Opor-A-Tiv83

Time for something new. Something of a mystery even among other members of the Bleeder's Guild, Opor-A-Tiv83 uses advanced illusion technology to alter his appearance, voice, and mannerisms. This technology allows him to infiltrate even the most secure locations in his efforts to gather intelligence for the Bleeder's Guild. Opor-A-Tiv83's most recent mission brought him to an undisclosed T.U.5.C.C. facility. Donning a suit of T.U.5.C.C. armor, he was able to uncover startling secrets that the organization had been keeping hidden. As he was leaving the complex, Opor-A-Tiv83's presence was detected and an alert was put out for his capture and immediate return to the facility. This spy now finds himself on the run, armed with a secret that will either lead to his destruction or a hefty payday from his employers. Having been running their Mythic Legions line very successfully for nearly a decade now, the Four Horsemen have branched out from fantasy to sci-fi with the Cosmic Legions. Every Warhammer needs its 40K, and every Warcraft needs its Starcraft. I may not be buying in to the line like I did with MyLe, but I'm definitely still here for the MotU homages. His weirdly clunky name doesn't immediately give it away, but Opor-A-Tiv83 is Cosmic Legions' version of Man-E-Faces; Manny was introduced in 1983, and putting awkward hyphens in the word "operative" is a nod to the way his name was parsed back then. I mean, just calling him "Operative 83" would have worked - he's a mysterious secret agent after all - but Opor-hyphen-Capital-A-hyphen-Tiv83" is more "Eternia," you know? Even if it makes no in-story sense. Cosmic Legions marked the Horsemen's transition from sculpting in clay to sculpting digitally. And looking at how ornate the armor Opor-A-Tiv83 wears, I'm bet they glad they did! It's not that they're incapable of doing this kind of work by hand, but multi-layered armor plates overlapping and wrapping around each other? Panels with tiny tiny textures? It has to be easier to make those things look manufactured when you can mirror the sculpt horizontally. The armor is thick and chunky, with various ports and plugs all over to make it look futuristic. Like Mythic Legions armor, a lot of it is modular pieces that plug in to create different looks out of just a few pieces - front and back of the pelvis, the belt, the bit that plugs into the chest, stuff like that. The colors are where the Man-E-Faces connection really becomes apparent. The armor is mostly blue, with orange on the limbs and magenta accents all over. Everything has a metallic sheen, and there are a few spots of an altered blue shade to help keep the suit from looking monotonous. You can see that most easily on the spine of the armor, which looks like a series of pistons. One thing no Legions molds could duplicate would be Man-E-Faces' rotating head. But hey: modular construction! That means you can swap parts really easily, right? So if you can't give him one head that has three faces, what's the next best thing? Three heads! Since Manny had human, monster, and robot faces, Opry has human, monster, and robot heads. They do a lovely job of creating three distinct looks for the character. The human head is a Mythic Legions knight, though one of the newer ones with a flip-up visor. The face inside is painted pink, and has red markings over the eyes. The monster head is also Mythic, from the Vampire Phalanx figure, though this time it's been painted with green skin and red eyes. Finally, the robot head is a Cosmic Legions Traders Union helmet, which is shaped to fit an alien head: very narrow cheeks, pointed chin, a long cranium that comes forward into an oversized single eye, etc. It's painted blue and pink and silver, and features a removable clear dome on the top. Speaking of clear domes, the figure also includes a big space helmet. If that's meant to be a reference to Man-E-Faces' head gear, it honestly wasn't necessary; all three heads already have blue coverings, adding another one is literally putting a hat on a hat! It's not a great piece, we're sad to say: it doesn't really attach to the body in any way, just sort of sitting loosely on the shoulders, and the big bubble on it pops out of place easily - something that wouldn't normally be an issue, but the way it's shaped, it only fits into the frame one way, but also the way it's shaped, both directions look like they should fit. It's like trying to plug in a USB. If a USB would stay in your computer for a second or two before launching itself out and onto the floor. Cosmic Legions uses the same kind of modular parts as Mythic Legions, which means the same kind of articulation: swivel/hinge/swivel ankles, swivel/hinge knees, swivel thighs, swivel/hinge hips, a balljointed waist, swivel/hinge wrists, swivel forearms, swivel/hinge elbows, swive;/hinge shoulders, a swivel nick, and a balljointed head. The shape of the crotch-armor prevents the legs from moving forward - you have to spread the legs like a V-crotch. The belt feels like it should be larger or something; when you move the upper body even a little, you can see the big gap between the halves of the body, and it's rather distracting. How does Mythic Legions avoid this problem? With giant belts, I guess. Also, the shape of his chest emblem makes it hard for the figure to lean forward at all, which isn't ideal. Opor-A-Tiv83 is armed with a single small space pistol, painted orange to resemble Man-E-Faces' vintage blaster. He's got alternate hands to hold it, and a selection of clear plastic rods that will allow you to plug it in on various spots on his body. Well, just the outside of his gloves and the back of the belt, but that's still a neat feature. The Cosmic Legions just don't speak to me the way Mythic Legions have, but I'm still going to be following the story. In fact, speaking of which, the Horsemen posted "The Spy's Tale," a story all about Opor-A-Tiv83. It even explains what all three of his disguises are, which is a neat bonus. -- 07/13/24

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