Welcome back to another Mythic Legions Wednesday! I know, there’s not much alliteration going on there, but Monday was already taken. Today I’m opening another figure that I recently double-dipped on when StoreHorsemen had their remaining stock sale. I do try to avoid the troop building bug when it comes to this line, but sometimes I just can’t help myself. And the Skeleton Soldier is a fine example of why! No packaged shot this time, and the Skeleton Soldier doesn’t actually have a bio card on the bubble insert, because she’s just a lowly undead grunt, so let’s jump right in and check her out!

We’ve had plenty of skeletons in the previous Mythic Legions series, but in keeping with a running theme of Advent of Decay, this is our first Femme-Skeleton, and what a beauty she is! And yes, you can tell she’s a she because of the use of the more diminutive armor. As always, the bones look great, this time with a yellow finish that makes them look as though they’ve been lying around in a crypt just waiting to be re-animated. This figure also exhibits one of my absolute favorite things T4H does with this line, and that’s the way they use sculpt and paint to reproduce the look of old armor. The skeleton features the crude and jagged armor style we’ve seen in the past, mostly with the Orcs, including plates on the lower legs, the outside of the upper arms, sleeves on the lower arms, and optional shoulder guards. She also has some plates dropping down between her legs to protect her bony nether regions. The torso armor is more refined and intricate than the rest, but the antiqued finish, which shows pitting in the sculpt and some brilliant paint that reflects both wear and tear as well as rust, makes it fit right in with the rest.

The head sculpt features a classic looking skull framed by an open-faced helmet with horns protruding from the sides. As with the rest of the armor, the helmet features painted wear and a spotted patina of rust. The paint job on the horns is also especially convincing, and the horns themselves give her a distinctive look over all the other Skellies this line has produced. The horns are also removable, so you can leave them off if you like, or replace them with pieces from another figure’s helmet. And speaking of options, you have two when it comes to the back helmet attachment. One is a cascade of blonde plume (or maybe hair?) pouring out the back and the other is a single spike. I definitely prefer the spike, but when I finally have two of these in my collection, I’ll likely display one with each. Before we move on to the weapons, you also have two options when it comes to the torso…

Yup, Skeleton Soldier comes with a completely different armored torso. If you don’t want to go with the more ornate one, the second option is a little more reserved in its design. It does still have the same wonderfully weathered finish to it, including all sorts of abrasions and rust spots. I’ll also note here that while it does have the holes on the back for the shoulder armor, I simply could not get them to go in all the way. I’m sure a little heat would do the trick, but to be honest, I think the figure looks pretty damn great without them too. OK, now let’s move on to the weapons…

Skellie Soldier’s main accessories are a sword and shield. The sword is a standard cruciform-hilted broadsword with a gray hilt and a silver painted blade. There’s some rust painted on the hilt and base of the blade, which looks pretty good. And of course you get the standard brown sword belt, which in this case hangs very loosely around the figure’s waist. It doesn’t take much for it to drop down to her legs, which I actually dig a lot because it suggests the belt was something this warrior wore in life and it’s too loose now because she’s lost all of her meat. It can also double as a shoulder strap.

The shield is a brand new one to me, at least I think it is. It’s a simple disc-shaped design with concentric circles and some rivets sculpted around the second circle. You get the now standard hand grip that pegs into the back, and I’ll continue to go on record and say that I prefer the clips from the previous series. The shield is painted silver and features a light patina of rust to make it match the sword, and I think they look great together.

And since it’s been a whole week since we’ve seen the spear… here’s the standard Mythic Legions spear! Again! T4H just love to throw this pig-sticker in with a lot of the figures, and I’m never going to complain about it. In this case, the spear is painted entirely in silver, to match the sword and shield, and given that light touch of rust to make it look well used.

The Skeletons have always been a high point in this line for me, and this new Skeleton Soldier does nothing to buck that trend. She looks great beside the Skeleton Legion Builder from the original Kickstarter, and she’ll look even better when I’ve got two pairs of each. No, she isn’t exactly burdened with a huge list of accessories, but it’s hard to argue about extras when you get an entire second torso to customize her. And customization is indeed the name of the game here, as you could probably pick up a four or five of these and manage to kit them each out a little differently to build small army. Oh, if only I had all the money and display space to do something like that!

