First released in the “Advent of Decay” wave, the ghostly warrior Hagnon clearly stands out amongst any Mythic Legions display with his transparent body and armor. For this “Figure in Focus” article, we decided to dig a little deeper into the “once proud soldier of the Order of Eathyron” who was hunted down by the evil Brother Mandibulus and subsequently killed and resurrected by his sister, Morgolyth. This spectral soldier was forced to fight as a reluctant member of the Congregation of Necronominus, but one day he hopes to turn the tables on the undead army and fight for the side of light once again!
Hagnon’s Debut
The Hagnon figure was actually shown long before the Advent of Decay wave’s Kickstarter campaign, which is where he was first offered for sale. Because Hagnon uses “1.0-style” parts with a new head and accessories, he was something we put together to display at the New York Toy Fair in 2016 alongside B’alam, Boarrior, and Calavius - all of whom are also 1.0 bodies with a new head added. These figures were initially planned to be part of a mini-wave of new figures offered before our second Kickstarter, but that wave never materialized. These 4 figures were eventually moved into the Advent of Decay campaign alongside the new body types and races that debuted in that wave. The photo below shows Hagnon and these other characters on display for the first time at the 2016 New York Toy Fair event.
Adding Some Glow
As soon as fans saw Hagnon offered as part of “Advent of Decay”, the requests to have him glow-in-the-dark started. We are suckers for GITD toys, so we loved this idea and started to explore how we could add this feature to Hagnon. Initially we had tossed around the idea of doing both a “blue” glow and a “green” glow version of Hagnon and packing them randomly for orders. Of course, since you wouldn’t be able to tell what color glow you had simply by looking at the figure under normal light, this would add a surprise element to the toy and we hoped that fans would interact to maybe trade one glow version for the one they may have been missing! The community of Mythic Legions fans is already so cool and helpful, and we thought this would be just another way to encourage interaction amongst those fans. Alas, the multiple glow options were not to be, but the idea did give us a fun story to tell about the creation of "Halfnon!"
Halfnon's Tale
We have already posted an article about “Halfnon”, which is what we dubbed this fun character pictured below. You can read the full story of his creation on that article, but to summarize here – we initially asked our factory in China if they would be able to produce “half the Hagnon figures in blue, and half in green”. The language barrier between our studio and our factory in China gave us this gem as the first prototype they sent us. He is quite literally half blue and half green!
Going Green
Once the miscommunication on Hagnon was cleared up, our factory pressed ahead trying to get the green and blue glow effects in place. They nailed the green glow pretty quickly, but the blue option proved to be more of a challenge, and we began to worry that this would delay production on that figure. To avoid this, we ended up just going ahead with the green glow version of Hagnon, which is what made it out as part of Advent of Decay. Along the way, the factory did send us a variety of other cool prototypes of Hagnon, beyond just the “Halfnon” figure. Some of those early examples actually had the figure cast not in clear plastic, but in a color that reflected the glow they were going for. The photo below shows some of these prototype pieces on display in our studio, including a cool "Blue Hagnon." We would not know it at the time, but this blue ghost would become something of a legend within the Mythic Legions community, spawning multiple memes as part of a campaign to get him made! Did it work? Keep reading!
Hagnon Stretch Goals
When the ghostly Hagnon was revealed at the start of our Advent of Decay Kickstarter, he was shown with just his normal, “zombie-like” head. The incredible success of that Kickstarter not only allowed us to release the initial figures we had planned for that wave, but we also opened up a number of stretch goals along the way! Some of those stretch goals were new figures, while others were the addition of new weapons or heads for other figures who were already planned for the wave. Hagnon fell into this latter category, and we eventually decided to include 3 total heads with the ghost. In addition to the zombie head, he also came with transparent versions of the skull head with the hinged jaw and the "jousting" knight head that was first available in our 1.0 wave on Sir Owain and which has been used on a number of other figures since then. The addition of 3 unique heads, plus Hagnon’s chains and other accessories, would allow fans to “army build” this figure and create larger displays of ghostly characters!
Here is the bio that was included on the card for Hagnon:
Once a proud soldier in The Order of Eathyron, Hagnon led a legendary campaign that led to one of The Congregation of Necronominus’ greatest defeats. Later hunted and captured by the treacherous Brother Mandibulus, he was brought to the unforgiving Morgolyth for his final reckoning. In a chilling act of revenge, Morgolyth ended Hagnon’s life and resurrected him as one of her own. Eternally chained and shackled for his crimes, he has become the menacing and forever-conflicted ghostly agent of Necronominus.
Hagnon the All-Star?
When we announced the options that fans would have to vote on for our All-Stars 3 wave, a lot of those fans were surprised to see Hagnon amongst the choices available to them. He was a much newer release than the other figures on the list, and he was even still available from some of our approved online retailers when the vote happened. So why was he included in that vote?
We included Hagnon in our potential All-Stars 3 lineup for a very specific reason – because we wanted to add something “new” to the mix. Had Hagnon been one of the top vote-getters for the wave, he would’ve been released with a “blue” glow rather than the original green! Alas, the fans did not show much love for Hagnon (he came in last place in the voting), and so we continued to live in a world where “blue Hagnon” was nothing but a dream - but a seed was planted during that voting campaign, and slowly but surely the legend of Blue Hagnon began to grow!
Vote Blue!
Despite a resounding defeat during the All Stars 3 voting process, the option for a "blue glow" Hagnon returned for AS4 in 2021 and again for AS5 in 2022. While this ghost did not crack the top of vote-getters in either campaign, he did steadily move up each year, in part due to the endless support of a grass-roots campaign of memes from Mythic Legions Cabal admin, Cullun Culp.
Cullun's push to get Blue Hagnon made, coupled with Chris Gawrych's demands that the figure not be made since he owned one of the only ones in existence, made for some fun campaigning. You can see a few of those memes below.
Blue Hagnon Rises
In early 2023, when we announced the lineup for our first ever "Retailer Appreciation Wave", all the years of campaigning for Blue Hagnon paid off as the new version of this spectral solider became a reality! Even cooler, rather than simply reissuing the clear Hagnon with a blue glow, this new version not only glowed blue, he WAS blue! Using the color sample that our factory had sent along during the Advent of Decay production process, a photo of which was shown earlier in this article, we decided to release Hagnon with this new color scheme, so that you could see the difference in this ghost even with the lights on!
In addition to his new color and glow, we also updated Hagnon's story with a new package bio:
Necronominus has returned, and the undead armies of his Congregation are called to his side. Hagnon has spent ages trying to free himself from the shackles that Morgolyth has placed upon him. Once nothing more than an insubstantial ghost of his former self, Hagnon’s power has grown. He now glows with blue spectral energy as he takes up his sword and shield. Will he join the undead in their march against the Legions of Light, or will this spirit be able to master this new power and once again become the proud solider who fought with the pious knights of the Order of Eathyron.
Cullun Victorious!
The epic saga of Hagnon - from the misunderstood Halfnon, to his green glow first appearance, to the realization of one man's dream to finally get Blue Hagnon made is a tale for the ages. Below you can see a shot of Cullun enjoying an assortment of blue glowng ghosts - a fitting end to the tale of Hagnon, or is it? Have we seen the last of this ghostly solider, or will he find a way to return to his former glory and once again fight beside the Order of Eathyron! With the Second Great War of Mythoss looming, anything could happen.
First published on 06.02.20
Published on 04.11.24