Monthly Archives: February 2020

Feb 5 2020

Mythic Legions (Siege at Bjorngar): Thwikk by The Four Horsemen

As I mentioned last week, the Mythic Legions figures are piling up and I need to get cracking through these, so I’m opening another one this week. And since I looked at one of the big Ogres last time, I thought I’d turn my attention to one of the little guys. The Goblins are easily my favorite addition to Mythoss since the line began and I was actually kind of shocked to see that I’ve only reviewed two of them so far. There are still more from Advent of Decay to check out, but today I’m jumping ahead to Siege at Bjorngar and having a look at Thwikk!

I don’t always bother with packaged shots on these figures, since the packaging hasn’t changed much, but here’s one anyway. Thwikk’s bio tells us he’s a crack-shot marksman with a crossbow and he leads teams of scouts around the perimeter of Gobhollow to seek out threats. That makes him sound a lot nobler than the previous Gobbies that I encountered, but then his bio also says he excels at dispensing pain, so I guess nobility is relative when you’re talking about dirty little Goblins.

Thwikk comes out of the package requiring a little set up. His tiny little shoulders have to be pegged on and his brown sword belt slipped around his waist. Of course both of these are optional, but I almost always utilize them for display. This fella is fully armored from neck to toe and it appears to be the same sculpt as we saw used on Knubnik, with Thwikk only missing the disc on his belt. And while Knubnik’s armor was left with a worn and muddied bare metal look, Thwikk’s armor has a little more variety with a combination of blackened iron finish and silver paint. This deco picks out the detail nicely and gives the armor a rather distinctive look even though it’s mostly the same. His sculpted furry diaper is painted blue with a black wash and you get some copper paint on the exposed chain-mail bits. The shoulders here are different from both of the Goblins I’ve looked at before with segmented plates, instead of the crude and jagged look. I dig them!

As always, these Goblin head sculpts feature tons of personality and Thwikk is just oozing Goblin charisma. His simple pitted helmet hangs low over the bridge of his nose and between his beady yellow eyes. It adds an even more sinister flavor to his visage. That coupled with his wide evil grin and pointed chin makes him teeter on the edge between caricature and nightmare. His helmet is adorned with two red ram horns, which can be attached and rotated to your personal liking. I prefer to keep the tips swept back.

This figure is also one of the few times I’ve been able to make use of the extra bits that plug into the figures’ backs. T4H throws these bits in with every single figure, and while they mostly seem to be designed to attach wings, this one allows Thwikk to carry his crossbow on his back. It’s a fantastic option that allows this little guy to carry all of his armaments at once. No small feat! And since we’ve moved onto his weapons and accessories, let’s start with the crossbow!

We’ve seen this crossbow before, as it was introduced in Advent of Decay and I think the first figure I opened that had it was Delphina of Eathyross. This time it’s given a more practical finish of just black and brown, and it comes equipped with a brown string. Now, I’m sure I mentioned in Delphina’s review that this weapon isn’t exactly designed to work well with the figures, but to be fair, I have been able to get them into some pretty decent firing stances with it. Thwikk also comes with a repaint of the same quiver of arrows, which has a clip to attach to the brown belt so it can be worn on the hip or slung across the back if you use the belt as a shoulder strap. There’s also one loose arrow that can be loaded into the crossbow. Yeah, this line needs to learn the difference between arrows that go into bows and bolts that go into crossbows, but I guess we’ll let that slide. I was a little worried that this gear would be too cumbersome for a shorty like Thwikk, but he pulls the ensemble off quite well.

Of course, when the action draws near, Thwikk will need to resort to melee weapons and for that he has this great looking Assyrian-style Sickle Sword. The blade has a dramatic sweeping curve, ending in a clipped point and is painted in silver. The grip is red with a gold pommel and gold guard. It’s a bit flashy for this grubby little Goblin, but maybe he picked it up off the battlefield. I imagine these fellows are expert scavengers.

Thwikk also comes with this awesome turtle-shell shield, which I presume is supposed to actually be made out of a giant turtle shell. If not then maybe it’s just patterned to look like one. It’s sculpted with brown overlapping scales and has been fitted with silver painted studs, which makes it look like a formidable line of defense, and probably pretty good at offense too. The shield utilizes the newer style of grabbing handle, which can be positioned in two places to accommodate this shields other cool feature. It has a tab that allows Thwikk to wear it on his back. This is something I’ve been hoping for since the line began, so naturally I’m happy to see it incorporated.

Every time I open a new Goblin from Mythic Legions, I’m reminded why these are my new favorites. T4H have quite simply nailed this race of nasty little critters so perfectly and they add a much welcomed addition to the already diverse realm of Mythos. Thwikk doesn’t offer a whole lot that’s brand new, but instead proves again how deft T4H are at making combinations from a pool of existing parts to create something that feels new and distinctive. And I’ve had so much damn fun opening and reviewing this guy today that I think I’m going to keep the Goblin love going next week and open some more!

