I was hoping to get to some of my Mythic Legions backlog before the new wave arrived, but those figures hit my doorstep this past weekend. But I will manage to squeeze this one in before bumping the new ones to the head of the line. It’s hard to believe that it’s been two years since I last checked out a Mythic Legions figure here, but in my defense, last year I was pretty busy with Cosmic Legions. And even with three reviews a week, it’s easy for stuff to fall by the wayside. But, that’s why I’m trying to focus on a lot of unfinished business in 2024. Today’s figure comes from one of the most recent All-Stars wave, so let’s check her out!

The packaging hasn’t changed much at all since this line began. We still get the full plastic front with bubble that slides off the cardback. The cards are generic to the specific wave, but the bubble insert has some information on the character. Lady Avarona, the youngest of the Avarona Family, seems to be a pretty bad girl. Actually the whole lot of them are kind of dirt bags. They sided with evil during The Great War and got branded as traitors and now she fights for the evil Legion of Arethyr. Before getting started, I have to report that the figure’s left hand was rattling around in the package when I got her. Upon opening her I saw that the wrist peg looked like a dog had chewed it. I purchased her new, so I have to assume it was factory damage that nobody caught. I was able to remove the peg from the arm socket, reinforce it with some glue and reattach the hand. The wrist hinge is now useless, but at least I saved the hand and it can still swivel. Poor QC for me or bad karma for her being a traitorous bitch? You decide!

Here is Lady Avarona out of the package, wrist surgery completed and with her shoulder armor pieces attached. I am a big sucker for the knights in this line so Avarona is right up my ally and the suit of armor here is absolutely gorgeous in an evil sort of way. You get that rough-hewn iron look with jagged edges, spikes, and sculpted pitting, which suits this dark knight so well. It definitely looks like she shops at the same armory as the Orcs. There are also hints of sculpted chainmail between some of the plates. The coloring is gorgeous with a deep gray-black finish and a bit of silver drybrush to give the armor a well-worn look. The plastic tabard is a deep red with a metallic purple breast plate over it and you get plenty of silver paint hits to the tiny buckles and rivets throughout the suit. She has a waist belt and a shoulder strap, both of which have some really impressive leather-like texture. There are some sculpted pouches on the belt and even a scrollwork pattern sculpted into the shoulder strap, which is an insane little bit of added detail.

Avarona comes with only one head, which has a permanent great bascinet to protect her evil noggin. The bascinet appears to be sculpted separately from the head, as there’s some gaps between the helmet and the face which adds a lot of great depth to this portrait. It also has a hinged visor, which gives you two display options. The face shows a woman overcome with evil, depicted by her blood red, pupil-less eyes surrounded by some dark shading. She’s got a very dour expression, with downturned lips and a bit of sag to her jowls. It’s a really great portrait and kind of a shame to cover it up with the visor, although that look is also fantastic, with a jutting hound-style design, pierced breathing holes and a gap so you can still see her wicked looking eyes.

You get two weapons with the figure, a pole axe and a sword, and both of them can be carried on her person. There’s a loop on the back of her shoulder strap to secure the axe, but this requires the opposite shoulder armor piece to be removed to allow it to sit well. You do get a standard issue brown sword belt with a loop for the sword, but I find it interferes with the belt that’s already on the figure, so I opted to just tuck the sword through that belt and I’ll give the sword belt to someone else.

The sword has a sickle type blade and we’ve seen this piece before, most recently here with Thwickk, but that was four years ago. This version has been repainted with a darker grip to match Avarona’s chest armor and a bit of a darker gray for the blade steel. The top and bottom of the hilt is painted in a deep gold finish. I really love this particular sword design, especially its sweeping curve and vicious looking clipped point. I think it’s best used for the more exotic characters, but I think it fits Avarona pretty well.

She also comes with a circular shield, which is also a piece we’ve seen more than a few times. It’s painted in a dark gray to match the suit of armor with a dark red ring circling the central boss and some brass painted rivets circling the ring. The shield is held with the angled grip that pegs into the back that we’ve been seeing all along, ever since TFH replaced the original clip design. I was worried her wrist repair wouldn’t hold up to carrying the shield, but it seems to work fine.

This particular pole axe was first introduced back in the Advent of Decay assortment, so it’s been around for a while, but it’s been used sparingly enough that I don’t mind seeing it again. It’s a rather beautiful weapon with some organic curves to the axe head, an almost serpentine quality to the straight grip, and a subtle blade making up the bottom end of the shaft. It definitely has the elven flavor to it, but I think it works well with Avarona. Besides, anyone who has played an RPG knows that battlefields are a great place to pick up upgrades for your weapons, so maybe Lady Avarona picked this one up off a dead elf.

Lastly, you do have an optional softgoods piece to replace the lower half of the plastic tabard and I’m really mixed on this idea. On the one hand, it’s cool that TFH are experimenting with more softgoods beyond simple capes and fur, but in this case, I don’t like the disconnect between the plastic upper half of the tabard and the bottom being cloth. Don’t get me wrong, they matched the colors remarkably well, and added wire to the edges so you can pose it, but that transition going from plastic to cloth just doesn’t work for me. It’s just not a piece that I will display on the figure, which is why I snuck it in here at the end.

I’m not going to lie, having a figure broken in the package is not a great experience at any time, but it’s extra discouraging when it happens on the first Mythic Legions figure I’ve opened in nearly four years. I actually opened this figure about a month ago and when I saw the break, I just cast the figure aside in frustration and it took me a while to come back to it. Luckily the repair turned out pretty OK, and I was ultimately able to enjoy the experience. She’s a really great looking figure and it’s cool to add an evil female knight to my Mythoss mix. And despite the QC issue, I was able to come away pretty pleased with her. Hopefully that QC problem isn’t a sign of things to come with future figures. I’ll find out this weekend when I really start to dig into opening the Poxxus Wave!