It’s the fifth week of Mythic Legions Wednesdays and today I’m turning my attention to the Dwarves… two Dwarves to be specific, Thord Ironjaw and Bothar Shadowhorn. While I have and will continue to showcase most of these figures individually, these two share enough similarities, that I feel I can safely do them both justice in one Feature. And besides, I still have a lot of figures to cover before the new ones arrive!

Once again, the packaging is attractive, serviceable, and collector friendly. You just slide the out the cardback and you can get at the goods. The inserts even have the character names and bios visible on the left sides of the bubbles. I also dig how T4H shakes things up with the weapon that is displayed in the tray. While both Dwarves come with repaints of the same sword and axe, Thord has the axe beside him in the tray and Bothar showcases the sword. The rest of the accessories come trapped behind the tray. Let’s start off with Thord Ironjaw…

As always, the figure comes out of the package sans shoulder armor, but he still looks totally complete without it and it’s definitely a worthwhile display option if you want to give him a little better range of movement in the shoulders. The torsos are interchangeable with the full size figures and only the arms and legs are scaled down for the Dwarves. Thord boasts a full set of plate armor, featuring that same amazing degree of sculpted detail that we saw in the knights. Every rivet, plate, and bit of edging is present, along with exposed chain mail between the plates and a scaled “leather” loincloth hanging down the front. There’s no doubt by now that T4H are experts at sculpting convincing and exciting suits of armor, even in the slightly diminished Dwarven scale. This one is a nice combination of functionality and just the right touch of flashy ornamentation.

The paint here is as superb as always. The bulk of the armor has a rich, matte metallic finish, embellished with individually painted copper rivets and borders. The plate mail skirt is copper with silver painted rivets and edging and some rather striking blue accents. You get more blue accents on the chest plate and gauntlets and the areas of exposed chain mail are painted copper. The paintwork here is as tight and precise as I could possibly want.

The shoulders peg into the holes on the back and they are full sized pieces. In fact, these are repaints of the shoulders used on Sir Gideon. They not only add a little more bulk to the armor, but also more color. They are painted to match the hip armor with copper plates, silver fringe, and blue accents. Beautiful! You also get the standard brown belt, which can be worn around the waist, or used as a shoulder strap. As always, just about all the articulation points are designed to come apart, creating a mix-and-match modular system throughout the line.

If you’ve been following my Mythic Legions Features up until now, you should have a good idea of what the articulation is like. It is standard throughout the line, and yes that includes the wee little Dwarves. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles, as well as lateral rockers in the ankles. The waist and neck are both ball jointed. Nearly all the joints are designed to easily come apart, creating a fun mix-and-match modular system throughout the line.

While the armor design feels distinctive and original, I can’t help but get a strong Gimli vibe off this head sculpt, and that ain’t at all a bad thing. The broad, bulbous nose and the pronounced cheekbones are a pretty good likeness to John Rhys Davies under his make-up in the Lord of the Rings films. The lower half of the face is covered by a copious red beard, which is sculpted with a loads of detail and adds some more color to the figure’s palate. The helmet is copper, silver, and blue and features a set of large black bull horns coming up from the sides. I believe here we’re getting a deliberate nod back to LJN’s Dwarf, Elkhorn from their 1980’s AD&D action figure line. The horns are articulated at the bases, so they can be angled forward or back, removed, or swapped out with other helmet pieces from the line. Let’s talk weapons…

Thord comes with a long sword, which at first seemed like a strange choice for a Dwarf, but it actually suits him quite well. This is the same sword we saw originally with Gorgo Aetherblade, but with a somewhat worn and rusty finish to the blade and crossguard and a grip painted blue to match the accents of Thord’s armor. While the sword is as tall as the Dwarf himself, it can be worn at an angle in the waist belt, or if you are willing to sacrifice one of the shoulder pieces, you can have angle it across his back.

