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.
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!
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!!
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!
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.
There was another round of Mythic Legions pre-orders a few week ago over at Store Horsemen and an In Stock Sale a couple days ago, and they sure did take a bite out of my wallet! They also whetted my appetite to dig into another figure for Mythoss Monday. But who am I kidding? I’m always ready to spend some time with another amazing figure from this line. Today I’m checking out another release from the Arethyr Wave and it’s Hadriana!
It wasn’t too long ago that I reviewed the Red Shield Soldier, and now we’re turning our attention to the very leader of The Order of the Red Shield! Hadriana is a fierce fighter and when the scourge of Arethyr once again threatened the sanctity of Mythoss, she stepped up to beat Arethyr and his cursed army back to where they came from!
And here is Hadriana kitted out in all her glory! The body here is very nearly a straight repaint of Delphina of Eathyross, and that ain’t a bad thing, because she was one of my favorites in this line for a long time. Indeed, Hadriana here is in the running to usurp her spot, because she really is that good! The armor is painted up with metallic gray, but it doesn’t go too heavy on the shine, and features some lovely gold and brown trim. The belt here is different from Delphine’s, and is punctuated by a large disc in the center, which looks very much like a miniature round shield, and brown scaled hip armor. The shoulder armor is also different, although we’ve certainly seen these pieces before many times. The tabard is painted in a sharp black and red deco with some very fine gold lining the edges, and a black coat of arms on her chest. In addition to a crimson softgoods cape, Hadriana also comes with a fur cape, similar to the one that we last saw on Cassia from The Wasteland Wave. T4H has done a remarkable job crafting these little fur pieces, making them look both luxurious and realistic!
Hadriana comes out of the package sporting her very distinctive helmet with a gold lion faceguard. The face plate is set on hinges so it can be lifted to expose her face underneith.
And I’m not a huge fan of this portrait. The paint is a bit over simplified, making it look a little mannequin like. Also, the pout on her lips makes for a strange expression. She looks like she just witnessed her puppy getting mauled by a troll and is about to start blubbering about it.
You also get a recycled sugar loaf helmet, which we’ve seen several times before. It’s painted in a deep gray to match her armor, and has red reinforced strips with painted gold rivets. This helmet is an old favorite of mine, and it’s nice to have the option to use it with this figure. If you have deeper pockets than me, I think having a couple of these figures wearing this helmet would make excellent guards for Hadriana. Let’s check out some weapons!
Hadriana comes with a sword, which I have not seen before, and I really love it! I’m thinking it might have been inspired by Richard Lionheart’s sword, and if not it still reminds me of it a lot. The hilt is gold with red wrappings on the grip and HOLY SHIT, IT COMES WITH A SCABBARD!!! I’ve been wanting T4H to do scabbards for a while now, and this amazing effort shows that it’s certainly possible to do quite well in this scale. The plastic scabbard has a hook, which makes it ideal for hanging on her back with the belt as a cross strap, but I still prefer it on her hip, especially with the cape and cloak to contend with.
And if her righteous sword wasn’t enough, Hadriana also comes with a pretty cool flail. It has a short black handle, a real gold chain, and a silver spiked ball for smashing demon skulls.
And last, but not least, she comes with a massive hammer, and boy is it an elegant beast! It has something of an undefinable magnificence about it. Maybe it’s the gold finish, maybe it’s the pommel that doubles as a mace head, or the diamond jewels imbedded in the hammer itself. Whatever the case, it really suits Hadriana beautifully.
Wow, what a terrific figure! Hadriana is just another example of what T4H can do with a fantastic new coat of paint, a couple swapped parts, and a few square inches of fur! Hadriana is a snappy looking figure, with some wonderful accessories, and I can’t even begin to convey how smitten I am with this scabbard! I would LOVE to see T4H offer a pack of ten of these, so I can equip some of my other figures’ naked blades with a little modesty!
It’s another Mythoss Monday and today I’m checking out a Mythic Legions figure that just sort of appeared out of nowhere and went up for sale. I don’t remember Shadow Equaddron attached to any specific Wave or Assortment, and I don’t even remember him actually going up for pre-order with The Four Horsemen, but rather I found him on another retailers site and grabbed him up!
Equaddron resides among The Ogre Class figures, making him a good bit bigger than the regular Legions, but not as large as those bruisers, The Trolls. As such, he comes in a tall window box, with the usual colorful artwork on the back and side panels. There’s no bio on the package, but TFH do have one on their site. It’s rather mysterious, as he isn’t given a faction or any personal information about where he fits in the Realm of Mythoss, so bring your imagination! And a bag of oats, because I’m guessing he likes oats. Probably SHADOW OATS!
And, oh boy! Am I in love with this fella! Sporting the Ogre body and a decaying horse head, Shadow Equaddron is certainly an imposing and distinctive looking brute. His body and armor are both lifted directly from Kkurzog, with the exception of the feet, which have been appropriately swapped out for hooves. There’s also an armor extension around his neck to help the figure transition from man body into the horse head. The body is painted brown with some black spotting and markings that does indeed look like horse flesh, and he even sports a horse tail jutting out from under his butt armor.
Meanwhile, Kkurzog’s armor has a snappy new coat of paint and the colors here really sing! You get some sumptuous silver on the arm and leg armor, as well as the shoulder straps and neck armor, cut with some black for the sculpted leather bits, and some copper for the medallions and rivets. And I’ll say it again, I really dig the sinister belt buckle sculpt! This ensemble is wrapped up with a black furry diaper and a couple of bones hanging down from his belt. I have to admit, despite the armor being a complete repaint, the new colors really set it apart from the previous figure, making this my favorite appearance of it yet.
And this head! I gotta be honest, I have no idea what’s going on here, but I love it! Shadow’s head is part horsemeat and part bone, with a pretty sharp departure between the two. His flesh just stops, leaving the grim, bone snout exposed. He’s also got what looks like bone plates bolted to the sides of his head, and a beautiful golden armor mask. The neck piece has a sculpted hammer finish to it, with plenty of pyramid-like studs. The skeletal aspects combined with the dead, black horse eyes makes this thing absolutely terrifying!
Shadow Eqquadron comess with two short ebony maces, which are damn cool weapons. They have a black glossy finish with some blue stones set in the head. Unfortunately, I cannot get his right hand to hold one. There’s no give in the fingers to pull them open enough to slip the handle inside the grip. At least the left hand works fine. That means someone else is going to inherit one of these maces.
This figure is simply amazing and I’m sure glad I didn’t miss him! When the horses were introduced, I was straightaway convinced that we’d get at least one centaur, but I hadn’t really considered them doing the reverse. It makes me hope that one day we might get a minotaur using the Ogre body, because the ones we got on the regular size figures now look puny in comparison! The proportions of the horse head works great on the Ogre body, and this twisted version of it really makes for a stand out figure!
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.
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!
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.
FigureFan Zero 