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and one thing I am definitely thankful for is Mythic Legions! I’m trying to be as diverse as possible on my first pass through the Advent of Decay reviews. So having looked at a human knight, an elf, a vampire, and a goblin, I’ll be checking out a demon today. Behold, the mighty Xarria!

Xarria is not the first demon in the Mythic Legions lineup, but she is my first demon and she’s the first female demon. I passed on the previous demons, because I wasn’t all that keen on their colors, but I found Xarria to be irresistible at first sight. According to her bio card on the package insert, she’s a top general in the Circle of Poxxus, and while I don’t know what that means, it sounds very impressive. She’s also an accomplished spell-slinger and a lady that I would not want to mess with. Let’s get her open and see how she looks!

Pretty god-damned fantastic, I’d say! I tend to spend time talking about parts recycling in my Mythic Legions reviews, but that won’t be the case today. The bulk of this figure is made of parts that I’m experiencing for the first time right now, but we’ll be seeing them again many times over before I’m through with Advent of Decay. And as we’ve already seen, females figures are one of the major additions in Advent of Decay and Demon or no, Xarria is definitely a lady! The buck features bare upper legs, nearly bare arms, bare midriff, and a chest protected by her crude armored brassiere. Not to be confused with her brazier, because I’m sure she’s got one of those too. She also has a pair of rough, jagged shoulder armor pieces, which peg into her back and are, as always, optional.

The rest of her armor consist of wrist bracers, lower legs, and a belt with hip armor. It’s all the same crude and worn style, basically a slightly more diminutive version of the Orc armor we’ve seen several times in the past, with a pitted iron finish that looks amazing. The leg armor terminates at her demonic hooves, and she has a sash that hangs down from the center of her belt to conceal her demon lady parts. In addition to the excellent paintwork on the armor, I really dig the shade of red used for Xarria’s skin. It features some gradations of skin color from deep read to an a fiery orange. She also has some black striping (possibly tattoos?) displayed on her back and the left side of her body.

And that brings us to the head sculpt, and boy is it superb. Xarria walks that fine line between being a hideous demon and maybe just a little bit hawt. OK, I find her more than a little bit hawt. The curved, segmented horns protrude from the top of her an imposing height, she has tall, pointed ears not too dissimilar to the elves, and two yellow pupil-less eyes. Finally, she has a ponytail that spills up out of the ring on her head and terminates with some bright blue paint. Let’s move on to the accessories…

So, first off, Xarria comes with this imposing staff to channel her magic prowess. The shaft is gold and the head is cast in gray plastic and has a purple orb embedded in the middle and another one at the tip. It’s a cool looking piece, and since the top comes off, there’s some opportunity for customization there. This is the first time I’ve seen this accessory, and I’m pretty sure it was introduced in Advent of Decay, but either way I know we’ll be seeing it again. My only real gripe with this staff is that it’s pretty thick where she’s most likely to grip it and that can stretch out her grip, making her other weapons fit loose in that hand. Still, I’ve found that squeezing the hand shut for a bit will help.

But sometimes your mana is low and fools still need killing, and so Xarria also comes with two weapons: A dagger, and a what I guess might be termed a falchion. And, yes she also has the usual belt so she can carry her blades either on her waist or across her back. And here’s where this figure starts to lose me a bit. The dagger is the typical cruciform-hilted weapon that we’ve seen matched with swords and packed in with many of the knights. The blade is painted silver and the grip is painted gold. I really like this dagger, but it doesn’t feel like it really fits the character all that well. I happen to think that a demoness like Xarria should be packing a more exotic blade.