To go with his sword, Thord also comes with a shield. This is the same type we’ve seen all along so far, only this time with a new crest on it. The face is painted gold and features a black bear coat of arms. If you turn my figure’s shield in the light just right I can see some abrasions in the paint, which is so far the only QC issue I’ve run into here. It’s a minor one, and it actually just looks like the shield has been well used, so I don’t mind it. It wasn’t enough of an issue for me to try to get a replacement. As with the sword, the shield works quite well, despite being designed for the full sized figures.

Of course, sometimes a Dwarf has to really make a statement, and that’s when you whip out the gigantic axe! Yup, we’ve seen this baby a few times before and it still features the ability to convert from a single head to a double-head. This is a brand new deco with a rather dull gray finish and blue accents to match Thord’s armor. This weapon is large even for the full-sized figures, and yet I think it works pretty well with the Dwarves too.

I’m in love with the classical look of this figure. It hits all the right points in my mind when I think of a D&D style Dwarven Warrior. Plus, the sculpt and paint are right up there with what we’ve been seeing out of this series all along. If I had one nitpick, it would be that I would have liked to see some weapons designed expressly for the Dwarves, but I’m still perfectly happy with what we got. But, I’m not done yet, let’s take a quick look at his chum, Bothar Shadowhorn…

Bothar features the exact same body sculpt as Thord, but with a slightly more subdued color scheme to his armor. The plates are a little darker gray and the rivets, edging, and all the accents are painted copper. Bothar’s armor may not be as flashy as Thord’s, but it’s still a nice deco and makes him look like more of a rank-and-file warrior to me. The shoulders are also different from Thord’s, and are repaints of the ones included with Gorgo Aetherblade. While, Bothar sports a darker version of the same long beard as Thord, the rest of his face is covered by his helmet. It features some copper colored accents to match his armor and a pair of horns, which can be interchanged with Thord’s horns if you like. Bothar also comes with the same standard belt, as well, in this case it’s perfect for holding his dagger.

In addition to the dagger, you get the same sword as Thord, this time with a cleaner blade and a copper painted hilt, which matches the hilt of the dagger.

And yes, you get the same battle axe, this time with copper painted fixtures on the head and a copper colored handle. This line gets a lot of mileage out of its weapons molds, and quite frankly, I have no problem with that, especially when you’re getting several weapons with each figure.

The Dwarves of Mythic Legions are fantastic little figures, and I would be hard pressed to choose which one of these I like more. The paintwork and portrait on Thord are very appealing, but I also really dig the all-business look of Bothar. What I don’t dig is the fact that I had to sit out some of the other Dwarves in this line for lack of funds. I do still have the Bronze Dwarf Legion Builder coming my way via the post-Kickstarter Pre-Orders, but I could kick myself for not picking up Orn Steelhide, Jorund Runeshaper, or Sir Valgard. For some reason I decided to use that money to eat and pay my phone bill that month. Stupid bills!

It’s the fourth week of what has become Mythic Legions Wednesday here at FFZ. So far we’ve seen some good and evil knights and a skeleton warrior, and today I’m busting out one of the Orcs… let’s have a look at Urkku!

Here’s a quick look at the figure in packaging. You get a generic, yet attractive card with the character’s name on the right side of the bubble insert. The card slides out from the bubble, making everything completely collector friendly. Unlike most of the non-Legion builders, Urkku appears to be a generic name for these warriors and not a specific character. Damn, I wish I got more of him! And since I only have one I’m still going to just call him Urkku. I hope that’s not racist.

