Tag Archives: kickstarters

May 2 2022

Mythic Legions (Advent of Decay): Azza Spirtbender by The Four Horsemen

I did a little investigating this week and found that I’m down to about less than a dozen Mythic Legions figures left to spotlight here before I’m all caught up! And since it’s less than likely any new figures will ship before I get through those, I’ll likely be swapping Monday’s back to Marvel for a time. But, we’re still a couple of months away from that, so let’s press on with this week’s figure!

Azza Spiritbender came to us as part of the Advent of Decay assortment, and up until now I thought she was an Elf, but having a read through her bio suggests otherwise. Indeed, even The Four Horsemen don’t know which Mythoss race she belongs to, making her quite a mysterious young lady! What is known, is that she is a member of The Convocation of Bassylia, and a practiced Necromancer!

I can be forgiven for mistaking her for an Elf, as her body uses a mix of the Elf and female tooling that was introduced in Advent of Decay. But before getting into all that, I have to say that my first impression of this figure are the gorgeous colors! Azza shows a lot of skin under that purple cloak, and it’s such an intriguing shade of blue. It looks suitably dark and mysterious in the shadow, but give it some light, and it becomes so bright and vibrant! Her armor consists of a breast plate, shoulders, and knight’s belt with side armor, and these pieces are all painted in some of that gorgeous metallic purple, which we’ve seen recently, as well as lots of rich gold leaf. Her boots and gauntlets are the only things that aren’t flashy about Azza. They are both painted to look like brown leather. The boots do have some reinforced purple and gold armor bits. She probably spends a lot of time stalking muddy graveyards and digging up bones, so she doesn’t want to get her good boots and gauntlets dirty.

To further cement her mysterious nature, Azza’s head is permanently shrouded in a hood. The hood is plastic with a flat purple finish, which matches her plastic sash, and some gold leaf around the edge of the opening. The hood is not a perfect match for the softgoods cape, but it’s close enough. Nestled in the hood is a pretty face, with blank white eyes, and some printed black and white tattoos, which continue down around her arms and exposed midriff, and bare legs.

The only downside here? Well, unlike some Mythic Legions figures, Azza is not a figure that offers a lot of display options. Of course, the cape and shoulders are removable, but with the permanent hood, I think she looks funny without the cape, so what we see is what we get. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, because Azza is an absolutely stunning figure! Let’s move on to her gear!

Front and center is her ornate dagger and sheath. This little weapon was introduced in Advent of Decay and handed out to quite a few characters. Still, it feels right at home on Azza’s belt. The scabbard is equipped with a clip to attach it to the belt, but mine snapped off almost instantly, so I have to pass it through the loop on the belt. It’s worth noting that after handling dozens upon dozens of these figures, Azza’s dagger clip is only the second QC issue I’ve had, with the first being the peg snapping off a shield. I’m not excusing it, but that’s still not a bad track record.

Next up, she comes with a very nice repaint of the Khopesh Sword. This one has a lush gold blade and a metallic purple hilt. It’s the perfect exotic blade for this mysterious lady, and I really dig the color scheme. I’m tempted to take a fine black marker and add some runes to the blade, but I’d probably just mess it up!

Finally, Azza comes with a very tall gold staff, because every Necromancer needs some kind of staff to do their necromancing. This one isn’t terribly mystical looking, as it features a flanged mace head for a topper, which I imagine comes in handy for beating her enemies with if her spells fail. She looks great holding it, but I don’t know. I may wind up giving this to someone else, and trying to find a more appropriate staff for her to command the dead with.

And here she is with a couple other members of The Convocation of Bassylia, namely Jorund Runeshaper and Herra Serpenspire! They’re a bit of an eclectic crew. I can see Azza and Herra hanging out, but Jorund seems like the odd dwarf out here. All awesome figures, nonetheless.

Azza is an absolutely gorgeous figure on her own right, and an intriguing character as well. Part of me wants to nitpick the fact that she didn’t come with an un-hooded head, but I suppose if she did it would give away some of the mystery surrounding her race. Either way, she’s a perfect example of The Four Horsemen bringing their A-game when it comes to selection of parts and paint. I think one missed opportunity for Advent of Decay would have been to see Azza repainted into a female version of the excellent Elf Ranger, but then again, AoD was a huge assortment as it was. I suppose that’s always possible for a future assortment.

Apr 25 2022

Mythic Legions (Soul Spiller): Thallyn Frostbow by The Four Horsemen

Last week, I had to push Mythoss Monday to the end of the week, but now I’m getting back to business as usual, as I dig deep into my dwindling pile of untapped Mythic Legions figures. Today, I’m headed back into the Soul Spiller Wave, one of the smaller assortments, with a look at Thallyn Frostbow!

The Elves were introduced in the mammoth Advent of Decay series, with Thallyn following shortly after. She’s a Frost Elf, which are apparently pretty rare and reclusive in Mythoss, and her mission in life is to warn the world that the Vampyre weapon, Soul Spiller has been retaken. She also happens to have a really kick-ass name too! So far, the Elves have been a welcome addition to Mythic Legions, and I’m excited to check this one out!

