Tag Archives: Spy Monkey Creations

#0120: Brutok Novum Veridiohm & Crayboth Eaglet

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

BRUTOK NOVUM VERIDIOHM & CRAYBOTH EAGLET

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

Today, I’ll be finishing up my reviews of the most recent set of releases from Spy Monkey Creations’ Weaponeers of Monkaa line.  I mentioned in my first review that there were 4(ish) figures released.  Well, the ish is coming into play in today’s review.  I’ll be looking at both Brutok Novum Veridiohm and the Crayboth Eaglet, mostly because I don’t feel the Eaglet really warrants its own review.  Let’s take a look at these guys!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

CRAYBOTH EAGLET

First up, I’ll take a look at the Eaglet, as it’ll be a quick little review.  The Eaglet is a crossover between Spy Monkey and Onell Design, another company that’s made a pretty big splash in the online, small production toy scene.  It’s nice to see these two companies working together, as it’s a refreshing change from the huge rivalries of the bigger toy companies.  The Eaglet stands about 2 inches tall, and has 4 points of articulation.  He’s made from 5 separate pieces, which are all compatible with the Weaponeers, although the Eaglet isn’t quite as modular.  He’s a bit stylistically different from the Weaponeers, but he fits alright.  For the most part, the figure is molded in the appropriate colors, but he’s got paint apps on each piece, which makes him a bit more detailed than some of the other figures.

BRUTOK NOVUM VERIDIOHM

Next, the main focus of this review is Brutok.  This is the second release of the former right hand man of the villainous Uberous, depicting him after his encounter with the Veridiohm in the recent “Golden Age” chapter of the Weaponeers story.  Brutok is reconstructed from the same energy that makes up the Veridiohm, resulting in him being all translucent green too.  Which is totally cool with me.  Brutok is built from the same selection of pieces as the rest of the figures in the line, and is molded in the same translucent green plastic as the Veridiohm figure.  In his default set up, Brutok stands 4 inches tall and has 17 points of articulation.  The sculpt is made up from the same pieces as previous figures, but Brutok actually throws a few more pieces into the mix.  He’s got four vac-metalized half-spheres which can plug into the ports on his arms and legs, and a larger half-sphere that can be plugged into his torso, in place of one of his insignia squares.  These pieces add a unique flair to the figure, and I really enjoy them.  As a DX release, Brutok has a more complicated paint job.  While it’s not as extensive as the one on Gearion, I think it’s a bit more intricate, with several “digital” looking textures painted at various points, not to mention the silver skin and yellow eyes present on each head.  Brutok is packaged with the standard short blade and sickle, molded in the same lovely green plastic as the rest of Brutok.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like the rest of the set, I picked up these two as soon as they went up for sale.  The Eaglet is different, which adds a bit of diversity to the lineup.  Apparently, he was a big hit, as he was the first item to sell out.  Brutok wasn’t far behind him, and I can honestly say that’s not a surprise to me at all.  I thought it’d be tough for any of these releases to overthrow Lifespring Empyreus as my favorite figure in the line, but Brutok here seems to have done just that.  The coloring of the plastic coupled with the unique paint detailing on this figure make him really standout from the pack!

#0119: Veridiohm

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

VERIDIOHM

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

Today marks the third entry in my reviews of the most recently released set of figures in the Weaponeers of Monkaa line.  So far, I’ve looked at Midas: the Golden Gohlem and Gearion: Lord of Light and leader of the Golden Gohlem army.  I’ll be jumping over to another segment of the line with the Veridiohm.   Let’s take a look at the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Veridiohm uses the basic layout of the Gohlem figures from the line, but according to Spy Monkey, this isn’t actually a Gohlem, it just looks like one.  Supposedly, the Veridiohm is like a hive-mind type entity made of green energy.  Pretty much it’s an excuse to release a Weaponeer in translucent green plastic.  And I most certainly won’t complain about that!  The Veridiohm is built on “Old Faithful”, the same set of parts used for every figure in the line.  In the default setup, the Veridiohm has 16 points of articulation and stands just shy of 4 inches tall.  Verodiohm is one of the basic releases, so he’s got a much more basic set of paint apps.  There pretty much exactly the same as those seen on Midas, but in green plastic instead of gold.  The insignias are nice and crisply painted, and the eyes don’t have any real slop or bleed over.  The Veridiohm includes the standard short blade and sickle, molded in the same green plastic as the rest of the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Veridiohm was purchased on the first day of release, as soon as they went up for sale on the Spy Monkey website.  As simple as he is, I really enjoy the figure, due mostly to the color of the plastic.  I’m a total sucker for translucent green!

