Gryshaa the Slytherer

One of the first figures that jumped out to me when the Four Horsemen unveiled their 2017 Advent of Decay Kickstarter was this strikingly colored red and purple affair, with a peculiar blue helm. I really wasn't sure what to make of them, but couldn't deny that I was constantly returning to look at them frequently; and the more I did the more I grew entranced by them. Thus, this ruddy treat here came home with me. One of the great strengths of Mythic Legions for me is how "use your own imagination" it is. The character designs are so rich that they tell their own tales and inspire one to create their own, ahem, mythology (which helps bolster personal connection with, and therefore fandom for, the line). But I understand that some people like or need more explicit-ness from the things they collect, so for those folks here is the bio the Horsemen provide (printed in the tiniest print possible, on the side blister insert): Seldom seen, rarely heard and never touched, some question the very existence of Gryshaa The Slytherer. If they could still say anything at all, the victims that have met Gryshaa in their last moments would confirm that Gryshaa is more than a tall tale. A high-ranking member of Skapular the Cryptbreaker's Sons of the Red Star, this stealthy and deadly assassin has the uncanny ability to seemingly appear out of thin air and a penchant for razor sharp blades of all shapes and sizes. With so little known about this dangerous enigma, one can only be sure that if Gryshaa The Slytherer is hunting you, your days will be short. This figure uses parts from the all-new-for-the-Kickstarter 2.0 MyLe body - one that is slimmer and a shorter that the original body type. Predominately to allow for female figures, they did make some torso parts, as seen here, which, for the most part, let them use the tooling for more traditionally male characters. There is something about the summation of all the parts of this figure, though, that reads androgynous to me, so I prefer to think of this figure as a woman, or AFAB person (though admittedly part of that is because I very much imagined the un-helmeted head that came with Delphina being a great match for this armor). Part of the chest sculpt is a large central circle, which is probably the weakest design choice for with this sculpt as it seems so singular. The circle becomes such a focal point that it becomes distracting that all these cultures and characters have the same generic "icon" on their armor (like, if Batman, Superman, Darkseid, Mr Freeze, etc. all had identical emblems on their chests). I was half surprised to find it's a permanent piece of the tooling and not something they could swap out for the different armies. That said, though, I think it works the best here out of all the figures with it. Something about the color combinations and implicit "lone wolf" vibe of this character just helps it "click" here. The armor is, obviously, a slightly-gray red; though oddly the arms, shoulder pads, and thighs are a shiny metallic red while the torso and helmet are flat red. Maybe the intent is the torso armor is leather rather than metal? Overall, the mix of finishes isn't too bad (it's just subtly awry). The forearm bracers and knee/calf armor are purple (again a mix of metallic and flat finishes) on the "armored" sides, then flat dark brown on the "inner/​rear" sides for the leathery bits. The "skirt" flaps on the sides and loin are the pleated sculpt and purple as well. Throughout there is a lot of great gold and silver detailing that really pops and adds a lot of depth to the sculpt. Articulation is thorough, as we expect from Mythic Legions, with some 20 points by my count (though yours my vary based on our personal opinions of what may count as one point or two). The star of this figure is the helmet though, and what a unique thing it is... two very distinct halves that both seem incongruous to one another, yet perfectly complimentary. The bottom red half has a very Gladiator-meets-Boba-Fett-meets-Magento vibe to its "face." That, combined with a lot of other sculptural flourishes, places it squarely in the "fantasy" camp of the line. It also features a host of scalloping, with all sides swooping out, which still allows for a nice range of posing. The top half, though, is the big eye-catcher with its metallic blue color and twisted onion dome sculpt. It feels soooooo out of place in the line, yet somehow kind of quite attractive...? It sort of feels like someone learning digital sculpting figured out how to do this and was too pleased with it to cut it in favor of something more aesthetically in-line. It also gives and odd real-world connection by immediately calling to mind the famous onion domes of Russian architecture, though also I get distinct middle/near-east vibes from the figure overall as well. I don't know - "it's strange, but I like it." Thanks to the well-above-expectations success of the Kickstarter campaign, the Horsemen plussed up the accessory count for each figure, and this one ended up with three swords, a spear shaft with halberd head, the classic belt/loop thing and two different back-mounts. The back-mounts plug into that rectangular slot on the figures' backs and each has two circular plugs - one mount had wider diameter holes while the other has smaller diameter ones. I thought the smaller-holed one was meant to fit the wings from the Raven figures but these pegholes are too small for the wing pegs I have, so who knows. The larger diameter ones do fit the new "demon" wings though (after some forceful pushing). Likely inspired by the suffix to the figure's name (the spelling of "Slytherer" conjures scythes in the mind) we get all of the curved (single-handed) swords yet available in the line: the Orc Sword from the original series along with the new-for-this-series Scimitar (with copper handle) and Kopesh (with gold and blue handle). I'm quite pleased to get the whole lot, though I do I kind of wish they'd omitted one for a second of either the Scimitar or Kopesh; something about this figure screams "dual identical weapons." The shoulder pads on all Mythic Legions figures are removable, so I suppose those officially count as accessories (though we'd argue they're in a gray area between "accessory" and "figure"). Lastly, and certainly least, we get a cloth cape. These Mythic Legions capes are infamously impossible to make sense of. Ultimately, I did figure out a "good enough" way to get it on (essentially doubling up the holes on to the shoulder pad pins, then precariously trying to get both plugged in before the cape popped off one of them - no easy feat). It renders the cape effectively a character-less rectangle only the width of the figure, but's the most logical way I could manage to get it on cleanly. Now though, a few years later, I'll confess I'm not as annoyed by the cape as I was that fateful night. But, since I love you, dear reader, I've dared to remove in order to more properly photograph this toy. I really, really dig this figure. They have a cool singular vibe to it among all of Mythic Legions and the bright, colorful armor is a real delight (I really wish they'd do more colorful armor like the excellent Jorund Runeshaper or still-best-in-show Vorgus Vermillius). I look forward to having them battle and/or be master of Kalizirr the Djinn once he's released! -- 02/12/23

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