Octobersbest: Mythic Legions SKELETONS

It's time, once again, for Octobersbest! Wait...*checks calendar* CRAP IT'S WAY PAST TIME FOR OCTOBERSBEST! Well I better catch up with a megaton punch of pictures, right?


If you're unfamiliar: Octobersbest is like Octoberfest, except minus the beer and anything at all to do with Octoberfest - just forget I mentioned it. Octobersbest is a celebration of the cool air, the falling leaves, the spooky and/or spoopy times to come in the end, and the fact that I was freakin' born in October. What's not to love? If you want more, just click on the tag waaaay at the bottom to see past Octobersbest stuff - it's all toys I really love, or collections of SPoOoOoOoOKY stuff! Maybe, I dunno.

Let's get to the task at hand:

Lookit these guys! LOOKAT'EM! If you weren't already aware: I love skeletons. Many independent toy makers have been catering to my particular love recently, so I'm freakin' swimming in bones (more so than my skin already swims around my own). 

One particular set of bones has been taking my breath away, and you're gona see why (if you haven't already, all over Instagram and in past posts). I can't keep my hands off these things; so much so that they were my go-to choice to bring with me on my usual birthday vacation up north (this time to Mackinac Island, which I got to by taking a boat from Mackinaw City.  Both pronounced the same). 

I won't go super in-depth with details, since I covered the articulation and mix-and-match qualities in the previous review, but I WILL submerse you in bones up to your knees, to the point where you need to beat them away from your femurs with another femur that's lying on the ground.

Basic skeleton legion builder! Know it, love it, buy many. As you probably can guess: I opened these guys awhile ago and swapped items around to build four separate skeleton guys, so I don't quite remember who came with what. They've all got a sword belt (to use as you see fit), an axe (with one or two blades), a knife, and a broadsword (pretty sure). Toss in the shoulder armor and you've got a skeleton!

My first skeleton is my basic guy: He lacks the shoulder armor, sports the belt at his side with a short sword and a knife. The basic skeleton doesn't come with a short sword, so I took that one from Malleus, who we'll meet later.

 

Here's my knify guy, with only one shoulder armor and two knives. He donated his belt to another guy, you'll see. 

Axe man! Add both shoulder armor pieces to give the illusion of bulk. He seems bigger, so he gets the big axe. Some of Skeletor's minions have been shown with a big axe (I think in the 2002 cartoon, and in the recent phone game), so this matches them the best.

They're a tiny bit shorter than MotUC figures, but not enough for you to notice. I mean, a skeleton should be smaller anyway, since they're missing all the meat. They're perfect! 

Crazy guy! I gave him crossed sword belts for his dual broadswords, and the extra head from Tibius, who we will also meet later. I wish each skeleton legion builder had come with this head, for the option! Instead, you'll need Tibius for the extra head, which is fine, because everyone needs Tibius.

He's one of my favorites, but mostly because he came together much better than I had expected, and because of the total luck that Tibius came with another articulated-jaw head. Not gona lie: I think the basic skeleton head should have had an articulated jaw, standard. I just love them so much that I can't bring myself to be bothered.

I believe I'm biased for reasons that should be obvious by now, but I think these are the figures you should get if you get nothing else from Mythic Legions. I've heard folks say knights or orcs but NAH....nah man, it's the skeletons.You need at least one, but if you're only getting one, well...go for one of the special guys. These are army-buildable.

As far as differences go, from the living characters: As you'd expect, these are more poseable, to a degree.  They'll mostly pull off the same stuff, but with the lack of bulk in the arms and legs, you're naturally going to get a little more range. It's actually pretty impressive that the living characters are pretty similar in the movement category! The Horsemen once again show off their amazing ability to articulate a figure.

Now I gotta at least mention some negatives, and this pretty much counts for everyone to varying degrees: First off, sometimes the waist ball joint is loose. It was loose on the silver knight from the last review, but none of the other figures. With these, only one of the basic skeletons has a loose waist ball joint (and none of the special skellys had the problem). I think it's hit or miss, but considering the low amount I have with that problem, I'd say it's mostly a miss. 