#0118: Gearion – The Lord of Light

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

GEARION: THE LORD OF LIGHT

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

I’ll be continuing my look at the latest set of figures from Weaponeers of Monkaa today.  Yesterday, I looked at Midas, the Golden Gohlem.  Today, I’ll be looking at his leader, Gearion: The Lord of Light!  On to the review!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

According to the backstory on the Spy Monkey website, Gearion is the former leader if the heroic Gearo, and the father of current leader Empyreus.  His look here is based on his appearance as the Lord of Light and the leader of the Golden Gohlem.  As with the tow previously reviewed figures, Gearion is built from the same basic parts as everyone else in the line.  Like Midas, Gearion is molded in gold plastic.  In his default setup, Gearion stands about 4 inches tall and has 17 points of articulation, 19 if you count the swivels on the ear thingies.  Like the rest of the line, he features all of the other heads in addition to the one he comes wearing, and he can use several of them to change up the build of the figure.  The sculpt is the same as the rest of the line, which is to be expected, as that is the nature of the figures.  The big thing that differentiates Gearion from Midas is the level of paint apps.  Gearion has what is probably the most intensive paint work in the line so far.  He’s got paint on every surface, and he’s even got a pretty sweet beard to help make him look a bit different than Empyreus, with whom he shares a head.  The other heads all have great work too, and look pretty good when switched out.  There’s a tiny bit more slop on Gearion than was present on the previous figures, but I’m willing to be more forgiving, given the more extensive nature.  As a DX figure, Gearion includes two vac-metalized swords, as well as the standard short blade and sickle, molded in gold to match Gearion’s armor.

 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Gearion and the rest of the new set of Weaponeers as soon as they were up for sale at the Spy Monkey Store.  Gearion is pretty impressive, especially since he features so much more paint than previous figures.  He’s not my favorite in the set, but he’s up there, and he continues the line’s trend of just being plain fun!

#0117: Midas: The Golden Gohlem

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

MIDAS: THE GOLDEN GOHLEM

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

So, I took a one day break, and now I’m back to one of my favorite toylines of late, Weaponeers of Monkaa.  They just released their 4th set of figures about two weeks ago, and mine arrived earlier this week.  So, I’ll be taking a look at the  4(ish) figures that were just released.

Up first, it’s Midas: The Golden Gohlem!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Midas is one of the Gohlem, who are essentially the army builders of the line.  He’s the second case of one of the Gohlem getting an actual name, but the Gohlem are supposed to all look the same, so if you had a bunch of this figure, you could certainly build quite the Golden Gohlem army.  Most of the Gohlem don’t have a specific affiliation, which allows you to choose which side to put them on, but Midas and the rest of the Gohlems are actually affiliated with Gearion, who was also released as part of this set.  I’ll be looking at him tomorrow.  Like I mentioned in my review of Lifespring Empyreus, every figure in the line is built from roughly the same parts, just in different color sets.  Midas is (unsurprisingly) molded in gold plastic.  In his default setup, Midas has 16 points of articulation and stands a little under 4 inches tall.  However, my version of Midas stands a little taller, and has 3 additional points of articulation, as I added the ear-thingies from the Empyreus head and the lower torso piece, which is typically not included in the default Gohlem setup.  Not much new to say about the sculpt.  It’s exactly the same as Empyreus’s, and it looks just as nice here.  Midas is quite a bit lighter on the paint, with detailing only on his two insignia plates and the eyes on the various heads.  This is to be expected, as Midas is one of the basic releases, which have less paint apps.  What’s there is nice and clean, with no noticeable issues.  In addition to the assorted extra heads and the like, Midas includes the standard short blade and sickle, molded in gold.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I procured Midas along with the rest of this set as soon as they went up for sale.  I’ve been anxiously awaiting each subsequent release in this line.  Midas is a good example of what the basic figures in the line can offer.  And like I said in my review of Empyreus, I can’t recommend this line enough!