As usual, the figure comes packaged without its shoulder armor, which allows for a good look at the first bare chested buck I’ve covered. Indeed, if you’ve been following along from the beginning than you’ll likely note that all the sculpting on this guy is fresh and new, introducing us to some more parts that we’ll see again in the future. The chest, most of the arms, and the upper legs are bare and cast in a very nice shade of green. The musculature and veins are very well defined and we even get some Orc Nipples, if that sort of thing floats your boat. Not judging! Urkku wears a rather large and intricate belt suggesting that he’s the Champion of some kind of Mythic Fighting Legion. Seriously, though, there’s some beautiful sculpting on that belt and it extends to the strips of leather that make up the skirt and the clump of animal fur that forms his loin cloth to protect the modesty of his private Orc bits. All the details on the belt are beautifully painted. The gauntlets and boots are made up of some seriously chunky and vicious-looking segmented plate armor with a particularly satisfying patina of rust and some nicks and scratches in the sculpt. Urkku comes with the same style sword belt as Gideon and Skapular, but you’ll note that I opted to put his on as a shoulder strap.

From the rear, you can see the two peg holes for the shoulder armor as well as the giant tab hole, which hopefully will get put to use someday. You can also get a better look at more of the “leather” straps that hang down from the back of his belt. There’s some nice texturing in all those straps as well as sculpted frayed edges.

The shoulders on this guy are also pieces that we have not seen before, but will most definitely see again. They’re nasty, angular looking pieces that match the boots and gauntlets both in style and in paint finish. Apparently Orcs don’t polish their armor often, which in this case is a good thing, because this is a wonderfully convincing wash of rust and grime.

I’ll note here that Urkku is a figure that I’ve chosen to display using only one piece of shoulder armor. This allows for the chest strap to hold his large sword across his back without any interference. If I keep the right shoulder on, it bumps up against the hilt. I also dig how it looks like the cross strap is holding the shoulder piece in place.

The head sculpt instantly reminds me of Lord of the Rings. The helmet looks like a crudely made piece of armor, as if hundreds of them were beaten out in mass production to quickly equip a disposable army of man-beasts. It only covers the top half of the face, allowing for the mouth and giant bottom teeth to protrude upward. It also displays his giant pointed ears quite nicely. The finish matches the worn and rusted patina of the rest of the armor and there are some nice bits of wear and pitting in the sculpt, as well as a nasty cut in the crest.

Articulation is identical on these figures straight across the board, but just in case this is your first time reading one of these Mythic Legions Features, I’ll still provide a rundown… Urkku features rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. There are also ample rockers in the ankles to steady him for those wide stances. The waist is ball jointed, as is the neck. I had no issues with painted over joints, stuck joints, loose joints or anything of the kind. As always these figures are tons of fun to play with.

Like any good Orc, Urkku comes with plenty of implements to dismember his enemies. For starters, he features this long sword, which is the same sculpted accessory we saw with Gorgo Aetherblade. This one is all painted silver and has that same beautiful rusty finish as the armor. I’ve got a modest collection of real swords, and I have to say they really recreated an authentic looking finish on an antique blade.

Next up, we have the same spear that came with both Gorgo and Skapular. It’s silver with more of that rust finish.

And finally, Urkku wields the same giant axe as Gorgo, repainted in a uniform silver with a rusty finish and with black grips. Once again, you can convert the axe to a double-bladed weapon if you want to give this guy a little more cutting power. I’ll go on record and say that I really dig this version of the axe a lot more than the flashier painted one that came with Gorgo. It just looks like more of an everyday weapon.

Urkku is another beautiful figure and one that I’m especially glad I included in my order. The Tolkien influence is undeniable to me and I’m especially impressed at the coloring and paint on this figure. The green skin is just so vibrant and perfect, and I’m sure I’ve gushed enough about how much I dig the finish on the armor and weapons. I would have loved to have picked up just a couple more of him for troop builders, although there is also a Deluxe Orc, which I’ll get to sooner or later. As I run through the initial crop of Mythic Legions, I’m trying to choose the figures that offer the widest range of characters and newly sculpted parts to give an idea of what a diverse range this is. We’ve now seen representatives from the Knights, Skeletons, and Orcs, next Wednesday we’ll check out the first of the Dwarves.