Skeleton Warriors: October Toys Bringin' You Back to the Bone!

I've been kickstarting a lot of stuff lately, but various delays in shipping or other things involved with book or toymaking has held up just about all of them (all of it totally not their faults).  Out of all the Kickstarter rewards: These are the first to reach me!  Skeleton Warriors!


Skeleton Warriors was a TV show, comic, and toyline back in the mid-90's.  If you're aware of my interest in skeletons (read the blog, man) then you probably guessed that I loved every idea within this concept.

Ah, but you know how it was, back then.  I didn't really earn an allowance (can't earn money for chores you constantly forget to do) so I got toys on gift-giving days or through begging.  You can only beg for what you can see, and I didn't run into this line very often.  I got ONE.  That's it.  And I chose the cyborg skeleton, Dr. Cyborn (DUH).  On top of that, the TV show felt like it lasted for a blink of an eye, so I never caught it enough times to get a full story going.  I didn't even know about the comics until now, honestly.

So why am I so excited for something I barely had any contact with?  SKELETONS, MAN!  Come on!  That's not to say that I'm not still interested in the story behind it all, but as I've stated many times before: I'm a toy man, first and foremost.  I remember Skeleton Warriors very well (for only owning one) and I'm super excited to see them come back with more articulation and a merging of the toon designs with the toys.

It doesn't end there, though!  This is a merging of toylines as well.  You may be familiar with October Toys due to their OMFG line of little rubber monsters.  If you're familiar with them, you may have come in contact with the Glyos System of toys by Onell Design.  If not: They're little figures that pop apart using a universal peg system for insane amounts of customization.

I mention this because these Skeleton Warriors figures utilize this universal Glyos System to great effect!  Are you getting into why I'm so excited about these, beyond the fact that they're skeletons?

Might as well let the pictures do the talking!

This is Baron Dark, the main badguy from Skeleton Warriors and the major figure that was kickstarted by October Toys.  They had stretch goals involving other characters and some army building skeletons, but they didn't get enough funding, sadly.  I'm hoping this post will help a future kickstarter project gain more funds for further figures, 'cause we need MORE.

He's lovingly sculpted and painted to match the old figures in detail.  His cape is removable, but then, you can pop this guy apart to a crazy degree (we'll go over that later, with the basic Titan Skeleton).

He comes with a sword, though, the hands are a tad too big for the handle.  There's a slot on the hilt of the sword that you can slide the fingers in to, so he's got a better grip on it.

Within the story, there's a broken crystal that gives the skeleton guys their skeleton powers, so I assume that's the red item inside the chest.  I love little details like that!  I didn't even know that was there until a friend pointed it out.

Posing this guy is SO FUN, save for the fact that he's got way too much feet in the front and none in the back, so he falls over backward a whole lot unless you pose him just so.  It was a tad frustrating at times, but not to an annoying degree.  He's holding every pose you see; I'm not having him lean on anything or holding him up with an off-camera finger, so you CAN do it.

Now, this is intended to be a 3 3/4 sized toyline.  Baron Dark comes in at 5 inches because he's a BEYST.  He's portrayed as a big-ass dude in the toon, so they decided to give this guy a bigger size, while regular humans are going to come in at Joe size.

I can't find any faults with this guy beyond wishing he had a better handle on his sword and slightly different feet construction for better standing ability.  Beyond those things, he poses like a dream, looks just AWESOME, and he's a friggin' skeleton.  I LOVE SKELETONS.  The skeleton in me is pleased.

The good Baron is just the tip of the iceberg, though.  There's a much better way to show you how these figures come apart, and it's with the Titan Skeleton: October Toys' basic naked skeleton base for Baron Dark.

Once again: This is a Joe sized line, so these are Titan Skeletons because they're the same size as Baron Dark, meaning they're supposed to be giants compared to normal humans.  These are basic to the core: No paint, no armor or details beyond pitting in the bones and standard details you'd expect from a skeleton.

The items that will be up for sale are the Titan Skeleton and the Glowing Titan Skeleton; the clear blue one was a kickstarter exclusive.  We'll start with the standard one.

