UMBREUS
WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA
I like toys that are just fun toys for the sake of being fun toys. That’s why Weaponeers of Monkaa has been a favorite line of mine since its start back in 2012. The line is patterned thematically after several successful toylines of the ‘80s, and its primary focus is playability and interchangeability. The line is also super awesome and highly addictive, which is why I have an army of these little guys. Well, technically two armies, since there are two distinct factions of the Weaponeers: the heroic Gearo and the villainous Vilhain. Today, I’ll be looking at the treacherous leader of the Vilhain, Umbreus!
THE FIGURE ITSELF
Umbreus was one of the first six Weaponeers of Monkaa figures who made up Series 1 of the line. He and the rest of the series were initially released at PowerCon 2012, and after the event they were offered via Spy Monkey’s online store. This figure represents Umbreus’ initial appearance, prior to gaining the “Bloodlust” powers or being reborn as the Golden Gohlem Midas. He stands about 4 inches tall and he has 19 points of articulation. Granted, that’s just in his default set-up; as with every WoM figure, he’s totally modular and breaks down into 22 different pieces, allowing you to build just about whatever you want. These parts are the same ones seen on every other WoM figure; if you’ve read one of my reviews, you’ve seen them before. They’re still a pretty selection of sculpted pieces, and it’s really impressive how smoothly they go together in so many different configurations. The figure’s default head is the Umbreus 
head, unsurprisingly. It’s actually my personal favorite of the five heads available. Something about it makes the overall aesthetic of the figure really pop. In his original form, Umbreus made no attempt to hide that he was a villain, making use of the classic comicbook villain combo of purple and green. Behold the evil purple and green! For the most part, Umbreus’ parts are just molded in the appropriate colors. The paint used for his faceplate is pretty well handled, and unlike later figures, every piece of Umbreus has a little bit of dark grey accent work to bring out his sculpted details. Umbreus was initially packed with the standard sickle and straight blade accessories, as well as the Brutok and Empyreus heads done up in Umbreus’ colors and a pair of Gohlem heads (which double as fists). There was also an extra pack of heads available for the first series figures, which added a Palidar head in Umbreus colors to the mix.
THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION
Umbreus is actually the figure that sold me on the whole Weaponeers of Monkaa line. When reviews started popping up for the first series, I thought they looked cool, but I wasn’t sold 100%. Then I saw Umbreus and knew I at least wanted him. So he, Brutok, and the head pack ended up being my first purchase from the line. To date, he’s still one of my favorite entries in the line, and he’s still a whole lot of fun!
heads from the line, should you want to switch things up, and they each have their own separate color scheme. The color scheme of the Fake Barbarian is, of course, based on that of Faker, which in turn means that he shares a lot of his colors with Uncle Overlord. Just like they were with Uncle O, the blues look very nice, and really suit the body well. The Fake Barbarian also throws a bit of silver and orange into the mix, allowing him to more closely mimic the color layout of the Eternal Barbarian. The silver is pretty clean, but the orange ends up suffering from just a little bit of slop around some of the edges. The Fake Barbarian includes the same set of accessories we saw with Uncle Overlord: two each of the short blades, sickles, bent blades, serrated blades, hilts, guns, and handles, all molded in light blue.
heads, so I’m always happy to see it as the primary piece. The head is, of course, decked out in purple and yellow, and evokes Skeletor very nicely. The rest of the body follows suit. It’s actually pretty nice to see the blue here, as there’s kind of a shortage of blue Weaponeers. The paint work here isn’t quite as complicated as what we saw with The Eternal Barbarian, but it does manage to be a fair bit cleaner in application. That seems like a fair enough tradeoff to me. Uncle Overlord is packed with all of the extra heads we’ve seen before. None of them have particularly exciting color schemes, but they match the rest of the body quite nicely. Uncle O also includes the basic blade and sickle, as well as the more expansive weapons pack, featuring guns, handles, hilts, sickles, and three types of blades. And, thanks to the interchangeability of the line, you can even approximate Skeletor’s signature staff!
of the parts, so that’s pretty great. Paint work on these two is relatively minor, but it’s also the only thing that distinguishes them from each other. Both figures are molded in the same grey plastic as Palidar. On Rhokk, the eyes and logos are done in black, while on Rholl they are done in white. Personally, I think that Rholl’s scheme makes him look a little more lively, but both are well executed, with no real slop or anything. The two figures are both armed with a short blade and a sickle, cast in the same grey plastic as the figures.
The Figure In Question 