Right alongside the release of Wave 1 of the Fantasy series we already have our first convention exclusive, this one for the New Jersey Collectors Convention which occurred the weekend of August 11th – 12th in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Branded as a Boss Fight weekend celebration of sorts (also celebrating the release of Series 2), this year’s fall NJCC was a great time and offered a fantastic addition to the Fantasy series.
The Orc Conqueror is already a great figure, and this NJCC exclusive adds some intriguing twists. With a very deep red skin, darker brown secondaries and a bronze/gold trim instead of silver/gray. The result is a figure that is considerably different in appearance, yet maintaining all the cool features of the standard Orc Conqueror.
Inhabiting the “blasted land” this variation of Orcs are even meaner and less hospitable than their more standard green-skinned cousins. Just in their darker paint scheme, these figures look more sinister, and I really love the deep color of their skin complimented by the gold trim of the armor and other additions.
The Blasted Land Orc has the two different heads, two different helmets, and two different face plates just like the conqueror, plus all of the fantastic accessories that the standard release comes equipped with as well.
Accessories
But wait there’s more! In addition to the standard hammer head that comes with the Orc Conqueror, we get a look into the customizing possibilities of these weapons with a spiked mace end that can replace the hammer and create a whole different weapon. I’d have to think there is more where this came from down the line, but it’s great to get an early introduction to it here.
Along with the spiked made, the Blasted Land Orc has a gorgeous sword, a dark blade carved from volcanic rock that is shined to a nice polish more resembling pure obsidian. The look of the dark gleam of the blade is really unique and really awesome.
All of the same great gear as the Orc Conqueror, but in a deeper color scheme with some really awesome complimenting of the dark red skin of the Orc. This is one heck of a great addition to your already growing Orc army and with an intriguing backstory makes for a fantastic NJCC exclusive. Here’s hoping there are more surprise exclusives in store down the road.
Blasted Land Orc
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.5
Summary
While overall I probably prefer the color scheme of the standard Orc Conqueror, this figure is still a fantastic compliment to that one in pretty much every way. All of the same accessories and gear (with bonus spiked ball) and a really appealing darkened color pallet gives the Blasted Land Orc some nice variation and a nice evolution on the Orc theme. A great addition to the evil ranks of the Orcs in the HACKS fantasy universe.
That didn’t take long! The organizers of the New Jersey Collectors Convention have officially put their remaining stock of the exclusive Vitruvian HACKS Blasted Land Orc on eBay!
Folks who were not able to make the show can now buy their own directly from the show runner on eBay right now. Same price.
When it was announced that the New Jersey Collectors Con would be billed as a “Boss Fight Launch Party” I pretty much knew I had to be there. Seven hours of driving, through some of the nastiest traffic on the Eastern seaboard on Friday… and it didn’t let me down. Not a single bit. The entire weekend was everything it was billed as and more with fantastic toys, excellent friends, and two action-packed days of action figure overload. Who could ask for more?
Boss Fight Studio was in attendance and brought a bunch of cool surprises, and many of the items shown are up for pre-order on BossFightShop.com!
First and foremost, they debuted some new figures:
Series 02 – Wave 3
Lord Vehemous (Dark Mage)
Aspen (Spring Elf)
Blasted Land Female Orc
Lance Steelblade (King and commander of the Knights of Accord)
These four figures will be a part of the third wave of Series 02 figures from the fantasy line, using a mixture of existing and new tooling and all of them come with secondary head sculpts!
Bucky O’Hare Wave 2
Stealth Bucky
Astral Projection Jenny
Deadeye Duck
Along with the three figures slated for Wave 2, we got a shadowed peek at a potential release of the Storm Toad Trooper, currently penciled in for Spring, 2018! Larry Hama will also be writing brand new bio cards for these figures, the first time Bucky fiction will be developed and written in many, many years.
Vitruvian HACKS Upcoming Release (specific assortment not revealed)
Cerisier
Horse
Cerisier was also called the “Cherry Blossom Elf” and “Sakura Branch Elf” and is slated for an upcoming release, though the means and the method for that release were not made immediately clear. A female Gargoyle figure was also shown during the Boss Fight presentation, though her specific assortment was not shared either. At this point, the Horse pictured with the deluxe accessory kits is a proof of concept, but they’re not sure exactly how that particular item will make it to collectors’ hands.
Series 02 Wave 04 (Concept Art Only)
Gargoyle
Twylla (Faerie)
Naga
Barbarian
During their presentation on upcoming product, Boss Fight revealed their line up for the fourth wave of Series 02 figures, including those four figures above. I apologize about the quality of the image above, we are working to get access to something with a bit better quality.