In terms of sculpt, I don’t think there’s anything here from the neck down that we haven’t seen before, but that doesn’t stop me from being in awe of this figure! Thallyn is wearing full armor, with a beautiful deco that is certainly becoming of a Frost Elf. The torso, shoulders, lower arms, and lower legs are painted in a pale blue-gray matte, with the rest of the pieces having a pearlescent white finish. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, she has some electric blue paint applied some of the accents, as well as the chain mail exposed between the plates. Finally, she has an orange-brown belt, which matches the paint used on some of the tiny sculpted straps for her armor plating. This is a gorgeous suit of armor, and yet another example of how TFH can breathe new life into a sculpt that we’ve seen before, simply by applying just the right combination of colors.

I’m also in love with this portrait! In general, I’ve been a lot more impressed with the Elven head sculpts in this line than I have with the human ones, and Thallyn’s beautiful portrait is a fine example of why. She’s beautiful, but there’s a hint of maturity to this sculpt., which I think comes from the slightly more severe contours of her face. Her white hair is pulled back tightly at the top of her head, and cascades down the back between her pointed ears. She sports a downswept brow, deep blue eyes, and bright red lips, as well as a rosy hue at her cheeks. The paint is neatly applied, it’s a little basic, but it certainly gets the job done just fine.

You also get a second head, which is the same helmeted head sculpt that we’ve seen with some of the previous Elves. It’s beautifully painted to match the armor, and is just the ticket if you want to grab a few more of this figure and give Ms. Frostbow some bodyguards.

And just because Thallyn is a Frost Elf, that doesn’t mean she can walk about the snowy tundras without bundling up. So, to keep her warm, she comes with the wonderful furry pelt that we’ve seen included with a few figures in the past. I really love this garment, as it feels and wears just like real fur. It would have been really cool to get this in white instead of brown, but I’m still happy it was included with the figure. It’s an asymmetrical cut, with no holes for the shoulder pegs, but there are a number of ways to make it work, and I may even wind up punching a hole through it, to make it work with the shoulder armor a bit better. Let’s move on to accessories!

Thallyn doesn’t travel with a traditional sword, but she does come with a stout Dwarven blade. I suppose I’d actually classify this as more of a short sword, because it seems a bit too large to be a knife. The hilt is painted silver and the clipped blade has a pearlescent finish to match parts of her armor.

She also comes with a double-bladed axe, which is smaller and more refined than the one that we’ve seen so many times throughout the waves. This is completely finished in more of that great pearlescent paint, along with some silver applications to the scrollwork on the blades. It’s a beautiful sculpt, and it reminds me of the weapon that came with the Northlord Barbarian from LJN’s old Advanced Dungeons & Dragons line. The axe appears light enough for single-handed use, but the grip is long enough for more powerful two-handed swings.

And finally, as her name suggests, Ms. Frostbow is nimble with a bow, and so we get the standard bow that was introduced with the Elves in the Advent of Decay assortment, as well as a full quiver for her belt, and one loose arrow that she can knock and ready to fire. There’s more of that lovely pearlescent paint for the bow, along with a real string. The quiver is quite striking, as it shares the same orange-brown color as her belt and armor straps, with raised silver scrollwork, and a full inventory of sculpted silver arrows. The quiver clips onto her belt and can be worn on her hip or across her back. As for knocking the arrow, I cheated a bit and used a little dollop of poster putty to make it stay in place!

It has been a while since I last looked an one of the Elves, and Thallyn Frostbow is a most welcome addition to my Legions. The armored Elven body looks simply amazing here in these frosty colors, and she really stands out among the other Elves on my shelves… HA! I love her assortment of weapons, and the fur pelt was a nice addition as well. I’m still hoping that we might get a white one eventually, that I can swap out with this one, but now I’m just looking for things to nitpick! I really wish I had the scratch to pick up at least one more of Thallyn to display with the helmeted head, but the Ice Troll that shipped in this wave sucked up any chance of that, and I have no regrets!

Apr 22 2022

Mythic Legions (Advent of Decay): Wings!!! by The Four Horsemen

As promised, I pushed Mythoss Monday to Friday this week, so I could get on with my infatuation with the Playmobil Enterprise. And while we’re on the subject, that shit took a lot out of me, so I’m sort of phoning it in today. I’m not going to check out a figure today, but rather some accessories. When Advent of Decay came along, TFH released a number of wing sets to customize your figures with, and I’m here to look at ALL OF THEM!!! No, wait. I didn’t mean all of them, I meant two of them, because that’s all I bought.

If you’re looking for fancy wing accessory packaging, look elsewhere! These came in plastic bags with yellow printed labels telling you what they are. And to be honest, these almost got thrown away with the bubblewrap when I got my huge shipment of figures, because I completely forgot I ordered any. The two I’m checking out today are the Black Feather Wings and the Bone Wings. Let’s just go in that order!

I’m using the vampyre Carpathias to model the Black Wings, because he’s a vampyre and they sometimes have wings. Yeah, the feathered wings are a bit of a stretch, but I really didn’t have another figure that I saw as a better fit. Now, if we had some black and purple demon wings, that would be perfect! Still, these don’t look too shabby. I illustrated how the wings worked with the Arethyr Review, but if you missed it, they simply plug into one of the adapter pieces that come with pretty much every figure, and that plugs into the back. Things can get a little more complicated because the size of the slot in the back varies from the first assortment to later ones, but I’m not getting into all that. And yes, you can plug the wings directly into the sockets used for the shoulder armor, and I’ll demonstrate that with the Bone Wings.

