I really wanted to finish up my review of the second wave of Cosmic Legions last year, but there were a lot of distractions arriving in November and December and in the end I came up two figures shy of that goal. I’m going to try to remedy that as early as possible so I can sneak in a few Mythic Legions figures before new stuff starts to arrive so let’s dig in today with the second to the last figure from Gravenight… Aius Cyppiteon.

By now these window boxes should be familiar. I like them well enough, but I have decided that I’m going to pitch the trays, flatten out the boxes and tuck them somewhere until I eventually toss them out. When it comes to storage space, the struggle is always real, and I’d rather conserve space for more figures than empty boxes. According to the narrative, Aius Cyppiteon is another one of the hapless alien gladiators made to fight in the bowels of Hvalkatar Prison, and while he may not look like a viable combatant, his race have a telepathic advantage. Let’s get this Grayborn out of the box and check him out!

Straightaway, if you’re a fan of the whole Area 51 Gray Alien aesthetic, this guy should be right up your alley. He’s got the lanky gray bod and the bulbous head with giant black soulless eyes. The body is nicely textured all over, giving his skin a realistic look, and there’s some brown and purple wash in there to bring out some of the sculpt and make all that gray a bit more dynamic. With that having been said, the figure’s coloring still looks a lot flatter and less interesting than what was shown on the solicitation shots. There’s not a lot of costume going on here. He has a softgoods skirt that’s held up by a pair of sculpted brown belts. These have some copper disks and a little silver paint hits to the buckles and fixtures, and remind me joust how good TF4 are at sculpting and painting plastic to look like seasoned leather! He has a pair of gray grieves on his lower legs, and a single forearm bracer on his left hand.

The figure comes with two shoulder pieces, and I’m not a fan of these. They plug into the back as usual, but since the figure is bare chested, what’s supposed to be holding them on? Well, similar to some Mythic Legions figures, you get a shoulder strap to make it look like it’s securing one of them, so I guess the other is supposed to just stay in the package? Yeah, that’s weird. Also, the figure has such narrow and downswept shoulders the armor piece still just looks like it’s awkwardly floating there. Beyond that the piece itself is nicely done, and looks like it’s fashioned out of some sort of alien crustacean shell.

The head sculpt is very nice and really hammers home that Area 51 look. The eyes are just beautiful and creepy at the same time, and the purple paint around the eyes looks great. There’s some scarring on the figure, no doubt from fighting matches in The Gravering, some of these are just painted on while others are in the sculpt. But, there is a jagged cut through the head over the right eye that looks more like damage to the mold than it does an intentional scar. Aius comes with a security key that hangs around his neck on a very thin piece of string. It tends to get twisted when I hang it under the shoulder strap, but looks awkward if I hang it over the strap.

The articulation is standard stuff for the line, although there was a slip of paper included in my case that warned about heating up Aius’ chest joint before working it as it might snap. Mine was indeed frozen right out of the box and while heating it up seemed to help a little, it still feels like moving it too much will twist it off, so I’m just going to let that joint be for now. You do get a decent number of extra hands here, which is fortunate, because the figure isn’t exactly laden down with accessories.

The first of those accessories is a staff that we saw all the way back in my very first Cosmic Legions review of Thygar. The official canon calls this a Metor Hammer Staff. I wasn’t terribly impressed with this piece then and seeing it again isn’t helping any. Thygar’s Staff came with a second version to suggest that it can convert to a flail, but you don’t get that here. I will say, it does suit this figure more, as I can see him trekking across a lonely alien landscape with it. The staff is painted gold and has some green wash to give it an aged patina, or perhaps a hint of energy contained within.

The second and last accessory is this riot shield, which I don’t think suits the look of this character at all. Hey, I know it’s not my narrative, but this shield looks like it would weigh about as much as Aius himself and the figure agrees, as the spindly hinges in the elbows can’t support its weight for long before it drops to rest on the ground. The accessory looks really good, with The Gravering emblem crudely spray painted on the front and I’ll likely wind up giving it to one of the other figures because it certainly won’t be displayed with Aius.

On a side note, you can disassemble the shield to make it smaller and a little more appropriate for Aius’ build. it’s a little better, but I’m still going to be giving this shield to someone else.

If you can’t tell, I found Aius Cyppiteon to be a pretty underwhelming figure, and easily the most disappointing release in the line so far. Which isn’t too bad, because he’s really the only disappointing release. The base body is fine, I like the aesthetic, but there’s just not a lot going on here to win me over. In fairness, he didn’t seem like a good value at the time of the pre-orders either, but since I was going All-In, he came along for the ride. I’ll probably end up keeping him, unless he starts going for crazy money on the secondary market. Either way, I’m glad I didn’t save him for last, because I didn’t want to end these reviews on a downer, and I have a feeling the next and last figure is going to be a lot more interesting.