Just like Baron Dark: He is so so SO much fun to pose!  I can't put this guy down.  Give him whatever weapons you have on hand and go to town, man.

...okay, well maybe not that.  But he can cross his arms!  Look at that!

WE'RE DONE WITH POGS!  You go back to being a normal skeleton, damnit!  No Pogs!

Look at that!  LOOK!  I love it!  I could have taken up the whole post by just giving him different weapons.  I nearly did.

The other Totally Skele---I mean Titan Skeletons pose the same and are just as valid, if not cooler because one glows and one is translucent.  Alright, October Toys, did you get into my private journal and read all my thoughts and feelings about glowing and translucent toys?  'Cause adding skeletons is like mixing love with love.  And we all know two loves make a Garnet.

Or something.

The glow is strong, with this one.  Plus: My new camera just TAKES IN dat light!  I wish I would have had it for the glow-in-the-dark post.  I didn't wana waste too much space just mixing the skeletons with themselves, but you can get some fun shots by mixing glowing with non-glowing.

I simultaneously want to love and eat the clear blue skeleton.  Maybe I will do both.  Thankfully I took some pictures, first.

He doesn't glow, of course.  That's just a blacklight photo.

One thing this skeleton reminds me of is a Nova Skeleton, from Castlevania.  It's just a glowing electric skeleton that fires a devastating beam.

While thinking about what else I could do with this guy, I had a brilliant thought (among all the dim ones) to use some force lightning!  All of it!

Another exclusive item to the kickstarter was a clear blue Baron Dark, so naturally I tried this all out on him too.

The lights I used had this awesome side-effect of putting some shine DIRECTLY on his eyes!  Look at that!  Turned out great!

I repeat: I did not alter that in paint.  The eyes just took that light right in and made it work, girl.

Super Electric Baron rocks, yo.  No foolin'.  I didn't realize I was going to love him so much until I got all that lightning on him.  And the fire.  Gotta have fire.

Alright, before I move on to the final part, I should cover one of the other extras from the kickstarter.

Since this line utilizes Glyos joints, they decided to toss in an exclusively sculpted "Skeleden" for any Glyos fans that were supporting the line due to the desire for more Glyos parts.  This is a boned-up version of the Glyos "Pheyden" type figure.

What is really cool about this figure is that the bone armor is removable!  They haven't done any armor, to my knowledge, so this is an awesome addition.

These specific colors are exclusive to the kickstarter, but if you still want one, they sell recolors over at Onell Design periodically, so watch them for their varying stock.

If you prefer, the Skeleden comes with extra parts to make a normal purple Pheyden, and then you can use the armor for your skeletons.

Or, you can get creative and wrap one of the knee parts around the spine for some weird bone guts.

Sky's the limit!

Speaking of which....isn't it about time we mix some shit up?

There it is, folks!  The breakdown for the Glyos pegs.  The elbows and hands also come out easily enough, but they're smaller pegs and can only be swapped between the skeletons.

Oh you KNOW I had to make some bio-mechanical monstrosities.  If for nothing else than to mimic the horror animatronics from the movie "Virus."

Some of these are Glyos parts, but most are from the revived Robo Force line.  Anything with Glyos pegs works!

And hey, since we're in the thick of it, why not bring back the Rise of the Beasts line?

To, uh...torture them?  I'm so sorry, Rise of the Beasts.  You don't deserve this.

Maybe we should stop.

Stop.  STOP!

STOOOOOOP!!

Alright!  Enough!  I've sold these enough, I hope.  When I get the chance I'd like to get more Titan Skeletons for more horror, but I'm REALLY looking forward to October Toys' next endeavor regarding the Skeleton Warriors.  I desperately need to see Dr. Cyborn in this format (among others).  If you take a look at the vintage toyline I'm sure you'll see something to be excited about, in the future of this line.  Even if none of that interests you: Hey, cool skeleton toys you can take apart and rearrange!  I don't see any reason to not pick up at least one of the basic skeletons.  Love.  All my love.