I’m trying to get things back to business as usual, and that includes Mythoss Monday! Sure, my reviews have been posting later in the day, rather than morning, but getting back on routines for FFZ is all about baby steps. Hopefully I’ll hit another three reviews again this week. Today I’m tearing into another one of the foul demons that were unleashed on Mythoss in the Arethyr Wave with the Helphyre Goblin!

The Arethyr Wave has given us a number of unholy abominations, including Belphagorr and Malephar. The Helphyre Goblin is a revoltingly hellacious half-pint. They are said to be a dark mirror of the Bog Goblins that are native to Mythoss, only these guys have a habit of spewing boiling plasma vomit, making me wish I had a tub of red slime kicking around here. My Helphyre Gobby appears to have lost his crotch armor in the package, so let’s rip it open, get him properly dressed, and check him out.

I’m a big fan of the smaller demon spawn, and as his name suggests, Helphyre Gobby stands head and shoulders with the regular Goblins. Sadly, I never did pick up the regular Bog Goblin, so that makes this figure less of a mix and match repaint, and actually brand new! The half-sized suit of armor sports all the great sculpted detail I’m used to seeing in this line and features an appropriately dingy and rusty paint job. Although the silver hits to the rivets and the copper colored chainmail in the joints offers some flairs of color. Of course, what really adds the most color here is Helphyre’s bright crimson skin showing through on his hands, feet and bulbous head.

And what a glorious head it is! I believe this is a straight repaint of the Bog Goblin and is a work of grotesque art. The broad fish-lipped mouth, the pointed ears, the thick coil of brow over those beady black eyes. It’s all so good! I can practically see his neck filling with air as he breathes. You also get some little black horns protruding from the sides of his jowels, and some black and blue speckling at the top of his face. The crimson paint is so beautiful, and it’s given a healthy dose of gloss to make him look extra slimy and disgusting… I mean beautiful!!! The rather unconventional head design features two pieces: The back that joints into the neck peg, and a giant face that pegs into the front of that, giving him the ability to tilt his head left or right. It also gives the ability to swap faces…

For an open mouthed face! Aw… yeah! If this little fellow wasn’t horrible enough you can get a dose of what’s going on inside that mouth of his. The stubby rotting teeth and the tongue are superbly detailed and absolutely gross. This second portrait adds a ton of value to this figure, so now how much would you pay? NO! Don’t answer yet, because…

You also get a swap out tongue! Yup, this is the figure that keeps on giving. Pull out the regular tongue and tab in this long snaking licker, complete with some kind of blue bulb at the end, which undoubtedly delivers some kind of toxic poison along with his sloppy kisses. Or maybe acid! I hope it’s acid! Let’s check out his accessories!

First off you get a matched sword and helmet, which look like they were fashioned from the same unfortunate swamp beastie. The helmet actually seems like it could have just been the scaly horned scalp of something, while the sword was probably crafted from its hide and bones. Both feature some amazing attention to detail in both their sculpt and paintwork. I should also note here that the Helphyre Goblin comes with two sets of hands: One open pair, and one pair to hold his accessories.

Next up, you get a bow and quiver. I love these accessories, but I don’t really look at this little guy and think crack-shot archer. But, maybe that’s just me unfairly stereotyping him. Both weapons are repurposed from past figures, and while the bow features a pretty drab paintjob, I think it still looks too sophisticated for this Gobby. Maybe he lifted it off a corpse and just likes to try and shoot it. Either way, I may wind up giving these to one of my regular Goblins.

Finally, and more appropriate is this pole-arm. I love this weapon, as it looks both crude and savage and a lot more like something this fella should be carrying. What I really dig here is that he comes with enough of a weapon assortment that you could kit out several of these differently if you were lucky enough to pick up a handful. Alas, my wallet would only allow me the one.

They say good things come in small packages, and that’s certainly true with this guy. He may be small, but he’s packed with extras, and even that wasn’t the case, I’d still love him to pieces. His big head is a work of art, and I’m overjoyed to add him to my modest legion of mythic demons. He’s just an all around fantastic figure. I haven’t been keeping track, but it feels like I’m just about done with checking out the figures from the Arethyr Wave, although I still have the big guy himself, Arethyr and his demonic steed, and I just may be cracking him open for next week’s Mythoss Monday!

Because I went rogue and skipped Mythic Legions the last two Mondays, I figured we’d do Mythoss Monday on a Wednesday this week! And yes, I am trying to get back to three reviews a week and I think I have a good shot at it this week! So, let’s jump right in and have a look at Sir Girard, Commander of The Dark Templars! Ooooh, I like him already!

Sir Girard was originally released as a LegionsCon Exclusive last year, but he got a standard release through Store Horsemen and arrived at my doorstep a few days ago. As I understand it, the Exclusive was supposed to contain some extra stuff, but in the end the regular release got everything too! I’m not sure which wave assortment Girard fits into, as I just nabbed him when he went up on an In Stock Sale. Sir Girard is billed as a Changeling, which explains why he has his second head. And while I’m all for a lot of these bios, here’s one aspect of one that I might ignore, but more on that later.

As a Dark Templar, it stand to reason that Girard would reuse a lot of the Templar body, and that ain’t a bad thing, because I happen to love that figure. And when you fit that body with the Raygorr head, complete with the batwings coming off the sides, well we got some magic going on here! The tabard has been repainted with a sumptuous matte black and crimson cross, while the armor has a deep gunmetal gray finish. You also get some silver paint to the rivets and fixtures. Girard does come with a pair of shoulders, but I’ll save those for later in the review when I switch out the heads.

The Raygorr helmet looks amazing in the black and red deco. Sure, we’ve seen this head plenty of times before Raygorr was released, but that’s the one I attribute most with these wings. I didn’t think they would be able to come up with a paint scheme that could come close to Raygorr’s but I think this one does it.

Girard comes with the ubiquitous sword belt, but this time in black. He also comes with a pair of matching falchions. I think I’ve seen these before but the previous appearance is eluding me at the moment. They have beautifully swept silver blades with swells in the belly, and gray hilts to match the armor. Girard also comes with the same shield we saw with the Templars and Raygorr, this time painted to match the tabard, and with border painted to match Girard’s armor. The whole ensemble looks amazing! Now let’s check out his alter ego!

Here’s Girard with a repaint of the Skapular head, and if you remember how I completely gushed over Skapular, then you know I practically lost it when I saw his boney noggin get re-released here. It’s simply one of my favorite portraits in this whole line, as it really invokes some of that classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons line art from my childhood. I have also added in the shoulders here, just to distinguish the two looks, but I think they work fine with either head.

So, according to the bio, Sir Girard is looking to overthrow Skapular the Cryptbreaker, and he uses his changeling powers to resemble either him or one of his skeletal legions. I think that’s a cool concept, but what I like even more is the idea that Girard is a skeleton himself, and displaying him with the Raygorr helmet, but with two additional Girard’s with the skeletal heads as his personal guard. Of course, it’s all moot, because I didn’t have the cash to get three and he probably costs all the monies now on the second-hand market. As a result, I honestly have no idea which head I’m going to display him with. There are no right or wrong answers.

And here’s some shots of Girard dual wielding those falchions.

Mythic Legions continues to be a line that never fails to impress. It’s amazing to me that even this far into the line, and with so many releases, The Four Horsemen can still come up with such fantastic new releases using nothing but new paint and mix-and-match parts. Sir Girard is indeed an imposing presence and the addition of the Skapular head just makes him all the more cool in my book. I’m absolutely thrilled that he got a wide release, because I was dangerously close to paying crazy money for the Exclusive.