Review: Onell Design Glyos Venjorun Armorvor Action Figure

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.
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The Delphi Oracle: 2012 Release Possible, Armorvor Eyes Too

Over at the Glyos Transmissions Web Log there are many posts, and in those posts are comments, and in comments lie truth!  What kind of truth?  The future!  It turns out there's a few great nuggets in there, not the least of which was this one from Matt Doughty himself:

"The Delphi will make it into production, hopefully before the end of 2012. I'm happy you still like those strange looking creatures!"

Insert giant smile here.

If you don't know who or what a Delphi is, shame on you.  Not just because it's an awesome part of the Glyos legacy, but the figure is pictured to the left.  The figure currently exists as Custom Corps releases (read: very expensive and rare hand-made one-offs, see some here) and a run of metal Delphi heads were also made, so the rest of us cry like little girls thinking we can never get one.  Well, looks like we might be able to get one soon!  Rejoice!

There are also comments about the Armorvor eyes, and here they are:

"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."

As of yet no other colors have shown up, so if you have some, know that you are bound by Internet Toy Bragging Rights Law to share your finds!

Armorvor Heads: The Lion

Because there are too many heads I'm going to go ahead and do one last post.  There are others, but hey, I wrote these up in advance and need to go to bed soon. The Lion by Jason Frailey went through a process which he, wonderfully, wrote about.  Early on the figure had a sort of a page-boy hairstyle, which morphed into the creation you see here.

The figure's style seems more in line of a hybrid of old Battle Beasts, modern action figures, and the deep sculpted grooves that are the Onell Design signature.   There's also an added chest piece on there, but as far as I can tell you can't get one.  Since the figure's head has a helmet, it really does feel like a descendant of those older action figures from the 1980s.

More on the Lion (and how to buy one) here.

Onell Posts Armorvor Concept Art, History

The Glyos Transmissions Web Log posted a hefty story for us all today with Armorvor: History and Concepts.  This really cool article shows off a number of Armorvor weapons which haven't been produced (yet at least) as well as detail the inspiration for the figure, who was involved in its birth, and even namechecks two other figures which were postponed to get him out first (Delphi, Noboto.)

...as much as I'm looking forward to a Delphi of my own, I think they made the right choice.   But hey, at least we know that a non-Custom Corps Delphi might be in the cards soon, right?

"Armorvor Heads," said the Spider to the Fly

Because we can't get enough of these guys, The GodBeast posted two quick previews of new heads to the October Toys forums.   He describes them thusly:

"2 mysterious black spider and bug heads were a special request of gaga4toyz. Very eerie looking and kewl as heck on Armorvor."

It is widely assumed/confirmed/rumor-that's-not-a-rumor that the next Armorvor release will indeed be a black one, so start saving those pennies for Fall!

Armorvor Heads: Vampire Bat

Stepping away from the house Onell Design concepts and leaping toward classic Battle Beasts, the Vampire Bat design from Jason Frailey is a gritty, mean, and cybernetic monster.

As you can see in Jason's own development blog, the character went through all sorts of design phases which sported features like a giant chin and alternate forms for the technological implants before settling on the speaker-like form you see above.   This little fellow went through quite a bit before turning into the fairly evil figure head to your right.

Like other heads in the Armorvor family, it is not scheduled for mass production at this time and your main way of getting one is through The Godbeast directly as he does the castings for these things.  (See below for one such custom example.)  For more on  how to get one, get yourself $15 and check out this thread on October Toys.

Much like classic Battle Beasts, he has elements inspired from real-world Earthy bats before grafting in the freakish robotic eye.

If you really want to see what you can do with these things-- and I mean you, a talented person who understands how paint works properly, there's a pretty slick custom on the October Toys Glyos Custom thread that I thought was worth sharing.  User Talyn took the head and applied some paint, numerous parts from Onell Design Glyos releases, and the wings from the smokey Outer Space Men Mystron action figure to create something I think I'd totally buy if it ever saw mass production.  Check it out!

Armorvor Head: Cobra

Not to be confused with the evil organization or the other cobra-inspired head, The Godbeast created the Cobra Head as a result of a collector request.  The snakey head has his hood on display and two versions were crafted, one (this one) with an angrier look on his face.

At this time, it doesn't look like he's taking requests for more of this one.  It's neat, though!

New Glyos-Compatible Figures, Weapons from Banimon?

If you already know about this, just keep reading.  Figures known as the Revolutionary and the Banigoth Warrior are shown and look pretty fantastic.  The blog has no information about the wheres and the whens and the how muches, but I will ask Banimon (despite the fact he hasn't announced it) to see if there's anything to talk.  Anyway, until we know more, just read the Planet Banimon Blog.

Video Review: Glyos Venjorun Armorvor

It's a quickie, and a normal review is, as always, on the way but I wanted to get this out there early.

Armovor Artwork: Nathan Newell Illustrations

Your pal and mine Nathan Newell of Dork Dimension whipped up a whole mess of Armorvor artwork for the limited run castings of the figure over the last year.  Above, check the Armorvor Cobra, Armorvor Shark, Armorvor FlyBee, and Armorvor Wolf in their illustration forms!   Nathan's page (click) also has a bunch of castings of these figures, which are all pretty swell and show the heads on other Glyos figure bodies other than just the Armorvor.  The Godbeast also posted more of the card artwork.

Glyos Freebie: Metallic Blue Versirran Crayboth

I'm just guessing at the name, but Onell Design included a free metallic blue Crayboth figure in with orders arriving in homes over the last couple of days.  It comes bagged and unpainted, although the plastic brings out a wonderful amount of detail to the point where you might be left realizing you just plain don't need paint.  I'm assuming it's called Versirran Crayboth, as the matching blue Pheyden was the Versirran Pheyden.

In addition to a pink Nonilla Crayboth and, I think, a gold Govorum head-- which for all I know was an extra with an older figure-- these are three notable, seemingly wider distributed freebies.

Did I miss any?  Is there an opaque orange Crayboth out there?  Let me know!

Venjorun Armorvor Variant Discovered

UPDATE: At least three other people on the October Toys forums got a red eye variant, so they're out there!

My order of Glyos came today from Onell Design and while I was taking pictures for an upcoming feature, I noticed this interesting difference on my Armorvor figures.

 
Two of the figures have blue eyes, and one has seemingly painted red eyes.  The red doesn't quite match the plastic, so this one is definitely different.  I have no idea if it's a variant, or if Matt is reading this blog and decided to do this to see if I noticed, but it is interesting to say the least.

As many of you know (and can confirm) I am a talentless hack that cannot paint his way out of a paper bag, I can assure you this is not a custom nor a hoax-- this is exactly what I got in the mail.

I would place a poll on the blog, but the Blogger poll widget appears to  be broken and has been for over 10 days.  So if you received red eyes, or another color entirely, please leave a comment.