Second is this:

I don't see any way around this, though some have it worse than others: Moving the joints for some extreme poses will scrape some paint off in places like this. Now this is zoomed in, so it's tiny. You won't be able to point it out in any of my action shots, so I can't bring myself to be bothered. I gotta mention it though, because this drives some people up the wall. Honestly, for me; if you feel like you have to gingerly move these, then they aren't worth it. 

So yeah, this might happen, and you can't really get around it with fancy paint jobs like this, but say this with me: It doesn't matter. Move and play with your toys. You didn't care back in the day, did you? Your old toys are scuffed to heck! This junk isn't gona be with you 'till the day you die; nor should it. Use them for all their worth and take a million pictures with crazy poses! Have fun!  There's no end-all breaks or super paint scuffs beyond this. Go nuts.

So those are the basic skeletons, which I believe are worth every penny of the direct-from-Four-Horsemen price (but not so much the prices people are asking on ebay and in online stores. Wait for them to show up on the Horsemen's site). 

But there's so much more! While I didn't get ALL the skeletons (what's wrong with you, Alexx?), I did get most of them! Next in line is the other legion builder:

The Gold Skeleton! Pretty much the same as the regular skeleton, but with different shoulder armor and a shiny new paint job. 

You can use 'em how you like, but I figure that his role is commander, among the skeletons. It's always nice to throw in a special colored grunt to lead all the other grunts. Of course, he's the same price as the regular skeleton, so if you want all gold skeletons lead by a normal skeleton - well go ahead! Who's stoppin' you? I ain't stoppin' you. 

I don't know if they're just colored gold for some reason or actually MADE of gold, but I'm going with the latter. Metal skeletons!

Okay, well....soft metal skeletons. I'm sure ya'll are familiar with gold weapons in RPGs, though.  Gold is strong, in fantasy worlds! For some reason. I don't know why.

He's not quite as special as the normal skeleton, but if you're getting more than one skeleton, I think one of these guys is enough. It's good to have a commander around! Or just some prick who painted himself gold and thinks he's better than everyone, CARL. Yeah I'm calling you out, Carl. You think we wouldn't notice the new gold paintjob? Who has naturally gold bones?  NOT YOU, CARL.

So let's not give Carl any more attention, 'cause that's just what he wants - let's move on to the first of the real special skeletons:

Clavain, the blood skeleton! This guy is straight-up SUPER SKELETON, with the ability to tear off his own bones and use them as weapons, only to grow them back again! He's stronger than a skeleton should be, and touching him will poison you! Couldn't be more Castlevania than that, right? These things will get right back up after cutting them down! 

...assuming you have more, but I only bought the one, to be the named Clavain. 

Of course, I've already customized him. He's using a tattered cape that came with Tibius, because I felt like it fit Clavain better. I've got him as one of the more self-important skeletons in the group - perhaps royalty, in his past life. 

Clavain is freakin' beautiful. The red is vibrant and deadly (it killed me once, true story). The armor sports a dark shine, and his weapons are wonderfully dirty.

Even his shield is fancy!

Some sorta crazy spider design, to show how poisonous he is. I'm probably gona say this about all of them, but he's totally worth it! Very striking, fun to pose, and comes with a unique paint job on his weapons. Great skeleton!

One more thing about Clavain: Remember my post about the prototypes? Well the skeleton proto was apparently Clavain, because I almost forgot about that.

Of course, I've decided he's a new skeleton now. Some sort of petrified stone skeleton, or at least, that's what I'm going with.

OKAY, we gotta move on! Two more skeletons to go. Who's next? They're both so cool! 

It's Malleus! The other skeleton that YOU NEED. Seriously man. 