And that goes double for the falchion. This is the first time I’m seeing this particular sword in the line and I really dig the design. It’s got a dramatic curve, a swell to the blade and a nasty-looking clip to the point. The hilt is interesting as the grip curves opposite the blade instead of continuing it. The knuckle-guard is short and doesn’t connect with the pommel, and the weapon is painted to match the dagger with a silver blade and gold hilt, and I should mention that the blade on mine has a bit of gold paint spilled on it, which is one of the first QC issues I’ve had on any of these figures. But like the dagger, this sword just doesn’t really work with the character for me. Now, I kind of get it. The demons are something of an anomaly in this line, as there have only been three so far. And given Mythic Legions’ strategy of re-using accessories, it makes sense that T4H didn’t want to design a bunch of weapons that would only be intended for a few figures. But I’d still argue that there were better choices than these. It feels like someone just reached into a bin of weapons and randomly drew a couple out for poor Xarria.

Holy hell, for possibly the first time ever, I’m actually finishing up a Mythic Legions review without claiming that it’s my new favorite figure! Now, that’s not to say Xarria is in any way a bad one. I dig her a lot. She’s got a cool design, I love the paintwork on her armor, and what’s not to love about adding a demon to my Legions shelves? No, my big sticking point with this figure is just the weapon selection. They feel like the result of a random grab bag, rather than any kind of thoughtful choice, and unfortunately that drags down my feelings for the figure as a whole. Or maybe it was shrewd thinking on the part of T4H, because now I’m seriously thinking about picking up the Dark Forces Weapons Pack to get Xarria properly equipped with some proper demon weapons.

It’s Week Three of Mythic Legions Wednesdays‘ return and I couldn’t be more excited! I’m not following any particular order in which I open and review these figures, but I’m not going totally random either. Since I already looked at two of the regular figures, I thought this week I’d check out one of the Legion Builders. And since the Elves are introduced in the Advent of Decay series, let’s have a look at the Elf Legion Builder!

I’ll go ahead and show a packaged shot here, because unlike the named characters, the Legion Builders don’t actually have bios, because they’re just nameless soldiers. But you can name if you want to! Oh, go on… name them! The Legion Builders are cheaper than the regular figures because they involve less paint operations, usually on both the figure and the accessories, but as we’ll soon see, that doesn’t make them any less spectacular! And in fact, this Elf in particular doesn’t feel like your typical Legion Builder at all.

Behold the Elven armor of golden splendor! Yes, let’s remind ourselves that this is what the rank-and-file Elf Warriors are wearing and it’s pretty fabulous. In case you didn’t already know, Mythic Legions is all about mixing and matching parts, and here we get a great example of that in Advent of Decay. The torso here is new, but the arms and legs are lifted straight from the armored bucks we saw on Gwendolyn and Lucretia. It works well for the diminutive Elven build as well as the female knights, and even though we already saw those parts in gold on Gwen, I think this combination still makes for a pretty unique look.

And the sculpt here is absolutely beautiful. As always, it’s brimming with detail from the overlapping plates to the tiny rivets and sculpted buckles and straps. I particularly like the discs on the chest and belt. When combined with the coloring and the rather thin armored build, it gives me a little bit of a C-3PO vibe. And the armor sculpt that does just fine showing off its details with nothing but a sumptuous golden finish. And while we’re on the subject of paint, it’s worth noting that the past Knight Legion Builders featured only one color on their armor and no additional paint apps at all, except maybe on a helmet plume. The Elf breaks that trend by adding the green scaled armor below his belt with the individually painted gold rivets. It’s a great touch that breaks up all that gold just enough to make him feel more like one of the regular figures. Of course, the figure also comes with the ubiquitous sword belt and removable shoulder armor. And yup, those are the same shoulders we saw on both Gwen and Lucretia.

The Elf Legion Builder comes with no less than three different heads. He comes out of the package with dark skin, green eyes, and an open faced helmet, complete with nasal guard and a wonderfully organic sculpt to the helmet. The ears are quite prominent, but they stay close to the head, giving him more of a Tolkein-esque Western interpretation, as opposed to the ones we usually see in anime or mangas. There isn’t a lot of sharp detail in the face, but I still like it a lot and he has a bit of a dour but noble expression.

