Tag Archives: all-stars

Jan 10 2022

Mythic Legions (All-Stars 4): Forest Troll 2 by The Four Horsemen

Pre-ordering new waves of Mythic Legions is almost always brutal. It involves adding up numbers, trying to budget as many figures as I can, and in the end it comes down to staring at the screen and trying to figure out where to make cuts. Sometimes, figures are offered up again, but it’s generally safe to assume that if you skip a figure the first go around, there’s a good chance you’ll have to pay a premium from a secondary seller in order to get it later on. And that brings us to The Forest Troll! Two of these big bois were released as part of Wave 1.5, and I could not afford both. I think it literally came down to flipping a coin and then disregarding the result and getting the Stone Troll because I liked his weapon a better. But fast forward to a little while ago and The Four Horsemen bestowed upon us The Forest Troll 2 as part of the fourth All-Stars Wave. As near as I can tell, Forest Troll 2 is just a re-release of the original, but with a second head added, so it was a Win-Win for me! Let’s check him out! Oh yeah, I already have the box in storage, because I’m moving, so let’s jump straight to the figure!

Even with three of these big guys already in my collection, The Forest Troll still impresses me with his sheer size. The Trolls tower over the regular 6-inch Legions figures, and they look like they could make pretty short work of the Ogre Class figures as well. Of course, we’ve seen this body before, as T4H have recycled the Troll body for each release, making these guys rely on new paint and different types of garments around their waist, to distinguish them from the neck down. And since I’ve reviewed this body sculpt three times now, I won’t go into all the details again. The Forest Troll features a green hide on his back and beige for his soft belly, with some gradations of the two intermingling throughout. Yup, the belt buckle and wrist cuffs are the same, but The Forest Troll employs a brown furry diaper to conceal his tree and bushes.

As I mentioned, you get two heads with this guy: The original Forest Troll head, which is what I’m using for the bulk of this review, and a repaint of The Ice Troll head. I do indeed like both, but I’ll be going with the original Forest Troll head most of the time, because I like having a unique head sculpt on each of my Trolls. It also helps that this is my favorite of all the Troll head sculpts. I love the bulbous nose, the deep set yellow eyes, the goblin-like ears, and the mess of tusks coming up from each corner of his mouth. This is just a fabulous and distinctive looking portrait that suits the figure perfectly.

The Ice Troll head is no slouch either! Indeed, I’d even grant that it’s the better sculpt of the two. There’s so much sharp detail here, and it looks pretty great all repainted up in forest-y colors. But I have to believe that the horns on this guy were inspired by the Taun Tauns in Star Wars, and that makes it a very ice-specific sculpt to me. Still, it’s always nice to have options!

Forest Troll 2 comes with a rudimentary mace, which consists of a spiked ball attached to what looks like a tree trunk with a couple of reinforcing bands. There’s some nice percussive damage to part of it, making me wonder what the hell he hit with it! I am going to assume this is the same weapon that came with the first Forest Troll, but as we’ve already established, I don’t have that one to check. One weird thing, my Troll’s mace has something loose inside it that makes it sound like a giant baby rattle when you shake it!

As always, articulation is fairly basic on these guys, but there’s enough here for some fun. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows, with heavy ratchets in the shoulders to support the weight of the big arms and the big weapon. Like wise, you get strong rotating hinges in the hips, no knee articulation, but swivels in both the wrists and ankles.

And there you have it! My Quartet of Trolls is finally complete! And with The Forest Troll finally in my stable of big uglies, I can rest complete. And I kind of hope that T4H are done with making these behemoths, because as much as I love them, I really don’t have any room for more. But with that being said, if the engineer a brand new figure to take continue this size class, I’ll certainly consider whatever they come up with.

Jan 3 2022

Mythic Legions (All-Stars 4): Bryophytus by The Four Horsemen

There were two Masters of the Universe homages in the last All-Stars Wave from Mythic Legions. I looked at Mephitor (Not-Stinkor!) last time, and today I’m having a look at Bryophytus, who is most definitely an overt nod to Mossman, and a new sub-race of Orcs called Lichen Orcs!

If I understand it correctly, Bryophytus’ name is a class of vegetation, but I’m not one of them saladology scientists, so don’t quote me on that. Bryo (No way I’m typing that name every time!) is the protector of his tribe of veggie covered Orcs, that dwell in a secluded area of Mythoss known as The Swale! He has the power to control the plant life around him, making him sound a bit like Mythoss’ answer to Swamp Thing!

