Monthly Archives: June 2012

Jun 15 2012

Vintage Vault: Sectaurs Skito and Toxcid by Coleco

Its Friday and that means its time for another AD&D… oh wait, sorry, force of habit. As I’ve been promising for a while now, we’ll give AD&D a break for two or three weeks. today we’re taking a look at those loveable mutant insect warriors from the planet of Symbion. I’ve featured the Sectaurs here on FigureFan numerous times in the past, but this is actually the first time I’m looking at one of the bad guys from the Dark Domain of Synax. Part of the reason I pushed this one back from last Friday was because I was desparately looking for some of the stuff that came with him. I have all his accessories, but somewhere, I have an envelope with the mini-comic and other ephemera. Alas, I still couldn’t put my hands on any of it, so we’re going to just press on with the figure.

No in package shot. One day, I’ll get around to actually looking at one of these figures or beasts in a package. I remember getting Skito in a window box, but I’m pretty sure some of these figures were available carded as well.

And there’s Skito. Damn, I love the designs on these figures. They’re so very distinctive. Skito’s head sculpt is a little more human-ish than some of the bad guys we’ll eventually look at. He is separated from the good guys by having an olive colored skin. He’s also sporting pointy ears, fangs, and a set of cool, segmented antenna. There isn’t a lot of variation in the core bodies of these figures. Skito features the usual armored chest with flared shoulders, four fingered hands, both of which can hold his accessories, and feet that end in three pointy toes. The rest of Skito’s color pallet features a lot of black and green. His feet desolve from green into borwn. As always, I like the slightly metallic twinge on his chest paint.
Skito has the same standard points of articulation as all the Sectaurs. His head turns, his arms have ball jointed shoulders. His legs feature ball jointed hips and hinged knees. Not exactly super articulation by today’s standards, but not bad for the day. You can get some decent poses out of him.
As always, you get some cool gear with the figure. Skito features a removable harness that goes across his chest and around his waist. It includes a fully functional shoulder holster for under his right arm, and a scabbard loop on his left hip. The pistol is a little grey snub-nosed affair with a wonderfully detailed sculpt. The sword is also grey, slightly curved and the blade is segmented as if its made from bone or something. Lastly, he comes with a small shield.
Of course, one of the gimmicks of the Sectaurs line was the psychic link between the characters and their little buggy sidekicks. In this case, Skito’s is Toxcid. Toxcid’s big claim to fame was his ability to spit acid in people’s faces. The toy replicates this by allowing you to fill up the bug with water and squeeze it to shoot. I used to use Kool Aid to give it a red venomy look. In terms of play value, Toxcid probably isn’t the most exciting of the bug companions. He isn’t at all articulated, and unless you’re actually going to fill him with water and squirt people, he just kind of sits there. Still, I think his gimmick works better than some of the other bugs in the line. At least he doesn’t have a grappling hook built into him. Either way, he is a very nice sculpt and the coloring on him is very cool.
The Sectaurs figures continue to amaze me. As a kid, I was totally in love with this line, even though I never owned any. But nowadays they impress me all the more because of how well they hold up after all these years. Skito is a fun, well designed figure with lots of cool gear and he’s totally representative of this line as a whole. What’s more, they display beautifully on any retro-themed toyshelf or even beside my Masters of the Universe Classics.
Jun 13 2012

Transformers Prime: Vehicon by Hasbro

Ok, its come to this. I was pretty determined not to pick up any of the Transformers Prime toys for a number of reasons. Its true I’m pretty lukewarm on the show. I can watch it and enjoy it, but I don’t seek it out and therefore have only seen a handful of episodes. But let’s face it, if I only bought Transformers from shows I enjoyed, I wouldn’t have the dozen or so totes full of them that I do. No, the main reason was one of discipline. My Transformers collection has grown so out of control over the years that I can’t even display most of it and so I decided to limit myself just to buying the Classics/Universe 2.0/Generations themed figures. I’ll also admit to not being a huge fan of the overly stylized Transformer designs, but that never stopped me from buying a buttload of TF: Animated figures. Anywho, with things being so slow and no new Avengers figures showing up at the local retailers, I caved in this last weekend and bought a couple of TF: Prime Deluxes, The Vehicon and Ratchet. We’ll check out the first one today: The Vehicon!