The other option is the lighter skinned head, again with green eyes, and the exact same helmet. Actually, it looks like the whole head sculpt here is identical, with just the lighter skin distinguishing it.

The final option is a completely enclosed helmet, but with green skin showing on the exposed ears. I think it’s likely that this is intended to be the open helmet with a mask on it, but I could be wrong about that. Either way, it’s a real sexy piece of design. I love the organic curves and the darkened visor. All three heads are great choices and they make me wish I had picked up at least one more of these guys to display them on. But we’ve also got a lot of accessories to talk about, so let’s move on to the weapons.

The Elf comes with a pretty standard sword and dagger, which can be worn on the belt. Well, there’s one loop so either the sword or dagger can be fitted through the loop and the other just has to be thrust through the belt. Either way it works just fine. We’ve seen both of these weapon molds before many times, but I really dig them a lot. The sword is a pretty no-nonsense weapon with a broad blade and a cruciform hilt and the dagger has a stout blade and a slightly down-turning crossguard. The hilts aren’t matched perfectly, but they’re close enough so that they look good together. Both blades are painted silver and the hilts are painted gold, which is notable because most of my previous Legion Builder Knights did not have any paint apps on their weapons.

Next up is the bow and quiver of arrows, both of which are accessories that are introduced in Advent of Decay. The bow has some really beautiful contours, is painted all in silver, and includes a string. The quiver is painted gold and the arrows have silver shafts and gold fletching. The quiver has a clip that can hook onto the belt, just like we saw on the dagger’s sheath that came with Lucretia. There’s also an attachment that can be used to put it on his back, but it sticks out too far and I don’t like it. The arrows in the quiver are all part of the sculpt, but you do get a single loose arrow.

The loose arrow is pretty thin and frail and he can’t really hold it, at least not without the help of a little blue-tack inside his hand. There are, however, two little nubs on the bow that the arrow can sort of clip into. With a little determination and trickery, I was able to get him to actually knock the arrow and draw the bow. It would have been cool if T4H created a hand for these guys with a slit between two of the fingers. I suppose it would be easy to customize with a good razor blade, but he only comes with the two hands and I don’t want to risk messing him up.

Finally, the Elf Legion Builder comes with a spear and this accessory is as old as Mythic Legions itself. It was a popular pack in accessory with a lot of figures from the first Kickstarter, and I’m not surprised to see it continuing to see service in Advent of Decay. It’s a very simple accessory, all molded from one piece of plastic and painted entirely in silver. The spear is also the thing the only accessory that feels like the weapons included with previous Legion Builders. I’m not going to gripe about it, because quite frankly this figure comes with enough goodies that the spear just feels like a gratuitous extra.

As I mentioned in the beginning, the Legion Builders are the  in this line, and that’s part of what makes this Elf Soldier so impressive to me. Sure he doesn’t have as many paint operations as the regular figures, but he still looks great. And with three different heads and a whole passel of weapons, he feels like anything but a budget figure. Alas, the secondary market prices on these figures preclude me from doing any kind of troop building when it comes to Mythic Legions, I just might pony up for one more of these Elves to make one an archer and the other a regular knight.

Happy Halloween, folks! You’ll note that I’m sticking with Mythic Legions for my Wednesday content, but I still tried to go for that Halloween connection by checking out a vampire! Carpathias was actually the first vampire to hit Legions as part of the original assortment, but he didn’t make my budget crunch for the first Kickstarter and I’ve been regretting it ever since. Fortunately, he was part of the later All-Stars Sale and I was able to pre-order him, but who knows when those are going to be shipping.

So while not the first Vampire, Lucretia is actually the first female vampire. She also happens to be the daughter of Baron Volligar, who was released as part of the Covenant of Shadows assortment. Her bio makes her sound like a nasty piece of work.

