One of the key factors that has contributed to the amazing success of the Mythic Legions line is the ability to easily customize these figures with some simple part swaps. In fact, this “customizability” was one of the key features that the studio built into the line from the very beginning!
As you begin “popping and swapping” various parts of Mythic Legions figures, you may wonder whether the studio’s previous releases, including their popular “birds” figures, are able to have their parts swapped in this way? While those birds figures, both from the initial Gothitropolis wave and the Eathyron’s Dozen wave, were not created with the same kind of swapability that we designed into Mythic Legions, there are some simple customizations that you can do with the line, including combining the bird parts with Mythic Legions to create some truly unique looks! This “Customizing Corner” article will show a few examples of these swaps.
Popping Apart the Birds
So what parts can you remove from the birds? While the heads are not as easy to remove as those on Mythic Legions are, they do come off with a little heat and determination. In fact, we released a few alternate heads as part of the initial wave of these figures (open mouth versions of the black and white ravens, plus a raven skull with the original skeletal wings). Those heads will not really fit on Mythic Legions without a little work, but you can certainly swap heads between bird figures! We’ve actually seen people place a Decimus Hrabban raven head on the Trumpetus body. Both of those figures have “black” feathers, so the head swap works really well and it allows you to have a black raven with cool red armor! We’ve seen people do the same thing with the white raven, Nonus Hrraban, and the Bubotros figure.
In addition to the head, all of the birds can have their feet and arms removed and they can be separated at the waist. These parts DO work with Mythic Legions 2.0-style figures, and you can combine those parts in some pretty fun ways. While you could go even further and pop the figures apart at the ‘knees’, triceps, and hands, you are unlikely going to do that for a custom.
An Easy Harpy Recipe
Mythic Legions’ fan, Patrick Boyle, was the first person we saw post about his discovery of the compatibility between the hips/legs of the birds and the torsos for the 2.0-style Mythic Legions figures. Those parts connect together pretty much perfectly, allowing you to create a character with avian legs and a normal upper body. Add a pair of wings using the back adapters and you have yourself a pretty cool Harpy! Here are a few shots of some Harpy customs that Jeremy Girard / MythicCustoms has done using this simple recipe.
The parts themselves are incredibly easy to combine. As you can see in the photos below, the peg on the birds’ hip part plugs directly into a 2.0 torso port. There will be a gap between those two parts that you will certainly want to close, but a piece of faulds armor from a Mythic Legions figure will do that for you. Note that you will not want to use the waist armor from the bird for this combination because of the way that piece is sculpted. If you look at the bottom of the bird’s torso, it is very thin, while the normal 2.0 torsos are a bit wider. The waist armor on the birds has a few ridges that rise up to fit on the side of the thin waist, which means they will not work with the wider 2.0 torso parts. The third photo below shows this part so you can see how it would not be able to be used as is.
Other Ideas
The arms of the birds are also compatible with Mythic Legion’s 2.0 torsos. Simply plug those arms into the sockets in the torso and you have feathered arms for your figures. This allows for some interesting design options you can experiment with! Below are a few different custom ideas (also both from Jeremy) including a combination with Xylona parts and a Kenku design using a black raven with a torso from a Skeleton Soldier.
Speaking of strange creations - if the legs and arms from the birds fit with the 2.0 torsos, that also means that the torsos of the birds fit with 2.0 legs and arms! This makes for a pretty creepy combination, which is exactly what Dennis Derby was going for when he created his crazy 4-armed skeleton! The extra arms are plugged directly into the small “wing ports” in the figure’s back, and the large, extended torso gives the figure a strange look that is much different than the other undead denizens of Mythoss!
What Creatures Will You Create?
So what combinations would you put together using Mythic Legions and our birds action figures? Share your pics with us if you decide to swap these parts and create some feathered creatures of your own!
Published on 04.24.20