Onell Design’s Glyos System:
Volkriun Rig Review (20+ Pics)

For the next few weeks, Thursdays are the province of Onell Design’s Glyos! This week, I’m taking a look at a slightly older item I recently acquired: the Volkriun Rig. I missed this figure during the craziness of SDCC, but I was fortunate enough to snag one in a recent trade.

This isn’t my first Rig review, so I’ll try not to rehash too much from that one (though the Volkriun Rig gallery will feature a few images from that Stealth Rig Review).

The first that thing really amazed me about the Volkriun Rig was how much more I appreciated this toy in full color than in “stealth mode”. The stealth one had some cool features going for it, most notably that it was… clear. I love clear toys and I got a kick out of being able to see the pilot inside, but, after awhile, I grew a little tired of the Stealth Rig; mostly, I think, because I didn’t have a regular Rig to provide some much needed contrast. I love my clear Space Ghost, but I also have a regular Space Ghost – and guess who gets more shelf time?

A couple weeks ago, an IAT reader offered up this Volkriun Rig in a trade and I jumped at the chance (a huge shout out to Nanite!). I couldn’t be happier. I’ve only had this guy in-hand for a couple days, but he’s a blast. I no longer have my clear one to do a proper comparison, but I love this guy much more in full color.

The Rig has seen a handful of releases since its debut in the Summer of 2010 and the most impressive thing about it might just be that it sells out quickly every time. Just last month, three new versions of the Rig were released and all three were gone within minutes. That’s a testament to the power of this toy and to the genius of its creator, Matt Doughty.

The Rig is a vinyl toy by classification, but it feels like more like a regular action figure, or vehicle, than it does a vinyl item. The construction is solid and the four pieces pop apart and re-attach easily (much easier than my Stealth Rig). They’re also compatible with the other Glyos System vinyl toy, the Armodoc. Swapping parts with my Armodoc would be difficult at the moment (he’s, uh… full) so I’ve added a few images from my previous review to the gallery to showcase that particular feature.

The main appeal of the Rig is its versatility despite only consisting of four parts. Just flipping it over or spinning a piece around gives the toy a whole new look and, in some cases, a new function. Is it a robot? An armored exo-suit? A spacecraft? A tank? In reality, it’s all of those and whatever else you can think of when you twist the parts around. You’ll see in the gallery; by just turning the Rig on its side, you’ll feel like you’re looking at a completely different toy. For my money, my love of ED-209 tends to keep my focus on this guy being a heavily-armed, bipedal robot, but I do enjoy the vehicle configurations too.

The paint work is pretty clean throughout the figure. There are etched lines between the plates, the bright green on the windows/afterburners/emitters, and some solid black to differentiate a few panels. In addition to that paint, one thing I love on the more recent Glyos releases is the use of tampos. This guy sports three, one on the “chest” and one on each “arm”. Two of the symbols are the Volkriun logo, but I’m not really sure what the third one (on the longer arm) represents.

Since there’s four pieces that make up a rig, that translates into three points of articulation. I do wish there were a few more, most notably something akin to a t-crotch, but you can get plenty of use out of the three points that are here. The arms can be swapped to either side for a little variety (if the stars ever align and I have some real money to blow during a Rig drop, I’d like to pick up two matching Rigs and swap the arms to have two symmetrical, but unique Rigs) and the figure also pops apart at the waist. Inside, you’ll find enough room inside for your favorite Pheyden (or other similarly sized Glyos figure) to take up residence and pilot this beast.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the Rig. I’ve balked at the $25 price tag in the past, but there’s one that thing about this toy that my pictures just aren’t going to convey. I love my MOTUC figures and I “play” with them, posing them for the reviews, coming up with some neat displays on the shelf, but all too soon, I tend to leave them be. I spend $20+ on those for a brief tactile experience followed by (hopefully) a lengthy ownership.

When I spend that same money on Onell, I feel like I get a much richer experience. There’s nothing brief about the play that I get out of my Glyos. If I grow weary of my Rig battling my other Glyos like a little ED-209 homage, I can reconfigure him in to a “futuristic Jeep”, like in the second pic above, and let some Glyans motor around my desk. My favorite regular figure thus far has been Sarvos, but I just don’t “collect” him. Right now, there’s an “axis”ed-up Sarvos pulling a Captain Morgan on the edge of my keyboard right now.

