In addition to the previously released army builder Power Soldiers and Grapptikk Grunts, the first wave of carded "main characters" recently went up for pre-order. I was lucky enough to get my hands on these early, and will take a look at them now.
I posted a general overview previously, including the basic articulation breakdown, so I won't be delving too deep into that again.
First up, we have the main star of the line himself, Adam Power.
Adam uses the same basic body as the Power Soldiers, but with a new unhelmeted head.
The sculpt on the head is top notch, with detail in his hair, and a nice clean handsome face.
He comes with the same type of staff and rifle as the Power Soldiers, an interchangeable Soldier head in matching orange with a blue visor, and all the same articulation as was present in the Power Soldiers.
The main thing that sets Adam apart from the Power Soldiers is his paint. Whereas the Soldiers were solid colors with minimal paint, Adam has all of his details painted. The red and blue accents on the orange suit pops in such a way that you have no choice but to take notice of him and how beautiful and rich his colors are.
The only down note I can find on this entire figure, is that Adam doesn't come with an orange neck to go with the Soldier head, and that lack of consistency will likely keep people from actually using the additional head. Of course I found use for it in other ways (you can see one of the villains holding the "dismembered" head as a trophy in some of the pics from the Power Lords overview)
Up next we will take a look at Ggrabbtargg.
Ggrabbtargg utilizes the same body as the previously released Grunts, and uses the "Sergeant" head, which has become a personal favorite of mine.
This orange variant of the mold was made exclusive to the top 2 levels of the Power Lords Fan Club as incentive for members, and so far will not be available any other way (but may be used by the Horsemen for promotional purposes later on)
The orange skin on the mostly black uniform gives him a nice contrast, but never gives off an overly "Halloween" vibe, like many orange/black color schemes tend to do.
In contrast to the previous Grunts, who recieved either a long or short handled war mace, Ggrabbtargg comes with both handles, letting you display him to your preferences.
One drawback I must point out, it seems his head received a darker wash than the rest of his body, making his head look "dirty" compared to his arms and legs.
Next up, lets take a look at Ggripptogg, the leader, or "main character" the Grunts are based off.
Just like with Adam, Ggripptogg comes with more paint applications than the previous releases, most notably the green highlights on his arms.
Ggripptogg also comes with our first reversable head (pics of both sides in the overview), which also has green accents.
To further differentiate Ggripptogg from the Grunts, you'll notice that his arms are turned a different way. Whereas the Grunts and Ggrabbtargg have their hands on top of each other, Ggripptogg's hands are side by side. This not only makes him different from the Grunts, but also allows him display possibilities and poses that the Grunts are not capable of.
Just like Ggrabbtargg, he also comes with both a long and short handle for his war mace.
All these new, different parts leads us right into one of the most exciting figures from this release, Ggrapptikk.
While not exclusive to the Club memberships, Ggrapptikk is included as an incentive to the top level of the Club, and is also known as the "Ultimate Edition Barlowe Tribute".
As soon as you take a look at Ggrapptikk in the package, it is apparent why he is referred to as "ultimate". Not only do you get this mold in a cool blue, but you get one of every single accessory with him.
Thats all 4 heads (standard in red, "alien" in black, "sergeant" in blue, and the reversible in blue), both short and long loin cloths, long handle and short handle for the war mace, both regular and side-by-side arm setups, and a regular up/down arm setup in red to use with Ggipptogg.
Laying all of the extra pieces out was nearly dizzying, with worlds of possible combinations swirling through my head.
And I must say, the ice blue body just works so well on this figure. Part of me hopes they will release more Grunts in this color later on, while part of me wants this figure to be unique and take a place of honor leading the villains into battle.
This figure literally has it all, and fully deserves that title of "Ultimate Edition".
Lastly, we will take a look at my favorite figure from this release, Lord Power.
In the original toy line, Adam Power and Lord Power were a single figure, with a mechanism in the figure to rotate the upper body to simulate Adam transforming into Lord Power. Thankfully the Four Horsemen have decided to forego is transformation, and make Lord Power a separate figure.
Lord Power utilizes the Power Soldier buck from the waist down, using the same vibrant orange/red color scheme as seen on Adam power. From the waist up, LP is all new.
The Four Horsemen's sculpt on this figure is far superior to even the impressive sculpt on the Power Soldiers. The muscle detail and over exaggerated veins are all wonderfully sculpted, which is then highlighted even more with the deep red over the veins and chest details. This is (literally) topped off with a wonderfully sculpted head, with hair that looks like it is fresh out of the breeze, stoic eyes, a superheroic jawline, and the power gem which looks like it wants to leap off of his forehead, with just the right amount of red in the eyes and gem that they stand out, but don't dominate the sculpt.
Being that there are no orange details on the upper body, the lower body can seemlessly be changed out with any of the Power Soldier lower bodies, giving Lord Power many unique looks, just by changing his pants (I'm particularly fond of using the black Soldier's lower body, for a more sinister looking Lord Power).
Due to the sculpt, Lord Power loses a single point of articulation, as his neck is sculpted as part of the upper torso, and thus is not removable like the other figures in the line.
He comes with the same staff and rifle as Adam Power, as well as an interchangeable Soldier Elite head in the orange/red color scheme.
One minor flaw to this figure, the paint over the sculpted veins is not 100% spot on, but the variation is so minor, odds are most will never have noticed if it wasn't pointed out to them.
The Four Horsemen had impressed me very much with the Power Soldiers and Ggripptikk Grunts, but with the release of the carded figures, I have now been blown away. With even more exciting figures already shown to be on the way, this line looks to be the new benchmark for what a 3 3/4 scale line should be.
Head over to http://www.shopfourhorsemen.com/ to get in on the pre-order for these figures.
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