. A flamethrower is mounted on the right arm, which a bright orange flame comes out from. The face has the caricatural somatic traits of Tony Stark, with the typical goatee and mustache, and a mask hinged on top (which can be frontally placed) equipped with two trapezoidal openings for eyes. The base is rather large, circular in shape and embellished with some metallic tools and a dirty, red can. I had never seen caricatural statues of the Marvel characters on market and I am very happy I was able to have them in my collection: they are original, very well done and represent a nice and unique anomaly in the great family!