We are continuing with our Scarabus Weekend! Honestly, I have been having so much fun playing with these figures that I almost did not get this First Look up tonight. But… we like to bring you all of the info and pictures to match so instead of breaking the rest of the reviews into a more manageable two or three parts, we have a look at ALL seven of the remaining figures – the Guard of Scarabus. Be prepared, we have a TON of pictures to follow for you to peruse but if there is anything that you would like to see that is not featured herein, please reply to the article and we will try to accommodate all requests. Remember, I am a dunce and left my Time Keepers on my work desk, so I will be snapping pictures of those later this week (if time and luck holds) so that is most certainly coming. If you missed our Look at the three forms of the Scarabus, you can catch them here. Now hold on, because there are some colorful and BADASS figures coming your way.
Remember, this second part is meant to be a bit of a continuation of Part I so a lot of my comments on the sculpting, articulation and whatnot that all of the figures share is located therein. Here we will focus on what makes each figure UNIQUE with plenty of pictures of each one. Just having these in hand, it is amazing how detailed and well put-together they are. Quality remains of the highest standards throughout and the part swap-ability is insane. Moving around all of the heads and faces and hands and flames and staves and everything else, I have not bothered to do the math to determine how many unique possibilities there are but if I get bored tomorrow, I will count and calculate. Needless to say, there are not anywhere near enough of these figures produced for you to have all of them, so change them everyday and tell me when you get through all of the combos.
While all of the figures of the Guard are based on the Scarabus figure, they all feel very different and unique while keeping up a nice consistency. I have a few comments about each one but I think the pictures (all like, 75 of them) will do most of the talking. Deep breath…
Anubos
Anubos is one of the variants that draws a lot of strong Egyptian influence beyond the basic figure motif. The alternate head sculpt look like it is right off of a wall in one of the Great Pyramids. I like the basic blue color and it goes with the gold in the outfit. I think this will end up being one of the more popular variants in the line and he, like the others, is very clean of paint and while there are a lot of colors in the costume, they go together quite well. I love the gold around the Scarabus face and the blue hand flames are some of my favorites.
Azazel
Azazel is the first of two of the Guards that take the animal motif in the alternate head to the next level. The beast head includes a furry neck cover (separate piece) to complete the look and this one looks especially nice hanging out the the Demon Fire Scarabus. The beast head feels very demonic in a Paradise Lost sort of way and the black and red in the costume accents the purple in the clothes. I really like the glossy black used on the Scarabus horns and even though he one of the darker versions, none of the detail is lost.
Haures
If any of these Guard variants look down right evil, it is Haures. He is almost solid black in matte and gloss and the red eyes on both heads complete the look. I love the horns on the ram’s head as they have a glossy finish to them but go to a subtle dirty brown toward the points. I am glad they left the frequent gold and/or silver out most of the scheme as it makes him feel darker. Haures puts the goth in Gothitropolis.
Horos
Horos is my favorite of all of the 10-pack. I really dig the colors in the costume, especially the teal and the magenta in the staff with the silver accent is really nice. Plus, the alternate head is the most instantly iconic of all of them in my opinion. If I was only ordering one of these figures, it would be this one and I really like the paint on the Scarabus head. I think you will either love this figure or he will be one of your least favorites depending on wether you feel the color scheme is overly garish. I for one, love it.
Melchom
Melchom is like the cold antithesis to the Demon Fire Scarabus variant. His light blue color is the most flat in terms of paint sheen, but it works as he seems like he was frozen to a dry state by liquid nitrogen. He even feels different. He is also one of the figures that has TWO swappable faces and heads so you can go for four different combinations. Awesome! Of all of the Guards, I am thinking about getting another one of these so I can display one as Melchom and one as “Demon Frost” Scarabus. Hmm…
Nergall
After Horos, I think Nergall is my second favorite Guardsman. I definitely love his color scheme the best and the dark navy blue coupled with the very bright, almost neon, red in the staff really pops. Plus, he has one of the more “out there” head sculpts. Like Melchom, I cannot really place where his head comes from, but again, the face is swappable on both heads so there are tons of options. I also love that his horns are posable. He is not the most dramatic in coloring but the red parts really do pop. Love him.
Thothos
Last but not least (by virtue of his name) we come to Thothos. I really like the long beak bird head and the color scheme on both of the heads is really nice with the blue and teal, but I am not sure how I feel about the costume color scheme. There is nothing wrong with it, it just doesn’t speak to me as much as a lot of the others. He is another of the variants where the alternate head actually plugs into the Scarabus horns and it is a great choice here as the face would be a little skinny without the horns. Overall, he has one of the best heads, but the costume coloring is a little plainer than the rest. Still an awesome figure though.
Whew, there it is. I cannot leave you with much more than saying this is an incredibly satisfying set of figures. I really hope that if you are thinking about jumping in, order a couple of them, you will probably order a few more. Overall, I like Horos, Nergall, Melchom and Dormant Form Scarabus the most, but the great part about this line is that the sky is the limit and I think everyone will have a favorite. These puppies were totally worth the wait because they came through production beautifully. I know if you are waiting on your 10-pack to arrive it is torture, but you will be very happy when they do arrive. Again, I hope this is the 4H most success venture yet because I REALLY want to see where Gothitropolis is going and I wonder… just how are they going to top themselves? Thanks for reading!
*Another huge thanks to CB, Jim, Chris and Eric for making this possible. Guys, these are really incredible figures and the dedication you put in to seeing them through with such class and quality is very much appreciated. Be ready for some gushing at SDCC…
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I only have enough money to get one of these guys, and was completely sold on getting the dormant version. But now I can’t decide, there are too many cool options. Color combos which I initially had no interest in are now looking very cool. There are some figures that I think are kind of stinkers, and I agree with Bob that there are some very weird choices. Still, some of the more colorful choices also come off as very interesting.
So many figures, so little money…Amazing toy line and I hope we see many many more!!!!!
Arrgh! I don’t have space for the figures I have now!
I like them but I think the colors the horsemen pick are a bit random. Whoever does the paint apps should learn color theory. Too much purple!
Favorite is the Goat Head- very Heavy Metal Album Cover-ish!
Awww crap! I think you sold me on a few of those variants I was thinking of skipping.
Insane is right. I can’t wait to get mine. So many great pics.