I gotta say, I really dig this packaging. Sure, its a simple bubble on cardback, but the deco is gorgeous and really jumps off the peg at me. You get an extended card at the top with the series logo, a nice piece of personalized character artwork and a giant Decepticon logo with lightning shooting across it. Holy hell! The bubble has an insert showing the figure’s name and allegiance and has the “Robots in Disguise” monikor, which distinguishes it from the rarer and superior figures most of will never see “First Edition” versions of the line. Its best not to get me started on that nonsense. The figure is carded in his vehicle form with his “Snap On Blaster Cannon” mounted beside him.
The back panel of the card shows a shot of the figure in both modes and has a little bio blurb that is not only better than what we usually get, but better than it has any right to be, considering who this character is. You see, the Vehicons are the cannon fodder of the show, similar to the Vehicons in Beast Machines or the drones in the Fall of Cybertron game. They’re there to be blowed up and get the slag beaten out of them. That having been said, the bio gives them a lot of personality. But enough preamble. Let’s rip this guy open and check him out. We’ll start with the vehicle mode.
Awww yeah. That’s what I’m talking about. I’m pretty sure I’ve expressed my irrational love for Decepticon cars before, so straight away The Vehicon is tugging at my heart strings. Plus, I love this car mode! Ok, it is somewhat smallish and yeah, it is seriously lacking in the paint apps department, just some little bits of purple accent, but the design is killer.  The wedge-shaped wall of a front end makes it look like it was built for ramming Autobot fools off the road. The rear spoiler fins give it a bit of a Batmobile look and the tranlucent plastic on the windows and front headlamps make me happy. There are sockets just above the rear wheelwells on either side that let you plug the Vehicon’s gun into. Its a shame Hasbro couldn’t have engineered some flip-up guns into this thing somewhere. Anyway, I love it.
The Vehicon is a bit of a shellformer, but his transformation is clever enough to make me easily forgive this sometimes lazy method of design. The entire top of the car from the back to the windshield splits and folds up into his legs. The result is you have no real car shell kibble, only a sleek and sexy looking Decepticon badass.
And badass he is! He’s got that lean and spindly look many of the TF:Prime robot designs feature, although he still remains very well proportioned. What’s really cool, though, is that despite being largely a shellformer, its tough to see where it all goes, thanks to the clever design of his legs. The only real car kibble lands on his shoulders and sides of his legs, and these pieces look strategically placed as armor. The head sculpt is great. It took me a while to place it, but it definitely has a little Battlestar Galactica modern Cylon thing going for it. I’m also a big fan of the little exposed part of bare metal on his chest with a Decepticon logo and a piece of clear plastic laid over it. Very nice! The Vehicon’s robot mode features more of a purple and black deco make for classic Decepticon colors. He and Skywarp could definitely hang out.
Articulation is, in a word, solid. He’s got balljoints in his neck, shoulders, and hips. His elbows feature a weird combo balljoint and hinge. His knees and wrists are also hinged. You can get some nice poses out of him. At first I wasn’t sure about his funky arm construction, but I’m growing to like it.
As a Deluxe, The Vehicon ran me $12.88 at Walmart. Yes, Hasbro has been scaling down their Deluxes and Voyagers and while this guy can still hang in scale with other Deluxes he does look diminished. We also seem to be getting less in the way of paint apps. Even with all that in mind, I think the price is pretty reasonable here. Its only about three bucks more than your average 3 3/4″ figure and let’s face it, this toy required a lot more engineering and careful tooling than a Spider-Man or Star Wars figure. No, the price is fine, and I was actually surprised to be able to find him on the pegs, since he is a very highly sought after figure and I’m sure some collectors are army building them. The final point here is that my initial foray into the TF: Prime toys has been a positive one. I’m very anxious to rip open Ratchet and check him out next week.
Jun 11 2012

GI JOE Retaliation: Cobra Trooper by Hasbro

As promised, its Monday and I’m back with another look at Hasbro’s tenuous and poorly timed launch of the Retaliation figures. I’m still not prepared to say whether or not you’ll be seeing any more of these figures featured here. Cobra Commander and this Trooper were the only two that jumped out at me, but if things don’t liven up around here in the toy aisles, I may be buying more of these out of sheer desparation. While Cobra Commander was a “must buy” for me, I just picked up Cobra Trooper so I’d have someone to stand beside him. I wasn’t completely sold on this guy when I saw him on the peg, so let’s see if he can win me over.

