After a lengthy wait, I finally ended up with a nice fat box of birds from the Four Horsemen’s Gothitropolis Raven Kickstarter. While I didn’t go all in, I did pick up a healthy contingent of birds, and will be taking a look at them over a handful of articles. Veebee has already given us a look at two variations of the central bird theme: Flamingo and Minotaur the Duck.
Though they’re collectively called “Ravens,” the figures don’t all represent different Ravens, which is obvious from the preceding article. The Horsemen have picked up a running theme of their independent offerings, which is to sculpt a single body that can then be carried over in a variety of color schemes and alternate heads to build a compelling universe made of similar yet distinct characters. However, in all of the Horsemen’s line, there’s always a central character. In this particular branch of the mythology of Gothitropolis, that central character is, of course, the Raven, named Decimus Hrabban.
Decimus Hrabban is an interesting name. Decimus means tenth in Roman language, and Hraban (with one b) means raven in German. The white raven is named Nonus Hrabba, and nonus means ninth, meaning the white and black are the ninth and tenth ravens. Which leads to to the fact that there are 8 that precedes them in the myth of Gothitropolis, because math. This is a pretty cool little nugget that adds to a well thought-out world.
Mythology aside, the Black Raven is an insane mass of sculpting. The Horsemen are masters of their craft, and as they excel at the detailed and the otherworldly, and the sculpt on the bird’s body and armor is indicative of their detailed genius. Just the featherwork alone is exhausting to look at. There were no shortcuts; every feather is insanely detailed, and you can count them, one by one. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
The biceps on mine were stuck, a common thread among a handful of the birds I got, but they were easily heated and loosened—advice the Horsemen suggested to everybody to avoid breakage—and worked perfectly afterwards. They’re completely articulated everywhere it counts, and those big three-pronged bird feet mean that have pretty good balance in a wide variety of poses. You tend to miss a bit of rocker action to the ankles, but they still pose well.
The armor is as detailed as the armor, appropriately pitted in some places, smooth in others, and looks simultaneously regal and utilitarian, ornamental and functional. It looks like armor a race of bird-people would wear.
The paint on all the birds is extremely well-done. Each bird has its own color scheme. The main Raven is a mixture of silvers, golds and a metallic purple that looks appropriate to the Raven’s status. For a paintjob this detailed there’s a little bit of built in allowances (at least for me) of imperfections, but the paintjob hits it about 99 percent of the time, at least without breaking out a notebook and tallying up any booboos I might see. The overall effect is stunning and really stands out among the toy-aisle monotony.
The Raven comes with a stoic standard head with an optional battle pack that included an open mouth. Unfortunately, while I ordered the black battle pack I was sent the white, so no alternate shouting Black Ravens shots will be forthcoming. These things happen. I did get the set of Black wings to give him a bit more pep, and they look great on him, working basically the same as the wings on their DC Universe Hawkman work, or the wings on the Masters of the Universe Classics horses. They pop in and out of holes on the back, so you can switch them out however you’d like. One wing was a little less snug and tended to tilt a bit, but I’m sure it can be tightened up with the usual methods of tape, glue or whatever.
All the birds come with two extra sets of feet: a semi-opened set for flying poses, and a gripping set for flying while carrying their staff. I didn’t buy any of the included stands, but I can see the appeal of having a set of flying-styled feet, and they’re a nice inclusion. The only other accessory (if you didn’t get the Battle pack, which includes a sword and helmet) is a staff. While most of the birds come with the same simple staff, the Black Raven comes with one that’s dressed up a bit more. It comes with the mace at one end like all of them, but instead of a simple point to the other end has a curved scythe-like blade. There’s also an additional chain which adds a bit of extra visual appeal to the entire thing that sets him apart even further.
I think the thing I like most about the birds is that there wasn’t too much attempt to anthropomorphize their heads. They still look basically like birds, just birds that walk around and carry weapons. Ravens are pretty menacing looking just in bird form, but one sight of Decimus here would probably make Tippi Hedren pass out.
Come back later in the week when we tackle two more birds in the Raven onslaught!
i think the figure looks much impressive with the wings on and could match up with otherline