When it comes to Mythic Legions, I’ve mostly been pushing through the most recent Poxxus Wave, but I was doing some organizing last weekend and found a box filled with more unopened figures from previous waves. So, I thought I’d mix things up and check out one of those before getting back to Poxxus! I’m not exactly sure which assortment today’s release belongs to, but we’re going to have a look at The Dark Templar Legion Builder!

As a Legion Builder, this figure does not represent a specific character, but rather a way to bolster your armies as nameless battle fodder. And that means no bio either. These Legion Builders also tend to be priced a bit less than the regular releases and have less paint applications, allowing customizers to do their thang. But, alas, I have no such skills, and the figures are still finished enough to display fine on their own. I will note, that this guy is classified as a Deluxe, which confused me, because I thought the Deluxe Legion Builders came in the extra large trays with a lot more extras. Nope, he comes in the regular sized card and bubble and a price that reflects a normal Legion Builder. I’ll have a bit more to say on that at the end when we do a comparison with the regular Templar Legion Builder that I checked out way back in 2018! It’s no secret that the Templars have been among my favorite Knights in this entire line, so I was intrigued to get an EVIL version. Let’s check him out!

Straightaway, this figure leans more toward the old than the new, with most of the body lifted directly from the regular Templar LB and most of the parts being even older than that! From the neck down, the only differences are the belt and hip armor, the shoulder armor, and the lack of any kind of neck armor. All of the armor is painted in a dark charcoal, which looks very nice, especially when coupled with the pitch black tabard and white cross. As mentioned earlier, the figure lacks all the lovely little paint flourishes found on the regular figures, so there are no silver paint hits to the rivets or buckles, giving the figure a very utilitarian appearance. Still, the detail in the sculpt still manages to shine through even without the premium paint job. These early figures can come across as a bit chunky when compared to the more slender offerings that have come since, but I think these old bodies still look great.

The helmet is the same basic Great Helm design we saw on the regular Templar, but the reinforced plating around the visor is slightly different as is the pattern of the breathing holes. And the biggest difference is the removal of the top socket, which allowed for an adornment or spike, in place of side sockets, which in this case are populated with black pointed horns and segmented fins, almost forming a full circular. The horns are painted in glossy black with the fins matching the armor’s charcoal. The whole thing makes for a distinctive and delightfully sinister presence.

I believe the sword debuted a couple years back in the Arethyr Wave. I’ve only seen it a few times, most recently with Hadirana. This was a big deal to me as it introduced scabbards instead of just thrusting the sword’s naked blade through the belt. Sure, that works fine, but adding a scabbard is just neat! The scabbard and hilt are cast in the same dark charcoal as the armor and the blade is painted silver. You get a standard issue brown sword belt to hook the scabbard onto. The only downside here is that T4H seem to have only designed one sword so far to work with the scabbard, as the blade has to be thinner. They did, however, take the opportunity to add a central fuller to the blade rather than just the usual diamond cross-section found on the standard sword. I do like the hilt, and since this one is left unpainted it isn’t completely obvious that it’s the same as Hadirana’s brightly painted version.

The shield is super old school, dating all the way back to that first figure assortment where just about everyone had one of these. The face is painted black with a white cross to match the tabard and the rim is painted in silver. It has the standard 90-degree angled grip that pegs into the back and allows for a lot of adjustment to orientate the shield while posing the figure.

And finally, you get the same poleaxe that was included with the regular Templar Legion Builder. Here it’s painted all silver, while his predecessor had a gold shaft and silver blade. As usual, the blade is a separate piece from the pole and can be removed.

I like this figure a lot, but there’s a definite discrepancy between what the regular Templar Legion Builder came with and this guy’s inventory, namely the large standard flag. Maybe TFH felt the new sword and scabbard was the equivalent, but the accessories here still feel wanting for what is called a Deluxe. They could have at least tossed in the two optional neck armor pieces. On the other hand, it was a real treat to play around with a new figure based on the older style bodies. These guys feel so good in hand, with smoother joints and just a satisfying chonkiness to them. That’s not to disparage the newer figures, but there’s just something that feels simple and streamlined about these earlier style releases. Next time, we’ll turn back to one of the newer figures from the Poxxus Wave!