The Four Horsemen Must have an Actual Dragon (Apr. '12)

'Cause otherwise I dunno where they got this awesome sculpt except out of their badass imaginations. 



Which of course they did.  'Cause I'm pretty sure stuff like this comes out of the Horsemen's studio like it was a cave full of mythical creatures.  Before this was even revealed they could  have said "The Four Horsemen are doing a dragon man" and everyone would have just nodded and said "i'll prepare my shelves for the majesty that will soon be setting them on fire."  Because we knew it was gona rock.  ROCK HARDCORE.

Those burning guards are pretty lucky to witness that show; Draego-Man so rarely plays.  I mean, it helps burn down the villages of his enemies, but rocking out just makes it so easy, you know?  Much more fun to do it the old fashioned way.

Draego-Man rocks.  I think that was displayed with the whole guitar thing.  Nothing about this figure is bad.  I had some reservations about the tail and how it gets in the way, but playing with the figure just erases any problems you might have.  You hold it in your hands and his level, angry gaze just bends you to its will.

This guy hits me personally on a few levels.  For one: it's just badass.  A dragon man just cannot go wrong.  He's got an awesome fire sword, his abilities are all based on fire, he looks like he hates you and your stupid face and anyone involved with you, and omg he reminds me of Ridley.

If you're unfamiliar with Ridley, he's a horrible dragon-beast in the Metroid series of video games.  He's a recurring boss, so he's just about in all of them and is the hardest son of a bitch almost every time.  If he's not hard to fight, then in the story he is always set up as a hard-to-kill sucker that keeps coming back no matter what.  There is a strategy to fighting him, but often times he's moving around so much that the best strategy is to stock up on missiles and health and just shoot the bastard.  If you've got enough health to take the hits, it's always the best and funnest strategy. 

And I respect that.  I love that there's a boss in Metroid that is so tough that you just have a shootout and hope for the best.  On top of that, many of Ridley's incarnations will grab you, hold you to his face, and shoot flame point blank over your whole body.  How do you respond to this?  Well, don't waste the opportunity and shoot his face right back.  Seriously; don't stop shooting.  If this were ever animated in a show, the fight would be an all-out thrashing, shooting, flaming, exploding, slamming, punishing beatdown.

Draego-Man just exudes this idea.  Draego-Man looks like that to me.  Like he'll keep coming back.  Like he's a powder-keg and he's ready to eat your face if you look at him funny. 

And I mean that, too.  He really feels like a character that could take a Thunder Punch to the face and keep coming back.  You can beat him, but it's gona be one hell of a fight. 

So getting past my absolute love for the figure: Draego-Man comes with only one accessory, where he was supposed to come with a few.  Here he's pictured with his flame sword, which is the most important one, I believe.  He's got control over flame, so he needs something displaying his powers.  Originally he was supposed to come with a normal blade for the sword, then this flame blade that you see, and a flame whip to put in it's place; so one hilt and three blade options.  On top of that, he was supposed to come with a shield with removable flames around the edge! 

If you've been paying attention to what I've said in previous posts about tooling costs - and how you can't just load a figure up with accessories and big parts and expect all the other figures to get the same - then you can see why he lost these items.  The tooling costs have to be spread over a series of figures, which I assume to be the year's selection.  So Draego-Man is already using one BIG tail, two BIG wings, new forearms, new head, new armor, new neck addition, AND the new accessory...you can see where I'm going with this.  Not only are there a lot of newly tooled items, but some very BIG items as well.  When I originally saw his accessory lineup I was already thinking that was one hell of a load of things when there were already a huge tail an wings in there.

Turns out I was right!  I can't say I'm not sad to see those items go, but I was also sort of expecting it.  I'm just hoping they find a way to shove those items in with something else down the line.

So, since he's kinda lacking in the amount of stuff he's got, I thought I'd try out a halberd:

I thought it went well with him, though it's obviously not his personal weapon.  I can imagine that this guy grabs up whatever he needs on the spot, anyway.

So, to wrap this up; about his bio:  Draego-Man is a magically created half man half dragon.  He fought on the side of the dragons, but grew to hate them, and fought on the side of evil.  Basically he's pretty ancient, so he comes back and fights on the side of evil over time; I take him to be a loner, but he'll fight on the side that seems closest to his beliefs.  I also don't see this guy raising any armies or leading anyone.  Doubt he has any desire to, and I doubt he'd be very good at it anyway.  I see him as I see Ridley: He comes in from time to time and is hard as hell.  He has motives, but they're light and it seems like he's only ever around to make things tough for everyone involved.

I love this figure, and you should really try to pick one up if you can afford it.