The wings attach with hinged pegs, which allow for a lot of posing possibilities coming away from the body, and you also get hinges where they crest, so they can be spread outward. The downside with these are that they’re pretty heavy and the hinged pegs don’t always hold them in place for a long time. Combine that with the way they have a habit of popping out of the sockets, and it can be a lot of trouble to make them stay put. And while I think these do look pretty damn good on Carpathia, I’m not about to display him with them all the time, so maybe I’ll just put them away until a more appropriate figure comes along. Let’s move on to the Bone Wings…

For the Bone Wings, I’m using the Skeleton Soldier, and here I just plugged them directly into the shoulder sockets. The color of the bone isn’t a perfect match for this figure, but it’s close enough that it still looks pretty good. The Bone Wings seem pretty useless, as I can’t see how anyone is going to fly with these, but I do think they look absolutely bitchin;, especially on this figure. Plugging them directly into the shoulder holes gives them a little more stability, and you don’t have the unsightly adapter in the back. But, these wings are also not nearly as heavy and bulky as the feathered wings, so they are all around easier to deal with.

You get the same articulation here as we saw on the Black Wings, and I find these are a bit easier to pose. Unlike the Black Wings on Carpathia, these look ride at home sprouting from this Skellie’s back, and they work really well with any of the regular flavor Skeletons. I may actually keep one of my Skeleton Soldiers equipped with them!

I want to say these were around $15 to 20 per set, but I honestly don’t remember. They’re definitely cool options for display, but I don’t really have any desire to get more. When Mythic Legions drops new assortment of figures, I’m usually trying to squeeze every penny to get as many figures as I can, and buying extra parts like these, just cuts into that figure money. In the end, I’m happy I picked up the Bone Wings, but I could have easily done without the Black Wings.

Apr 11 2022

Mythic Legions (Advent of Decay): Morgolyth by The Four Horsemen

It’s another Mythoss Monday, and today I’m finishing up with my reviews of Necronominus’ unholy trinity of offspring. We’ve checked out boney brothers, Malleus and Mandibulus, and here comes their skelly sister, Morgolyth!

Morgolyth released as part of Advent of Decay, the second major assortment of Mythic Legions releases. She’s billed as the High Priestess of The Congregation of Necronominus, which sounds damned impressive, even if I’m not entirely sure what it is! She’s also described as being less savage than her brothers, and possessing the ability to see through the eyes of her dead soldiers. I’m assuming that means her undead soldiers, because otherwise it wouldn’t be a terribly useful skill! Either way, let’s open up this package and check her out!

Hot damn, Morgolyth is certainly one of the more distinctive figures I’ve checked out in this line. She utilizes some skeletal limbs that we’ve seen before, mixed with some of the armor bits introduced in Advent of Decay. I don’t recall having seen this torso before, but whatever the case all the components here add up to one amazing looking battle priestess! Her armor is a gorgeous mix of metallic purple and silver, and I absolutely love the design of her chest piece, which evokes a ribcage. The shiny ornate armor contrasts beautifully with her exposed, yellowed bones. A sculpted plastic skirt hangs down dead center and below her belt, while the outfit is punctuated with two scalloped shoulders and a purple cape.

And as great as her armor looks, it’s hard for the eye not to be immediately drawn to her elaborate head dress. This silver ceremonial helmet angles up high above her head and is bisected by her masked face, leaving only the lower half of her boney face exposed. This whole piece is an absolute triumph of sculpt and design, with some beautiful scrollwork etched into it and a hammered finish. It strikes me as an awesome marrying of ancient tribal culture with something vaguely alien. It’s both beautiful and nightmarish, and I absolutely love it.

Morgolyth may be a High Priestess, but she comes packing some serious gear. For starters, she has a standard knightly cruciform sword, here appearing with a gold hilt and a silver blade. You all know by now how much I love this sword, and while it feels a little superfluous here, I’m never going to complain about getting another one! I guess it’s good to have a trusty blade on hand for when Heavensbrand’s do-gooders storm your temple, your skeletal minions are falling all around you, and the proverbial shit has hit the fan.

A little more her style is this elegant hooked dagger and sheath. This accessory was introduced in Advent of Decay and we’ve seen it wielded by both Elves and Vampires alike. It looks great with the hilt and scabbard done up in a metallic purple to match her armor.

Next up is this oversized ceremonial sword, which is quite the flashy piece! It’s got a two-handed grip, a spiked pommel, a crazy-looking guard, and an even crazier shaped blade, which looks like it would be perfect for ceremonial beheadings. Yes, it’s a tad ostentatious for my taste, but it’s an elegant piece and very befitting of our skeletal priestess.

The final accessory is this mystical staff, which wields untold powers. At least those powers are untold in her biography. The gold shaft includes a topper, which is painted in metallic purple and silver to match her armor, because proper accessorizing is important, even for necromancers! I have been swapping out between this and the big sword for her primary display weapon. They both look great!

