Storm Collectibles makes a lot of beautiful figures that I’ve been content to admire from afar through friends’ pictures and SDCC booth visits, but the Golden Axe line finally got me off the bench and make a purchase. Today we’re going to take a look at an excellent two-pack of super-articulated skeleton figures as seen in the video game Golden Axe.
The box is good with a nice big figure window, a cool skeleton wallpaper background and vivid Golden Axe logos.
The set comes with two fully-articulated skeleton figures, two shields, two swords and two sets of five hands (fists, grips, pointer, claw, and open).
The shields have a metallic finish and a skeleton logo on the front. The grip and loop on the inside are situated differently on each shield, so that in order to have both shield logos facing right side up, the skeletons need to hold the shields in different hands.
The swords are both the same and have a nice metallic paint on the blade and the handles and the skeleton grip hands work really well and holding the weapons.
The hands are made of a fairly soft plastic and swap fairly easily and stay on securely.
The hands are made of a fairly soft plastic and swap fairly easily and stay on securely. The grips work well on the sword, but are a little fiddly to get holding the shield. The pointers work well for, well, pointing, but can also hold guns.
The claws are perfect for that zombie skeleton posing and the fists and open hands look good too.
The sculpting on the skeleton is pretty great. I’m no anatomy expert, but it looks exactly how you want a skeleton to look. The overall impression is very similar to the Harryhausen skeletons from the Sinbad films, which is good because I seemed to have misplaced my revoltech Harryhausen skeleton. The figures are pretty lightweight overall.
The articulation is pretty great and is based around floating swivel/hinge joints, meaning the ball-shaped hinge swivels on both ends. The swivel hinges are at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, mid-torso, waist, hips, knees, and wrists. The head itself is ball and socket and the hips have a ball and socket connection that is attached like a barbell to a hinge. The toes hinge and the jaw hinges open. The joints are pretty tight for the most part, but I do have one slightly loose shoulder hinge.
The figure moves great, though the looking up is somewhat limited. The paint is more complicated than you might expect with a subtle wash and dry brush to bring out the crustiness of the skeleton.
I have a bit of a fascination with skeleton figures and will buy most that I see within the six inch scale range. This figure is seven inches, so more suited for the larger Storm Collectibles figures or maybe NECA stuff than Marvel Legends, but it’s somewhat fudgeable with MOTUC and Mythic Legions.
At $60 for two figures, the set feels like a steal compared to my Revoltech skeletons and while a little bit pricey, they are probably the best super-articulated skeleton figure I’ve seen on the market at this size.