#0115: Lifespring Empyreus

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

LIFESPRING EMPYREUS

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

LifespringEmpyreus3

Today I’m reviewing a figure from one of my favorite toylines out there right now: Weaponeers of Monkaa!

“What’s Weaponeers of Monkaa?” you ask? Allow me to fill you in a bit.  Weaponeers of Monkaa are made by a small company by the name of Spy Monkey Creations.  They got their start producing accessory kits for several popular toylines, like DC Universe Classics and Masters of the Universe Classics.   The accessories were modular, and fit in with numerous lines outside the target lines.  These sets went over pretty darn well, and two years ago, Spy Monkey decided to create their own line of figures to go with some of their weapon sets.  I have to admit, I wasn’t really all that interested at first.  Sure, they looked okay, but they weren’t anything spectacular.  But, then reviews started popping up.  The figures may have looked a bit simplistic initially, but they were completely modular.  Take them out of the package and you could make the look however you wanted.  And that was pretty cool!

Spy Monkey just released a new set of figures, so in preparation for their arrival, I figured I’d take a look at my favorite of their releases so far: Lifespring Empyreus!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Lifespring Empyreus represents the second look of WoM’s main character Empyreus, leader of the Gearo.  He’s shown here after accessing the “Lifespring energy” to defeat the “Bloodlust” powers held by Umbreus, leader of the villainous Vilhain (How cool is that?).  Effectively, that means he’s cast in glow-in-the-dark plastic, which is always super nifty*.  Every figure in the line is effectively built from the same parts, just cast in different colors and painted differently.  What this means is that, while this is technically a figure of Empyreus, he includes the parts to make him into any of the four main characters, or even one of the army builders, the Gohlems.  This adds a whole new level of fun to every figure, as you’re getting five figures in one.  Plus, three of those heads can also double as hands, adding even more options.  I’ve included a shot of the figure using four of the extra heads in varying capacities to demonstrate.  In his default state, Empyreus stands about 4 inches tall and has 17 (19 if you count being able to move the ear thingy’s on the Empyreus head) points of articulation.  The articulation is a bit different than on most lines, as it’s completely accomplished through simple swivel joints.  However, thanks to the modular nature of the figures, you can actually reconfigure him to get some deeper poses out of him.  The figure is assembled from about 25 different pieces, depending on how you have him laid out.  The sculpting on the pieces is pretty straight forward.  At first glance, it isn’t anything amazing, but after playing with them a while, you realize how much work had to be put into getting pieces to look like completely different parts depending on how they’re oriented.  Empyreus is technically one of Spy Monkey’s DX releases, which means he has some slightly more advanced paint apps than their “regular” line.  The paint is used sparingly, but very well.  There’s no slop, and the colors accent the molded plastic perfectly.  Empyreus includes a small blade and a sickle, molded in the same color plastic as the rest of him.  In addition to the additional paint apps, DX figures also include a vac-metalized piece of some sort.  In Empyreus’s case, it’s a large broadsword.  I liked the broadsword so much I also picked up the separately sold Lifespring Accessory pack, which is why my Empyrous is shown holding two of them.

LifespringEmpyreusDisassembledLifespringEmpyreus (2)

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was slightly late to the game getting into this line.  The first series had been out for a while before I got around to ordering them, and even then, it took me a few months to even order the whole set.  But by the time this guy was released, I was totally hooked.  He was the very first figure in the line that I waited patiently to order the first day he was up for sale.  This line is a whole lot of fun, and it’s really nice to see a series of toys that are just good toys, on their own merits.  No tie-ins, no big marketing.  Just fun toys.

If you’re interested in getting into the line, you might be in for a bit of a struggle tracking down the older figures, but as of this writing, Spy Monkey’s webstore still had a few of the figures from the most recent set in stock, and I’m sure it won’t be long before another release.

LifespringEmpyrusAccessories

*As cool as glow-in-the-dark plastic is, the coloring of it, and the way it absorbs light make it virtually impossible to see this figure in pictures taken with the usual white background.  So, for those of you wondering, that’s why he’s on a black backdrop.