Basically, I may be paying $25 for a Rig, but I’m pretty sure I get a lot more mileage out of it than I do some of the other toys I’m buying and that makes them well worth the price of admission. On that note, let’s wrap this up and move on to the gallery…

13 thoughts on “Onell Design’s Glyos System:
Volkriun Rig Review (20+ Pics)

  1. I love the Armodoc with the pellets inside! He looks like he’s full of tennis balls!! LOL

    The Rig is one of the greatest things Onell has done if you ask me. I have both the gray ones, the stealth, and the black. The only two I missed were the two you have. They look great all lined up.

    1. Thanks! I was happy when it occured to me that I could fill him up! I did have to do a little cutting on his biceps, but it was well worth it!

      I only have this one now, as I traded the clear away to snag it. I’d like to get a few more of the others. I’m still shell-shocked from missing the blue/white Rig in the last drop!

  2. i really like the green colorway, it’s very strong. and again, excellent picture gallery.

    i would like to comment on one thing in particular that you said noisy, “Basically, I may be paying $25 for a Rig, but I’m pretty sure I get a lot more mileage out of it than I do some of the other toys I’m buying”

    to me, this is absolutely the whole point of buying toys. if you’re not getting play, and having the imagination driven by the item, it’s just a nerd hummel, regardless of deco or articulation or pack-ins. a toy is about play. anything else is a chatchki. the bigs seems to have generally forsaken this idea, and that’s why the overall toy industry has lost ground to video games. a video game does all the thinking for the child, but it makes them feel a part of the goings-on, and it’s what mom and dad are doing… but a toy is a whole other beast. a toy, a proper toy, draws a child in just like a game, but it gives them control of the narrative. the child gets to create their own world for said toy, and it’s THAT POWER that toys possess that can’t be touched by a video game. if more companies were interested in creating toys (rather than creating what are in essence 3D game pieces), they’d still fare just fine vs the game industry.

    1. I can respect the guys that buy for display and don’t really play with their stuff. I mean, we don’t expect a stamp collector to drop those bad boys in the mail, right?

      But I’m definitely having a toy migration, or at least where I want to spend my funds is migrating. I’d rather be buying stuff with a little more utility. Just this week, I talked myself out of that Reeves Superman over the price and my “need” for it, but then I went and spent $50 on a Callgrim Warp Bike. LOL

  3. Great pics, man! Love the fight scenes with the sparks and tennis balls! Can’t wait for next week!

    1. Thanks! Next week is Thanksgiving, so we’ll be putting the IAT in hiatus for Thurs & Fri, but our Glyos feature will be back on the 1st of December!

  4. Excellent review! My 1st and only Rig at present is the Glow-in-the-Dark (Spectre Division) Rig & I’m suffering from the same problem you had with your clear Rig; sure I love GitD stuff, but without all it’s paint-apps I don’t find myself playing with it as much. I tried to modify it by cutting out the rear dome on it to replace it with a vending machine capsule, but I cut it too wide and now it doesn’t fit in snuggly. I really wanted to get this green Rig when it came out, but I was at work until 10pm that night & the drop happened at 7pm. By the time I got home on break they were all gone. I’m in 100% agreement with you on your comment about the MotUC figures, I spend $27 bucks a wack on them & I truely feel I’d get more fun out of buying a Rig, or $27 worth of Glyos stuff. I hope another Rig is due out soon, I’d love to have the opportunity to snag one in a different colorway. And to answer Seth L (nanite), yes I think this was the 1st rig to feature tampo printing.

    1. Having to work during the drops blows! Especially with the Rig since they all blow out so fast. I think the one I regret missing the most is the black one at this point, but that Spectre one is a close second!

      I have a much more long-winded comparison between the types of nostalgia buying between picking up MOTU and picking Glyos. I cut most of it out for length, but seeing you fellas echo a lot of in the comments, I’m wondering if I should turn it into a Truetorial…

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