There are few figures in the Mythic Legions line who have achieved the kind of legendary status that Otho has. This is an interesting and somewhat unexpected development, since this key member of the Army of Leodysseus was actually one of our least popular offerings in the first Kickstarter wave where he was introduced. In this “Figure in Focus” article, we will explore the history of Otho, from his inclusion in those early days of the line to his current status as a “grail” on so many Legions’ fans wishlists!
An Early Legion
As mentioned above, Otho was one of the figures featured in the very first Mythic Legions wave and the Kickstarter that began everything for this line. Not only was he included in that wave, he was one of the initial 22 figures offered in the initial, pre-stretch goal assortment, showing this character's importance to the story from the start.
Almost from the get-go, Otho had a troubled introduction into the Realm of Mythoss. For starters, his head was too big – something we only really noticed when we were taking product shots for the Kickstarter.
In these early days of the line, everything was sculpted traditionally, as opposed to the digital process we use today. If we had a head that was too big now, we would simply resize the digital file and reprint it on our 3D-printers. Back in 2015, when we were preparing to launch Mythic Legions, we did not have that luxury. Back then, resizing a head meant resculpting a head, and with the Kickstarter date looming so close, we made the decision to show Otho as is (because really, his head wasn’t THAT much bigger than it needed to be), but we would acknowledge that a change would be made in production (which it was). Poor big-headed Otho. It would not get much easier from here.
Not One of the Popular Crowd
From the start of the Kickstarter campaign, we saw some figures which were immediately very popular, while others really didn’t seem to be catching on as much with our backers. Otho was firmly in this later camp. While he was not our lowest ordered figure, he was certainly amongst the bottom few. This honestly surprised us, as Otho was not only a key character in the storyline we had planned (more on that shortly), but we also thought he made for a very cool looking figure! We expected his unique look would set him apart from the rest of the wave, but in a line also populated by other knight characters, it seemed like buyers focused more on those more traditional interpretations of knights instead of some of the more unique characters and colors. Take Orn Steelhide and Sir Ignatius, for example. Those two characters were also less popular products in that first series, and they both had unique looks and colors to their armor and design.
Another aspect of the Otho figure that we believed led to him being less popular than some others was the fact that he only came with the unhelmeted head. As cool as that head was, we realize now that fans could only make Otho with Otho. A figure like Gideon Heavensbrand, by comparison, came with two heads, and even the head with his character-specific face could be covered and used to make him more of a generic knight.
A more recent example of this would be Magnus from the Areythr wave. That figure is also an important, named character in the Army of Leodysseus, but we had learned our lesson and made sure to include a generic bucket knight helmet along with the unmasked Magnus head. This allowed fans to get an extra Magnus (or two, or three…) to make a non-character-specific knight, something that could not be done with Otho. Because Otho only had the one head, the fans who did order him typically ordered only one, further leading to him becoming one of the lowest produced figures in the first Mythic Legions wave.
It is also worth noting here that the community of fans who backed that first Mythic Legions wave via the Kickstarter are a fraction of the size of the community we have today. Numbers wise, the least ordered figure in a wave today would easily be more total units than the most ordered figure in some of our early releases. So this combination of a less popular figure in an early wave that had a much smaller audience than we enjoy today leads us to the point we are at now – where we have a growing fan base who want some of those older characters, especially an important one like Otho, but there simply are none to be found, even on the secondary market.
The Importance of Otho
Changing direction now from the early history of Otho’s release, let’s look at the character of Otho and where he fits into the storyline of Mythic Legions. This information was not available during the initial Kickstarter, so fans did not realize the importance of this character at that time, or of the role he played with two other key characters in our story - the brothers Attila Leossyr and Attlus the Conqueror. According to Otho’s bio:
Widely known as the greatest warrior in the Army of Leodysseus, Otho stands at Attila Leossyr’s side as his closest friend and most trusted advisor. As childhood friends, Otho, Attila, and Attlus were inseparable as they diligently trained for the day they would all walk onto the battlefield. Walking away from battle after battle unscathed, Otho’s deepest wound came as a result of Attlus’ departure. That departure weighs heavily on Otho, perhaps even more than on Attlus’ own brother Attila.
Otho is Not an All Star
For many years, fans clamored for us to re-release Otho, but many of those fans would be surprised to discover that Otho was indeed eligible for inclusion back when we did the vote for All Stars 2. Not only did he not make it in, he actually didn’t even come close.
