Greetings, Fwoosh Fans! In honor of our very own 7th Kingdom Kromius going up for sale today, we wanted to bring you a quick look at the entire Court of Queen Alluxandra. Robots and Elements, and Cats, oh my! We have all eleven figures to show you and we will even point you in the right direction to order them right away. Read on for all of the details!
Fwoosh head-honcho Pablolobo and his lowlie flunkie VeeBee are going to provide a tag-team review to add a little more flavor to the article. Also, if just one of us was responsible for all eleven figures, we would have this review done just in time for Scarabus to be on sale…
Right so review time. I’ve debated how to start this review and I realize the best way is to first start about the basic figure. The female buck. As with the previous waves of the 7th Kingdom fantastic exclusives the Queen and her court all share the same basic buck with some variations. Alluxandra and Isadorra have some differences as they both share a different abdomen section. Likewise Isadorra and (Ccora) share the same arms.
The buck as whole is wonderful. I love the Four Horsemen’s take on the female form. BUT! Due to the skirt the waist and ball hips leave something to be desired. With the skirts on these figures look great in the “vanilla” pose, but the skirts kinder and kind of extreme posing. Which is too bad, cause with all the articulation on these bad girls you could get some serious posing going. I can’t help but wonder if there is a way to customize the belts so they sit higher on the hip, more v-shaped that would give more posability.
From a customizing potential the hips and waist will present a problem as the figure just doesn’t look right underneath the hood. The balls are small and the part where thigh meets ball meets hip is gappy.
I want to mention the feet. I love them. I think these are some of the best female feet sculpted to date. The have the right arch, composition, width and length. Yeah I’m starting to get a little Welshcatty but these are some seriously good looking and well functioning feet. The side to side hinge works beautifully as well as the ankle.
Overall I love the articulation. These figures have it all, bicep swivels and thigh swivels to double jointed elbows and knees to ball shoulders and hips. Hell they even got an ab crunch! YES!
But the articulation has one miss. The neck joint is iffy. There is a barbell for the neck and head to attach but there is either not enough room under the jaw or the neck is too thick to allow for any up down movement.
Regarding weapons, cool but brittle. I’ve not been having luck with the weapons, they break out of package. Some do better than others but there is no set pattern to which ones seem to survive.
Overall I love the figures. The kids like them and they are a welcome addition to my collection.
Akkuli
The Spotted Blue Cat that is an Action Figure Express Exclusive. Sadly There are a good number of cats in this wave and when paired up against the non cats, they don’t stand out as much. Since I’ve been through the basics there are 2 things to cover quickly that will adhere to Oktobria and D’Zwirra, head sculpt and foot sculpt. Loving the head sculpt, the Horsemen again knock the anthropomorphs out of the ballpark. The heads are perfect. I love the feet, the paws. Instead of just having a flat unsculpted bottom the Horsemen gave the feline ladies paws and all. Wonderful attention to detail. If heard of problems balancing the figures but I’ve yet to have a problem when posing them.
Akkuli has a Blue paint application and is one of the more interesting paint apps, she stands out on the shelf.
Raavia
At first I wasn’t sure about getting a red-colored tiger and a blue leopard, but I have to say that both pallets work rather well. Of these two though, each is made even stronger by the fact that the other is present, kind of a fire and ice thing going on. Raavia is a real hot tamale and her paint almost looks like it is glowing, so very nice props to the Horsemen for going with this stylistic choice. Raving Toy Maniac is where you will find her so go hit up Rob and Bobbie for yours, you won’t regret it.
Oktobria
The Spotted Beige Cat from October Toys. The paint application does not stand out for me. It’s beautifully designed but I think she suffers from what interior designers call the beige blues. Next to Akkuli or Alluxandra she seems to fade into the background. Perhaps the coloring is too realistic?
D’Zwirra
The True Tiger Cat from Wizard. Like Akkuli and Oktobria the sculpt is the same. But D’Zwirra has a realistic tiger paint application, beautifully done and with the orange has more “pop” on the shelf than Oktobria, but still falls short.
