Red Devil Mystron The Man from Hollow Earth Outer Space Men Cosmic Creators Mel Birnkrant Edition TheOuterSpaceMen.com Exclusives Item No.: n/a Manufacturer: Four Horsemen Includes: 2-piece helmet, bent arms, garglyle gun, staff, 3 other figures Action Feature: n/a Retail: $80.00 (sold as a set with Alpha 11, Fire and Ice Electron+, and Blue Angel Commander Comet) Availability: July 19, 2013 Other: The Sixth (or seventh, counting accessory deco variants) Mystron
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Rounding out the set of Outer Space Men Cosmic Creators Edition figures, Red Devil Mystron is one of the best of the bunch. The four figures are indeed stunning creations, but the 200-set run failed to sell out - we're almost a year after its launch, and they're still available for their original price. The advent of lower-run figures like these has resulted in toys made specifically for toy collectors, which is a twist on the hobby having been tracking down parts of a shared cultural experience. This is art for art's sake, and thankfully creator Mel Birnkrant redecorated his creation in a rather spiffy way.

Once again cast in clear plastic, Mystron takes advantage of light by looking drastically different depending on how you display him. Light him from the front, and he looks like a slightly different version of a figure you've bought before - light him from behind and the firey demon qualities come to life. For Glyos cultists - and to insinuate fans of this action figure construction system exist in anything but cultist form in increasingly preposterous - this is more or less the culmination of much of what a single figure in this style could be. Glorious metallic purple wings look black in the right conditions, with a glowing red body and a shiny gold beard behind a positively radiant orange helmet make this another incredibly striking creation. The paint jobs are wondrous, arguably making the higher price point worth it. Sadly, people didn't seem to bite - a run this low should sell out in minutes, not months.

The Gargoyle gun is a tight fit in his hands, but everything else looks and fits as you could hope. A metallic purple spacesuit with golden conquistador pants should look preposterous, but apparently intergalactic demons can wear whatever they please. A red clear tail jumps out of the back of the shorts, and each limb has clear red "accordion joints" that give the figure even more life.

As we bid farewell to this Outer Space Men toy line - don't worry, we have more reviews to post - it's interesting to see how much excitement and love for the property had been weeded out by a few too many squeezes from the mold, a few too many prepaints, and the very best ideas - like this one - were held for the mold's last hurrah. To date, this figure and his fully-painted cohorts are the best things to happen to the Glyos action figure continuity and it seems unlikely that we'll see anything quite this creative in the other lines. Not to knock anybody, but you can tell a lot more thought went in to some of these guys - the presentation really works, and it's upsetting that this figure and others like him were made and delivered to relative obscurity to an increasingly focused, narrow string of collectors. The post-ToyFare world isn't too kind to upstarts as people are locked in their own toy collecting spheres, uninterested in or unwilling to examine other releases. I have a feeling a lot of collectors are going to be upset they missed these in a few years, but it's going to take a long time for them to realize these things even existed in the first place.

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Additional Outer Space Men 2013 TheOuterSpaceMen.com Exclusive Cosmic Creators Mel Birnkrant Edition Images

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