Happy Monday and I’m adding to the review queue today with a three pack of reviews for the Vitruvian Basics line from Boss Fight Studio! Designed as a less expensive alternative to facilitate army building and customizing, these Basics figures also manage to add some fantastic depth to the mythology and integrate real nicely with the Character Creator Kits as well.
Check out these three reviews at the Vitruvian Basics Review Page or click the links directly below. Also don’t forget that the VitruvianFACTS Wiki Page is out there, too for some more great detail on this fantastic toy line!
For the first time ever, Boss Fight Studio is mixing series within a single assortment, giving us fantasy figures and Greek mythology figures both in wave 1 of the Basics line. I’m really glad they did.
Alongside the Castle Guard and Nocturnal Hunter, they released the Archer of Molpadia, an Amazonian archer to further compliment your already impressive Amazon armies. To be honest, my love for the Amazon figures in the HACKS Series 01 line was completely unexpected, but that whole range of characters and figures are among my favorites in the entire line. From the unique armor to the leather combat skirts, the various weapons, and the character sculpted into each one, I really enjoy the Amazon figures and I’m truly excited to see an addition to their ranks.
With the Archer of Molpadia, they’ve added some long range weaponry capacity to an already excellent group of warriors and made a really terrific figure to go along with it. This archer uses the same female build as other figures, but with the head of the Tartarus Guard painted in Caucasian flesh tone with nicely hued blonde hair. Instead of the standard Amazon armor, she wears Medusa’s torso, shoulder, and arm bracers, which is an awesome, unique look.
To trim down on costs, she doesn’t have a ton of accessories, but the ones she has make perfect sense and work exceptionally well for the character. Her paint scheme is also minimal, with simple gold on the armor and weapons, and a red/brown leather for the skirt, which compliment each other to perfection.
All told, the Archer of Molpadia is a fantastic addition, even moreso when you consider the Basics format pricing and packaging.
Accessories
As mentioned the Archer of Molpadia comes with Medusa’s armor, an Amazon skirt, leg armor, a bow and four arrows. The bow that originally came with the Elven Archer works exceptionally well here, and the way the four arrows slide seamlessly into the hook on the back of the skirt is a stroke of genius.
A great, great figure, even if it wasn’t priced 20% less than the standard release options. I love the Archer of Molpadia and really look forward to more great Vitruvian Basics figures along the way.
Archer of Molpadia
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4
Summary
Even at the Basics price point, the Archer of Molpadia is near perfection. Fantastic sculpting and articulation using the default female buck with a truly original and intriguing accessory compliment to help her stand out from her sisters. Great, great figure.
Quickly becoming one of my favorite 4″ action figures ever, Boss Fight Studios Knight of Accord has a lot to love in a small scale. While the beauty of the figure includes all of the separate accessories it comes with, the base figure itself also has a lot to love with the terrific armored torso and cloth covered limbs.
When Boss Fight announced they’d be dipping their toes into lower priced Vitruvian BASICS figures with the idea of creating figures that are a bit more appealing from a price perspective, I wasn’t sure I’d be into them. I mean, the paint deco and accessory compliments are part of what makes their figures great. I should have known, they’re still able to make a figure that is impressive on several levels, even at a price point 20% cheaper than standard.
The Accord Castle Guard uses the same torso, head, legs, hands, and lower arms as the standard Knight, but with new unarmored upper arms. He also comes with less accessories, only including a cloth and armored belts, gauntlets, sword, spear and helmet. Honestly, though even with a somewhat smaller selection of weapons, the figure is amazingly enjoyable and fits in almost seamlessly to the existing Accord roster. Forgoing many of the elaborate paint applications, the Castle Guard simply is silver and black with some blue for the cloth. It’s a gorgeous, clean look and even without all the trimming and trappings, he remains a fantastic figure. Boss Fight used the Orc lower torso as well, which provides a somewhat lower tech look, making the Castle Guard really resemble a Knight that’s not so heavily “geared” up as the others.
It truly is a great effect, and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on a whole lot, even though we’re paying 20% less for the figure overall. For some folks they may consider the additional gear worth the 20%, but even looking beyond the Castle Guard being a replacement of the knight, it just makes for a fantastic enhancement to it, and I find myself really enjoying the figure, not because it’s cheaper, but just because it’s a great figure.