And she looks like one too! Lucretia’s body reuses something like 95% of Gwendolyn Heavenbrand’s armored body, with only two key differences. The first is the sculpted purple sash that hangs down from the front of her waist. The second is the tall and sinister, gravity-defying collar that frames her creepy head. Even the shoulder armor is the same sculpt as Ms. Heavensbrand’s. I won’t rehash all the gushing I did over this sculpt last week, but suffice it to say I love all the little details like the tiny straps “holding” the overlapping plates together, the individual rivets, and the exposed chainmail in the joints.

Of course the new deco helps a lot to set this figure apart and it is indeed a beautiful coat of paint. The primary color for the armor is a glossy black with matte purple running through some of the decorative panels. We’ve seen a similar deco on her dear old dad’s armor and it looks as great as ever. You also get a flat gray outlining those panels. Other little touches include metallic silver for the tiny rivets, as well as for the buckles of the brown-painted straps. As with Gwendolyn’s armor, this is an absolutely sumptuous paint job, making the already impressive sculpt sing, even if that song is a fear-inducing dirge of death.

I’ve been in love with the vampire head design since first seeing Carpathias, and that certainly carries over to this new female head. The pale bald head features a rather distinctive nose and brow, which is very familiar. And when coupled with the sharply pointed ears and severe look, I’d say this one is an effective cross between the bloodsuckers of Salem’s Lot and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The earrings are a nice touch and there’s some subtle shading applied to her skin.

Lucretia comes with a flowing black cape, which as always requires the use of the shoulder armor to equip it on her, as the pegs pass through holes on the cape to secure it. That’s no problem for me, as I almost always display these figures with their shoulder armor. But since they are optional, and the figure displays quite well without them, it’s still worth noting that the cape does only work with the shoulders. I love the way it looks on the figure, but it can get in the way of her wearing her sword. And speaking of which, let’s check out her weapons.

Her primary weapon is a two-handed sword, which is new to me. It’s a decidedly vampyric-looking weapon with an elegant hilt featuring an extended, textured grip and a curved crossguard with ends that terminate in a flourish. The black hilt also features a purple stone embedded in the center of the guard. The silver blade is roughly leaf-shaped with a swell about three-quarters of the way down to the point. The configuration of the blade means it won’t pass all the way through the loop in her belt, but the fact that it rides high makes it look like it’s slung across her back and I kind of dig that. I do wish T4H would have started producing some of these belts in black by now, because I think it would have looked better on this figure. Or perhaps even in red, like they did with the Black Knight Legion Builder.

Next up, she has this stout-bladed dagger with a black hilt and purple stone in the center of the guard. It’s not a perfect match for the sword’s handle, but close enough to look good if she’s wielding them en suite. It would have been an especially nice parrying dagger, had they given her a single-handed sword.

Finally, Lucretia comes with a hooked dagger and sheath, and the sheath is something introduced in this Advent of Decay series. It’s plastic with a purple and silver deco and a clip on the back that hooks to the belt. The dagger fits in it quite well and is easy to draw out. It’s a great addition to the Mythic Legions armaments and it makes me wish even more that they will one day tackle scabbards for the swords. Hey, they could easily release a scabbard pack with different decos for the existing swords. I’d buy it!

Is this the part where I say Lucretia may be my new favorite figure in all Mythic Legions? Well, I’m trying not to throw that word around as much this time, but she is simply awesome and well worth a consideration as one of the better figures in this line. The black and purple deco of her armor really sings to me, the quality of the paintwork is gorgeous, the weapons are well-curated, and all in all this figure has a lot of personality. She makes me excited to know that I have two more vampires from Advent of Decay waiting to be opened and that Carpathias will eventually be on the way.

If you follow me on Twitter, than you know I spent this past weekend absolutely obsessed with Mythic Legions! It was back in February of 2017 that I backed Advent of Decay, The Four Horsemen’s second Mythic Legions Kickstarter. With something like 43 figures offered, this project was even more expansive then the first, and it introduced some new elements to the mix, like female characters, as well as Elves and Goblins. I gladly forked over my entire 2017 tax return (and maybe a little more) in what was the largest sum I had ever spent on a single toy purchase. Yeah, it was 34 figures, but still all in one lump sum. And then the long, hard wait began. The figures were originally planned to arrive in April of this year, but if you’ve Kickstarted anything, you know that delays are nearly inevitable. And that was fine with me. You can’t rush art, not even in 6-inch action figure form. And art is exactly what we got.

