MYTHIC LEGIONS: Silver Knight, Blood Knight, And GORGO

We start small!  My three knights, because I was SO focused on skeletons.

Mythic Legions!  Must I explain?  Well okay, short explanation, even though you've heard it in the prototype post:

Mythic Legions are figures created by the Four Horsemen (and Kickstarted by many), sculptors of probably many toys you own (including Masters of the Universe Classics).  They wanted a classic fantasy toyline, and BOY DID THEY DELIVER.  It's fantasy!  Very, very fantasy. Knights and barbarians and warriors of all kinds.  When they put up the Kickstarter, I had been knee deep in other Kickstarters, so I didn't want to go overboard with this line; mostly focusing on skeletons.  At the time, these were the only knights I had bought.

We'll begin with the packaging:

I don't normally talk about packaging, but this is pretty neat!  It's all just a slip-together back-and-front part, with the tray.  You could put them back in perfectly, if you wanted to!

And that background art!  Whew!  Awesome! 

On the back, there's the story for Mythic Legions, which is right and proper fantasy, it is.

Alrighty, on to the most basic figure:

The Silver Knight Legions Builder.  A "legion builder" is just as it sounds: army building type.  They're basic, mostly devoid of fancy paint, and their weapons are monotone.  They're still the same in terms of articulation and everything else, though!

Now, I gotta confess: I RIPPED these open and began playing with them immediately.  I have to look up what they came with originally, because everyone comes with so much stuff that I began piling it up to get it out of the way.  Let me get it straight, though: I LOVE THAT.  There's so much stuff!  SO MUCH.  You'll have an armory, easily, with just a few figures.  The Knight only comes with a solid gold sword, spear, shield, and a sword belt, but you'll see him with that silver bladed sword a lot (it's from a weapons pack).

This would have been a better "review" had I waited and went through them systematically, but I think the fact that I couldn't keep it together really speaks of the PURE FUN of this toyline.

First thing: Sword belts.  They all come with one, and they are just the bee's knees.  You can pop him apart at the waist and slide the belt around the armor to carry swords at the hips, or wrap it around the body (or criss-cross two across the body) to carry swords on the back.  It's a versatile item, and having one with every figure means you're bound to have some left over for others to double-up on (if you so choose).  The loop is big enough to hold two blades, so I like to stick a knife and a sword in there.

The spear is a good 'ol serviceable stabby-do that can easily be held in both hands for a number of poses.  I don't have anyone regularly equipped with one yet, but it doesn't mean I don't like them!

I'll borrow a pic from the prototype post for the shield and reiterate a statement:

These haven't changed from the prototypes: The peg is still a little small for my tastes (though I haven't broken any of them) and the clip still rakes across the arms and threatens to mess up some paint...though I haven't noticed much yet.  I'm sure multiple uses might do some damage, 'cause it's a hard plastic clip, but you have to make some sacrifices.  If it was a soft plastic clip, it would eventually fall off the arm.  I'm glad it's hard plastic...I just kinda wish that maybe something else had been developed.  I don't know what ('cause I like that the hand is still free). 

Still: They work, look good, and the peg allows you to swivel the shield and have them hold it in more ways that one. 

Oh, and speaking of the proto post: Yes, the cloak still fits!

I'm not sure what I can say about the articulation other than: LOTS.  I'm not big on doing total articulation breakdowns, especially when there's so much, so I'll just refer you to the above pics, and also point out that the slightly-larger-than-average feet mixed with the awesome ankle ball joint allow you to stand them up however, whenever, wherever.  Just do something crazy and slap that son of a bitch down on the table and you got a pose that'll KEEP.  I can't believe how extreme I've gotten with the poses that still allows them to stand.

HOWEVER...some do have weak ankles, and that can be a problem, but sometimes certain joints are looser than others because these guys COME APART, BABY!

This is just a breakdown of the parts that came off easily without much heavy pulling.  The hands and elbows still come apart, but they were harder and I didn't want those to get loose.  The other joints don't seem to loosen after popping, and the ankles can be shoved up into the leg harder to get them tighter.  Everything you see here can be swapped with the other figures, who come apart in the same manner.  It's glorious, but I don't have enough for mixing yet, so here:

Eventually I'll have more for customizing, and I'll get into it there.  For now, just know that you don't have to do any heating to pop these apart, but some pop apart easier than others.  For instance, the Knight is a little annoying because his waist ball pops out all the time.  Most of them don't do that, but for the ones that do, well....pretty annoying.  Not enough to bother me totally, though.

And that is our Knight!  He's the basic knight I've always wanted!  It's amazing how long we've gone without a basic, everyday knight with this kind of articulation (that I'm aware of). 

Next in line is a unique figure built by fan input with polls 'n such:

The BLOOD KNIGHT, or...Vorgus Vermillius, as it says on the card.