These Basics come with simpler blister cards instead of the typical collector friendly packaging, but are also able to include a nice bio on the back regardless. All in all, I truly enjoy these Castle Guard figures, with vibrant color schemes, and interesting accessories to perfectly compliment the existing crew of Knights of the Accord.
Accessories
I really love what Boss Fight did here, giving the Castle Guard just enough accessories to fit in with the knights, without going overboard (and incurring rising costs). Including the helmet, sword, and spear from Series 01 was a stroke of genius as well, accenting the already impressive arsenal of Series 02 weapons without new tooling or sculpting. Very nice.
The Castle Guard is a lot of fun, even for a so called “budget” friendly figure. I can see him not only being perfect for troop building and customizing, but also just as natural enhancements to the standard knights. Regardless of the price point, the figure is really great.
Castle Guard
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.8
Summary
What a great compliment to the existing Knights of Accord! This relatively simple, but excellently crafted Castle Guard checks off all the right boxes and manages to come in 20% less cost-wise than the other HACKS figures, making for a great way to customize, troop build, or just bolster your existing Accord forces. Vibrant colors, great gear, and an all around fun figure.
When the Vitruvian BASICS were first revealed, I immediately fell in love with the Castle Guard and the Archer of Molpadia, but the Nocturnal Hunter didn’t really knock my socks off. I was a huge fan of the Orcs being these huge behemoths in spiked shoulder pads and massive armor, so seeing one in his skivvies (more or less) felt a little off.
Now that I’ve got him in hand?
Yeah, I didn’t know what I was talking about. This figure is much more fun than I gave it credit for.
The idea that the Nocturnal Hunter is somewhat more savage, uncivilized Orc that stalks its pray at night is a great concept and suits the figure well, for being relatively unprotected. At the same time, Boss Fight gives us enough of a template to build from if you so desire, with the armored torso, the fur belt and the Orc sword. That’s the balance of the Basics figures right there – they want to give us figures that add to the mythology, while also giving us figures to act as foundations for customs. The Nocturnal Hunter achieves both of these goals swimmingly.
The beauty of it is, with the new Character Creator Kits as well, it becomes even easier to take a figure like this and enhance it, adding shoulder pads, armor, and other things, taking one of these Nocturnal Hunters and making it an awesome, fully equipped Orc warrior. Or you can be like me, and fall in love with the concept so much that you just end up with a few nekkid Orc’s to add to your already large horde.
One thing that really separates this figure, too, is the paint scheme. The different variations of green skin color inject some additional personality into any Orc horde, and I love what looks to be the manually applied “warpaint”. The different colors applied throughout the skin go a long way towards isolating this figure as something apart from the other Orcs with a great sense of savagery and style.
Accessories
Like the other Basics, the Nocturnal Hunter is somewhat bare bones as designed. He’s got the Orc fur belt, the Orc sword and the tooth necklace that is destined to be released with the Naga in the future (at least by all appearances). Just enough accessories to keep him valuable, but not enough to drive the price up. A great balance, all told.
This figure is a lot more fun than I initially thought, and it makes for a great addition to the Basics line. I find myself really looking forward to seeing what they do next.
Nocturnal Hunter
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.8
Summary
A surprisingly fun and effective addition to the Orc army, the Nocturnal Hunter offers great customizability options as well as a flat out cool new character for the non-customizers. I’d argue it’s the perfect balance – cheaper cost, great figure, excellent base for customs. It accomplishes pretty much everything.
Imagine my surprise last week when I opened a box from BossFightShop.com (I swear I’m getting one of these a week) and contained within were early samples from the upcoming Series 02 Wave 03 Fantasy figures!
After doing a few rounds of cartwheels around the house, I added them to the VitruvianFACTS Database, and then set to taking pictures for review, which I have to say was a pure and utter joy. As usual, these figures are fantastic and reviewing them is some of the best quality time I spent with my toy collection these days. The fact that folks I consider close friends are capable of this level of craftsmanship and design is something I still struggle to get my head around, and I’m someone with a creative streak myself.