Series 03 Space Figures (Concept Art Only)
Stonefist
Kinsey London
Empress Medusa
Cyber Medic
Sniper Droid
Will McCloud
Antrox Trooper
A’Vast Ye
Cyber Police
Slated for release after the Series 02 fantasy figures, the third series of Vitruvian HACKS will feature space themed figures and those figures look great! Stonefist will make an appearance in the third series as well as Medusa (well her head anyway) and a wealth of other cool looking robots and pulpy space troopers. Good stuff.
Deluxe Accessory Kits
Gladiator Male
Gladiator Female
These two accessory kits include fully painted and decoed accessories as well as a full arm that can be swapped out to give a great armored look. There are more of these deluxe accessory kits in the planning stages, so more to come here!
Boss Fight also had physical samples of Series 02 Wave 2 and their upcoming Mini-Kits, both of which continue to look absolutely incredible!
But that wasn’t all…
Diorama
And of course the immeasurable Dave Proctor built a full blown castle diorama for display and this thing was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. It had to truly be seen to be believed, a mammoth building with awesome figures, both straight releases and customs really showing the immense versatility of the line.
It was such an amazing weekend with visual overload and so much great stuff to see. If you love what you see as much as I did, make sure you are showing that love over at BossFightShop.com by pre-ordering their product!
A great late summer present as Boss Fight Studio launches their second series of Vitruvian HACKS introducing us to their world of Fantasy!
Check out my Vitruvian HACKS Review Page or just link to the reviews directly below. Believe me, these figures are just as amazing as you expected them to be.
This is one bad ass looking fairy. Though it looks like the proper terminology here is faerie. I’m not sure of the difference from my perspective (to be honest, when I started GeneralsJoes.com I don’t think I ever envisioned myself reviewing an action figure of a fairy or faerie or anything in between) but I know a great action figure when I see it.
As a Cavern Faerie, Lacuna’s obvious trademark are her wings, looking much more bat-like than the insect wings what I’m familiar with when it comes to faeries, but honestly, that’s totally cool with me. It makes perfect sense as well, with Lacuna being a “cavern” faerie that her wings should be more adaptable to creatures who live in caves.
Lacuna is the first figure to feature this new rear torso piece for the HACKS line which has twin ports for her wings (and additional arms!). That’s right, the plugs for the wings are the same as the plugs for the female arms, so not only can you tweak Lacuna to have four arms, but you can also make her more like a “harpy” by giving her wings instead of arms. As one would expect with the HACKS line, they are always pushing their limits.
The majority of the figure uses the familiar female blank template (except for the back of to the torso) and that suits me just fine. In all of our experience with female figures throughout Series 1, it’s certainly clear that the base figure there is pretty great and can be used for countless different figures, apparently even including cavern faeries.
Lacuna’s head sculpt is pretty fascinating, with a huge, meandering hair style and a pair of goggles (apparently developed by dwarves to help filter her vision in sunlight). Apparently driven from her caves by a mysterious skeleton attack, Lacuna now finds herself up among the other denizens of this fantasy world, and she doesn’t seem especially pleased about that fact.
As I mentioned, she has ports in her back for wings, and she comes with two different sets of wings, one closed and one open, which is a nice touch. Each wing has a nice multi-joint peg as well, so they can be posed in either formation, making for a wealth of opportunities for cool displays. Lacuna’s skin color is a nice gray/blue which seems to fit with her cavern lifestyle in great ways. She is an intriguing looking figure and even as a faerie doesn’t follow many of the traditional call outs, definitely going her own way as so many Boss Fight designs tend to do.
Accessories
The first thing you’ll notice about both Lacuna and Aiyana is that neither of them come with as many accessories as the Knight or Orc, but honestly, I don’t feel like they have to. Lacuna’s wings are large enough to make up for it, and as a faerie she travels pretty light anyway. Along with the wings, she comes with a fantastic looking scythe made from what looks like a tree branch and some kind of cave grown crystals that are cast in translucent colors that look spectacular. Her other weapon is a scepter, a magic device that enables her to be a “lightcaster” which is a really awesome story element added to the character. She can hold the weapons very well and their designs are exceptional.
Lacuna is a great figure built around an increasingly interesting character. I don’t know a whole lot about the whole faerie race from fantasy stories, but Lacuna seems like an interesting evolution to the typical narrative and fits the concept perfectly.
Lacuna
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.7
Summary
Gray skinned and bat winged, Lacuna immediately brings up some awesome imagery and story ideas for the fantasy series, taking the concept of faeries and adding some really awesome twists to it. Boss Fight continues to do a great job taking existing tooling and evolving it with torso pieces supporting wings, and many other great additions to their already excellent core concept.