I know I say this a lot, but Morgolyth may be one of my new favorite figures in this line! Yes, I’m partial to the skeletons, and while I love me some tried and true boney warriors, it’s cool to have a High Priestess around to hold some unholy rituals, raise more ranks from the dead, and do some dark spell-slinging. But even laying all that aside, this is just one drop-dead gorgeous figure. From the beautiful design of her armor and headdress to the wonderfully snappy colors, Morgolyth is quite simply a showpiece for the collection.

Apr 4 2022

Mythic Legions: Malleus by The Four Horsemen

On the last Mythoss Monday, I checked out the mighty skeleton warlord, Mandibulus, and mentioned that I had yet to review his two siblings. And that makes this as good a time as any to rectify that, starting with today’s look at his brother, Malleus!

Malleus hails from the very first assortment of figures offered in the original Kickstarter. Unfortunately, he didn’t make the budget cutting that I had to do to get what was going to be an enormous expenditure down to a slightly less enormous expenditure. Luckily, Malleus was offered up again as part of the third assortment of All-Stars and he finally landed in my collection.

One of the two sons of Necronominus, he is billed as a devout enforcer of his father’s teachings. Because this figure comes from the original batch, there’s nothing here that we haven’t seen before many times over. But, that doesn’t make him any less great. Malleus’ armor is a combination of the knightly torso, belt, sash, and hip pieces and the more crude Orc shoulders, collar, gauntlets, boots, and lower leg armor. The upper portions of his skeletal limbs are exposed to show off that he is indeed a boney fellow. The knightly pieces of armor are given a green wash, perhaps suggesting an original brilliant emerald color that has long faded, along with the green sash to match, and brass painted rivets. Meanwhile, the Orc pieces are presented in their usual black iron finish with all those lovely nicks and pitting in the sculpt. I really love this combination, as it gives him a battle-ready ruggedness with a hint of style to make him stand out as a noteworthy warrior.

The Four Horsemen are masters at sculpting these 6-inch scale skulls, and Malleus’ features a lot of personality. The bone has a brown finish to suggest the rotting flesh that once covered it, and there are all sorts of cracks and fissures to make the skull look ancient. The jaw is hinged, so Malleus can let loose a mighty war cry, and his imperfect teeth just add to the individuality of the sculpt. The skull looks particularly sinister when nested in the middle of the wickedly spired battle collar, ensuring that no one is going to get in a decap-attack!

Malleus’ sidearm is the trusty cruciform sword we’ve seen many, many, MANY times throughout this line’s history, and as you all may know by now, it’s still one of my favorites. Painted entirely in silver, the sword features a straight cross-guard and a disc pommel. It isn’t at all fancy, but rather just the sort of trustworthy and serviceable design, that a seasoned warrior would depend upon.

But, sometimes you have to make a bigger statement on the battlefield, and to do that Malleus comes with the first wave’s ubiquitous battle axe. At one point it seemed like TFH were handing these out to the figures like a bank hands out personalized pens to perspective clients. I’ve probably said this before, but at one point I was getting a bit tired of seeing these, but I was genuinely pleased to see it again when I opened this figure, because it really is a tremendous design and a great sculpt. The battle axe can be configured to be single, or double-bladed, with a small spike to replace the off-blade. But, let me ax you a question… Do you ever deploy your skeleton warrior to the battlefield and think, Oh shit. I should have had him bring TWO axes?

Well, TFH have you covered, because they not only included two of these beauties with Malleus, but they each have the option to be single or double-bladed. Personally, I think wielding two of these at once may be a bit much, but I’m not going to say no to an extra accessory.

At this stage of the game, some may look at Malleus as a bit of a been there, done that kinda figure. And to be fair, he was released way back when, and I’m certainly late to the party with this review. But, I can honestly say, I didn’t feel any of that when I opened this guy up. Malleus is comprised of an excellent and well thought out selection of parts, and he makes for another awesome skeleton warrior to add to my shelf. Next week, we’ll check out the sister of this trio!… Morgolyth!

Mar 28 2022

Mythic Legions (Advent of Decay): Brother Mandibulus by The Four Horsemen

Having finally finished going through the recent Arethyr Wave, I’m ready to start digging back to some of the earlier Mythic Legions releases that I’ve missed. Today we’ll set the Wayback Machine to the Advent of Decay, which was the second big dump of Legions figures, with a look at Brother Mandibulus!

It’s no secret, I do love me some Skeletons, and Mythic Legions has given us some truly memorable bone warriors. Brother to Morgolyth and Malleus (two figures I have yet to review here), Mandibulus is billed as being ruthless and focused on destroying all who oppose his family’s legacy!

And, oh boy, is this a creepy fellow! Mandibulus is an intriguing combination of the Orc’s armored limbs, and the sculpted tabards worn by some of the Knights. His armored bits are painted with a dark and rusty finish, which goes great with these pitted and jagged pieces. He has plate armor skirt to protect his hips, and crude and imposing shoulder pieces, all of which we’ve seen many times before. The tabard is painted with a black and red pattern, along with some muddy splatter down below the belt. And while the tattered red and black softgoods pieces are technically supposed to be a skirt, I actually prefer using them as a short cape.

The head sculpt is all new, and it’s pretty damn great! Mandi’s got a simple copper colored skull cap with a sculpted chainmail coif spilling down from it to cover the sides of his skull. One curved horn protrudes from the left side, while the right one is broken off just above the base, and a spike juts out the back between the two. His eyes are covered by a visor, and the armored collar that circles his neck obscures the lower half of his face.