I think I'll just call him the Blood Knight, but the story is cool!  A living suit of armor, thirsting for murders! 

Now, once again, I sorta messed with all the accessories, so the Blood Knight comes with an axe, spear, and sword.  You'll see him with the sword, mostly, and a second bone sword from an accessory pack, because I think it looks awesome with him. 

See?  Bone sword is awesome!  So he DOESN'T COME WITH THE BONE SWORD.  Just keep that in mind. 

Anyway, he's this crazy dried blood color that looks different in the changing light - especially in pictures.  Some might find him a little plain, but I'm really loving it.  If it were just red, I think I'd be disappointed, but he looks like a disgusting scab in the dark, and bright red to redish in the light.  It's great!  Very well thought-out color scheme, for such a simple one.

Hopefully these pics display what I'm talking about with the shifting color scheme.  I love it, and he plays the part of the Blood Knight well. 

One thing that I didn't photograph - because it was such a pain to set up - is the cape.  They're...a little confusing.  They are big, and have four holes.  You can overlap the holes and have the cape bunched up on the back, or spread them out and have two plugged in to the shoulders (meaning you need to have shoulder armor attached to use the cape) and two plugged into the arm sockets (pull the arms out and pop them back in over the cape holes).  The Blood Knight has two plugged in the back and two under his arms, and the next guy, Gorgo, has them folded over.

Finally, Gorgo and Blood Knight both have different-feeling capes.  Blood Knight's cape is more firm cloth, and Gorgo's cape is softer cloth and feels more capable of tearing - indeed, Gorgo's cape kinda got frayed around the holes as I moved it around. 

Amazingly enough, there's actually a lot you can do with the capes...it's just hard to do, and there are no directions.  Be careful!

Anyway, speaking of Gorgo:

Gorgo is our main badguy, who looks so much the part that you'd think he carried a membership card to Villainous Armory Outlet and was already earning rewards.

He also killed a poor stag and slapped the horns on his helmet, because he's got a thing against doorways.  As you can see, the cape is folded behind him, but I tried one other thing out, before taking official pics:

You can loop the extra holes around the round parts of his shoulder armor for a half cape, but it's tough, and I didn't want to do it again for the photoshoot.  There you go!  Versatile capes.

Anyway, Gorgo is BRILLIANT, in terms of paint.  Black and red has always been a favorite, though, over the years, it's gotten kind of cliché in terms of badguys.  Nonetheless, I'm glad they went with the classic badguy color scheme here, because it looks amazing and just POPS.  The red is bright, the black is glossy, and the gold accents give him the regal, self-important touch that a badguy needs.  If any toyline needed an absolute, no questions BAD GUY, it was this classic fantasy-style line. 

Gorgo comes with a sword, shield, and an axe.  The shield has an awesome design painted on it, so it suits him to a T.  He almost looks naked without it.  Gives him even more implied size, along with the compensating-for-something antlers. 

I went over the axes in the prototype post, but my complaints repeat, however cool the axes are: The handles are WAY too big.  They seriously stretch out the hands, so I don't like to use them unless I'm making a character use an axe by default.  I wish the handles had been the same size as the rest of the weapons.  On top of that, since they're larger than everything else, when a hand has been holding it for awhile, the axe tends to fall out sideways, since the thumb can't fully wrap around the weapon like it can with the others. 

Still...I can't totally hate it, since it's a cool design.  As also stated in the prototype post, the axe is a little modular.  The top and bottom comes off, though I haven't seen a reason for it yet, and the back spike comes off to be replaced with a second axe head, for the BIG 'OL AXE.

We'll see more of that with the skeletons. 

Speaking of skeletons, though...Gorgo has a little secret.

If you pop off his head, he uses a skeleton's neck peg, in black.  No one else but the skeletons do this, so I think we have an undead main villain!  I LOVE little details like this, as you can imagine.  I'm all about the little details telling a story beyond the words on the package.  I just hope we get a black skeleton Gorgo at some point!

Now, for my final pics, I did some outside stuff:

I am still as in love with these as I was when I messed with the prototypes - more so, actually.  The paint work is fantastic, they're PACKED with accessories, they hold them well (save for the minor hiccup with the giant axe handles) and you can freakin' mix and match them - be still my heart!  What more could you ask for? 

OH WAIT, you say you wana play with them too?  SURE MAN, do it!  Not only are they works of art, but don't be afraid to mess with them!  Granted, you'll nick some paint around the joints, but it's nothing that noticeable (unless you're eagle-eyed) and it would be a travesty if you just set these up and looked at them.  The Horsemen went out of their way to make some great articulation, and I would shed a tear for lost hours of fun if you didn't at least mess with them more than once to get them in a pose on the shelf. 

They're fun to mix, fun to play, fun to pose, and all-around AMAZING.  Grab some.  Someway, somehow.  Do it. Hurry!  NOW!