Advent Calendar 06: Oranges Palace Guard

 

I was supposed to do this one for last year's Advent Calendar, but Real Life interfered and he was delayed. Now he's here and I really don't give a flying fuch about Origins... 200X variants, for better or worse were notable.

The palace guards are the heroic Army Builders of Eternia. First official toy was made for the classics toy line, where is a former narcissistic brand manager pushed to have his face on a figure. He later changed the story to The Four Horsemen sculpting that figures had out of their own free will. This new Palace guard has the Man-at-Arms face underneath the mask. Basically this figure is a man-at-arms figure, the only variations are the mirrored right side armor for his arm and leg add a brand new horse alarm work based on the classics Palace guard armor. The head is Man-at-Arms head but with a new helmet based on the classics Palace guard. I'm pointing this out early on because there's not much to talk about this figure but let's get on with the review.

Articulation:

I could be lazy and point out that this is LITERALLY MAN-AT-ARMS WITH SOME DIFFERENT ARMOR and that the issues that plague Man-at-Arms, plague this figure as well, but on BOTH ARMS AND LEGS. But I won't  do that. I will mention the armor interfering with the articulation and at times his own stability. I have to jiggle around his leg armor to aid on his posing.

This means that the Palace Guard gets in articulation a 3.0

Paint and sculpt:

There isn't much I can say here that wasn't said on the normal MAA. Incredibly enough, the downgraded MOTUC Palace Guard kinda works. sadly, he's wearing the Lt. Eagle. Personally I use the three bars for normal guards. It's a slight nitpick. It also has the pieces to make a Vintage-ish Man-at-Arms. If I hadn't repainted my Man-at-Arms, I would've been ablento make a full Vintage MAA. This is not a flaw on the figure, but I have to comment on it for the sake of transparency.

4.0

Accessories:

2 sets of chest armor (Guard and MAA)

6 pieces of armor for arms and legs

Mace

Spear

Shield

Shaved MAA head

5.0

Overall:

Palace guard gets a 4.0 as his final score. He's not a bad figure, but not a good one for army building. MOTUC was more versatile there. For a lazy quarter-assed figure he did pretty well. I don't see myself buying multiples for Army building. Then again,  Origins isn't exactly my cup of tea.