That’s not to say I got everything yet. The figures finally started shipping last week, and I got my first box this past weekend with 24 figures. T4H are shipping some larger orders separately, which isn’t a bad thing because it’ll give me time to really enjoy these before getting more. It took me quite a while just to open these figures and give them a once over for QC purposes. And while I admit, I’ll rest easier once I get that second shipping notice, I’m content to wait so that everyone can start getting their figures in a timely manner. Anywho… I thought I’d kick things off with Gwendolyn Heavensbrand, since she was the figure I chose as my backer reward, before adding 33 more to the Backerkit. I’ll note here that the above is the last packaged shot I’ll be doing for this series. These packages take up a lot of space and I’m going to be putting them away in storage for the time being, and probably eventually getting rid of them. Suffice it to say, the packaging hasn’t changed much since the previous series. It is collector friendly, there have been some minor art changes on the card, and you get a character bio printed on the side of the bubble insert. All you really need to know is that she’s Sir Gideon’s sister, so let’s get Ms. Heavensbrand out and see what we’ve got!

I have a running gag with my other Mythic Legions reviews, where each one I open is my new favorite. Here’s a case, where it may be true. No, I’m serious! Well, if she isn’t my favorite, then I have to say Gwen is one of the most visually striking figures I own in any line that I collect. The new female armored buck easily rivals anything we got in the first assortment, and nudges that bar up just a tad. The armor is just bulky enough to be convincing, and yet still keeps all of Gwen’s curves in tact. At the same time the sculpted detail here is just insane. Every over-lapping plate, every segmented hinge, every little rivet, strap, buckle, fastener, even the glimpses of chain mail exposed at the joints, it’s all lovingly crafted on this figure. To say nothing of the etched ornamentation present on the center stripe running down the chest plate. This is a fine example of T4H at the top of their game, and that’s really saying something, because their worst is on par with most other companies’ best.

Likewise, the paintwork on this figure has all the chops needed to compliment the sculpt. The sumptuous gold leaf paint used on the armor is rich and satiny with just the right amount of sheen. This stuff makes Sir Gideon’s gold armor look rather flat by comparison. Add to that the metallic purple used on the secondary panels, and you have a deco that really pops beautifully. And then we come to the finer details, like the individually painted silver buckles on those straps, the tiny silver painted rivets, and the slightly more gray finish of the exposed chainmail. The choice of colors, the quality of paint, and the precision of application are all excellent. One thing that’s different this time around is the joints on the figure are left unpainted. I think this was a good idea, as the painted joints in previous assortments would sometimes cause stuck joints and the paint would usually just rub off anyway as the joints were worked. In some areas, like the backs of the knees, it looks OK as the gray plastic sort of matches the chainmail. It’s a lot more obvious on the shoulder hinges, but only if you choose to display the figure without the shoulder armor.

Gwen comes out of the package wearing her helmeted head and it is a lovely portrait. The previous assortments of Mythic Legions didn’t feature a lot of human head sculpts, and I think that was a good thing, because I didn’t find any of the human portraits to be exceptional. Here, it feels like T4H upped their game a lot. Gwen is quite the looker, and I’m particularly impressed with the paint on display here. Both the eyes and lips have a really nice glossy finish to them and there’s a bit of rosiness to her cheeks. The form fitting helmet features the same luscious gold paint as the rest of her armor with a little of that metallic purple carrying over to the chin. And you can’t miss that monstrous purple plume spilling out of the back and flowing down the back of her head. It’s a separate piece that plugs into a socket at the back of the helmet.