Malleus is the most METAL in the group. There are many ways to tell, for instance: He's the son of some demon named Necronominus and considered "true underworld royalty" which also doubles as his band name.  Plus, there's pictorial evidence:

And don't forget:

Malleus carries two axes beyond the axes above:

He also comes with a sword that I passed on to a normal skeleton because Malleus doesn't need anything but axes. All axes. 

I hope I don't really need to type anything around here. Do you see him? See what he's about? I'm gona be gushing about Tibius next - and he's my favorite for obvious reasons that pertain to me - but for your general audience that doesn't have weird tastes like me: You wana get Malleus if you get no other skeleton. 

Malleus is the only guy with the hinged-jaw head, standard. Tibius has one as an extra head, but it doesn't have dat paintjob that Malleus is sporting.  It may not be super unique later on, when they use the head some more, but for now: It's all Malleus, and it is glorious.  Hands-down; probably everyone's favorite figure.

Mine, though?  My favorite goes to my main skelly man Tibius:

Tibius is a master swordsman and one of most ancient skeletons in the skelly army, but I'm ignoring most of that (even if it is a pretty cool bio). I'll cut to the chase: I like silver (or white) mixed with a little red, when it comes to favorite color schemes.  I like any toy that comes with a sword.  I love skeletons.

This is Tibius. I understand if all you see is a slightly different basic skeleton. That's yet another reason why I love him. He's like a special grunt - the one that stands out from the rest. If I'm lucky, these are the bones that are under my skin. 

He just has it ALL, ya know? The color of the armor, the basic bones, and AAAH MAN those red stripes on the eyes! He wasn't going to have them originally, but the fans wanted the Horsemen to spice him up and BOY HOWDY, did they!  I mean, for most people I guess it's just a couple lines on the face, but it makes all the difference for me!

And the weapons!  The weapons.  Perfect. 

Two short swords!  My favorite.  On top of that, they're not just the same sword; one has a red handle and the other has a silver handle with a black handguard.  I also happen to love miss-matching things! 

Tibius does come with a badass cape, but it didn't line up with how I wanted my Tibius to look:

It definitely looks cool, but gives him a whole other vibe that I felt worked better for Clavain, which won him the cape in the end.

I also tried to add more red to him with Gorgo's cape, but once again; it just didn't match what I had in mind for Tibius.  I wanted him quick and not bogged down by capes, I guess.

Other than the swords and the cape, he also has the standard sword belt (though he already has two built in sword-loops at his sides) and two knives. I actually hadn't messed with these in awhile - mostly because I couldn't find a way to add them.

One problem is that, when the shoulder armor is on both sides, you can't slide in weapons very easily.

An alternative is this, and it looks nice, but it's not sturdy enough. The knives can fall right out of there when you're moving him around.

So I went with this. The knives stay in, are in an easily accessible area, and they're semi-hidden!

Whoops, there's another basic picture of Tibius! I can't stop. I CAN'T! Every time I pick this figure up! I gotta take a picture!

UM...details...uh...oh yeah! The second head I mentioned a bunch:

I might have considered using this head if it had the red stripes, but I'm actually glad it doesn't! That left the head open for use elsewhere, like on my basic skeleton guy.

Tibius is my favorite because everything comes together in the exact fashion that Alexx loves. I can't get enough of him. If the joints ever wear down on these figures, we'll know how long it takes by how long it takes me to wear down Tibius with dynamic pose after dynamic pose.

In the end, I won't hesitate to say that these are my TOP favorite skeletons. I probably would have been more enamored with Vitruvian HACKS skeletons back in my Joe reviewing days but, honestly, I don't think it's fair to compare them.  Different scales and different uses for them entirely.

These are my favorite simply because they shove a lot of different things together that I love, and finally bring some basic ideas to life that should have been done a looooong time ago.  They may not be the easiest figures to get, but if you manage it, you won't be disappointed. 

Now, let's further task your internet provider with more pictures to load:

Now let's see how many more posts I can manage to get out before October ends!