The visor can be flipped up to get a better look at what’s going on under there, showing Mandibulus’ mouth is locked in a perpetual scream. There’s some beautiful paintwork on his skull, giving it a brownish rotted finish. You also get a regular skull as a substitute head if you want, but why would you want to replace this masterpiece of a portrait?

Mandibulus comes with an excellent assortment of weapons, starting with the Orc scimitar. I liked this crude piece of cutlery as an Orc weapon, but I think it works equally well in the hands of a skeleton warrior. The sweeping blade swells into a clever-like point with a circle punched through it to lighten it a bit. The hilt is comprised of three curved bone horns, or perhaps fangs, and the blade has a rusty finish with several nicks taken out of the blade to show it’s seen a lot of action.

Next up, he comes with a stout, flanged mace for crushing the heads of the vile fleshies! The blackened head has painted brass rivets, and the shaft is sculpted with a wood finish and a butt cap. It’s a dark, knightly weapon appropriate for a dark skeletal knight!

And finally, we get this spear-axe type thing. We’ve seen this before as well, I believe last encountered with one of the Goblins. It’s another one of my favorite weapons, and I think it pairs perfectly with Mandibulus!

Mandibulus is an excellent addition to my Skeleton Legions, and yet another fine example of just how adept The Four Horsemen can be with mixing and matching parts, some new paint, and a new portrait. This guy oozes a lot of personality for a Skeleton and he instantly looks like he should be leading the other boney brutes into battle. Is he my favorite so far? Well, I don’t think anyone will ever rival Skapular The Cryptbreaker as my favorite Mythic Legions skeleton, but I’d still rank Mandibulus pretty high on my list.

Mar 21 2022

Mythic Legions (Arethyr) Arethyr and Aethon by The Four Horsemen

It’s Mythoss Monday again, and I’m up to checking out the very last figures that I bought from the Arethyr Wave. It took a lot of self control, but I saved the Big Daddy of them all for last! Arethyr is the reason for the season, as they say, and all the figures in this assortment have been leading up to his return!

This fiery manifestation of war itself was available alone, or bundled with his mighty steed Aethon, and I went for the bundle. The result is the biggest Mythic Legions box yet. The Demon Warlord and horse come resting in a tray beside each other, with a secondary tray underneath to hold some accessories. Let’s bust these figures open, and we’ll start with Arethyr himself!

It’s no wonder the inhabitants of Mythoss are up in arms against Arethyr’s coming, because he does not look like the kind of guy you want to have show up on your doorstep. Everything about this guy just screams bad news! Now, considering he’s one of the major players in the Mythic Legions struggle for power, I was surprised to see that he does recycle a number of common parts. But, with that having been said, it all works so well together, I’m not going to complain! The obvious recycling comes from the armored full sleeves on the arms and the armor on the lower legs. These are all finished off in a dark iron color, looking like they were tempered in the fires of hell itself… probably while he was wearing them! You get the typical bare torso and upper legs, this time painted a bright crimson with some orange highlights.

And then there’s all the new stuff… and it’s great! The first thing that draws in my eye are the massive shoulders, forged to look like the heads of some unknown massive demon beasts. They kind of look like the skulls of Chinese Dragons, with their squished noses and string of jagged teeth. The horns that protrude off of each make Arethyr look to be a prickly sort, and definitely adds an intimidation factor to his overall look. Arethyr has crossed straps on his torso and a new belt that includes a sculpted demon head sigil for a belt buckle. All of these pieces are finished in the same black iron color, but the shoulders and belt have shining red eyes.

Arethyr’s portrait is something straight out of the depths of hell itself. The top half of his face is covered with a twisted visor, while his jaw is covered in a jutting plate, each framing his creepy wall of exposed teeth. His exaggerated, pointed ears fan out on each side of his head and have loops stretching out his earlobes. Meanwhile, two horns rise majestically from the top of his head, with a blaze of orange flame nesting between them. Damn, this is great stuff!

The visor is removable, as it is pegged in on each side of his head. It seems like it should be able to flip up, but the horns prevent that. Under the visor is a nightmarish skull with the reddish-orange demon skin stretched thin over it. His nose is a lump with four nostrils, and his wide yellow eyes are staring right into my soul. I think I’ll put the visor back on now.

Arethyr comes with the fearsome Aetherblade, a two-handed sword of untold demonic powers. This weapon is finished entirely in black, has a double cross-guard, which curves toward the blade and a skull topped pommel. It’s a great weapon design for a demon king, and I’m thinking that this might be a one-off accessory, unless it’s been bundled in one of the accessory sets.

You also get a flame effect for The Aetherblade. This piece slots into one side of the blade and stays put quite well. The translucent yellow and orange flame effect looks outstanding!

