When it was announced that the Four Horsemen would be putting up a severely limited amount of so-called “test shots” from their Kickstarter-funded Mythic Legions line, I was tempted. I backed the project both at the Kickstarter level and I preordered a handful more on Storehorsemen.com, so I knew I had figures on the way. But the chance to get one in hand early to know what to look forward to, combined with the fact that I really liked the flat gray figures devoid of paint or embellishment of any kind — it gives you a chance to really appreciate the sculpting involved — meant I wanted to jump on this chance. However, the initial high price made my decision for me. Bowing to pressure from their fans, the Horsemen kindly dropped the price from $100 a piece to a more manageable $45. For that price, I knew I was in for at least one.
But which one? Well, that choice was easy. For an extra ten bucks, I could grab my most-wanted figure of them all: the Barbarian Builder. Loaded with accessories and weapons, the Barbarian Builder allows you to put together a cornucopia of different variations on the sword-and-sorcery theme. Plus you get the option of putting together facsimiles of Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer or Warduke, the coolest figure from the ’80s Dungeons and Dragons line. No contest.
Unfortunately, the set I received was a bare bones version without the extra accessories, coming with only a spear, a pair of helmet horns, and the bearded head. I’m not alone in this, and I have been in contact with the Horsemen, so hopefully I’ll be getting the rest of my accessories soon. What this means is that I, unfortunately, won’t be able to share all the various creations you can make when truly taking advantage of the “builder” aspect of the set.
What I can do is at least give you an early look at the figure itself, so apologies that this review can’t be as in-depth as I’d like. I can tell you that there was no disappointment having the figure in hand. Even though it’s a test shot, which came with the caveat that there might be issues with the figure that wouldn’t be present in the final “official” release, this is a sturdy, well-built figure that is a ton of fun to play with and pose.
Even without the extra weapons and accessories, this stripped-down version of the barbarian feels like a fully formed character all his own. At this point there’s no doubt that the Horsemen have mastered armor and plating and barbarian-esque details, so it’s not surprising that the sculpt work is precise and full of sharp details. With various pocks and dings sculpted in, this armor looks lived in, which makes the barbarian — and other figures that will use the shared parts — look like they’ve been through dozens of battles already. I can only imagine that the paint job will make these details stand out even more.
His beard is glorious. It’s full and thick and is braided at the end, and it looks as if woodland creatures could curl up and take a nap and he’d be none the wiser about it. I like the menacing quality of this particular head. He’s half beard, half helmet, and all badass. The helmet itself features a modular quality that would allow you to plug in different horn sets if available.
The torso does have a number of holes for things to be plugged into. They are quite large and some may be bothered with how noticeable they are
The head itself is ball-jointed for ease of removal and offers a huge range of motion only hampered by the luxurious poundage of his beard.
The torso eschews crunches or swivels but features instead a ball joint at the waist, which still allows him to have plenty of motion in all directions. He can lean back, forward, swivel side-to-side enough so that any mid-torso-articulation is truly not missed and the sculpt is preserved.
His arms feature swivel hinge “elbro-style” articulation with a full 90 degrees of bend to his arms. While I’m sure many would prefer double-jointed elbows, crowd-funded projects are usually best served keeping the number of parts low, so this decision is understandable.
He has wrist swivels and he has swivel-hinge wrists. This is my only real niggling area. A figure like this that wields swords and spears and such would really have benefited from true ball-jointed wrists. Again, this was no doubt prohibited by cost, but having purchased so many Japanese figures recently that feature ball-jointed wrists that allow swords and such to be posed in so many ways makes me wish for that here as well. As it is, there will be no sword-pointing in their future.
His hips are — well, ball-jointed isn’t totally accurate, but they function like ball joints without actual “ball shapes” like you would have found on Marvel Legends figures. These are a bit more streamlined, yet offer a ton of lateral movement only hampered by the waist piece. I’m not sure if this would be the most aesthetically sound choice without an overlay to hide them, but the motion afforded is great.
This waist piece is made of an extremely flexible plastic. It’s basically the perfect flexibility so that no leg movement suffers for it. Every plastic overlay should be this flexible.
The knees are swivel-hinge like the elbows, and they also offer a true 90 degrees.
His ankles offer the ball-jointed style that I would have wanted for the wrists. The wide range of motion you get out of his ankles, allowing for deep lunges and a whole host of posing options, really makes the loss of a similar wide range of motion in the wrists felt, but again, I’m sure hard choices had to be made in regards to pricing.
The spear was the only accessory I got with the figure, and it’s a standard spear; it fits in his hand snugly and looks great doing what a spear does. No complaints.
The barbarian scales well with other 1/12th or equivalently scaled lines.
Upon having this in hand, I immediately bought another test shot figure while they were still available because I really dig this all-gray aesthetic. I figured it would be an interesting novelty but now I can see why people would actually try to collect things like this. It’s like having a cross between an action figure and a metal statue, but for a way better price. It would be super-cool to be able to grab an entire set of all the test-shot versions for a massive, slate-gray display, but as is I’ll be happy with a couple representations. This has made me even more anxious for the official Mythic Legions figures to start shipping, even if that’s months and months away. I don’t regret taking a chance on this early figure at all, and if you’re a backer like me, then you can expect some great toys in your future.