You may have seen last year's Kickstarter, or you may be brand-new to the growing phenomenon known as The Four Horsies of the 'Pocalypse, but there's much more than meets the eye. The box flap reads "Turn Back Now" - so these figures are a challenge from the start! The horsies themselves are undead zombie phillies.
One such evolution in this line is one of the "Champions of Chaos", a character known as MADDIE, an inventive cross between My Lil' Pony, Cthulu and a flying dragon. She reigns supreme as the mentor of the quartet by using her special powers of telepathy. She originally came in a concord grape purplish finish standing 6" tall. But today we are looking at her 'tween counterpart in three colorways and these lovelies are vibrant at 4". So. let's take a look:
(left to right: Cthulu Green, Glow-In-The-Dark, Red Hellfire)
Here are the three glorious four-inch versions we are looking at today. These are available directly through Bigshot Toyworks for $30/each right here and are all in limited editions of 200-600. In addition to these three colorways we are featuring they also produce an Original Purple (600 pieces) and Spirit World Clear (200 pieces). One of the first notables about these lil' guys are they have ball-jointed wings and heads, so there is a fun bit of articulation, but be gentle on them even though they are made from a durable ABS plastic which is injection molded. This process really allows for an impressive translucency to the entire figure, but particularly in the wings where its a single ply. This process allows you to look directly through the figure, giving them a see-thru "spirit world" effect. Let's look at the Red Hellfire edition first.
HELLACIOUS: Of the three we looked at today, this is, the brightest in coloration, in luscious candy red, and indicative of rising from the ashes of the 'Pocalypse. The fiery beasty is far too cute to cause for too much alarm. The detailed painting of eyes on this and the Cthulu Green edition are both reminicent of a metal jingle bell, only here in the searing orange-red tones of the sun. The underside of the tail is spotted and the sculpt will make you look twice, especially the insect meets giant squid cranium. She's a maestro of madness with nice stalky legs to carry the weight of the figure.
CTHULU RISING: If you have followed GOFN for some time you will know that one of our favorite mythical characters is H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulu. Here we have Maddie in a lizard-like 'Cthulu Green' colorway and she is gorgeous when you stare into the contrasting eyes (but don't stare too long as we cannot promise you will or not turn to stone). Distinguising this color is the slight variation of yellowy-green wings (with similar tail spots) and when we held her up to daylight she cast a lovely shadow, but keep these figures indoors where they won't escape into the wild. Of these three, her articulation was the smoothest.
LITE BRITE: Lastly, here is their Glow-In-The-Dark model, which seems to be an ongoing trend these days. On our first test she glowed brighter than a nightlight (as above) after less than a minute in direct sunlight. When she's not glowing inside a shallow closet space, her coloration is like a minty toothpaste pearlesque color all over, with a creamy sky blue detail in the pupil of her eye. The body is less transparent than the other models, but the wings are like a frosted glass. If you collect GITD figures, this will be necessary (and remember there are only 200 of these in existence). If not, this one will look a bit dull in comparison to the other vivid colorways herein that truly give any other like creature out there a run for their money.
If you have fallen in love with these figures like we have you might want to have a look-see at their fan page here. This will help keep you up-to-date on any new models coming down the pike - but in the meantime you can still get the original 4-Pack (Calamity, Clash, Ghost + Raven), and they come in painted, clear and GITD versions! Maddie is the "elder" of the four and now you can add her to the lineup with many options. You can also check out the original (now closed) Kickstarter that was created by New York City's Tenacious Toys.
We rate the Maddie 4" figure: 8/10 with big props for originality and concept as well as sculpt and coloring. Adopt one today!
