Action Figure Reviews

The Conan Series II Figures, McFarlane Toys consist entirely of characters from Robert E. Howard's only Conan novel "Hour of the Dragon" (a.k.a. "Conan the Conqueror" for those of us who read the Lancer paperbacks with the Frank Frazetta covers as our introduction to the character). The story is of Conan when he is the middle-aged king of the ancient kingdom of Aquilonia who has to fight a final battle against Xaltotun, a resurrected sorcerer. Armies are not going to win this one and Conan has to find the fabled Heart of Ahriman to defeat his enemy. Along the way he will meet a slave girl in Nemedia that he will make queen of Aquilonia.

Series II includes the King Conan of Aquilonia on his throne that is pretty much the last shot we have of the character in the "Conan the Barbarian" film (admit it, this is the one you want the most). The other Conan figure, Battle Conan (a.k.a. Conan the Warrior) and the reason he is suspended in mid air is that he is attack this figure, the Man-Eating Haunter of the Pits. The bases of the two figures connect to form an interactive diorama of Conan, armed with both a sword and an axe, dropping down on this beast. Yes, the figure can stand alone, but there is no reason for it to (unless you give it another target to crunch and munch).

The figure of the Haunter is six inches tall, but since he in squatting on his haunches it would be a lot bigger if it stood up. There are some bones clutched in its left hand (and skulls at its feet) while its right talons are reaching up to take a swipe at Conan. This is basically an ape-like creature with some nice touches to make it look freakier. The figure has some limited articulation on the left bicep, which is the same as the Conan the Warrior figure. The rest of Series II consists of Pallantides of the Black Dragon, Conan's field commander in full battle armor; Zenobia, the beautiful harem girl who becomes Conan's wife; and Xaltotun the Undead, the skeletal sorcerer.

This makes a great scene with the Conan jumping with an axe figure.

The Hour of the Dragon was Robert E. Howard's full-length Conan novel and one of his best stories in my opinion. Conan has become King of Aquilonia, usurping the throne from the tyrannical and crazed King Namedides by strangling him on the throne. Now the righful heir Valerius, a defrocked Priest, and other conspirators plot to take back the throne and to this end use an artifact called the heart of Ahriman to bring the Necromancer named Xaltotun back to life after 3,000 years. Xaltotun was a High Priest of Set in Acheron in what is now Stygia in the present day Hyborian world.

Xaltotun captures Conan who the other conspirators think is dead. he locks him in the dungeons below the Palace of King Tarascus. Conan is soon rescued by the slave girl Zenobia who frees him by providing the keys to his shackles and the door. As Conan makes his way from the dungeons he's attacked by the Haunter of the Pits, one the great, gray apes of myth. In Robert E. Howard's own words,

"Conan stepped out into the nearest square of moonlight, so as to have all the advantage of illumination that he could; for the beast, he knew, could see better than himself in the dark. Instantly the brute saw him; its great yellow tusks gleamed in the shadows, but it made no sound. Creatures of night and the silence, the gray apes of Vilayet were voiceless. But in its dim, hideous features, which were a bestial travesty of a human face, showed ghastly exultation."

Wow...Awesome stuff and the perfect complement to the other figures in this line.

My 4 1/2 year old son received this for Christmas and he was very excited to get started playing with it. It worked well the first few times, but it did not take long to become jammed. Now I realize that it jams very easily and quite often. The jam is easy to fix and occurs when the character slips off his platform and gets caught between the platform and the rotating wheel. This is followed by a loud clicking noise. Unfortunately it is very difficult to keep the character on the platform. Now my son lets the character drag behind on the ground to keep it moving along.

The other items in this line do not have this problem as there are no rotating wheels, so I would recommend you purchase those, but probably not this one.

I wanted to add that we love the Rescue Heroes line so I didn't really want to say anything negative, but felt like I should to spare others the frustration.

This set has a great set of characters but the "silver vader" seems out of place . I would have liked to see a "star wars infinites" set with the "silver vader" because it would make more sense because vader became good in the "empire infinites" and dressed in white & silver .
I would have liked to also have seen a jedi pack with MACE WINDU , "episode 1"QUI-GON JIN , EP.3 YODA , SORA BULQ , AAYLA SECURA , KIT FISTO , LUMINARA UNDULI ,KI-ADI-MUNDI , AND ADI GALLIA from "STAR WARS JEDI STARFIGHTER"
I would have also liked to see a sith pack with "VADER , EP.3 ANAKIN SKIWALKER , COUNT DOOKU , DARTH MAUL , AND MANY OTHERS .

LASTLY , I'D LIKE TO SEE " KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC" FIGURES !

NO MOVEABLE ELBOWS. this entire series sucks because they all don't have moveable elbows.

i gone on the internet and looked at all the bad comments and i dinnt listen and went to the local tesco (am in coventry england and tesco is good with the very rare figures) and i looked at the pack and were right and they are the most crap pack in england. no jonts and dont look like them.

Pretty much he's the only reason I bought this set as i've waited over a year for Jakks to finally make him (they were still packing Conway with Dupree when Dupree was on the other show). I don't really mind the arms too much ever though it is weird how they use the same arms that the older figures use as well as the cheapo backlash figures that are always sold at KB toys that no one knows that they are out (I can still get my Al Snow and Spike Dudley figures there). Anyways a good set to get for Sylvian but if your not a fan of the older arms, you will not like this set like most of the other reviewers don't.