In a previous article on Brontus the Arena Troll, we mentioned some of the unique circumstances that have made the “Coliseum” wave one of the most illusive and sought after in the Mythic Legions line. In this “Blast from the Past” article, we will explore this wave in greater detail, examining why it has become something of a sleeper in the Mythic Legions line!
Enter the Coliseum
The Coliseum wave caught many Legions fans by surprise. First off, it was a much smaller wave than the previously offered Advent of Decay – with only 8 figures versus 43. Fans appreciated this smaller offering, but many felt that the wave was a bit of a step back in that it once again only offered parts from the 1.0 library, and none of the new “2.0” pieces introduced in the Advent wave. This was done intentionally.
One of the coolest aspects of creating new Mythic Legions figures is being able to introduce brand new parts into the line. This allows us to create new kinds of characters, it gives us pieces to draw on for future releases, and it energizes the customizing community by giving them fresh fodder to play with. The challenge is finding a balance between tooling new pieces and leveraging existing library parts for new figures. Today, the Legions part library is vast, and it grows with every major new wave we release, like Arethyr, Illythia, and Poxxus (and it will grow even more once the Necromominus wave is revealed). Back in 2017, in the months after the Advent of Decay campaign ended, we certainly did not have the range of parts to draw from that we do today. In planning the Coliseum wave, we focused on pieces that were already fully tooled and ready to go. Since the Advent of Decay pieces were still very much in the earliest stages of development while we were planning for Coliseum, we did not draw upon any of those for the new wave.
The Coliseum wave was a great success for us at this early stage of the line, but we have heard a number of Legions collectors who were around at this time state that they went a bit light on the wave, in part because of the lack of “new” parts. This undoubtedly contributed to the seeming scarcity of these figures. As new fans came into the line in the years after Coliseum’s release, they discovered that the figures from this wave were in fact some of the hardest to acquire because many collectors had neglected to buy “extras.”
For the Glory of Mercurios!
This entire Coliseum wave was built around the fighting arena on the island of Mercurios, an area of Leandorr that had been mentioned previously in bios for Vitus, Pixxus, and Calavius. Some of the fighters found in these gladiatorial contests were the characters who made up this wave, starting with an actual Mercurian – Rahmulus.
The Mercurian characters had been introduced into the line via those aforementioned Vitus and Pixxus figures. At the time that this new wave we released, both of those figures were very hard to come by, and we saw the requests from fans for more Mercurians. Rahmulus was our answer to those requests.
With his black and red color scheme, Rahmulus is considered by many to be the coolest of the Mercurian figures in the line and he has been at the top of fans’ “wish lists” since his initial release. For this reason, Legion fans were happy when Rahmulus was announced as the first figure revealed for the “Mythic Legions: All Stars 5” wave!
In early 2022, fans were able to vote for their favorite characters to be included in this latest All Stars wave. Doing battle against a specific group of available characters, Rahmulus came out firmly on top of the vote! Interestingly, the top vote getter for “All Stars 4” was also a Mercurian – Vitus. This is further proof of the popularity of the Mercurians, as Rahmulus, Vitus, and Pixxus have now all been voted by fans to achieve this notable distinction.
You can read more about the Mercurians of Mythoss in this article.
Orcs and Dwarves
Since the beginning of the line, Mythic Legions has drawn upon classic fantasy races and character-types to populate the Realm of Mythoss with. Two popular races seen across the line are Orc and Dwarves, and the Coliseum wave included one of each.
Similar to the requests for a Mercurian, at the time that Coliseum was put up for preorder, we also heard many fans asking for more green-skinned orcs! Technically named “Deluxe Orc Legion Builder 3”, but commonly referred as the “Coliseum Orc”, this bare-chested brute help filled fans’ need for more orc soldiers! This figure came with a pair of heads, including the “helmeted” orc head with the lower face exposed, as well as a fully helmeted head. This allowed fans to build out their orc armies with these furious fighters of the arena.
