NEW PRODUCT: POPTOYS: 1/6 Armored Series Europa Wars-(90% Alloy) Griffon Knight/Flying Dragon Knight & Warhorse

How awesome that your dad worked with Tobias Capwell, Lynkhart! Any historical arms and armour afficionado knows that name!

And as for this figure, it does seem to have turned out quite nicely. : )

Lynkhart wrote:Ooh yeah, that armour looks great! My dad used to work with a guy at the museum - Dr Tobias Capwell - who has a very similar set in real life. We saw him joust once and it looks bloody painful if you get hit, I can tell you!




Regarding the horse tack - you’ve put the bridle on upside down by the looks of it - the reins should connect to the mouth rather than hang around the neck.

That is so cool. 20K seems appropriate for something this exquisite.

skywalkersaga wrote:How awesome that your dad worked with Tobias Capwell, Lynkhart! Any historical arms and armour afficionado knows that name!

And as for this figure, it does seem to have turned out quite nicely. : )

Yeah, he used to work in the same museum as my dad, but he moved down to London a while back. I only ever met him the once, and unfortunately it was long before I had a camera or I’d have taken loads of photos of the jousting!
If you ever come up to Glasgow and visit Kelvingrove Museum (which I’m in absolutely no way biased towards ) there’s some great videos of Toby in action as part of the Arms and Armour gallery - they’ve incorporated some natural history into the display, so there’s examples of different animals with natural armour or weaponry, like armadillos and so on, and then the human versions that were inspired by it. It’s really cool!

Lynkhart wrote:

skywalkersaga wrote:How awesome that your dad worked with Tobias Capwell, Lynkhart! Any historical arms and armour afficionado knows that name!

And as for this figure, it does seem to have turned out quite nicely. : )

Yeah, he used to work in the same museum as my dad, but he moved down to London a while back. I only ever met him the once, and unfortunately it was long before I had a camera or I’d have taken loads of photos of the jousting!
If you ever come up to Glasgow and visit Kelvingrove Museum (which I’m in absolutely no way biased towards ) there’s some great videos of Toby in action as part of the Arms and Armour gallery - they’ve incorporated some natural history into the display, so there’s examples of different animals with natural armour or weaponry, like armadillos and so on, and then the human versions that were inspired by it. It’s really cool!

That sounds amazing! Of course I'd love to visit that museum (I will jump at the chance to visit *any* museum, let alone one with arms and armour, lol). Someday, when the pandemic no longer holds us in its grip.... le sigh...

Well if you ever do, let me know! I can give you the tour! XD

Lynkhart wrote:Well if you ever do, let me know! I can give you the tour! XD

Will do for sure!

My Europa Knights finally arrived and I thought I would add some observations and photos. They come in shipping boxes that contain a slipcased product box. Inside that is a dual layer blister pack.







They are already armoured, so no need to assemble, and come wrapped in plastic for protection from scratches. My Griffon Knight's shoulder plate arrived broken loose from it's mate. Probably repairable, but gravity works to makes it invisible in most poses anyway so I'm not sure I will bother trying any time soon.




They are very heavy and stand and pose easily. The armour is realistically somewhat restrictive for some movements. Plastic stands are included but are not necessary unless you're doing extreme poses. The toe of the boot is hinged and pivots a few degrees up.




The "chainmail" is cloth, the Dragon Knight has gold pants while the Griffon has silver.



The swords are metal and the only difference is the crossguard. The short swords are also metal with plastic scabbards and are the same.




The metal shields have an adjustable strap rather than an elastic loop.




The jousting lances are metal and have a Griffon/Dragon emblem on them.



The armour stands are wood with plastic appendages. The stands for the standards are all wood. The cloth banners are weathered and the Dragon/Griffon at the top is nicely detailed. The poles are metal.











gooboo, if anything, undersold just how terrible these hands are. When you barely touch the arms, the hands fall off. The Griffon Knight is better in that respect because the gauntlet's snugness on the forearm helps to keep it in place, but still not great. But the biggest fail is the helmets. As others have noted, they're very difficult to put on and quite fragile. Not cool. This problem really should have been fixed before release. The instruction sheets make it look so easy...





So I'll just have to leave them off for now... I have to add that when I first opened these, I thought the heads weren't that great, but once I started photographing them my opinion quickly changed. They are actually really well done, imo.























As far as cross-brand colour match, these heads do not match Phicen suntan. They are much darker and have a brownish-orange hue.



This can obviously be hidden by hair or clothing or whatever for display, or can be compensated for with lighting in photos.



"Finally got that confounded armour off - I'm going to the beach!"



The necks are a bit lighter than the heads, so if you want to replace the head with a TBL suntan or similarly toned one it doesn't look too bad, although the difference is visible if you're looking for it. Here are a few to illustrate the point with the GOAT...  









