The figures are called Zip Warriors, made by the Dragon-i company of Moshi Monsters fame. Series 1 features 5 historical warriors, plus one 'super rare' mystery figure, which I'm still yet to find a picture of anywhere.
The idea of Zip Warriors is that you can attach each warrior to your bag, coat etc and carry them around with you using a detachable hook that is in the top of the head. When you want to battle your opponent you remove the figure by twisting the hook and you're ready to fight. Each figure has 'feet' that can be rotated, altering the polarity of a hidden magnet inside the base. This is known as a 'Magattack' battle. The attacker pushes their warrior towards the opponent - if the enemy is attracted to the attacker and the warriors butt heads then the attacker loses; if the enemy is pushed away and topples over then the attacker has won. A simple idea, but a pretty cool one on my humble opinion.
Now a look at the figures -
I picked up two blind-bagged packs for starters and inside were the Roman Soldier and the Gladiator. Below you can see the figures from the front and the side, as well as a size comparison picture:
Each warrior is made of a hard plastic and, as you can see, the design of each features a large head and smaller body, something which seems to be popular amongst vinyl toys currently.
Packaging -
Inside each blind-bag, not only do you get a warrior and key hook, but also a simple fact card that can be seen here:
The cards are great for giving children some basic, but interesting facts about each warrior, such as time period and weapons used. The artwork also pretty cool and adds a little more interest to the character cards. One thing I did note was a spelling/grammar error that appeared on both fact cards - can you spot it? Nothing major, but a little surprising that it wasn't spotted via quality checks.
Cost -
Each blind-bag costs £1.99 and as far as I can find this is the only way to buy the figures, unless you buy a full box containing 26 blind-bags. Below is a website where a full box can be purchased. At this time there are no listings at all for these guys on eBay which is a little unusual. My research suggests that they were advertised late 2012 and released a couple of months into 2013. They haven't been on the shelves at my supermarket very long, plus the fact that they are still on series 1 further suggests they are relatively new to the shelves.
http://www.croftmins...es-1-blind-bags
Appearance -
The figures are well painted for a mass produced item. However, the paint itself appears to be quite easily removed as my Gladiator had a small patch missing from the shield upon opening the package. I personally really like the expressions on the faces of each warrior and am a fan of the oversized head look. I also feel each character represents its real life counterpart pretty well, albeit in a stereotypical way. I'm hoping I can get the Zulu Warrior in my next blind-bag!
Overall -
Zip Warriors not only look cool sitting on your desk or hanging from your laptop bag, but they also have the added extra of the battling ability. It's not rocket science, just simple fun and for the price I can't complain. I'll be interested to see if series 2 ever get released and if so, which new warriors they include.
Thanks for reading
