It’s been quite the trek getting through the first wave of eleven Cosmic Legions figures, but we’re finally here looking at the last two figures in this assortment. And they’re a couple of disgusting bugs! The Sphexxians hail from the planet, V’zapir and serve as a security force throughout the Cell Blocks of the Hvalkatar Prison. I was especially excited to get these because they remind me a bit of the Veloxi race from the old StarFlight game. If you get that deep cut, then congratulations, you’re probably old like me. Anyway, let’s jump in and see what we’ve got!

This is our last look at the packaging for this assortment and overall I still like it a lot. The window boxes feel more professional than what we’ve been seeing in Mythic Legions and while I still think the side tray of accessories is awkward, these are overall nicer to look at. You get blurbs on each of the side panels spotlighting the story of this first wave along with the specific character. These bugs require a bit more assembly than the previous figures we’ve seen with a lot of their bug parts having to be plugged into their bodies, which creates some bumpy times along the way. I’ll start with the Prison Guard…

This guy looks amazing, and it wasn’t until I got him in hand that I realized a lot of what we’re seeing on him is intended as armor. I initially thought they were going for an iridescent bug shell, but basically only the brown bits are supposed to be the actual bug. The metallic turquoise finish for the armor suit is gorgeous and has some purple and blue accents painted on the textured screen plates. The colors in most of this assortment have been off the charts, and I love that! The detail in the armor is pretty mind blowing and I had a great time just turning the figure over and over again in my hands to take it all in. The sculpted gear on the utility belt alone is way more than we get on most figures these days. The extra set of smaller arms are fully articulated, but these are unfortunately a huge pain in the ass. They were very tough to get pegged into the body and they tend to fall out a lot, so I try to position them out of the way and leave them alone. There’s yet another set of vestigial legs higher up in the chest, but these are static.

The semi-translucent wings plug into the back with pegged hinges, exactly how the wing pieces in Mythic Legions have worked, with all the advantages and disadvantages of that system. The attachment gives you the ability to swivel them and angle them, but the friction from the peg isn’t always enough to keep them in position so they drop quite a bit. And I suspect this will get worse the more they’re handled. There’s also no joint between each of the wings, so you can’t spread them. Apart from that these look really good. I love the serrated backs and the brown tint to the clear textured plastic, making them both beautiful and gross at the same time. I really love how you can see more of the bug anatomy through the back of the armor including the back of the thorax and the abdomen hanging down with a stinger attached.

The helmeted head is a work of art. The multi-faceted eyes are actually supposed to be part of the helmet and not the actual bug eyes, which was surprising to me. You do, however, get more bug parts like the antennae and pincers sticking out. The pincers stay in pretty well, but the antennae have a habit of dropping out, especially the one on the right. Since there’s no articulation on these, I may wind up gluing them in place.

The Prison Guard comes with one brand new weapon, a Sphexxian Blaster Rifle, which is an extremely cool design and it’s painted to look like scrimshaw, which I dig a lot. Unfortunately, the articulation and overall design of the figure doesn’t make really make him all that adept at wielding such a large weapon. I really couldn’t get him into a pose where he’s supporting the front of the weapon with his off-hand and when I tried I usually wound up knocking out the smaller arms leading to endless frustration. He can, however, hold it pretty well in his trigger finger hands, but it looks like too large a weapon to be fired one-handed. And while on the subject, this guy comes with five sets of hands, which seems really excessive, as I only wound up using two different sets for all the pictures in this review.

Next up is his Electrostaff, which we saw last time included with the TU5CC Engineer. I really like the look of this piece and I’d like to imagine it’s capable of shooting projectiles as well as for melee combat. The worn silver paint on the blades looks fantastic here and there’s a hint of purple to give it something of an eerie energy glow. All in all a great looking weapon to give to a guard.

And finally, he comes with a set of the arm blasters, which we’ve seen several times in this assortment. At first I thought these were an odd inclusion for the bugs, but now I can picture them flying around blasting the shit out of things with these and I wholeheartedly approve. OK, let’s move on to the Block Commander…

I won’t have to be as long winded here, because the Block Commander is basically a repaint of the Guard with a new head and all the same accessories. The armor is repainted a metallic orange with some metallic pink and silver hits on some of the plates. It looks good, but not as flashy as the Guard. It’s also a bit closer to the brown bug parts, so the contrast between the two isn’t as dramatic. Everything I said about the jointing pitfalls on the first figure apply here, although the smaller arms on this figure drop out even more frequently to the point of being irritating when I am posing him. The green tint given to the translucent parts iof the wings looks really nice.

The head is the only new bit of sculpting here, and it’s cool that we get to see what these guys look like without the mask. The fact that the compound eyes are part of the helmet and the bugs themselves only have tiny beady blue eyes is a cool subversion of my expectation. The rest of the sculpt is excellent with with some deep cuts between the carapace and even some little jutting horns. The antennae fit into this head better than on the Guard’s and I haven’t had any issues with them popping out.

The Blaster Rifle here is repainted in purple and while I think it looks good, I like the Guard’s version better. It brings out the detail in the sculpt a bit more and looks more exotic to me, as if the weapon is actually crafted from bone. Once again, it’s a cool design that the figure just cannot hold all that convincingly.

And you also get the arm blasters and the Electrostaff. The Sphexxians are gorgeous figures and extremely cool alien designs, but they do have more problems than any of the other figures in this assortment. Some of those problems may vary from figure to figure based on the varying tolerances, but some of them are just less than stellar design choices. For example, I would have happily sacrificed articulation in the smaller arms to have them not drop out whenever I mess around with the figure. None of these issues are catastrophic, but I’m going to call them out nonetheless. As for this line in general… For me, Cosmic Legions really has succeeded in taking the wonder and imagination of the Mythic Legions formula and moving it into outer space. I was pretty dubious about the prison backstory for the first assortment, but I can’t deny it served to deliver some great looking figures and imaginative characters. I’m looking forward to the next assortment, but now that I’m finished with this one maybe I can get back to some unfinished business I have with Mythic Legions!