The packaging. Oh, god, the packaging. I ragged on it pretty good last time, so let’s just say it looks rushed and amateurish and leave it at that. The bubble shows off the figure very nicely and the insert has the figure’s name on it and shows a picture of the included parachute in action. Flip the card over and you’ve got a couple shots of the figure as well as three others in the line. There’s a pointless little blurb on the Cobtra Trooper and a couple points emphasizing that working parachute again. Let’s rip this guy open and see what we’ve got.
The obvious first impression is that this isn’t a traditional Cobra Trooper, but that’s fine, since this is a movie product. He comes sculpted with grey fatigues, a removable helmet, and removable webgear with a functional holster for his sidearm. The removable helmet is a very nice touch and it stays on surprisingly well. The removable webgear is now pretty standard fare for GI Joes, but in this case it allows you to swap it out and turn him into a paratrooper, which we’ll get to later. The sculpting on the webgear is exceptional. You can see all the texturing in the belts, the sculpted grenades, the clasps and pouches. Its very nice work.  The headsculpt consists of a mask and visor that looks a tad like paintball gear and covers every bit of the trooper’s face. I kind of like it. Its rather sinister.
Its on the coloring of the figure, where things break down for me a bit. The grey fatigues that comprise most of the figure’s body look great, but they really don’t feel like Cobra to me. The blue helmet and webgear help a bit, but I would have preferred blue fatigues, blue helmet, and black webgear. He has a nice Cobra emblem tampo on his helmet and his chest, but you can’t really see the one on his chest when he’s wearing the webgear. All of my issues with the coloring on the figure come from my personal conceptions on what a Cobra Trooper should look like. If I toss that aside, I think the colors on the figure work great for a military trooper.
The Cobra Troopers articulation is the same as what we saw with Cobra Commander. He has a ball jointed neck. His arms feature ball jointed shoulders, ball jointed elbows, and swivel wrists. His legs are ball jointed at the hips and hinged at the knees. Lastly, he can swivel just under his abdomin. Again, considering how upset collectors are over the cuts in articulation, this guy still has plenty of poseability. Sure, what’s missing sucks, but it is what it is.
You get some solid accessories with this figure. His weapons include a tiny little automatic pistol, which fits snugly into his holster. You also get a rather unusual looking assault rifle with some kind of canister coming off the stock. And then there’s the parachute. To work the parachute you swap out his webgear and clip the nylon cords onto the top straps of the webgear. It looks and works pretty great. I am particuarly impressed with the quality of the parachute. The material and cords are nice and heavy duty and the Cobra emblem printed on it is really cool. And yes, it works pretty well. I chucked him up into the air and it opened just fine.
Kudos, Hasbro. You were indeed able to win me over with this figure. I still would have preferred a more conventional Cobra paintjob, but what’s here works fine. Its a good design, a good sculpt, solid weapons, and the ability to convert him to a paratrooper is a really nice bonus. I’m not going to go army building this guy like I have in the past with the Vipers and the Crimson Guards, but I could see myself picking up one more just to display him as both regular trooper and paratrooper. He’s a solid figure and I’m really glad I picked him up.
Jun 8 2012

Vintage Vault: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Mercion by LJN

Hey guys, its Friday and that means Vintage Vault. I know, I know. I promised something other than AD&D this week, but I’m going to have to beg your indulgence for just one more week as when I pulled the Sectaurs figure I was originally planning on looking at, I found I needed to do some additional tote hunting for his accessories. So, let’s extend the Friday AD&D marathon just one more week and check out this figure. And holy hell, its even still carded!

