Here’s where I start to reveal just how clueless I am about Dungeons and Dragons.
I believe Narissa, who is being billed as the leader of the “Withered Branch” is what is known as a “dark Elf” or maybe even a “Drow”. I had a brief fling with D & D in college and I seem to remember digging the Drow’s as a somewhat evil race of Elves. They’re described as elves with dark skin and white hair, and that certainly seems to apply here.
What also applies is Narissa’s flirtation with evil, which is evident in her bio. The figure itself is a pretty nice one, though I’ll be the first to admit that the Stheno torso armor isn’t my favorite accessory that Boss Fight has managed to put together for their HACKS line. The colors used and the method its used for with Narissa works pretty well, giving them a more armored look than their leaf-covered counterparts, yet the armor still looks somewhat natural and organic thanks to the shapes used for Stheno back in Series One.
Like the female Orc Conqueror, Narissa has the decorative armored belt (though without the thigh armor covers) which adds a bit more flair to the figure as well. The base figure itself is essentially the same as the female Orc, with the new legs and is just as well articulated (yet also suffers from the unfortunate peg hole issues).
Like the Orc, Narissa comes with two heads, which is great because you can buy a few and swap heads around to give her a small army of dark elves to boss around. The head sculpts are both very well done, I love the sculpting of the hair and the different colors used. The white hair is cool, but I really love the shade of blue used for the other.
Accessories
Narissa comes with the two separate heads, the crossbow, bolts, quiver, two elven knives the Stheno armor, Gorgon gauntlets, and the ceremonial belt. I suspect her accessories would have packed a bit more of a punch if they hadn’t come with Cerisier first, but I still really dig the crossbow and bolts. I’ll never get tired of those cool knives either.
The leader of the Withered Branch comes lightly equipped with some smaller and easier to carry accessories so she can leap from tree to tree and do her bad ass drow stuff. I like the accessories for the most part, though as I said, I’m not a huge fan of the Stheno armor. That being said, the figure is nice. Probably not my top favorite figure or anything, but a decent one with a potential for adding a nice army of dark elves to the HACKS roster.
Narissa
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.9
Summary
Though I love the idea of the dark elves, Narissa isn’t my favorite figure to hit the HACKS display so far. She’s got the same great articulation and paint applications that we’ve become used to, though I’m not a huge fan of the Stheno armor, and she doesn’t bring a whole lot of new stuff to the table. I love the idea of the Withered Branch, and I look forward to possibly seeing more additions to it, but for whatever reason, Narissa doesn’t knock my socks off.
I still remember when I first got my hands on one of the early samples for the Felonious figure, and how completely blown away I was at the level of detail and articulation crammed into a four inch action figure, including functional soft goods. Here we are, several months later and guess what – still blown away.
The entire package here is spectacular. The head sculpt is fantastic, imbued with a great sense of character (and impressive mane). From the waist up, the base figure is just the normal male blank, with the same legs as the Knight and Orc. However, they add an additional secondary on the lower legs to make the figure stand out even more, and it works exceptionally well.
Now, generally I split out talking about the figure and the accessories, but that’s nearly impossible in this case, as the figure and accessories are so intertwined they really reflect flawlessly on each other. The greatest distinction with this figure is the use of soft goods as a magic robe, somehow using thin enough fabric to look in scale, yet durable enough to move with the motion of the figure itself. In all honesty, the soft good cloak makes the entire figure, creating a fantastic aesthetic while still being functional.
Along with the cloak there’s a nicely designed belt to hold it in place and had some places to hold various accessories that he comes with as well. He’s intricately poseable, comes with some terrific “magic casting” hands (which also hold many of his accessories in some pretty interesting ways) and looks just spectacular as is. He also offers an amazing level of customization (as so many of these figures do).
His color scheme is great, too, going with various shades of green for the cloak and tan pants, looking muted, yet still very colorful, especially against the backdrop of some other more darkly colored figures.
Felonious is probably one of the most fun, most detailed, and most thoughtfully accessorized 1:18 action figures that I’ve had the pleasure to own.
Accessories
How can I even talk about all of these awesome accessories? It’s almost impossible. I’ve already mentioned the fantastic cloak/robe and belt, but Felonious also comes with a great hood and collar which add a layer of detail to an already crammed full figure. He comes with two magic potions (which fit in a hook on the belt, and in either kind of hand), a magic book (opened and closed, which can plug into a hole on his belt), and a knife. He also comes with a gorgeous dragon-themed magic staff, a fireball, and a little pet mouse. Felonious is packed with great gear and I absolutely love it.
That’s not even getting into intricate detail about his two sets of hands, which allow for great magic casting poses as well as holding the book, holding fire, or holding a potion. Plus, if you’ve got extra Jenny magic spell accessories from the Bucky line, he can use those, too. Felonious has got it all.
I can’t think of a single way to improve this figure, really. Great articulation, flawless color pallet, and the best compliment of accessories I have ever seen. Pure beauty in plastic action figure form.
