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Series: Ultima Online Craftsmanship: 8.9 out of 10 - Oozes cool factor - Not very poseable - Great sculpt and paint - Semi-translucent wings - Easy to assemble - Excellent video game likeness - Just try knocking him over! Playability: 9.0 out of 10 - No accessories to lose - A flying toy - He’s a dragon! - Heavy with sharp bits
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Ancient Wyrm (Ultima Online)
Way back when The Horrid (Spawn 11) was released, I marveled at the ability of McFarlane to pack such a big figure on a standard card back. Once again, McFarlane’s outdone itself with a dragon figure – Ancient Wyrm is huge!
Wyrm takes up a large amount of shelf space, so clear out your My Little Ponies. As if he wasn’t big enough (or stable enough) on his own McFarlane’s packed a base with Wyrm. With four points of contact, it’s not easy to knock him down – more so when installed on the base. Either way, Wyrm oozes cool in the best tradition of dragons the world over. Wyrm represents a plastic East-West amalgam of dragon traditions (at least in my observation) but this is an action figure review so let’s not get distracted by dragon representations throughout History.
“Action” figure is a little misleading. Wyrm doesn’t have much in the way of effective articulation. Radically different poses are not possible – any changes are subtle. Most of the articulation is concentrated in the neck but each of the legs is articulated where it joins the body. The front legs are ball-jointed but their movement is extremely limited. (The tail is also a little bendy.)
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The sculpt, detail, and paint job are fantastic! The eye-catcher are the wings – they’re semi-translucent. With the correct display lighting, Wyrm rivals porcelain figures. Detail is very high with lots of scales, spikes, and bumps. The paint job is extremely well done – browns, grays, reds are applied in a good mix. This is consistent with the dark tones of the rest of the Ultima line so displaying them together is a must.
While anything with wings should be considered a “flying” toy, Wyrm is big and has several sharp bits so I would advise against actually “flying” him. |
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(Although, if you do chuck him across the room he’s unlikely to break – the wings will pop out but they’re easy to replace – just make sure no one’s in Wyrm’s flight path.) The playability factor relies mostly on the fact he’s a dragon. Dragons are cool, ergo a toy that will be played with. Rig up a makeshift saddle and all manner of action figure can be mounted on Wyrm’s back. GI Joe figures are prime candidates to get in the saddle, but Snake (MGS2) fits nicely too. My favorite combination is putting the re-released Destro on Wyrm’s back while they go M.U.S.C.L.E. hunting – those little guys fit perfectly in Wyrm’s mouth. (The only reason Wyrm doesn’t score higher on the playability score are the sharps bits; however, if you’re careful, bump the playability score up to 9.5.)
Next to Blackthorn, Ancient Wyrm is the must-have figure of the Ultima series for sheer cool factor – as if the high detail, great wings, and very good sculpt weren’t enough.
- Omni (March 31, 2002)
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