My Power-Con exclusive
Power Lords Power Soldier and
Elite Power Soldier showed up in the FedEx today just after lunch, meaning I finally got to find out just
why nobody was posting pictures of Onell Design or Outer Space Men figure parts swapped in with these new sci-fi marvels.
The good news is that the
Power Lords from the Four Horsemen use the Glyos system, but with a twist. Many of the parts - like the shoulders and head - use the traditional full-size Glyos plug. The elbows, wrists, and ankles use a smaller Glyos plug as seen in
The Outer Space Men hands and feet for Alpha 7 and Gemini. Due to some peg gender-bending, you can't put the
OSM hands on the
Power Lords wrists - plugs plus plugs and holes plus holes won't work here. The same is true of the feet - you may only swap those between Power Soldiers.
The figures are 3 3/4-inch scale, more or less, putting them right at home with your
Outer Space Men and
Star Wars action figures. On a shelf, these are probably more likely to go with non-Glyos figures due to the realism of sculpts and the fact that while some of the parts swap nicely, others don't.
Getting the existing Glyos parts into a Power Soldier torso is tricky - the hole is recessed deeply in the shoulders, and the Power Soldier ball shoulders look positively wonky on an
Outer Space Men torso. The legs can sort of be swapped onto the Onell hips, but they don't really work on the
OSM. Heads from other figures don't fit easily in the
Power Lords socket other than the
Banimon offerings, but you can get some long, narrow pieces to fit in there as you see an arm and a ray gun in the above pictures.
I've only had these for a short while, and a longer review with impressions will be posted to 16bit.com on Wednesday. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures and let me know what you're coming up with!
The Power Lords
was one of those old sci-fi lines with a fascinating backstory and few
loyal fans - it was born out of a catch-all sci-fi line based on the
works of Wayne Barlowe back in the 1980s, but mutated into a line of
more or less totally original designs between Barlowe and Revell, the
manufacturer. This line has been in varying stages of development for
years, and the Power Soldier was a surprise debut piece - rather than a clear figure like in Outer Space Men,
the Four Horsemen took this license and instead opted to generate new,
original "troopers" based on the original character Adam Power. There
will be more - at least a blue and a red Power Soldier have been
revealed in addition to the black Power Soldier and the white Elite
Power Soldier.
The generous crew at Onell Design are teasing upcoming figures during their current trip to China. In the post titled Big Boys you'll see an Armorvor that's no doubt inspired by the blue metallic Stealth Armor Iron Man, which has had numerous awesome action figures from Hasbro over the years. This may also be the first metallic plastic Armorvor figure.
It took me a while to track down the Crayboth Pack 5 Red and Green Aura
(and it cost me) but it was worth it! For those of you not in the
know, the Onell Design Glyos toys tend to be produced in limited numbers
and most designs are eventually permanently retired. The
glow-in-the-dark red "Solaris" plastic was used back around 2008
but for reasons not fully explored, it is no longer in production.
(I've heard rumors of changes in toy safety regulations and increasing
materials costs may have had something to do with it but haven't seen
anything remotely official with either.) The "Green Aura" figure has
seen additional production runs, as recently as 2012, but the red one
has been sold out since before I started pursuing them in 2010.
UPDATE: Our pal Stan on Twitter let me know that there's also a Purple Traveler Body with Phanost and Scar Pheyden heads in some orders - thank you for the info, Stan!