And what Demon Lord would be complete without a set of wings? Most will probably argue that Arethyr should always be displayed with these, but truth be told, they are a little hard to manage. They connect to him using one of the back adapters that come with practically every Mythic Legions figure, and yet this one of just a few times I’ve had any use for them. You simply peg the wings into the adapter and then tab that into the slot on the figure’s back. Now, it does stay put fairly well, and I don’t think I will have problems displaying him with the wings, but they are problematic when handling and posing the figure, as they are apt to pop out. With that having been said, they look absolutely amazing. The paintwork on the wings is simply incredible, and they feature a decent amount of articulation, with pegged hinges at the connection points, and hinges up near the crest of each wing. He’s also fairly well balanced with the wings, as I was able to get some decent shots without having to resort to any additional support. OK, let’s move on to Arethyr’s demon steed!

Aetheon is a remold and repaint of Balius, which I reviewed a little while ago. His brown coat has been repainted to a more hellish red, and he’s got extra fur added to his lower legs, which are reminiscent of flame with their bright yellow and orange paint. He also has a newly sculpted mane, which is a bit more wild and painted in the same orange/yellow, with the tail also matching.

The head sculpt is thoroughly demonic, with exposed teeth and horns reminiscent of the Taun Tauns from Star Wars. The eyes are painted yellow with no pupils, and he’s wearing a spiked horsey helmet, which adds to the more sinister vibe of this beast. I also dig that the reins have been changed to black chain. I’m guessing this beast probably eats eyeballs instead of sugar cubes and fingers instead of carrots.

The tack is somewhat different, lacking the bedroll and the blanket that we saw on Balius. Unfortunately a few of the pieces of the tack have given me problems. The stirrups peg in over some flaps that also peg in right under them. Well, one of the stirrups and one of those flaps popped out and ever since, they do not want to stay put. I may eventually just resort to gluing them in place. Aetheon also comes with two extra swords and shields, which can be carried in the straps, similar to Balius. These are just nice extras, which I’ll probably hand off to some Legion Builders, or just display on a weapons rack.

Arethyr fits onto his steed quite well, although I did remove his groin armor to make him fit better. That piece just tabs in and can be swapped in and out easily. I have to say, these two make for quite an awesome site. The moment they entered the battlefield, I think I’d adopt the play dead strategy and hope Arethyr and his evil hordes just roll past me. Oh, and I was a little skeptical over how well he would stay on the horse with his wings attached, but it actually works quite well. I just found that getting him seated first and attaching the wings after was the best way to go.

And that’s a wrap for this wave! Arethyr turned out to be another fantastic assortment of figures from The Four Horsemen. There was a wonderful selection of different characters (and we got our first horses!), but I will concede that Arethyr and Atheon stand out as my favorites. I’d like to think that even fans of fantasy figures who aren’t in over their head with collecting this line (unlike me!) might consider adding this set to their collection as a stand alone piece. It really is that impressive! And now that I’m caught up with all the more recent Mythic Legions, I can spend a few Mythic Mondays going back to some of the earlier figures that I haven’t had time to get to!

Mar 14 2022

Mythic Legions (Arethyr): Vorthogg by The Four Horsemen

Hey, it’s another Mythoss Monday, and I feel like I’m finally getting back into the swing of things! Today I’m checking out the penultimate figure in my series of reviews from the Arethyr Wave. While this assortment was named for the Demon Horde that invaded Mythoss, it also gave us a nice variety of Mythoss’ non-demonic inhabitants, including today’s Orc Warlord: Vorthogg!

According to his bio, Vorthogg was responsible for training the Legion of Arethyr, but his true allegiance still lies with The Orc Queen, Urkzaa. I’m not sure how that works, as the bio is a little vague on the matter. Is Vorthogg just playing one side against the other? Training the Legion to go up against his enemies? Was he an employee or an independent contractor? Does it really matter? Nah. Let’s tear this package open and see what we got!

I see some new stuff! Keep in mind, if it’s new to me, it’s just because I haven’t seen it on another figure that I reviewed yet, so your experiences may differ! Now, with that having been said, I don’t recall seeing this cuirass, belt, and hip armor before, and I think it’s pretty damn cool! The cuirass is painted a lighter silver than most of the Orc armor, suggesting Vorthogg actually takes care of some of his equipment. It has some wonderful gold rivets, and painted brown straps. You also get some pretty cool scrapes on his left breast where it came in contact with enemy blades. I love that little touch! The belt is pretty elaborate, and while the hip armor has some bright silver plates and copper chainmail showing through, it’s mostly painted in the dark iron finish that we see on a lot of the Orc armor.

Everything else from the waist down is stuff we’ve seen before plenty of times. The upper arms and upper legs are bare and painted in your standard shade of orc green. The forearm bracers and lower leg armor are jagged, crude, and pitted like I’m used to seeing on Orc gear. It’s also worth noting that Vorthogg comes out of the package with bare feet, but he also has booted feet, which I’m going to use to display him.

You get two head sculpts with the figure, the first is sans helmet, offering a great look at Vorthogg’s ugly mug. He has a full beard, which is painted black but left with some green highlights, and a bald pate framed by his tall, pointed ears. His facial features make for a bold sculpt, with deep lines, a protruding bottom lip, and yellow teeth jutting up out of each corner of his broad mouth. He’s got deep set yellow eyes, with some serious bags under them. This is an excellent portrait that just oozes character. We’ll check out the other head in just a bit.