Ah, yeah, the card has seen much better days, but that’s ok. We still get the point and I don’t feel so bad about tearing it open. The card proclaims Mercion as a Good Cleric Female, which gives her the distinction of being the only girly-girl in the poseable figure line. Check out the price tag… Bradlees! Holy shit, I remember Bradlees! For you young’uns, it was basically a forerunner to the big box stores like Target. You could buy all sorts of stuff there and they usually had some pretty good selections of toys and action figures. Mercion was originally ticketed at $2.97!
As we saw when we looked at the cardback for Melf, Mercion has a little bio about her race and class under her character art. I really dig the character art, even if it is a bit at odds with the actual action figure. What does disappoint me a little is that the blurb points out that the clerics’ main weapon was the mace or hammer, and Mercion comes with a staff. No biggie. At least they didn’t give her something as uncharacteristic as a sword. The back of the card is identical to Melf’s with some artwork displaying some of the other characters on top and some rather poorly composed photos of some of the PVC monsters on the bottom. Ok, let’s tear this baby open and bask in the funk of pure, unspoiled 80’s air.
The bubble may have yellowed, but the figure inside is minty fresh and that’s doubly cool because she has so much in the way of softgoods garb. Much like the wizards, Kelek and Ringlerun, you don’t get to see a lot of the sculpting on Mercion’s body because she has an actual belted tunic and a hooded cloak. You can see her boots and her plate armor covered arms and gauntleted hands. Her head sculpt is pretty solid, especially for a line where hardened, ugly faces are the norm. Mercion’s fairly attractive and has long sculpted blonde hair. If you peek under her tunic, she actually has a full set of sculpted armor. When I was a kid, I actually did a little custom work on my worn version by painting her hair and removing the rest of her tattered tunic. The result worked pretty well for a completely different figure.
I really can’t say enough great things about the softgoods outfit. The tunic is perfectly shaped and neatly belted at her waist and tied at the back. It looks better than it should on a figure in this small scale. The sparkly cloak hangs around her neck with a tiny piece of silver thread and is easily removed for when she needs room to move and put the smackdown on some evil.
Articulation? If you’ve been reading these AD&D figure features for the past couple of months, then you should know what to expect, but Mercion throws us a little of a curve. Her head and hair are all sculpted in one piece with her body, so there’s no head movement. You do still get ball joints at the shoulders, and the legs are ball jointed at the hips.
As previously mentioned, Mercion comes with a staff. In fairness, it does have a mace head giving it some potential as a bashing weapon. But based on the character art on the card, I think its intended to be more of a magical piece. She can comfortably hold it in either hand, but not really both at the same time.
  
Mercion may not be a major stand out figure in this line. She’s pretty normal looking, doesn’t come with a flash assortment of weapons, she’s just generally low key. I think the expertly crafted and fitted softgoods are definitely her strongest point and she does look great standing on the shelf with the rest of her good adventurer chums. She can be tough to find with her tunic and cloak in good condition, but even if you need to get her without any of her softgoods, the sculpted armor still makes for a decent figure or variant.
Jun 6 2012

GI JOE Retaliation: Cobra Commander by Hasbro

So the movie’s been delayed until next year, what about the toys? Well chances are if you’ve been in an action figure aisle, you noticed that the first run of the Retaliation toys are out. Hasbro opted to sell through what was shipped, but seeing as the other option was a economically crippling recall that would even further piss off their retail partners, it was really the only thing they could do. Future waves of the toys will be held back for the movie release next year. I already went on record about how underwhelmed I am with this line, but when I went hunting for new Avengers figures this morning I found that the pegs are still crammed with the same three non-movie versions of Iron Man, Cap and Thor, so I opted to pick up the only two Retaliation figures that I had much interest in. Today we’ll take a look at Cobra Commander.

There’s the packaging and oh lord is it terrible. Sure its a standard and perfectly functional Hasbro card and bubble, which displays the figure pretty well. There’s an insert that personalizes the package with the figure’s name and a shot of the figure deploying his token stupidly oversized and gimmicky weapon. Take note, my Cobra Commander is blue, but there appears to be a running change with a black variant.
The cardback is an atrocity. It really looks like Hasbro had someone in their art department hammer this out while on lunch. The logo and shots of Roadblock and Snake Eyes are poorly formated and look like they were clipped out of a magazine, whereas the orange yellow deco of the card makes the figure blend in with the knock-off military figures on the pegs next to it. The back of the card has a throwaway blurb about the character, but no file card. It shows the figure in three different poses, holding each of his weapons and there are shots of three other figures in the assortment off to the side. What’s with the Japanese lettering on the back? I’ll let y’all ponder that while I open my figure and then burn the packaging and bury the ashes in the backyard.
Out of the package, Cobra Commander is one very, very cool looking figure. Obviously, it helps when the toy is based on a good looking movie design and that appears to be the case here. If you like your Cobra Commander as a take charge, in the thick of things, terrorist leader, this version should really appeal to you, because he’s outfitted for action, rather than sitting on the throne. The head sculpt is extremely detailed and a nice evolution of his chrome faceplate design of old with the faceplate centered in what is made to look like a Cobra’s jaws. There’s a tiny sculpted Cobra on the top of the helmet and he has sculpted Cobra emblems on his kneepads. The rest of the figure is a pretty simple but effective sculpt.
His belt and bandolier strap are removable, which is a good thing. I like having the option of him wearing it, but I think its a little too bulky to make him look like a dignified leader. If Cobra Commander goes into battle, I’m sure he’ll be flanked by troops to carry his shit, so he shouldn’t need this many pouches. On the downside, the nice gold braid that loops around his right arm is part of the gear belt, so if you take it off, the braid goes with it.
The coloring on the figure is ok. I would have preferred a paler shade of blue, but what’s here is still good and I like the way it contrasts with the slightly glossier black of the boots and gloves. The Cobra Emblem tampo on his chest looks great. I definitely would have preferred his helmet be blue like his uniform, but its still plenty cool as it is.
Articulation? For all the bitching I have to say, the articulation here is not at all bad. You get a ball jointed neck. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, and again at the elbows. The wrists do swivel. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and feature hinged knees. He can swivel at the waist. Yeah, the lack of double hinges in the knees, and any articulation in the ankles will upset a lot of people. On the flipside, I was actually surprised that the wrists had swivels. What’s here is lacking, but its definitely not the stone age level of poseability a lot of collectors feared.
As far as accessories go, Cobra Commander comes with a simple assault carbine and a pistol. The pistol fits into the aforementioned leg holster. Both are decent sculpts and cast in pale grey plastic.  Of course, you also get the usual throwaway oversized gimmick weapon. In this case its a Cobra staff that shoots a giant missile. As a weapon its ridiculous, but I’m sure a lot of collectors could find a way to work it into their displays as decor for the Cobra Temple, Cobra Throneroom, or Cobra Smoking Lounge.
Cobra Commander cost me just under $9 at Walmart. That’s about right for figures these days and while he doesn’t come with the plethora of accessories and articulation that Joe fans have been getting these past couple of years, he’s still an excellent figure. Apart from the packaging, nothing about this figure feels cheap or scaled back to me. Still, I wouldn’t take this as praise for the line as a whole. I looked at all the figures today and Cobra Commander was the only one I was tempted to pick up. Roadblock actually looks good, but I can’t get past that big gunpart molded right into his hand. I wasn’t even too keen on the Cobra Trooper, but I bought him anyway and we’ll check him out on Monday.
Jun 4 2012

