Gormiti is a long-running Italian toy line that's sortakinda almost Pokemon, but really its own thing. The figures are split across elemental lines, with tribes of Earth, Air, FOrest, Water, Volcano, Light, and Dark (Light and Dark were rarer). The bad guys are always Volcano and Dark (and sometimes Air), and mostly the line is about wave after wave of mini figures, sometimes including gimmicks like thermal plastic, embedded icrochips, swappable limbs, glow-in-the-dark, or whatnot. The line was popular enough to eventually gain a cartoon, which acknowledged the toy storyline, but standardized it with kid heroes and returning villains. Most famous of those was Magmion.
Magmion, one of the Lords of the Volcano, is the evil Magor's greatest minion, and usuallya big bad guy in his own right. In the cartoon, he was the primary baddie in series 1, but then got demoted to henchman for 2 and 3. Still, he stuck around. Notably, there were more figures made of him than any other indivual character. Counting larger repaints (i.e. a series of rpeaint, not the one-off repaint that came with a US larger figure), he has Series 1, Mystic, Eherghia, Final Evolution, Cartoon, Elemental Fusion, Supreme Eclipse, Titanium, neorganic, and Morphogenesis figures, with a fairly decent argument that Sceven in the final 2013 line might be meant to be him (it's basically Magmion with one arm). That's ten, sorta eleven. So it's safe to say that Magmion is the series' breakaway character, more than any of the heroes (the cartoon heroes top out at 7, even counting in-line variants).
This larger figure, at about 5" tall, came with the "Cartoon" line - came out with the cartoon series, and although the figures mostly represented characters in the toon (remakes from Series 1/Energhia and Series 2, their designs varied a bit from the show. The larger figures were even packed with Volcano Tribe figures, creating an odd situation where you could barely get members of that faction among the normal 2" line. But hey, such is life. Let's take a look at Magmion and The Screaming Guardian!
PACKAGING: ****
Uh... the line uses blister packs. Mine came used, though. You can look them up on Google - to be honest, they're fine. So instead, let's look at some of the mini versions of Magmion! In order, they are Energhia (remake of Series 1), Elemental Fusion (armored), Supreme Eclipse (very similar to the "Cartoon" line, only in a different pose), Titanium (articulated, looks nothing like him), and Neorganic (very poor paint job, chest changes color). There are more Magmions out there - the original Series 1, the "Cartoon" line, Mrophogenesis (also articulated), and some repaints. Magmion really gets around in this show.
SCULPT: ****
Okay, in the cartoon, Magmion used his "Energhia" design (the remake version of Series 1 - see down below in the ccessories section for another mention of this), albeit with a little more detail. Magmion's design for the "Cartoon" toy has a lot more detail, including some armor. Plenty of armor. He's craggy, plated, and much more detailed than any of his toys!
The sculpt is really nice, especially with that hilariously fishy angry head. His stone spike arm seems a little small, but it was never really exagerrated in the cartoon or most of the toy versions - he's got it, it looks like it would hurt if he hit you, what more is needed? His tail does oddly vanish in most photos, though, partly because of the angle. But this is a great-looking figure.
PAINT: ****
That paint is good. Not cartoon-accurate, but good. As previously said, Magmion in the "Cartoon" toy line doesn't match his appearance in the cartoon itself. This is him with armor - and he's got a lot of different shades of red, differentiating his armor from his flesh. The figure also makes great uses of paint washing, which keeps him from looking too much like a "toy." The paint is more accurate than on many mini figures, too.
Great paint, really. European toys often turn out really great, so it should be no surprise, but his paint is on an entirely different level from the minis. It's great on the figure, though.
ARTICULATION: ***
Magmion has a bunch of ball joints, some hinge joints, and a few swivels. But even with all of that, he's got a minor issue - his joints just don't seem to have a massive range of movement. He's not bad, and I have seen worse from Gormiti (the similarly-sized Armageddon figure), but he's a little more limited than he looks.
Magmion's hands are swappable, and those wrist pegs are rather tight - you will have to pop them on and off a few times before it feels natural. Does this make them fragile? Not in this specimen, but one must wonder.
ACCESSORIES: ****
Oh, Magmion's got good stuff. Despite never really wieldling a weapon, he's got good stuff!
Firstly, Magmion has alternate hands! He's got this stone cannon that replaces a claw, and actually fits pretty well with his stone hand. The other large figure I have, Armageddon, also came with laternate hands (he may get reviewed once I find where I put those).
in the place of his stone hand, Magmion also has a lava cannon which... heh... heheheheheh. Sorry, I can't help it. it just looks so... rude! Heh. Magmion's popular with the ladies, he is.
But he also comes with the greatest thing ever: A MINI FIGURE! This toy came out along with the "Cartoon" Gormiti series. In the "Cartoon" line, most of the Volcano Tribe figures were packed in with the larger action figures (making them hard to find on their own). In this case, it's The Screaming Guardian, a three-eyed, armored, hook-handed monster! He's great as a little companion figure, great as a Gormiti, and fantastic as an update - this is actually the third Screaming Guardina figure, though his earliest version was only seen in Italy (Series 1 outside of Italy was the same as the series 1 remake in Italy). The original was very skinny. The remake was bulky. This final one is just fantastic. Poor guy, though. He has no hands. He must have lost them in the war. Maybe that's why he's screaming.
VALUE: ****
You can expect about $20-ish, though a lot depends on international shipping.
THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR:
I would be a little wary of those wrist pegs, with all the swapping, but otherwise magmion is durable.
WHERE TO BUY:
Ebay, or your Italian friends. It's actually kind of hard to find stuff like this.
OVERALL: ****
Well, the 5" scale means that Magmin can really only hang out with smaller toys, but he looks great with them! And the thing to rememebr is, this is a large figure in a mini figure line. The quality is great on its own merits, and even better when you realize how unlikely it was to turn out halfway decently. So, what if you're not a fan of an obscure Italian toyline? Well, he's a cool lavarockfishdinosaurdemon monster, isn't he? Magmion is a cool figure, though he may be hard to find stateside. Obscure or not (and Obscurio is the name of a Gormiti), he really is cool!