And wow! This combination of flocking on the Orc body works amazingly well! Here he is in his most basic form and with the head that I think works best as a Moss Man homage, but I’ll talk more about that in a minute. The Orc body is indeed flocked with a green stubble that feels like a cross between Astroturf and damp packing material. Don’t get me wrong, I think it looks great, even with the joint areas left bare to prevent it from being shaved off by articulating those points. It’s even got some yellowish bits mixed in so that it’s not all uniform green. And what a shade of green it is! Deep, dark, and spinach-y, like Bryo is chock full of vitamins and ruffage! It’s worth noting he does not smell like a pine-scented air freshener for your car. Which I suppose could be a pro or con, depending on your personal taste. And luckily Bryo isn’t wearing a whole lot so he can showcase his flocking. What he does have is a knightly yellow-gold armored belt with deep copper colored hip armor and a shaggy sash to conceal his twig and berries. He has similar copper wrist bracers, and lower leg armor, also taken from the Knight figures, but his feet are left bare to show off more mossy goodness. We’ve seen all these parts before and the combination works quite well.

The head I chose to start with is the less aggressive looking one, at least to me, although he does still looks like a tough customer. His Orc nature comes out in his pointed ears, broad nose, deep set yellow eyes, and jutting teeth that rise up from the corners of his dower mouth. He also sports a glorious moss beard! I think this head really showcases how wonderful the transition from painted plastic to moss works on the figure.

And here’s the second head, along with his shoulder armor attached. The armor pieces match the rest of his armor in both style and color and look damn good. They even serve to conceal the bald parts of the shoulders. The moss coverage on this head isn’t quite as lush as the previous one, but I still think it looks great. Again, the first head feels more inline with his role of noble protector, but the second one is a tempting choice for display. Both are great, and it’s kind of mind-blowing that neither head sculpt was designed with this type of flocking in mind!

Bryo also comes with a decent assortment of accessories, many of which are a little less common… at least among the figures I’ve reviewed thus far. First off, you get his staff with a smooth copper shaft and a gnarled branch cradling a green orb at the top. It’s an excellent accessory for the character, and no doubt used to wield his mystical plant-based powers. If you trespass in The Swale, you’re probably going to get attacked by trees before you even catch a glimpse of Bryo!

Next up is the dagger, which is also a welcome treat, as I haven’t seen it in quite a while. This one was introduced with Advent of Decay, and I think it was used frequently among the Elves and maybe some of the new Vampyrs. The sheath is sculpted with an eye motif and painted gold to match the hilt, with an S-shaped guard, while the blade is short, simple, and curved. I love the fact that they included a sheath with this tiny weapon, and it makes me hope that someday T4H will design sword scabbards and make them retroactively available in multi-packs so I can hand them out to all my figures. The dagger’s sheath has a clip on the back so it can be carried on the standard issue brown belt, but it requires a modicum of care, as I’ve had one of the clips snap off one of my Elf daggers.

And finally, we get a heavy mace, which I believe was originally designed for the Dwarf figures. I only recall seeing this stout smashing weapon a few times so far, making it another welcome addition. It’s certainly not an organic-themed weapon, but I think it works here because it goes well with his armor bits.

As much as I loved Mephitor, I think I’ll give the nod to Bryo as my favorite of this MOTU pair. With the added flocking, Bryo just stands out as one of the more unique figures in this line, and it sure took a lot more effort than a mere repaint. Indeed, the homage is so on point, that if you showed me this figure without the familiar armor bits, and told me it was part of an upcoming line of MOTU figures, I’d be inclined to believe you. What’s more, the flocking seems pretty durable. I have had a few crumbs come off, but I think a lot of those were already loose in the package and waiting to jump ship! Either way, I love this guy! Next week, I’ll shoot for a look at the last figure I picked up in this assortment. And he’s a big boi!

Dec 27 2021

Mythic Legions (All-Stars 4): Mephitor by The Four Horsemen

It was a rocky week leading up to Christmas, but I’m happy to put the Silly Season behind me and try to get things back to normal with another installment of Mythoss Monday! And today I’m digging into the newly shipped All-Stars Wave 4! I did not go too deep into this Wave, only picking up two regular figures and one Troll, so I’ll probably run through all of these figures in the next few weeks. So let’s jump right in and check out Mephitor!

Mephitor is one of two figures in this Wave which are essentially Masters of the Universe homages, and if you can’t tell from the packaged shot, this fellow is a very obvious nod to Snake Mountain’s smelliest of villains, Stinkor! Mephitor has his own backstory, which declares him to be something of a mercenary spy! He sniffs out information and sells it to whichever faction suits him. And while TFH didn’t make this figure actually stink (thank heavens for that!) he bio does disclose his ability to spray a deadly stink gas a this enemies!