The dwarven representative of the line was Halmyr Goldentooth, a figure which used the same head sculpture found on the Thord Ironjaw figure from the first Mythic Legions wave. Both of these figures are difficult to find these days, and many fans have suggested that this head sculpt is the best of all our dwarven figures, no doubt adding to the popularity of this figure.
Mythic Legions Trivia – Halmyr is the only dwarf figure released (as of this writing at least) that does not use the standard “dwarf feet” found on every other male dwarf. Halmyr uses the “spiked feet” typically found on the orcs and other evil characters, making his design somewhat unique!
Black Knights and Warriors from Distant Lands
Another popular character type found in Mythic Legions is the knights. We had long wanted to do a “black knight” for the line, which we sort of did with Baron Volligar from the Covenant of Shadow wave, but that figure was a bit stylized. Since it was a vampire, he used that aforementioned “spikey evil” armor, and we wanted to do a more standard knight build, but in all black. This is where the Black Knight Legion Builder came from, a figure which became an instant favorite with army builders and customizers alike!
The Black Knight Legion Builder eventually became the first of the Coliseum figures to see a reissue. In fact, this figure was the top vote getter in the “Mythic Legions: Reinforcements” vote that we did back in mid-2021, and the figure was released as part of that wave in January 2022.
One very special figure in the Coliseum wave is “the dragon” – Raygorr! This figure was actually created as somewhat of a tribute to a Legions fan who had passed away, Raymond Wu. While listed as part of the “House of the Noble Bear”, Raygorr actually came with a shield that included a brand new faction-style logo depicting a dragon. He is the only character who has even been seen with this specific logo as part of the character.
Power-con Debuts
Our “Power-con Debut” figures have become some of our most popular figures, and ones that attract many new fans to the line. Back during the Coliseum wave, however, this fun sub-set of Legions figures was just getting started. We had released the Unkann figure as part of our 1.5 wave, but the inclusion of the two Power-con figures in Coliseum (which were part of Power-con 2017) were really what established these as figures to look out for – and they are now amongst two of the most sought after figures in the entire Mythic Legions line!
The barbarian Adamonn came with both a helmeted head and a repaint of the head initially seen on Attlus the Conquerer. This is a rare head indeed, as we rarely reuse the heads from our main characters outside of the Power-con debuts. This is in part because while we do write bios for these characters that tie them into Mythoss, they exist somewhat outside of the main storyline we are establishing for Mythic Legions.
The other Power-con debut that was part of Coliseum was the skeletal magic-user Keltuss! A member of the Sons of the Red Star, he also shares a head with an important named character – Skapular the Cryptbreaker.
This figure also allowed us to do a “blue-boned” skeleton, joining our sub-set of colored skeletal characters, which also includes Clavian and Scaphoid.
Many fans have long requested an All Stars reissue of these two characters, but we’ve always maintained that we see these Power-con figures as one-and-done releases. That makes them special in a way, and it reinforces their standing as different than the other figures and characters in the line.
Send in the Troll
The final figure that was revealed for the Coliseum wave back when it was first shown was the mighty Arena Troll, Brontus! At this point in the line, we had released two other trolls (Forest and Stone) and fans were eager for another big boy, so we decided to include on in this wave. The new head and weapon found on Brontus were actually the only new tooling needed for this release, as those pieces were not available on previous figures.
You can read the “Figure in Focus” article on Brontus for more details on this character, but one point of interest is that he is another Coliseum release who has now received the “All Stars” treatment. In Brontus’ case, this was part of the “Mythic Legions: All Stars Trolls” wave.
Reissuing the Coliseum
As we mentioned at the start of this article, the figures from the Coliseum wave have long been some of the most sought after in the line for a variety of reasons, but slowly they are starting to be reintroduced into Mythoss. To date, 3 of the 8 figures from this wave have been rereleased (Rahmulus, Black Knight, Brontus), and while some of the other figures in this line may never be eligible for an All Stars vote, the reissue of these figures shows that as long as there is a fight to be fought in the Coliseum of Mercurios, or on some other battlefield in the Realm, there is hope that these mighty champions will return once again!
Published on 07.01.22