While it’s a shame to mask all that beauty, the visor on Gwen’s helmet can be lowered into place to protect her from messing up her pretty face in the heat of battle. Between the classical design of the helmet and the gold paint, I’m instantly reminded of the vintage Marx Knights, and that’s not at all a bad thing. The protective bars on the visor are wide enough that you can easily see her face through the visor, and I really dig the pierced breathing holes down around the lower face. And since apparently two display options for the head aren’t enough…

We also get an un-helmeted head, and… Wow! Everything I said about the Gwen’s face on the helmeted head goes double here. I love the paint on her eyes and lips and I really dig the sweeping motion of her hair and the way it partially obscures the left side of her face. It adds some wonderful depth to the portrait, and I’m not even concerning myself with the fact that there’s no way she could get that coif contained within that form-fitting helmet of hers. I’m worried that deciding which head to display this figure with is going to keep me up at night. But then these are good problems to have. Let’s talk swords and belts…

Gwendolyn comes with the ubiquitous brown sword belt that we’ve seen with every Mythic Legions figure since the line began. Part of me wishes T4H had tweaked this design a bit, and maybe even worked on some proper scabbards, but then these belts work fine and I’m happy to keep them for aesthetic continuity. The belt rests loosely on her hips and the sword passes through the loop where it can rest on her hip, down the front, or as I like to do it, a little behind the hip. Any of these configurations work fine for her standard single-handed sword.

The sword itself appears to be new, but it’s extremely similar to the one included with her brother, Sir Gideon. Mythic Legions is a line that’s all about the economy of parts sharing and sometimes that’s more evident in the accessories than the actual figures. With that having been said, I like the no-nonsense design of the weapon. It’s got a classic cruciform hilt with a straight crossguard and a disc pommel. Gideon’s sword had a grip that swelled in the middle, whereas this one tapers toward the pommel. The hilt is all in gold with the blade painted a bright silver. Of course, when Gwen wants to make more of a statement…

She also has a much larger two-handed sword. As always, you have the option to use the belt as a shoulder strap to sling the sword diagonally across the back, which is great for Gwen’s larger sword. On the downside, this method works best when you remove one of the pieces of shoulder armor, and if you’re a fan of symmetry like I am, this may not be the look for you. It’s also worth noting that Gwen’s copious plume gets in the way a bit, but it will work.

This sword is a beautiful piece, with a golden hilt, extended grip, fluted pommel and down-sloping crossguard. There are even a pair of red painted crystals in the hilt. The long double-edged blade even features a pair of parrying flukes extending from the blade. One of the things about this line reusing so many weapons: When you get a new one like this, it sure is a treat!

Gwen also comes with a shield, and here we see some old and new. The shield itself is the same configuration we’ve seen dozens of times over. This one is even painted to match her brother’s although the size and placement of the crest is a little different. The edges are painted silver and the face is gold to match her armor. My shield has some notable scuffs and brush marks on it, which I’m going to assume is not intentional, although it does look like it could easily pass as weathering. So what’s different?

The grip! Gone is the plastic clip and in it’s place is this L-shaped grip, and I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the old clips could be at risk of stressing and snapping the more you take them on and off the figure’s arm. Granted, I haven’t had that happen with any of mine, but it has happened with one of my Marvel Legends Captain America shields, and that works on the same design. Also, I sometimes worry about the clip scratching the paint on the figures when putting it on and taking it off. This new system definitely sets aside either of those concerns, and it certainly works, but it feels a lot more unwieldy. It looks fine when viewed from the front and you can still position the shield in almost any orientation, but when viewed from behind or the side I think it can look awkward. Of course, the peg it attaches to is the same, so you can feel free to swap it out with any of the shield clips from the older Mythic Legions figures.

I’d apologize for all the gushing, but when it comes to my Mythic Legions reviews, everyone should expect it by now. It seemed only right to start out with Gwen, since I started with her brother back when my Mythic Legions reviews began, and I think it was cool they offered another one of the Heavensbrand clan as a Backer Reward this time around. And thus begins what will be a long stretch of Mythic Legion Wednesdays as I work my way through this amazing collection of figures. I’m even going to do my best to squeeze another one in on a Tuesday or Wednesday when time allows. I know there have been smaller assortments of figures leaking out since the last Kickstarter, but damn it feels great to have a whole box of brand new Legions again!