Venjorun Armorvor The First Full-Production Armorvor Glyos Action Figures Item No.: n/a Manufacturer: Onell Design Includes: n/a Action Feature: Alternate helmet head, backpack Retail: $8.00 Availability: July 29, 2012 Other: First-ever mass release of this mold, eye variant in red or blue. Designed by Matt Doughty, sculpted by Jason Frailey, prototyped by Marty Hansen, and beloved by all.
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This is in my top 5 of the year... no question about it. It's one of those figures which, had there been no limit, I'd probably have bought about 15 of them to send people come Christmas season as I'm fairly sure most of the people I know do not have one.

If Matt Doughty of Onell Design was a friend or at least associate of yours, you may have seen sketches or sculpts for the Venjorun Armorvor over the last couple of years-- he's had it on his phone, he's teased it on his blog, and he even let us preview it late last year. Since it's been at least a couple of years since I first saw it, I'm not only delighted that it finally made it out, but that it did so cheaply. $8.00? For a low-run figure withabout 14 points of articulation, I'm not complaining. It even has an alternate head. The only thing it doesn't have is, sadly, a weapon. (Oddly, most of the figures from Onell Design come unarmed... or maybe that speaks volumes about our toys, culturally speaking.) Against the current mini-beast figure revival lines, this seems to be the largest at a hair over 2 1/2-inches tall. If Glyos figures like Pheyden were tributes to toys of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Armorvor has to be late 1980s and early 1990s with its sharp lines, several V-like structures in the heads, and of course, the Black Core on its chest.

While a beefy figure, the Armorvor is not particularly big. Sure, he can crush your Ewok figures, but he's about the same height as many recent modern R2-D2 toys. He's a smidgen shorter than Pheyden, but much bulkier.

If you collect toys and enjoy a wide variety of action figures, this is the can't-miss figure of the season. 18 pieces fit together with Glyos plugs, as always, and there are more moving parts than most. Each limb is made of 3 swivel-jointed parts, plus there is a furry white head, an armored red double-faced head, and a backpack which also functions as a head if you really want to go that way. The hands accept Glyos plugs as well, so he can carry your Glyan weapons or a head to show his victory over his enemies, like Predator.

This figure, due to the fact it had a few more hands in its development, has DNA strands from Onell Design plus other creative folks. Lots of round shapes and deep grooves usually grace all the figures, and while this one has a lot of grooves there aren't quite as many round bits. He is constructed completely in red plastic, so everything from the white head to the black chest element called a Black Core, which may or may not have been inspired by classic Battle Beasts rubsign stickers. The quantity of paint feels higher than I expect, as the clean layer of white paint on the head looks richer and more expensive than just casting it in plain white plastic. The Black Core is red plastic painted black, which I have to assume cost extra. Well, it didn't cost me extra, but each new application at the factory has to add up.

The design is not open to interpretation, unlike Pheyden or the Glyan. While Pheyden and friends are open to interpretation, this is unquestionably a furry animal of some sort encased in Battle Beasts-inspired but clearly Matt Doughty-forged armor. While the Rig can be different things depending on how it's painted or configured, and Callgrim's design is astonishingly flexible, the Armorvor seems that it might be best in its default configuration. Of course one of you will prove me wrong by next week I'm sure.

It's worth noting that the Venjorun Armorvor was popular enough to sell out from Onell Design inside 40 minutes, and its launch wasn't even announced-- it was a surprise add-on of a mostly green series of releases. Onell Design has confirmed the runs for the next couple runs of this mold should be higher, and I believe may show up as early as September. Buzz has it the next one will be black, so if you want one of these I suggest paying attention to new release announcements carefully. Based on a recent Onell Design blog post, they teased Delphi and Noboto, whale-like and robot-like characters respectively, were postponed to get the Armorvor out. I'm OK with that... but now that I know a production version of Delphi is possible, I'm actually really excited to get one some day, too!

One final note: a variation exists. The quantity of this variation is not known, but I received a red-eyed variant of the Venjorun Armorvor in addition to my blue ones, as did at least three other people on the October Toys forums. Did anyone else? The full story is mostly in, and is as follows which we took from the Glyos Transmissions Web Log:

"The different color eyes on the Armorvor was just to spice things up and make the first production run something special. There are less of the red eyes versions out there, and even a few oddball ones that escaped the barn."

So if you have another color than red or blue, please leave a comment!

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