Speaking of beasts, I overpaid for the Stealth Vorin on eBay a few years ago - shortly thereafter, I was at an industry party filled with dishes of them for free, like after-dinner mints. Oops. The line was a few years in the making with a decent amount of fanfare - there was even a comic series which you had to order a bunch of to get this figure as a premium. (Selling a lot of #1 matters.) It was cheaper to buy the toy on eBay than to pony up for the comics, so it wasn't a total loss. This figure is a redeco of the normal Vorin (there are two sculpts of the ram) complete with shield and sword.
As you know, the line came and went along with a few other beast revival lines in the first half of this decade. Some really fun things came up, but only a few of them really made it out to stores - and this one more or less didn't. The white eyes don't glow in the dark, but it looks like they might against the dark fur and armor. The colors go together nicely, and the figure blends in to a desk of crap in a dark office. I'd say that's good stealth camo!
Articulation is on par with most other Minimates, which is to say it's good. The hips, knees, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, and waist move without a fuss - but the cape may hinder movement a tiny bit thanks to it being present. The new, non-Minimates parts do a lot to make this figure look like far more than its humble brick origins, and we've seen Mattel do this kind of thing with some of their recent Mega Construx figures. The interest in micro action figures is high, especially for a good price - there just aren't a lot of things quite like this to go around. I realize it may not be the highest praise to say "hey, you can barely tell it's a Minimate!" but that's entirely accurate. It's a hoofed sheep warrior figure, with LEGO-compatible foot holes, a handy bonus feature if you actually display these things. I had no problems getting the sword or shield in his hands, although both were something of a tight fit.
By my count there are at least eight Vorin figures, so you probably don't need them all - the painted ones are all somewhat similar. This one benefits from being the darkest of the lot, with the grimiest paint job. Despite just opening the figure around the time of this review, it's clean and the joints move freely. There are no weird sticky oils or anything - it's still in good shape, and it's a fun enough figure. It's also a slightly depressing reminder of the dozen or so figures we were shown and never got, plus the hopes of a big, ongoing line of this kind of toy. Such is life - at least we got a few! The line is pretty small so you should be able to pick them up without too much fuss if you're so inclined.
A couple of figures managed to get out about a year ago, so that was nice - but is that the end? Probably not. I assume we'll get a few new ones every half-decade or so to keep the trademark in play, otherwise it might get abandoned and wind up at Hasbro or Lanard Toys. If nothing else, trademarks will probably ensure that some form of Battle Beasts - be they figures from Diamond Select Toys or something else - get made again before you die.
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