Felonious
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
5
Summary
Pure perfection in an action figure. It isn’t often that I can look at a toy, even the ones made by Boss Fight, and find not a single thing that I would have done differently. Felonious quite simply does it all. From the sculpt of his head, to his magic casting hands, to his soft goods robe, to the huge assortment of terrific and varied accessories, this mage is truly spectacular and an immediate highlight of my action figure collection. GET THIS ONE.
I’ve already gone on and on about how fantastic the Vitruvian HACKS Knight of Accord is, and honestly the base figure is the same here so this figure has all of the same awesome qualities. It’s like a perfect blend of the Orc Conqueror and the Knight of Accord with just the right twist of Skeleton. How can you ask for more?
As I mentioned, the base figure is the same as the Knight of Accord, with the layered armor torso and arms, and the cloth legs, only this figure is more muted in straight black and darker wash, making for a more “evil” appearance. The colors overall are nicely different from the Knight, making him a darker, more malevolent version of the first release, which makes sense given their back story as Knights who were somehow corrupted by the Blasted Lands.
He comes with two heads, one of the same heads from the Knight of Accord, and a newly sculpted and tooled skeleton head. This is not the same skeleton head that comes on the standard skeleton figures, but a whole new head that looks really fantastic. It’s crammed with so much detail and such awesome paint work and adds a wealth of character to an already amazing looking figure.
As mentioned above, while the base is the same as the hero Knight figure, this version comes with the Orc’s spiked shoulder pads and dragon themed helmet, again giving him a more evil aesthetic. His colors are overall more muted, but still look really nice, and he’s got an arsenal of particularly nasty looking weapons.
Accessories
Many of the accessories the Knight of Asperity comes with are the same as the Knight of Accord. He’s got the belt, the cloth, the thigh armor, shin armor and gauntlets. The shield is the same, and even one helmet and faceplate are the same as well. The Knight of Asperity has a different axe with a much more dragon theme (that looks incredible, like an awesome, evil dragon spreading its wings) and the sword and sheath are slightly different as well. The Knight of Asperity also has the Orc Conqueror helmet and shoulder pads as mentioned, just to give him an even nastier twist. All of the combined new accessories add some great flavor to the same base figure, and ramp up the nastiness required.
The Knight of Asperity really is another terrific figure from the Vitruvian HACKS line. The greatness of the Knight of Accord blended with the sinister rage of the Orc Conqueror gives you this perfect combination. Great for building your army of darkness.
Knights of Asperity
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
5
Summary
True brutality. The nearly flawless base figure from the Knights of Accord combined with some of the simmering rage of the Orc Conqueror and you have one awesome looking evil knight corrupted by sinister magic. This figure is spectacular. Impressive articulation as we’re accustomed to, a great, muted paint scheme, and an amazing arsenal of new and existing accessories give us one gorgeous new figure for the Vitruvian HACKS line and the perfect foil for the Accord.
I’ve had this wonderful book in my grubby hands for a very long time, and shame on me for not reviewing it before now, because anyone who is a fan of Vitruvian HACKS needs to check this book out.
Total HACKS is a fantastic creation by the brainchildren of Brian Hickey and Paddy Lennon who worked on a similar book for G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Paddy is also the one writing the bios for the Vitruvian HACKS characters on the packaging, so he is certainly fully immersed in the universe.
Brian also does the design work on the Bucky O’Hare packaging, so you can believe his eye for design and production is second to none.
Check out my review of the Total HACKS book right here, and from now until December 31st, this book is only $19.99 at BossFightShop.com. You DON’T want to miss out. It’s great.
Over the past few years there has been a propensity of books being funded and sold throughout the online fandom, many of them being done through Kickstarter. Brian Hickey and Paddy Lennon (who frequently appear on the always entertaining Full Force Podcast) went another route, producing the book entirely out of pocket for sale directly to collectors.
Their work on Total Retaliation, covering the G.I. Joe: Retaliation action figure line was fantastic, and their look at (most of) Series 01 of Vitruvian HACKS is equally spectacular. Actually, moreso in many ways.
Total HACKS is an almost 100 page coffee table book crammed full with action figure profiles, fantastic diorama shots and short fiction stories interwoven within the universe of HACKS. It truly is a magnificent book from many different perspectives.
The action figure profiles have great images of each figure (up through Series 01 Wave 6) as well as the Skeletons, with many really fun diorama images worked in along the way. See really awesome battle sequences, interesting connectivity with other toy lines and some fantastic conversation pieces.
Taking all of that, you then get exposure to the wider Vitruvian HACKS universe with the great short stories by Paddy Lennon mixed within the other elements. Paddy is also the one writing the bio’s on the action figure packages, so he certainly is immersed in the HACKS universe and is the perfect choice to be telling these stories.
If you haven’t checked this book out yet, you really need to. It’s at a discounted price at BossFightShop.com through December 31st, and it’s worth every single penny. The quicker they sell through Total HACKS volume 1, the quicker we can get volume 2 rolling and I’m pretty fired up to see what they come up with for that.
It’s great stuff. During this awesome month-long series of sales at BossFightShop.com you need to just toss it in your cart and prepare to find new ways to love Vitruvian HACKS.
