The July Glyos drop had a surprise if you were there when it began. A new mold had been added to the roster, an Armorvor. It sold out quickly, but two new colorways will be available in this week’s drop, so I thought it’d be a good time to review the last release, Venjorun!
If you follow along with the independent toy market, the Armorvor might be familiar to you. It originally debuted at the Onell booth during last year’s New York Comic Con. The as-yet-unnamed Armorvor had sprung from the creative mind of Matt Doughty years before, but it was a colossal toy team-up that would bring this little wolf warrior to life.
Matt teamed up with sculptor Jason Frailey through their mutual connection Marty (THEGODBEAST) Hansen to bring this figure into three dimensions. When the as-yet-unnamed Armorvor debuted, the response among Glyos fans was quick and best decribed as “want”. Initially, master caster GodBeast stepped up the plate to reproduce Frailey’s awesome sculpt in resin and get him into collector’s hands. I really wanted to snag an Armorvor back then, but being a 16-part handcast figure put him out of my price range. I spent many a night contemplating it, but it just didn’t make sense for me. I was sad to miss out and I figured that was that.
So you can imagine my delight late last July when the Armorvor popped up in the store. I had been there to snag my latest Onell obsession, the Glyan, but there was no way I could turn down the Armorvor. He was just too badass to resist. And being mass produced overseas, he was now $8. If you spend a week wondering if you should spend $160 on something, spending $8 on something tends to be involuntary.
Being from a different sculptor, the base Armorvor body has a different feel than the Glyos System figures that we’re used to, but their built-in back story (read more at the Onell Blog) largely explains that away, including their use of “black core” technology (that’d be that nugget sitting in the center of their chest). The other thing about the sculpt is that it’s remarkably well done. I love the bulk, the crisp technical aspect of it. It just really pops off the shelf and I’m excited to have it in red and still hoping to pick it up in black on Wednesday.
Having him in hand, I’ve found that I’m more apt to view him as a robot than an animal warrior. And that’s okay. It’s one of the beauties of Glyos, you can swap things around at whim. For the Armorvor, there are actually four easy options when it comes to the head. The white wolf head could be considered the standard configuration, but the armored up/masked head could easily be considered that as well. The second armored head definitely has a more robotic feel to both sides (it’s reversible!), but I’ve found that I like to cheat a bit and use the backpack as the head. I love the full-on automaton look. In fact, I’ll warn you a lot of the pictures in the Page 2 Gallery ended up with the “backpack” head. It just kinda happened. I’ve also gotten fond of using the backpack as a pistol though, so one of those is gonna have to give. And hey, ain’t Glyos grand? What other line makes you have to decide if you want to use a certain piece as a head or a pistol?! Continue to the Page 2 Gallery…
Thanks for the link, Phil!
I love this flippin’ figure, I was just refreshing the store when I saw it pop up at the top of the page. I immediately ordered 3 & then went back to order the rest of the things I wanted from the drop. I love the colors and the figure is just a rock-solid little chunky piece of plastic. My wife claimed one of them so her GodBeast Lion Armovor head could have a body, but the other 2 are mine to play with. My digital camera of 7 years recently died on me, so I still need to take photos of the builds I made with mine. Their red color matches the Red/Maroon Glyans from last October and I think the Red/Clear Smoke Armory sets from Spy Monkey Creations. I actually gave one of mine a big hammer with the Armory parts & it looks pretty awesome. O_O Excellent review as usual dude. 😀
Yeah, I had no idea he was coming! I didn’t even think about matching up the reds… I have a Sarvos, Exellis, and Glyans from that batch!
And thanks!
I’ve been convinced that I should pick up some of these in the next drop since reading the many articles around the net this past month, but I really like those white heads, and red armor.
From a collectible aspect, and a “we don’t know how many the factory can handle” aspect, a limited initial run makes sense, but from a story perspective, I can’t go back and buy the he-man or batman of the Armorvor world! That sucks.
Is there even a secondary market for Glyos, if we missed the boat on the first run of these guys?
The best way to track down earlier figures is through the Onell Design forum at October Toys. You can also keep checking eBay for “Glyos” and see what periodically comes up. I remember BigBadToyStore had a couple in stock someone sold to them, but I’ve never seen them sold anywhere else.
Can’t recommend those forums enough. Some great people there that have helped me out with numerous older items.
I have no insider info, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see the red colorway return on the Armorvor at some point. Matt’s usually pretty good about that.
Nice! I’m hoping ot get a few of these guys come wed myself, I missed out on this one, thankfully my friends are hardcore glyos guys and I used one of theirs for my review
I saw that in your review. I’m usually the lender around here. LOL
so the little guy is off to a 2-0 record this early in his career… how auspicious!
The black one blew out in 8 minutes. Crazy!
Man, I wish I’d have known about this guy when he went on sale.
Of course, I guess nobody really knew he was going up. But I was at a bigger disadvantage since I don’t really follow Glyos. But this guy… he’s totally a Battle Beast and he’s totally awesome. I might try to get the black and green one coming out this week, but as cool as that guy looks, it’s a bit like settling for a Player 2 Ryu when you want the real white-gied deal.
Maybe that’s not exactly the same situation, as I don’t know anything about this guy’s story, but at least he has the advantage of being a real wolf color. Maybe they will release a black, brown or grey head with a colorful armor in the future. But that red and white is sharp.
Yeah, I was just there hoping to snag the Deep Space Glyan and then there was this guy staring me in the face.
Have you had time to check the tie-in media for the Armorvor intro? There is actually some back story stuff on his race, if not him specifically.
Wonderful review, sweet toy!
I look at all these nifty new lines IAT keeps showcasing, and it makes wish I was a billionaire with a huge mansion, so I could buy and display all this stuff in a befitting manner. Alas and lackaday, I am a mere thousandaire, and rapidly running out of space in the spare room and garage. You’d think in the 21st Century, British construction firms would latch onto the idea of building homes with basements!
Space is such a huge concern right now. I really need to take a week off and go on a big eBay purge.
Using the backpack as a head totally give him a Robot Jox type look. It really looks like a cockpit up there.
I missed this version, so I ordered two of the black ones (should have gone for a stealth version too) in the most recent drop. These guys are fantastic, and I’m with you, I don’t really see myself building with him, because I like him as is.
I can’t wait to see what the next drop will be, I’ll be getting more of these no matter what color they’re in.