The latest assortment of Mythic Legions figures, Arethyr, arrived at my door a couple of weeks back and I’ve been chomping at the bit to start digging into them. I know, I haven’t finished reviewing the last couple of series, but I decided to push these to the head of the line and work backwards. So, let’s jump right in and have a look at Malephar!

Apparently Arethyr’s arrival in Mythoss opened all sorts of dimensional rifts and a bunch of horrible little demons spilled through. This swarm of lesser demons is commanded by our boy Malephar. I’ve said it before, but one of the things I love most about the ongoing waves of Mythic Legions is all the new races and factions that are being added. We started with basically knights, skeletons, orcs, and trolls, and now we’ve added vampires, elves, and demons. Mythoss is a virtual melting pot of fantasy tropes, and that really helps the line’s world building.

Malephar utilizes a Goblin body, making him one of the smaller inhabitants of Mythoss. There are a couple of ways to kit him out, but I started with your basic demon look, which means he’s got his wings and tail. The wings attach to the sockets where the shoulder armor usually mounts, that’s easy enough, but it took me some research to figure out that there’s a removable butt-plate that allows the tail to be plugged in. The armor features a dark finish, which, along with the sculpted nicks and pitted finish, makes it look old and battle worn. Still, the individual rivets are painted silver, and he’s got some gold chainmail showing through the gaps in his elbows and knees. The sculpted straps and buckles are also individually painted. Malephar has an armored neck protector piece with spikes, leather scale armor protects his tiny demon junk, and instead of Goblin feet, he has tiny hooves.

The blue wings are hinged where they socket into the body, allowing for some decent articulation. There are also articulated tips, and while these look fine from the front, they don’t look so great from the back. I would have rather they left these out, as that extra little tweak in articulation isn’t worth the trade-off in sculpt, at least not to me. The tail is bendy, but it doesn’t have a wire to hold it in different positions. It also falls out constantly, making it an annoyance when I’m playing around with him.

TFH have turned in some truly spectacular head sculpts for the monsters in this line, and Malephar is no different. His blue skin is gnarled and bumpy like a reptile, with down-swept ears and horns that curve down and away from his face at the tips. And boy, the iridescent purple paint used on the horns is magnificent! The nasty little portrait is rounded out with a wide mouth full of sharp, yellowed teeth. This head sculpt is just packed with portrait, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it turn up later on with red skin.

Malephar comes with shoulder armor, but you have to sacrifice his wings to attach them, so popping the shoulders on and plucking out the tail offers a second display option. The shoulders look great, but I don’t know that it’s worth nixing one of his more distinctive characteristics to put them on. Where do the wings go when he wears his shoulder armor? Magic? Sure, why not? Probably best not to think too hard about it.

And finally, Malephar comes with a helmeted head, and here’s where I think the figure works best with the shoulders and not the wings. Honestly, I wouldn’t even consider this to be the same character because there’s no way that big honkin’ demon head could fit into this helmet, so I’d say this guy is more of a demon foot soldier. Either way, the helmet is very cool and matches the armor quite well. Let’s move on to weapons!

For starters, Malephar comes with two weapons that he can wear on his standard-issue black belt. The first is a cool little short sword. This thing has a chunky, stout blade and not much of a crossguard. The blade has something like a clipped point and is painted in silver, while the grip is a deep coppery color.

Next up is his axe, which I think I’ve seen before in one of my previously reviewed figures. The handle is sculpted with a wood finish, but everything except the blade is painted in the same deep copper as the sword grips. The blade itself is painted in silver. It’s a beautiful weapon, and I think it compliments the sword nicely.

Finally, every demon needs his pitchfork, and Malephar does indeed come with a rather large one! Again, it feels like I’ve seen this one before, possibly with one of the Gladiator figures, but I think it suits this little guy quite well. Yeah, it’s really way too big for him, but maybe it’s more suited to wield when he’s flying about.

Every figure in Mythic Legions has been a treat, and Malephar certainly doesn’t buck that trend. My only gripe here is how easily the tail falls out. If I had bought more than one of these little guys, I would probably glue it into place on one of them, but for now I’ll likely just deal with it. The fully armored look is cool, and I’d love to see it return as a Legion Builder somewhere down the road, because I can’t see myself displaying Malephar any other way but with his wings and tail and exposed head.