Doctor Who: The (“Impossible”) Astronaut by Character Options

Yep, its been a while since I looked at one of the figures from the current series, but with the toy shelves being so dried up around here, I’m taking the opportunity to pick up some of the releases I’ve been procrastinating over. Today we’re checking out The Astronaut, originally seen in the Series Six two-parter “The Impossible Astronaut” and “Day of the Moon” and if you haven’t seen all of Series Six yet, well you better get to it because there are spoilers abound.

Character Options is still using the same style of cardback that we’ve seen since Matt Smith took over in Series Five. Its simple, its effective, and since its nothing in particularly special, I don’t mind tearing the cards open to get at the figure. I’m fond of the use of the cardback and bubble over the blister pack, because I don’t need a blowtorch to get it open. As has been the case with a lot of the Series Six figures, The Astronaut comes with a packet of spunk behind the figure, which is a misguided attempt to merchandize The Flesh Goo from “The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People.” I have quite a few packets of this stuff, and I’m too disturbed and afraid to open any of it. Anywho, the package shows off the figure rather nicely and the back of the card has photos of other figures in this assortment, most of which are minor rehashes of figures we’ve seen before.
Out of the package, the first thing that strikes me is The Astronaut is one big figure. I realized this one was going to be bulky to replicate the scale of the Apollo spacesuit, but I was still surprised at the size of it. Of course, The Astronaut isn’t really an Astronaut, but really River Song trapped in an alien suit designed by The Silents to assassinate The Doctor. I think I’ve got that right. Truth be told, I’ve watched Series Six more times than I can count and there are still some points I’m a bit shaky on. In any event, its supposed to look like an Apollo Spacesuit, so let’s just go with that.
The sculpt is very, very soft, almost to the point that it looks like the figure was molded out of sculpty as a custom. I know that sounds like a horrible dig against the figure, but CO has always almost always delivered quality sculpts, so I’m thinking this is an effort to replicate the soft and overall rough appearance of the Apollo suit, which was like wearing a giant white garbage bag. For the most part it works, and its only around the hoses and instruments on the chest where it seems a little off. I’m also not a fan of the giant seam running across the helmet. There isn’t a lot of paintwork on this figure. The visor is gold, there’s some paint on the boots and gloves, and the US Flag is tampo’ed on the backpack and left shoulder. There are two blank emblems on the chest, which should be NASA, but I’m guessing CO didn’t want to pay for the rights to use the logos. All in all, this is a pretty good looking figure for what it is.
One cool point about the figure is that the visor opens to reveal River Song, and its actually a new head sculpt too, and bewilderingly better than the one we got on the regular River Song figure. The hair doesn’t look like a separate piece anymore and instead looks more natural. The paintwork gives her a bit of a vacant, creepy stare, but all in all not bad.

