052 - Malifaux January Releases Review

Well here we are with the ever timely "monthly" Releases Review post. Wyrd have previewed 4 months worth of releases since I last wrote one of these, so there's some catching up to do! Here's January - I'll cover February later this week.

Angelica

The posing on this model is brilliant, and she looks like she fits in very well with the rest of the Showgirls crew while retaining a bit of individuality. The feather boa is a nice touch that I can imagine being a lot if fun to develop a colour scheme for. Many people rightly have commented on the fact that her face looks like Marilyn Manson. This is either a deliberate homage by the sculptor (in which case… “Eh? Why would you do this?”), an accident by the sculptor (in which case…. “Eh? Go back and try again?”) or an accident of the paint job (in which case…. “Eh? Go back and try again?”). Sorry, but there’s no justification for Showgirls models that look manly!

Alt Steampunk Arachnid Swarm

People have been complaining about the difficulty of assembling SPAs (which came with all four tiny legs as separate pieces) for as long as Malifaux has been around, so it's nice that Wyrd have come up with some one-piece alternatives. They're not actually that different in appearance from the originals. They look decent enough, if a little chunkier, but I guess this would be necessary to cast them as one piece. I'd worry that they won't be as posable as before - many players have created cool little scenes of them scuttling over wreckage and the like, made possible by individually posing the legs. I'd like to be able to do that myself in theory, so i lean towards the orignbal SPAs, but I wonder whether it'd be worth the inevitable frustration!

Alt Som'er Teeth Jones

While I do really like this model it's tempered slightly by one question: Why does he have a nose? None of the Book 1 or Book 2 Gremlins had noses at all, instead having pretty flat faces with a couple of nostrils in the middle, so it's a bit weird seeing one here. Looking past any nose issues, this is a nice sculpt. He looks less... froggy than the original, and more humanoid, which matches better with the rest of the crew. His coat and hat have some nice details, while keeping some of the best ideas from the original. And a Blunderbuss is never anything but cool.

Avatar Som'er Teeth Jones (and Peaches)

"That's not a pig. This is a pig!". And what a beauty she is. The biggest Avatar released to date, by volume of metal anyway, this is a big big model that barely fits on a 50mm base! Peaches herself is lovely; a bulging heap of muscle that you could definitely imagine could trample anything. I can't tell if her legs might be a bit shirt, which would reduce basing options, but we shall see. The amount of detail in the accessories piled on top of Peaches is brilliant, and Som'er himself looks suitably indulgent, chowing down on a chicken leg (or some swamp animal's leg anyway). Given that I'm in the middle of painting Gremlins, this model is definitely going on my list, and I'm looking forward to seeing her in action at the GT Doubles in a couple of weeks.

Alt Zoraida

As far as Alt masters go, this one is pretty decent. It's a uniquely posed and characterful model that makes you wonder exactly what she's brewing up. Doing away with the whole hag/exposed breasts motif that still seems to upset a lot of people (or their stomachs), this model plays more on the bestial swamp witch side of Zoraida's character. The animalistic teeth and the giant bone add to the impression that she's a little bit feral. Having said that, framing her in this way does undermine the "master manipulator" thing she has going for her in the fluff. I'm torn - I think I prefer the original model, but I do like this sculpt and want to be able to use it somewhere.

Avatar Zoraida

This model was one of the first revealed Avatars back before GenCon last year and I can remember when the preview went up on the Wyrd boards being slightly nonplussed. She didn't look particularly giant or impressive or cool or upgraded - she was simply a regular humanoid female model on a scenic base. I maintain that she doesn't have any of the "wow factor" of some of the other Avatars. It's a very nice model, don't get me wrong! The dolls and the bad juju on the base are very nice touches, the tree makes a great backdrop which the Wyrd painter has done a great job of and even Zoraida herself looks good, but I think the concept itself is lacking just a bit of specialness.