Another Mythic Legions Skeleton…SpartanNerd

I purchased a Mythic Legion Skeleton Warrior on Halloween, and you can see the review and make comparisons here…

It seems like the whole month of November was Black Friday/Cyber Monday.  So I went shopping for some new stuff online.  I made my first purchase from BigBadToyStore.  I found them when I actually typed in “Mythic Legions…” They were one of the first sites.

I found more there than I could imagine, and also stuff from Figura Obscura, which looks incredibly cool.  (Father Christmas, The Headless Horseman, etc.) I mean…incredibly cool.  This sale contained all kinds of Mythic Legions but I went for another Skeleton Warrior.  It seems like Mythic Legions is a rabbit hole like Magic the Gathering.  You could collect and collect and always want more.  But the downside in comparison to MTG is that the Mythic Legions really don’t lose much value over time.  A Magic Card might be $50 during its first release and in its Standard season, but then when demand goes down, usually becomes very affordable.  But Mythic Legions just stay in demand.  The other downside is the amount of space the figures take up.

I wound up buying this guy anyway, as settling into Commander-all-the-time for MTG has also caused me to stop purchasing cards as much.  I got him for $35 on sale, and I am good with that.

His (Her?) package is mostly the same as the other, but a key difference is the back of this one shows off other army builder figures.  The viking just looks kind of dumb to me…I saw this online for a similar price.  Why does he look dumb?  Something about the way the helmet comes all the way down to the beard or something.  The goblin is reported to be popular, but I am more of a barbarian and skeleton kind of guy.  The Knight Templar would be cool if the horn armor on the side of the helmet wasn’t so big.  I saw the oversized “ogre scale” gladiator for $50 loose at the Toy Federation on Halloween, just before I left with Raven Spawn and Redeemer.  He is really big.

I decided to shoot these pics on some music paper I have laying around.  Why not?  ‘Tis the Season for Chorus.  (The SpartanNerd is a chorus teacher.)

Here are the accessories that came in a little poly bag.

There are two pauldrons, a weapons strap, a quiver with sculpted-in arrows, a bow, and an arrow.

Notable here, and the reason I got this skeleton is the bow and arrow.

The arrow is really skinny.  It is very silver!  There is a tiny slot on either side of the bow where it can clip in.

I’ve played with this for a few days, and it is pretty hard to get good archery poses.  The string on the bow is springy, and believe it or not, the arrow has shot off before.  It didn’t go far and I didn’t lose it thankfully, but I thought it wouldn’t…but then it did when I was trying to do a pose like you see below.

It is my preference to remove the shoulder pauldrons when doing these archery poses.  Which tracks on flavor as far as ranged fighters are concerned.  Notice how in both of these photos, the feather side of the arrow doesn’t line up with the hand, and therefore doesn’t look quite right.

Let’s talk about the head. It is a pretty cool sculpt, and the second reason I got this second army builder skeleton figure.  It has an articulated jaw, which is nice…the expression doesn’t have to look happy all the time like the other figure.  There is also a helmet with a visor…just another cool piece.  With the visor down, it reminds me of “Weapon-X.”

The jaw can come off…giving you even another display option.

He also comes with this giant spear thing.  Polearm?  Axe-spear?  Whatever it is, it looks good, but there is no paint on any of the weapons besides the silver on the arrow, or if they are painted then they are painted a consistent glossy shade.  I suppose it is a concession, because the figure itself is after all awesomely painted.  There is also another barbarian sword, but this time with and angled point.  More like a machete with a stabbing point.

The skeleton is very articulated, and like I said before, entirely modular.  You can swap pieces with other Mythic Legions in the same scale.

But great army pieces with wizard characters!  Check out the Faceless One here.

I rate this figure at a 5/5.  I feel it is an improvement on the original that I had just recently purchased in every way except for maybe the axe.  What else, the packaging is collector friendly.  It turns out that I am jamming both of them into a single Mythic Legions box.  Easy storage!  The only minor gripe is that it is hard to make a good archery pose with the arrow drawn. 

SpartanNerd…Cool Idea- Photograph Toys with a Black Light!

Just some fun I had today…something really substantial forthcoming, however, oh Hub City Geeks!

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Skeletor is just about my favorite subject to photograph.  With a black light, his face looks extra gruesome.

I thought it would be cool to put the Havoc Staff that came with the Faceless One in the black light.  It isn’t that apparent in the pic below, but the pink translucent details on the “powered up” part of the staff changed bone white!

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Here is Modulock wearing the alternate Beast Man armor.  The unusual and unexpected thing is the plastic on the torso and visible in his joints at the knees and elbows glow a different color in the black light!  I noticed this with Draego Man too.  (Not pictured)

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I’ve never thought that the vintage Mantenna was a very menacing looking figure.  (This is my original toy from the 1980’s.)  Placing a blacklight on him changes this.  The red details become that salmon-isn color, which contrasts to the blue parts of his body that disappear in the blacklight somewhat.  His eyeball paint is about gone, but because of this it makes that weird thing that is his mouth seem extra creepy!

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The cool thing about Grimlock isis weapons.  They look translucent amber in person.  In the blacklight, though they pp like the science fiction things they should pop like.

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Last but not least, LILIANA!  The cool thing about this pic is as I was editing it with iPhoto, I was playing with the sharpness controls.  Lilliana almost disappeared when the control was at 0.  As you moved the slider, she would slowly appear or disappear!  Just like magic!  Because her substantially exposed skin is “flesh-tone”, and her clothes are all purple, this caused the disappearing effect.  I wish I had a modded Liliana card with this picture on it!