It’s like some kind of medieval hellhound. Sold!
Continuing a trend of providing cool designs that I have not as of yet had in my collection comes the Fortnite Molten Battle Hound, whose name alone suggests something that, sight unseen, I would want to buy. That the design itself is married perfectly to the name makes this another winner.
If it feels like I gush over these Fortnite figures in these reviews, it’s because I have been consistently astonished at how much fun I’m having with a property so divorced from my main lines of interest.
Molten Battle Hound has what appears to be a metal doggie head that you would find as decoration in some grand Castle where a dog king looms over his panting subjects. Except this metal doggie head is spouting fire from it’s mouth and the top of its head. This plays well into my strange niche fetish-love of heads with flames coming out of them. I want to see the movie based on the toy based on the game.
MBH is another well sculpted figure with a surprising amount of new tooling. There has been some reuse here and there but Jazwares has been unafraid to throw major tooling at so many of these figures which means those other designs that are unfriendly to reuse—figures like Peely, a figure I don’t have yet—are not cost-prohibitive.
Everything about the figure is sharp, from the sculpting to the paint especially in the flamey gradient used on the chest sigil. The eyes are piercing. Like with all of them there are some elements here and there—mainly smaller details—that aren’t painted, but the major notes have all been hit, so there’s silver anointing the buckles and major details that really stand out. It’s all well-balanced.
Articulation is, again, very standard, with the ritual double-jointed elbows and knees, hinged wrists and so forth. This figure again has a skirt piece that inhibits some of the outward flair of his leg poseability, but it’s not too bad and once again the plastic is flexible enough so that he has no trouble putting his legs forward as needed.
This is yet another figure with a nice amount of accessories. He comes with a submachine gun, a machine gun—both with a slight cartoony stylization–and an antique-looking pistol. It looks a little like a dueling pistol. I guess even flaming dogs have to defend their honor at some point. Better than peeing on the carpet. I have to mention again that the articulated fingers are not the most cooperative with holding things, but I don’t think that’s a thing that’s going to be changing. I will keep bringing it up in reviews, though, because it’s the one (and possibly only)major area that bothers me.
Like all of them, he also comes with a melee weapon, this time an ornate hammer-axe-staff looking thingie. The melee weapons are always the easiest for them all to hold. He comes with a first aid kit that I’ll assume is his in-game health rejuvenator. I figured that out using science. There’s also the standard backpack piece, which is a little cape thing with a crest-like emblem on it, again with a nice flame-colored gradient. And finally he comes with…a piece of the Dark Crystal? Is he a fan of that movie also? I’m sure this means something in game. It’s a cool little thing either way.
If you’re a fan of this line and have been collecting these figures, then you know what to expect, because there has been a very strong cohesion among the figures. They all get the same basic range of motion, they all get a lot of range in the torso, they’re all very sturdy and feel very much like they could be hit with a baseball bat through the neighbors window and come out unscarred. But don’t do that, because Mr. Autumnbottom is a cranky old guy who will keep your toys and put them on ebay.
Another well-done figure in my growing Fortnite collection.
