A bust of David Bowie in character as Jareth the Goblin King from the 1986 film ‘Labyrinth.’
The artist responsible for this remarkable life-like bust of David Bowie in character for his role as Jareth, the baby-stealing Goblin King who rules Goblin City in Labyrinth, is Alejandra Montiel—a talented young special effects artist and sculptor based in Vigo, Spain. I mean, even on my best day, no way does my lip gloss look as good as it does on his bust of Jareth and I am a real person. However, since this is a realistic bust of David Bowie as Jareth, I never had a chance to win this lip gloss game—because nobody beats Bowie when it comes to giving good (or in the case of Bowie, great) face.
To achieve the “is that thing alive?” glow, Montiel used an airbrush to paint the bust and resin for Bowie’s famous eyes—one blue and one black. If you’ve never heard the story about his eyes, here’s the gist: In 1962 Bowie’s buddy George Underwood (a one-time member of the King Bees, who did the drawings for the Space Oddity/Man of Words/Man of Music back cover, and the cover art for Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust, too) popped the Thin White Duke in the eye after finding out he was lusting for a girl he had set his sights set on. The fistfight led to Bowie’s post-punch diagnosis of anisocoria—a condition that causes one pupil to be larger than the other. In Bowie’s case, he was left with a permanently expanded left pupil which made it appear black in color.
Montiel’s excellent sculpture of Jareth will set you back $1,083.77 (USD), plus $104.55 shipping. It should be noted that it does not come with Jareth’s crystal ball and the white shirt pictured in the photo from Montiel’s Etsy shop may be slightly different than the one wrapped around the armless bust. If the bust’s pricetag is a bit out of your range, Montiel also makes a sweet sculpture of The Worm from Labyrinth that is nicely priced at $70.59. I’ve posted images of the Jareth sculpture and The Worm below.
An adorable sculpture of The Worm from ‘Labyrinth.’
An image of The Worm sculpture for scale.
A scene from Labyrinth featuring the song “Within You.”
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘Labyrinth’ becomes a board game, complete with ‘Goblin King Jareth’ figure!
David Bowie’s ‘hidden’ face in scenes from ‘Labyrinth’
Intimate photos of David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly & more from the set of ‘Labyrinth’
‘The Worm’ plush slippers from ‘Labyrinth’