These figures are still on pre-order, and initial orders should be arriving shortly, so if you want to make sure you get yours, hop over to BossFightShop.com and throw down a pre-order. Then while you wait, read my reviews at my Vitruvian HACKS review page, or click the direct links below.
Initially developed as a New Jersey Collectors’ Con exclusive the concept of the “Blasted Land Orc” quickly found it’s foothold within the mythology of the Vitruvian HACKS universe, becoming a critical piece of its history. It made sense once we saw that a female Orc Conqueror was being released that a Blasted Land version wouldn’t be too far behind.
Boss Fight utilized the same formula for this rendition of their female Orc as the standard Orc Conqueror, using great newly tooled female waist and legs, and incorporating a nice amount of Medusa armor from their Greek Mythology series. The Blasted Land Orc also comes with two separate heads, an uncovered head, and a head shielded with a bone helmet (awesome!).
As with every single one of their female figures, the articulation and stability of the female Orcs is astounding. I’m consistently surprised that they can sculpt and produce a figure as slim as this, with removable parts that all work, and retains an amazing amount of articulation. These are some of their greatest figures. I do have to mention that this figure does carry forward the issue of the smaller feet fitting on the foot pegs as well as the males, though. I’m not sure if there are any fixes for that in the works going forward, but most of my female figures have issues staying on the stands, which can be a bit frustrating as the display grows and I find myself picking them up off the shelf more often than their male counterparts.
As with the Orc Conqueror, the sculpting of this figure is terrific, and I really love the bone covering on the face, it adds an amazing level of detail. The paint applications all around are spectacular. This female version of the Blasted Land Orc is a slightly different shade of brown/red as the standard Orc is a different shade of green, and that change does make sense.
If I had any questions or complaints about the color pallets, I wish they had stayed a bit more consistent with their male counterparts. The male Orc Conqueror has a silver brushed metal look to his armor, while the Blasted Land Orc has a gold or bronze brushed metal look. The female versions, first of all, are not brushed metal, but are a very shiny, regal looking metal (which I figure is a representation of their higher stature in the Orc hierarchy) but the armor colors are swapped. The standard Orc Conqueror has a gold/bronze color pallet and the Blasted Land Orc has the silver/metal look. I’m not sure if there was a particular reason why those color schemes were shifted compared to the Males, but I think I’d like it better if they remained consistent. Of course the beautiful thing about the HACKS figures, is you can easily swap them around yourself!
Along these same lines, I still find the belt to be a little over ceremonial compared to the male Orc, though again, I suspect this is due to the rank and place of the female in the caste system.
Overall, the figure is fantastic. I had a bit of a tough time getting too excited considering its a relatively straight repaint of a figure we got in Wave 2, but even a repaint from Boss Fight brings me more joy than many other brand new figures from other brands.
Accessories
The Blasted Land Orc comes with most of the same accessories as the Orc Conqueror, only she also comes with the obsidian colored sword, which I love. I’m so glad they included that along with making the knife the darker black color as well. I find that color scheme really, really appealing and I’m psyched they retained that from the male.
She’s got a full compliment of the Medusa armor from the shoulder to the chest to both sides of arm bracers, with the belt and thigh armor from the previous female Orc. She’s got the trusty wooden shield, club, knife, and the aforementioned sword. All in all, a very robust and aggressive arsenal of weaponry!
The female Blasted Land Orc is truly a great figure, though one I’m not over the moon about simply because of the recent release of the green version. However, as usual, Paddy strings together an intriguing story, and considering how major a player the Blasted Lands are turning out to be, any time we get a figure that dovetails with that story line is a good time.
Blasted Land Orc
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.8
Summary
Every single figure that Boss Fight Studio produces has a level of excellence that’s difficult to find fault with, but ultimately the score depends on how exciting a figure or character is. The Female Blasted Land Orc is a gorgeous figure with a really rich skin tone, terrific accessories, and as excellent a level of articulation as one would expect. She’s not my favorite figure in this assortment because I think I feel like she brings the least “new” elements to the table, but she is built of really terrific design aesthetics and has a fascinating backstory. She’s a great figure, however compared to the rest of Wave 3, probably falls near the bottom of the list.