Feb 3 2020

Marvel Legends (Deluxe Riders): Squirrel Girl and Scooter by Hasbro

After a long run of X-Men themed Marvel Mondays I thought I’d mix things up today and check out something that just arrived a few days ago. Hasbro has been serving up a bunch of these Deluxe Riders sets, which bundles a figure with some kind of small vehicle. I haven’t picked up a lot of them, but I did review Black Widow, Deadpool, and of course last week’s Professor X. Now it’s time to go nuts with Doreen Green aka Squirrel Girl. Chitty chuk Chhhtt! I think that’s squirrel talk for let’s do this!

It’s times like this when it’s fun to think back to the origins of this Modern Legends line. Back then, I never would have thought Hasbro would have gambled on giving us a regular release of Squirrel Girl and yet here she is debuting in a big deluxe boxed set. The package is the same format as the Deadpool Scooter set, which makes sense, since this one is very nearly a straight repaint of that scooter. There’s a little assembly required, but nothing too bad. Let’s start with a look at Doreen!

Obviously SG is a rather unique looking character and that’s beautifully reflected in this all newly sculpted figure. There’s a great feeling of depth on this gal, mainly thanks to the half-jacket which is sculpted separately in soft plastic, and the belt that fits pretty snug around her waist. Her outfit features a ton of plastic furry fringe from the lapels of her jacket to the rings around her shorts’ legs and the tops of her boots. The belt has a subtle texture and sculpted pouches on either side. And for a color palate that is rather muted, there are still some nice flourishes. Her jacket matches her boots with just a slightly darker shade of brown than her top and shorts.

From the back, Doreen is mostly tail. That big bushy squirrel tail comes right off the top of her butt and plumes up her back all the way to her head. It’s a wonderful sculpt and I’d love to tell you that it doesn’t make her almost impossible to stand, but that’s not the case. She’s ridiculously back heavy and just about every shot I took of her is involving some trickery to get her to stand.

In a word, the portrait is perfect. And that’s no small feat considering how bad Doreen has sometimes looked in the comics. I’m getting flashbacks to Erika Henderson’s god-awful art from the 2015 book when I was wondering if Marvel will truly hire anyone to draw their books, regardless of talent. Here SG looks super cute, her face is beaming with a perfectly cheesy grin. The paint on her eyes is particularly sharp and well executed. The hair sculpt is fantastic and nice touches include the tiny acorn earrings and the headband with those tiny squirrel ears.

 

The articulation here toes the line when it comes to female Legends. That means we get the rotating hinges in the shoulders instead of the double-hinges, and that makes sense here to maintain the sculpt of the jacket sleeves. Otherwise, you get rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and have swivels in the thighs and tops of the boots. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. Finally, we get a ball joint under the chest, both a ball joint and hinge in the neck, and while the tail may have a swivel in there, mine doesn’t want to move.

You can’t have Squirrel Girl without her army of squirrels, and this set includes three of them and they’re each unique sculpts! Two of them are sitting up on their hind legs, one with a pink bow and the other eating an acorn. The third is positioned on all fours, although it would probably work as a leaping pose too. I have no idea which squirrels these are. In fact, the only two names I remember are Monkey Joe from the old days and Tippy Toe from the dreadful 2015 book. Maybe the one with the bow is Tippy.

As mentioned, the scooter is an almost straight repaint of Deadpool’s and it works surprisingly well. The red and black are replaced with turquoise and white with some black trim to the mirrors, exhast, and horn. The white panels on the side bring out the details there making this ride look a lot more retro to me, and that’s cool. You still get a sticker showing the gauge on the handlebars, but the mirrors are just left as black plastic. I would have loved some silver paint or stickers on those. The only sculpting changes are the added wicker basket, which covers where the Deadpool logo was on Pooly’s Vespa, and the seat. All in all, it’s a decent transformation that makes this vehicle work as its own thing. As before, the handlebars work in conjunction with the front wheel to make it turn. The horn can be clipped to either the left or right side, and the tires appear to be made out of rubber, which still impresses the hell out of me.

Unfortunately, it’s obvious that this scooter wasn’t made for the Squirrel Girl figure, as getting her to ride it in a convincing manner is tough. The foot pegs are a loose fit, and even if they weren’t it’s hard to get her to reach the handlebars with her feet pegged into them. I can kind of make it work by scooting her forward and balancing the tail on the seat, but it’s precarious at best. I think the way to go will be to display her half-off the scooter like she is on the back of the package.

The basket can hold all three squirrels, but you kind of have to jam them in there and let one hang over the edge. Two fit more comfortably, but either way they look fine in there.

Even with as prolific and dense as Marvel Legends has become Hasbro still manages to surprise me. At this point, I never would have doubted getting a character like Squirrel Girl at some point, because no character seems to be too small or silly to get the action figure treatment. But to come out and bundle her in a $40 set with a scooter? Well that takes a set of balls. Or in this case maybe nuts. Either way, this set came out great and that’s even taking into account the fact that Doreen isn’t a perfect fit for the scooter. It’s worth mentioning that this set came in an assortment with another rather unlikely release, and I’ll try to get to that one next week.