The Astronaut features a lot of articulation for a character that just waddled out of a lake and shot The Doctor. Her arms have ball joints at the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels in the wrists. Her legs feature universal movement at the hips, swivels in the thighs and boots, and hinges in the knees. The figure also swivels at the waist.
While The Astronaut may not seem like great action figure fodder, it was one of the most iconic “characters” from all of Series Six and so its probably a good thing CO made it. The end result could have been better, as the sculpt is soft and wanting, but overall, I think it gets the job done and its still a cool addition to my Doctor Who collection. Probably not a “must own” but then so few of the Series Six figures have fallen into that category for me. Ultimately, it was the $12.99-15.99 price tag that gave me pause. Toss in shipping and this is essentially about a $20 figure. If it were anything other than Doctor Who, I’d say “no way” but I’m all about supporting this line as much as I can.
Jun 1 2012

Vintage Vault: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Ogre King by LJN

Its Friday, and that means its time for a look at another action figure from LJN’s AD&D line. This update will be the last time I devote Friday’s to strictly AD&D as next week Friday becomes the only day of the week for Vintage Vault and it will feature a rotating lineup of toylines. AD&D will continue to be featured heavily on VV, I’ve got lots more figures to look at, but it just won’t be every week. We’re ending the Friday AD&D Marathon today with another one of the Giants in the line. Its the Evil Ogre King!

As with the Northlord Barbarian, The Ogre King is a larger and more deluxe assortment of figure, but he’s still meant to be scaled with the rest of the figures and hence he’s a Giant! While pitting the Northlord Barbarian against this guy may have seemed like a fair fight, I used to love having to send a whole party of adventurers against him, and he usually wound up hurling Melf or Elkhorn before one of the more substantial adventurers did him in. Good times!
As an Ogre, you would expect this guy to look mean and green. Well, he’s certainly green, but the head sculpt could use a little more mean. There’s a lot of attention to detail in the head, and he’s certainly a whole bucketload of ugly, but I think he could have done with a fiercer expression. He sort of looks like he’s smiling and possibly about to invite you to tea.
The Ogre King also features some rather peculiar armor choices. He has a gladiatorial style ensemble for his right arm, which is accompanied by various belts sculpted across his chest. He’s also got what looks like a segmented plate armor tube top that comes up just under his chest. Its capped off with a removable soft plastic belt and “skirt” that is made to look like an extension of his stomach armor. His legs have knee guards and he has armor for his calves, but his feet are left bare. Its a bit of an odd choice of coverings. I would think an Ogre King could afford better protection. You could pretty much just stomp on his toes and then stab him in the heart.
The paintwork on this figure is solid enough, but once again its a bit odd. The aqua colored armor is peculiar, but certainly makes for a distinctive looking figure. I do really like the dark green used for his skin. There is a variant, which uses a much lighter skintone, that I don’t think works as well.

The accessories for the Giants all follow the same pattern, so just like with the Northlord Barbarian, Ogre King comes with a helmet, a removable soft plastic belt, a sword, a shield, and a spare weapon, in this case a spiked mace. The belt features a loop so you can store the spare weapon, although this figure can only store his mace there as the sword blade is too big to fit. Indeed, the sword is a pretty wild shaped piece with a blade that bellows out and features a notch in the edge. The hilt is nicely sculpted and painted yellow. The shield is long with an embossed dragon motif and the yellow, black, and aqua coloring matches the rest of the figure’s motif. The helmet is a simple cap that balances procariously on his head. I help it stay in place with a dot of bluetack.
Ogre King’s articulation is identical to that of the Northlord Barbarian. The head turns, the arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, and his legs are ball jointed at the hips. Not exactly super articulated, but it gets the job done.

There’s no bones about it, The Ogre King is a strange figure. I have to confess that I really dig it, but I think a lot of that love comes mostly from nostalgia. If I hadn’t owned this figure as a kid and spent tons of time playing with it, I don’t think I would be nearly attached to it. Even now, its pretty far down on my list of AD&D figures. One thing that is pretty cool about him is that you can army build him and mix up his accessories to get a pretty convincing little band of Ogres together to fight. As with the Northlord Barbarian, he’s pretty easy to find with all his goodies and minimal paintwear for around the $25 range. if you’re looking for extras to fill in your ranks, you can probably find incomplete versions for a little less.