Tibius

One side, Aracula! One of the most ancient living skeletons roaming the earth, Tibius commands many of the deadlier battalions in Necromominus' army. Single-minded to a fault, he is consumed with recruiting soldiers and bolstering his ranks. A master fighter in his own right, Tibius is renowned for his savage skill at wielding his twin swords on the battlefield. The Mythic Legions skeleton warriors are all named after bones: Tibius gets his name from the tibia, which is the bigger of the two bones in your shin, and the second-longest bone in the human body. [...llllllladies! --ed.] The word comes to English by way of Latin (because of course it does), where it originally meant... shinbone. Well that's not very interesting, is it! It was also the Latin name for the Greek aulos pipe, which may sometimes have been made of bone? No one's really sure whether the name refered to the instrument or the leg bone first, or where it ultimately comes from. The bone thugs of Mythoss mostly wear the same armor as the humans, the dwarves, the wood sprites, the minotaurs, the vampires, the demons, and everyone else: we get the armored chest with the inset lines of X's, the heavy gauntlets, the large greaves with the pointy shoes, all that. But we do get some new pieces, and they're important ones: bones! The visible bits of his arms and legs (that is, the upper arm, half the forearm, and the thighs) are all bare bone instead of the meaty pieces we've had before. Even his neck is new, giving us several vertebrae rather than just a smooth surface. Way to not overlook anything, Horsemen! The head is, of course, a skull, smiling at you with its blank sockets. Really, the Four Horsemen, sculpting a guy with a skull for a head? It's just crazy enough to work! Tibius is distinguished by the two red stripes that run down the front of his face. Why does a skeleton need war paint? To be intimidating? I think he's got that covered. If you want a more run-of-the-mill armored skeleton soldier, the set includes an alternate head. Yes, it's still a skull, but this one has different cracks sculpted on its head, has no war paint, and features a moving jaw. A moving jaw! Why did the normal head not have that? Why did they make a head without a moving jaw at all? There is one flaw with the moveable jaw, though: the joints that allow it to hinge open are set farther forward than the proper anatomical joint, so when you open the mouth, a piece that should stay in place moves, and a pieces that moves stays in place. It's something you'll only ever see if you're looking at it as you move it, and we're just being really nit-picky to mention, but there it is. We've already reviewed 18 of these guys, there are only so many times you folks can read "here's a list of all the articulation, it's great." Oh, and by the way, he has lots of articulation, and it's all great. Knowledge! Tibius gets a cape, but since he's an ancient living skeleton, his is all torn up and tattered in a way no one else's has been yet. Unfortunately, it's even harder to get him to wear it than on the other figures, because he's got the short pauldrons that lack the little rosettes seen on the bigger pieces - thus, there's nowhere to attach the two outside holes. I tried putting his elbows through them, but that just made the cape rip. Whoops! I've currently got the edges folded over so the holes overlap, then have the pads plugged in through that. The figure comes with the twin swords mentioned in the bio, but if they're really "twins," why does one have a red hilt and silver crossguard, while the other has a silver hilt and black crossguard? Meanwhile he's got a dagger that matches the red sword, making those more of a set than his two swords are. And then he's got a second dagger with colors that look better suited to match Sir Owain. Go figure! While he's got the usual leather strap to hold one of the weapons, he's also wearing a new belt that has loops on both sides. Dual wielding! The bones used to make up Tibius are slightly thicker than they would really be if they were meant to be inside a Mythic Legions body, but that's easy enough to overlook. Where else are you going to get an armored skeleton this good? -- 04/29/17

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