Mephitor is built off the Goblin body, so that makes him just a little stinker. The armored bits have been repainted orange and given a bit of weathering, making them look a little drab and well worn. His gauntlets are maroon and he has black and silver under-armor exposed on his upper legs and biceps. The waist piece has been seen before on the Goblins as well, this time painted in orange and maroon. Instead of the crude Orc-style shoulders that most of the Goblins wear, Mephitor sports a pair of more civilized shoulder pieces, along with the a spiked collar. There isn’t a lot of detailed paintwork here, other than the painted straps holding on his leg armor, and the gold medallions on the shoulders. Still, all in all it’s a great looking deco.

The head sculpt is repainted from Thistlethorn, a figure released as part of the Advent of Decay, and one of the few releases in that Wave that I passed on due to budget crunch. I will say, that the repaint is quite striking and I had to go back and compare photos to confirm that it was indeed the same head. Mephitor has a overtly skunk-like appearance, with sculpted fur, pointed ears, and a mostly black face, with white circles around the eyes, a white nose, and a white stripe surrounding his crested ridge. It really works well as a Stinkor homage!

I was surprised to find a bonus head in there too, and I’m not sure if this was a new addition or if I just forgot it was included. This one is simply a Goblin head repainted black, with yellow eyes and bone-colored teeth. I doubt I’ll ever display it on this figure, but maybe I’ll use it on one of the Goblins. It’s awesome!

Moving onto his gear, Mephitor comes with the standard knightly sword, which we’ve seen many times before, and yes it’s still one of my favorites! The blade is painted silver and the hilt is a beautiful shade of electric blue, with the grip being matte and the cross-guard and pommel having a metallic finish. There’s some silver over-spray on the hilt, but it’s not too bad.

You also get a circular shield, which is painted in the same matte electric blue and with metallic blue used for the rivets. These colors really pop beautifully when displayed with the orange and maroon of the armor.

And last, but not least, Mephitor comes with a crossbow, which was introduced in Advent of Decay and seen here several times since. It has a real string, and it’s painted in silver and blue to match the rest of his gear. You have to get a little creative to get him to pose with it in a firing position, but he can get there!

Rather than get them all, I’ve been fairly selective when it comes to Mythic Legions‘ MOTU homage figures. Why? I don’t know. Initially they seemed kind of gimmicky, but I think some of them look original enough to fit in Mythoss. Mephitor was definitely one of those that I had to have as soon as I saw him. At this point, if I had it to do over, I probably would have grabbed them all. This is a great little figure, and adds a cool new race to the Mythoss melting pot. I also dig how his bio suggests him to be a loner and that’s why we’ll probably just get this one example of his race. But who knows? Next week, I’ll check out the other MOTU homage in this Wave… that is unless he leaves me at a moss for words.

Mar 5 2021

Mythic Legions (All-Stars 3): Dorina Onoris by The Four Horsemen

There’s been a lot of activity on the Mythic Legions front lately. I’ve still got two pre-orders in the pipe, All-Stars 4 just got announced, and All-Stars 3 arrived at my door a couple of weeks ago. And since I haven’t visited with this line since all the way back in May of last year, I’m at risk at being even more backlogged then I already am. I may have been a faithful fan when it comes to shelling out money, but not so much when it comes to giving this amazing line the attention that it deserves here. So, let’s get this juggernaut started up again with a review of one of those All-Stars 3 figures. The All-Stars Waves have been mostly populated by reissues based on fan polls, but they’ve also been peppered with some new figures, which are loving homages to Masters of the Universe. I haven’t been picking up too many of these, but I did grab the two that were in this assortment, which included the subject of today’s review: Dorina Onoris, an obvious nod to The Princess of Power herself, She-Ra!

I don’t always bother with packaged shots of Mythic Legions anymore, mainly because TFH have been using the same basic packaging ever since the beginning, with just minor changes to the backs of the cards. Also, I don’t keep these packages, because they’re mainly just generic and serviceable and not terribly flashy. So, sometimes I’ve already deep-sixed them before I get around to the review. One nice thing about the packaging is that you get a little bit of bio text on the insert, and Dorina’s bio hammers home the She-Ra homage by naming her as a legendary freedom fighter who led a rebellion against Lord Draguul, who serves as Mythoss’ version of Hordak. And yes, I’ll be looking at him next. Dorina came packaged with a helmeted head, but let’s start out with the one I’m most excited about.