Personally, I really dig this scheme and I think the orange really pops. The armor colors are cool too.
Baddathiir
The first of two cleverly named cat ladies belonging to Fwoosh sponsor www.bigbadtoystore.com is the sleek black-decoed Baddathiir. Of all of the cats, yes even the red and blue, she stands out the most as she is the largest departure from the others. I am not sure how I will create the entire 7th Kingdom mythology in my head (with help from the Horsemen) but Baddy here will most certainly be the stealthy assassin cat. If I had a really professional camera I bet I could take darkened picture with no light and you would still be able to see just her eyes. Very cool.
Biggara
The other of the BBTS exclusives, Biggara is white tiger that occasionally moonlights in flamboyant Vegas shows. Not really, but she does play a great compliment to D’Zwirra and they are already teaming up on the shelf. I think it is always dangerous to do a tiger-stripe motif on an action figure as there is so much room for sloppy factory work, especially on a white base, but all of the felines turned out quite nicely.
Siliskk
The Mutant Headed Warrior from Store Horsemen. I have to admit, she one of my favorites. She bears a unique headsculpt which is standard mutant alien fare. But the thing that really makes me come back to this figure again and again is the pain application. It’s this glossy smooth paint application which really draws my eye. Plus there is this layering of color running up and down the side of her body that I keep coming back to.
Maybe I just like shiny bright things.
Ccora
Like Pabs, as fond as I am of the cat ladies, I like all of the non-cat figures the best. Ccora here is certainly in my top five (After Kromius, Silisk and Isadorra). While Kromius is an elemental, Ccora here is some manner of android/robot lady and her name is even spelled out in some futuristic computer language on the card back. She is the only lady the shares arms with Alluxandra and they work very well and look very techie. She also has one of the best overall color pallets, makes her look old and futuristic all at once. Very nice. You can catch her at Corner Store Comics.
Alluxandra
Alluxandra is the marquee figure in the series. I remember being at SDCC in ’07 and seeing the sculpt thinking I must have her. I love the design and the figure turned out pretty well. As mentioned before the skirt/hip thing prevents serious posing. But the head sculpt is excellent and the braids of hair ending in some sort of I’ll cut you to ribbon knives is kick ass.
She has a unique belt piece seperating hre from the others. The knife on the front comes out of her sheath but not the 2 knives on the back.
There is 1 issue I have with Alluxandra. The cape is really stiff and prevents some posing the with the upper body. If you can get the legs into some fighting poses I see issues with the cape not being flexible enough.
Isadorra of the Ironspynne Clan
What can I say, I am sucker for the bad girls. Thus, when I had the chance to pick up Isadorra at SDCC at the Four Horsemen’s booth, I jumped all over it. I think she is an overall better figure than he heroic counterpart. Her face sculpt and paint are spot on, and I love the sculpted scar. I think her color scheme is very nice too, she looks bad but it is not over done. Also, her costume seems much more functional than Allux’s and I like that she is sporting a little more skin. She won’t sweat as much as she is chopping up cat, elephants and cows.
Kromius
Ahh the thefwoosh.com exclusive. What can I say? Our figure kicks ass. She sports a silver paint application and and beautiful head with 3 elegant cones protruding from it. And you know what they say about silver cone headed ladies? Neither do I do, but it has to be something along “I could kick your ass and then do something nasty to you with my head.” I think she might be sexiest girl of the group. Nice feets, smooth silky silver skin, beautiful face, and that head just makes me go “mrowr”.
Sporting the same body and skirt as the cats Kromius is ready to rock and roll. Fighting off evil mutants and all sorts of baddies in the Seventh Kingdom. But having her in hand just makes me want a human male figure even more.
I just wanted to jump in and say that Kromius is my favorite overall figure as well. Duh! We picked her!
*If you haven’t done so then you need to find the article on the zine about ordering your Kromius today. Thanks for reading and our little silver ass-king lady will be finding her way to your homes soon! Also, a huge thanks to Eric, Cornboy, Jim and Chris (and Shane!) for letting us be a part of this great project again this year, you guys rule!
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