As usual, you get a pair of shoulders, but you also get a piece of fur to put around his neck, and boy do these look great together! The shoulders are finished with the same dark iron and pitted finish as his extremities’ armor, with tall spikes surrounding his head to keep him from getting easily decapitated by a lucky opportunistic opponent. The front corners have copper painted discs and the fur piece hangs down between them to keep him warm on those cold Mythoss nights. Or maybe that’s Queen Urkzaa’s job? Either way, this guy just looks phenomenal when he’s all kitted out! Let’s have a look at the rest of his gear!

Vorthogg’s features the large and stout sword that we first saw associated with the Dwarves. It’s painted to match the dark portions of his armor, and I have to say I think this blade suits him better than it does the Dwarves! It’s both crude and massive, and it looks right at home in Vorthogg’s hands! Besides, it’s not a sword that gets recycled a lot, so it still feels nice and fresh to me!

Next up is Vorthogg’s shield, which is borrowed from the Elves. This one I think is a tad bit more of a reach. My first assessment is that this ornate and highly stylized design feels a bit too fancy for an Orc Warlord, but I think the paint job makes it work. The lighter matte steel finish looks great and the brass rivets and red stones add just the right touch of color. Of course, I can always write these accessory choices off as characters picking up trophies from the battlefield, and I’d like to think Vorthogg had to slay a pretty important Elf to claim this shield. Either way, this is another accessory that isn’t seen a lot, so I’m happy to have another!

And last on the accessory list is a very old and familiar one… The original war hammer! It seemed like everyone released in the original Kickstarter either had one of these, or the ubiquitous battle ax. I’ll confess I got tired of seeing this so often back in the day, but I can’t say as I mind seeing it again now. It’s still a beautiful sculpt and it definitely suits Vorthogg!

And before wrapping up, here’s a look at the alternate head. This one also hails from the very beginnings of Mythic Legions and it isn’t terribly exciting to me, as we’ve seen it many times. Not that there’s nothing wrong with it. I still enjoy all the little dents in the helmet and the one nick taken out of the crest. I also like the war paint added to the chin here. I just can’t imagine displaying the figure with this head, seeing as the other one has so much personality.

Upon opening this figure, I silently challenged The Four Horsemen to get me excited about another Orc and by God they sure did it! Vorthogg is probably my favorite Orc released in the line so far, and I’d like to think that’s based on his merits, and not because whatever new Mythic Legions figure I open is automatically my new favorite. Although, that may not be far off the mark. But in this case, I think the design just acme together so perfectly, and I definitely get a strong Warcraft vibe off of him, which sure ain’t a bad thing! I think he almost got cut from my purchases in this assortment, as I was trying to stick to a budget, but I’m damn sure he made the cut in the end. Next Monday, I’ll wrap up the Arethyr with the big boi himself. Arethyr is coming… and his horse too!!

Mar 7 2022

Mythic Legions (Arethyr): Helphyre Goblin by The Four Horsemen

I’m trying to get things back to business as usual, and that includes Mythoss Monday! Sure, my reviews have been posting later in the day, rather than morning, but getting back on routines for FFZ is all about baby steps. Hopefully I’ll hit another three reviews again this week. Today I’m tearing into another one of the foul demons that were unleashed on Mythoss in the Arethyr Wave with the Helphyre Goblin!

The Arethyr Wave has given us a number of unholy abominations, including Belphagorr and Malephar. The Helphyre Goblin is a revoltingly hellacious half-pint. They are said to be a dark mirror of the Bog Goblins that are native to Mythoss, only these guys have a habit of spewing boiling plasma vomit, making me wish I had a tub of red slime kicking around here. My Helphyre Gobby appears to have lost his crotch armor in the package, so let’s rip it open, get him properly dressed, and check him out.

I’m a big fan of the smaller demon spawn, and as his name suggests, Helphyre Gobby stands head and shoulders with the regular Goblins. Sadly, I never did pick up the regular Bog Goblin, so that makes this figure less of a mix and match repaint, and actually brand new! The half-sized suit of armor sports all the great sculpted detail I’m used to seeing in this line and features an appropriately dingy and rusty paint job. Although the silver hits to the rivets and the copper colored chainmail in the joints offers some flairs of color. Of course, what really adds the most color here is Helphyre’s bright crimson skin showing through on his hands, feet and bulbous head.

And what a glorious head it is! I believe this is a straight repaint of the Bog Goblin and is a work of grotesque art. The broad fish-lipped mouth, the pointed ears, the thick coil of brow over those beady black eyes. It’s all so good! I can practically see his neck filling with air as he breathes. You also get some little black horns protruding from the sides of his jowels, and some black and blue speckling at the top of his face. The crimson paint is so beautiful, and it’s given a healthy dose of gloss to make him look extra slimy and disgusting… I mean beautiful!!! The rather unconventional head design features two pieces: The back that joints into the neck peg, and a giant face that pegs into the front of that, giving him the ability to tilt his head left or right. It also gives the ability to swap faces…

For an open mouthed face! Aw… yeah! If this little fellow wasn’t horrible enough you can get a dose of what’s going on inside that mouth of his. The stubby rotting teeth and the tongue are superbly detailed and absolutely gross. This second portrait adds a ton of value to this figure, so now how much would you pay? NO! Don’t answer yet, because…

You also get a swap out tongue! Yup, this is the figure that keeps on giving. Pull out the regular tongue and tab in this long snaking licker, complete with some kind of blue bulb at the end, which undoubtedly delivers some kind of toxic poison along with his sloppy kisses. Or maybe acid! I hope it’s acid! Let’s check out his accessories!