I must say, TFH did a fine job on this one. While the visual cues are all certainly there, I think Dorina works just fine as an original character as well. Yes, Dorina is cobbled together from from pre-existing parts, but since I have yet to review all the figures that came before her, this is one of those instances where many of these parts are new to me. Indeed, I believe the armor comes from the fan poll figure, Ravaena, which is a figure I haven’t even opened yet. Everything has been given a fresh coat of paint, including the upper arms and upper legs, which have been repainted to look like bare skin. The main body armor consists of a form-fitting one-piece with scalloped breast plates, and hip plates. There’s a scale leather piece that protrudes down the front between her legs, and precious little to guard her mythic tuchus. The armor is mostly white, with some matte gold accents, and blue stones at the front of her belt. For an armor design that was not originally sculpted for this homage, the paint deco really makes it work, and I even if you aren’t in it for the She-Ra reference, I think the colors look fantastic.

Additional armor includes forearm bracers, full plate for her knees down to her feet, and segmented shoulder pieces, which are as always optional. All of these pieces use a satin gold finish, which is quite different from anything I’ve seen in the line before. It doesn’t have the same pop as the traditional gold leaf paint used in the past, but it looks quite nice, and perhaps was chosen to give the figure more of a flat, animated look. As usual, the tiniest details in the sculpt are painted, from the silver on miniscule rivets and buckles, to the brown on the sculpted belts that are meant to be securing her armor.

If you’re going for the armored shoulder look, than you can also make use of the red cloth cape that is included, which requires the shoulders to secure it in place. These are common display options to have with many Mythic Legions figures, although I’m a bit torn here on what I prefer. On the one hand, the bare shoulder look captures the Filmation look of She-Ra really well, even without the cape. On the other hand, I think the figure looks better with the cape and shoulders, and that’s probably the way I’ll display her the most.

As I mentioned earlier, you do get two heads with this figure, although only one of them is targeted at the She-Ra homage. Again, we’re seeing recycled parts, but this is the first appearance of this head in one of my reviews, so it’s new to me. The helmet is part of the head sculpt with the face guard permanently sculpted in the upward position and adorned with some beautiful scrollwork. The wings on the helmet are detachable, but removing them leaves two big empty sockets, so they really need to be swapped out with another pair of parts if you want to take them off. But why would you want to? They look great, even if they do clash with the shoulders sometimes when posing the head. The back of the head sculpt shows Dorina’s blonde hair flowing down her back, including three braids with golden ties. The face sculpt is excellent, and while she does have kind of a blank expression, maybe bordering on perturbed, the paint is applied sharply, and I dig the spray of purple eye makeup.

The other head is a standard helmeted female Elf, painted in mostly the same matte gold, but with some gold leaf added as well, and some long Elf ears are exposed on the sides. I really dig this helmet design and it looks OK on this figure, but it’s hard to imagine that it’s the same person under there with the cascade of hair being gone. I’ll likely repurpose this head elsewhere, as it will not be getting much display time using this body.

Unlike some Mythic Legions figures, you don’t get a whole hell of a lot of extras here, but Dorina does come with a standard issue sword belt as well as a sword and shield. The sword appears to be a repurposed Elf short sword. I’ve reviewed a few of the Elves from Advent of Decay, but I haven’t come across this elegant piece of cutlery yet. It’s an absolutely beautiful sculpt with a silver blade and hilt and a blue stone set in the crossguard to match the ones on Dorina’s belt and arm bracers. It’s also a pretty good stand in for She-Ra’s Power Sword. Hopefully, I’ll be seeing more of this sword as I open more figures, because it’s really damn cool.

Alas, they went with the simple disk shield, while I would have much preferred the more ornate Elf Shield. This one has been painted silver and gold to sort of match her armor, but not really. It’s not a bad shield, but it just feels out of place with this figure.

Ah, but shield notwithstanding, I absolutely love this figure and I’m glad I popped for her, despite not really collecting a lot of the Masters of the Universe homages. This one just works for me, and I think she’ll look great fighting alongside Gwendolyn Heavensbrand or perhaps defending the Honor of Silverhorn. She’s also a bit of a treat since I’m behind on opening the figures that she borrows most of her parts from, making her almost completely new to me. And since I’m going to make a concerted effort to catch up on Mythic Legions, I’ll try to revisit the line again next week with a look at Dorina’s arch nemesis, Lord Draguul.