By the time we were preparing the vote for All Stars 3 (and again for future All Stars waves), we decided to eliminate Otho from the running. We did the same for a number of other important, named characters in the line. This was deliberate, because it was around this time that we began considering NEW and improved versions of existing characters! The possibility of updating these characters, as opposed to simply reissuing them as is, excited us and the creative wheels began turning. Fans would start to see this approach of updated versions of characters in the Illythia wave with the release of a new Baron Volligar and a new Artymss Silverchord, and again during the Mythic Legions Tactics: War of the Aetherblade Kickstarter campaign with the release of the 2-pack featuring new versions of Attila Leossyr and Gorgo Aetherblade. This approach would continue with the Necronominus and Rising Sons waves where Sir Gideon Heavensbrand, Attlus the Conqueror, and Skapular the Cryptbreaker would all be updated.
This is why we stopped allowing key named characters to appear in All Stars voting ballots, because at some point, if they are to be redone as figures, we wanted to update and improve upon what came before! This led us to perhaps one of the most exciting developments for Mythic Legions in years - the Legacies of Mythoss line!
Legacies of Mythoss
First revealed during our Gcon broadcast in 2024, the Legacies of Mythoss line is our answer to getting key characters into fans’ collections without simply having to reissue older figures. Since the Mythic Legions line has evolved so much in the decade since it’s introduction, adding new elements like wired soft goods, updated articulation, and more, we want to be able to ensure that any figure we released included our best efforts. This is how the idea for Legacies of Mythoss was born.
As the Mythic Legions’ narrative moves beyond the first story arc of the “Rise of the Dark Four”, many of our key characters will evolve in how they act and how they look – and some will not make it out of those chapters at all! We know that as excited as fans may be for these characters and their new looks, there is also a need to have them in their classic looks as well. Legacies of Mythoss is how we will release these figures, replacing the All Stars reissues that ended with All Stars 6 in 2023 with this new line. The first figure revealed for this new sub-line of Mythic Legions was none other than Otho.
The image below was shown at Gcon in 2024 to not only unveil the Legacies line, but also to let fans known that Otho version 2, something we had long said would eventually happen, was indeed coming. The excitement for this reveal was immediate, but fans would need to wait until September of the following year to get their hands on this updated version of Otho.
In early September, 2025, the first Legacies of Mythoss line was fully revealed with a small "in stock" run that got these toys in fans' hands fast, as well as a subsequent preorder period to ensure everyone had a shot at adding these figures to their collections. Joining Otho in the offering was another long-requested figure - a new version of the orc general, Urzokk. This new version of Otho would not only include those aforemented figure upgrades, but it was also corrected the previous misstep of only including a single head with the figure. The Legacies Otho would not only come with a newly-sculpted version of his iconic look, but also two different helmets with moveable visors and a face plate that could pop into either one. Below you can see some images of this new Otho.
The Legacies version of this figure not only improved the toy, but it also expanded his bio, as seen below.
Known as the greatest warrior in the Army of Leodysseus, Otho is the second-in-command to Leandor’s king, Attila Leossyr. Childhood friends with Attila and his older brother, Attlus, Otho dreamed of the day when the three of them would fight together to defend the Realm. Those dreams were shattered when Attlus abandoned his place as the rightful heir to his kingdom and disappeared.
Long positioned to be Attlus’ closest advisor, Otho was expected to be seated to his right when he eventually took the throne as the new king of Leandorr. Of course, Attila would be the Leossyr brother to eventually sit upon that golden throne, but he ensured that Otho would still be given the honor of the Blue Seat
Named after the fabled Blue Shield of the First Great War, the duty of the Blue Seat was accepted by Otho on his new king’s request. He donned the blue tunic of this station and served Attila as nobly and faithfully as any could ask for. However, in his heart, Otho has always questioned where Attlus went, and secretly he believes that some calamity befell his best friend, forcing him from his home and his sworn duty.
It is worth noting here that the mentions of “The Blue Shield” in this bio are a reference to a short story released alongside the Mythic Legions: Ashes of Agbendor wave – “The Sacrifice of the Blue Shield.” That story includes an explanation of why Otho is the only member of the Army of Leodysseus to wear the color blue. You can read that story here.
The Legend of Otho
While the release of the new Legacies of Mythoss Otho figure has allowed many more Legions fans to add him to their collections, it has only served to add to the legend of this mighty warrior. Needless to say, there is much more of his story to be told, and much more of his legacy to be written, in the tales of Mythic Legions.
Orginally published on 03.01.22
Published on 10.03.25