First off you get a matched sword and helmet, which look like they were fashioned from the same unfortunate swamp beastie. The helmet actually seems like it could have just been the scaly horned scalp of something, while the sword was probably crafted from its hide and bones. Both feature some amazing attention to detail in both their sculpt and paintwork. I should also note here that the Helphyre Goblin comes with two sets of hands: One open pair, and one pair to hold his accessories.

Next up, you get a bow and quiver. I love these accessories, but I don’t really look at this little guy and think crack-shot archer. But, maybe that’s just me unfairly stereotyping him. Both weapons are repurposed from past figures, and while the bow features a pretty drab paintjob, I think it still looks too sophisticated for this Gobby. Maybe he lifted it off a corpse and just likes to try and shoot it. Either way, I may wind up giving these to one of my regular Goblins.

Finally, and more appropriate is this pole-arm. I love this weapon, as it looks both crude and savage and a lot more like something this fella should be carrying. What I really dig here is that he comes with enough of a weapon assortment that you could kit out several of these differently if you were lucky enough to pick up a handful. Alas, my wallet would only allow me the one.

They say good things come in small packages, and that’s certainly true with this guy. He may be small, but he’s packed with extras, and even that wasn’t the case, I’d still love him to pieces. His big head is a work of art, and I’m overjoyed to add him to my modest legion of mythic demons. He’s just an all around fantastic figure. I haven’t been keeping track, but it feels like I’m just about done with checking out the figures from the Arethyr Wave, although I still have the big guy himself, Arethyr and his demonic steed, and I just may be cracking him open for next week’s Mythoss Monday!

Mar 2 2022

Mythic Legions: Sir Girard by The Four Horsemen

Because I went rogue and skipped Mythic Legions the last two Mondays, I figured we’d do Mythoss Monday on a Wednesday this week! And yes, I am trying to get back to three reviews a week and I think I have a good shot at it this week! So, let’s jump right in and have a look at Sir Girard, Commander of The Dark Templars! Ooooh, I like him already!

Sir Girard was originally released as a LegionsCon Exclusive last year, but he got a standard release through Store Horsemen and arrived at my doorstep a few days ago. As I understand it, the Exclusive was supposed to contain some extra stuff, but in the end the regular release got everything too! I’m not sure which wave assortment Girard fits into, as I just nabbed him when he went up on an In Stock Sale. Sir Girard is billed as a Changeling, which explains why he has his second head. And while I’m all for a lot of these bios, here’s one aspect of one that I might ignore, but more on that later.

As a Dark Templar, it stand to reason that Girard would reuse a lot of the Templar body, and that ain’t a bad thing, because I happen to love that figure. And when you fit that body with the Raygorr head, complete with the batwings coming off the sides, well we got some magic going on here! The tabard has been repainted with a sumptuous matte black and crimson cross, while the armor has a deep gunmetal gray finish. You also get some silver paint to the rivets and fixtures. Girard does come with a pair of shoulders, but I’ll save those for later in the review when I switch out the heads.

The Raygorr helmet looks amazing in the black and red deco. Sure, we’ve seen this head plenty of times before Raygorr was released, but that’s the one I attribute most with these wings. I didn’t think they would be able to come up with a paint scheme that could come close to Raygorr’s but I think this one does it.

Girard comes with the ubiquitous sword belt, but this time in black. He also comes with a pair of matching falchions. I think I’ve seen these before but the previous appearance is eluding me at the moment. They have beautifully swept silver blades with swells in the belly, and gray hilts to match the armor. Girard also comes with the same shield we saw with the Templars and Raygorr, this time painted to match the tabard, and with border painted to match Girard’s armor. The whole ensemble looks amazing! Now let’s check out his alter ego!

Here’s Girard with a repaint of the Skapular head, and if you remember how I completely gushed over Skapular, then you know I practically lost it when I saw his boney noggin get re-released here. It’s simply one of my favorite portraits in this whole line, as it really invokes some of that classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons line art from my childhood. I have also added in the shoulders here, just to distinguish the two looks, but I think they work fine with either head.

So, according to the bio, Sir Girard is looking to overthrow Skapular the Cryptbreaker, and he uses his changeling powers to resemble either him or one of his skeletal legions. I think that’s a cool concept, but what I like even more is the idea that Girard is a skeleton himself, and displaying him with the Raygorr helmet, but with two additional Girard’s with the skeletal heads as his personal guard. Of course, it’s all moot, because I didn’t have the cash to get three and he probably costs all the monies now on the second-hand market. As a result, I honestly have no idea which head I’m going to display him with. There are no right or wrong answers.

And here’s some shots of Girard dual wielding those falchions.

Mythic Legions continues to be a line that never fails to impress. It’s amazing to me that even this far into the line, and with so many releases, The Four Horsemen can still come up with such fantastic new releases using nothing but new paint and mix-and-match parts. Sir Girard is indeed an imposing presence and the addition of the Skapular head just makes him all the more cool in my book. I’m absolutely thrilled that he got a wide release, because I was dangerously close to paying crazy money for the Exclusive.