Overall, I'm happy with these figures. Easier helmets and tighter hand connections would make them great.
The horses are past their expected delivery date, hopefully they'll arrive soon.

They look pretty great, I'm loving plenty of the details and thank you for illustrating them with such nice photos. The blonde head sculpt worked out very well too. And I love that pink Puma top.

Annalise wrote:My Europa Knights finally arrived and I thought I would add some observations and photos. They come in shipping boxes that contain a slipcased product box. Inside that is a dual layer blister pack.   ...

gooboo, if anything, undersold just how terrible these hands are. When you barely touch the arms, the hands fall off. The Griffon Knight is better in that respect because the gauntlet's snugness on the forearm helps to keep it in place, but still not great. But the biggest fail is the helmets. As others have noted, they're very difficult to put on and quite fragile. Not cool. This problem really should have been fixed before release. The instruction sheets make it look so easy...



So I'll just have to leave them off for now... I have to add that when I first opened these, I thought the heads weren't that great, but once I started photographing them my opinion quickly changed. They are actually really well done, imo.

The necks are a bit lighter than the heads, so if you want to replace the head with a TBL suntan or similarly toned one it doesn't look too bad, although the difference is visible if you're looking for it. Here are a few to illustrate the point with the GOAT...  

Overall, I'm happy with these figures. Easier helmets and tighter hand connections would make them great.
The horses are past their expected delivery date, hopefully they'll arrive soon.

Great post and pics but allow me to disagree slightly:  their helmets are not "very difficult to put on and fragile".  Advanced trigonometry is difficult.  The balance of peace in the Middle East is difficult and fragile.  But these helmets are impossible!  And I mean that quite literally -- there is a big quantitative difference between "difficult," which we get a lot of in 1/6, even with HT and such, and "outright can't be done."  The instruction sheet which you helpfully included is quite ironic actually because it probably reveals the big problem front and center -- the head on the instruction sheet is fully bald.  I think  the design flaw is that POP actually forgot to allow for the hair.  So what would have been a tight squeeze on a bald head, is an impossibility on the finished product.

Right now my Griffin Knight's helmet is in three pieces, that sort of hang on the head at least until I turn on the ceiling fan.  Dragon Knight is slightly better where I've got elastics compressing the hair, and the helmet isn't fully closed but you can barely tell.  I think the eventual solution might be to get two alternate heads, shaved bald, and hope the helmets fit then.  In almost every other way the figures are great (and you will enjoy the horses, no complaints there) but the helmets thing kind of swamps and overrides everything else, it's kind of an "Except for that Mrs Lincoln, how did you like the play?"

GubernatorFan wrote:They look pretty great, I'm loving plenty of the details and thank you for illustrating them with such nice photos. The blonde head sculpt worked out very well too. And I love that pink Puma top.

My pleasure. Yes, I also love that top. I have to credit and thank GeeWillikers for the inspiration to track it down after seeing it in this post:

https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t2781-new-product-ymtoys-1-6-mary-and-marty-female-head-sculpt

nice looking figures you got there!

did you try to fit the tbl body into that armor? given the armor de-sexualize, i wonder if the well-endowed bodies of the tbl to be able to fit in there. Perhaps the mid bust?

brassco wrote:nice looking figures you got there!

did you try to fit the tbl body into that armor? given the armor de-sexualize, i wonder if the well-endowed bodies of the tbl to be able to fit in there. Perhaps the mid bust?

Thanks! No, there's no way I'm going to undo all those little straps .   I just popped the head onto a nearby S17B to show the skin tone compensation.

Given the size of the Pop body, I'd say the best candidate to try is the S24/S25. They are the same height and general build at least. I doubt that I would ever personally try it though as I always argue why pay for a seamless body if you're going to cover it all up? And for me it's too many hours with tweezers to try it casually!

Thanks for all the pictures and the extensive review, Annalise. the figures do look nice.
I have the same experience with the Poptoys hands on my Tomoe Gozen figure. Her HS was initially a big disappointment too (but that one is far off from the promopictures), but after that it does look nice to me now.

Bit of a shame of the issue with the shoulder plate and the helmet too. Seems Poptoys have some work to do to improve their products.

Annalise wrote:

brassco wrote:nice looking figures you got there!

did you try to fit the tbl body into that armor? given the armor de-sexualize, i wonder if the well-endowed bodies of the tbl to be able to fit in there. Perhaps the mid bust?

Thanks! No, there's no way I'm going to undo all those little straps .   I just popped the head onto a nearby S17B to show the skin tone compensation.

!

Because of a error on my part, I needed to change the poptoys body and switched it for another pop toys body. It took me 4 hours to do it, becauser of all the little straps that are nearly impossible to close again.
So yeah, I wouldn't say body change is a good idea here lol

Nice pictures, I also quiet like the heads of these. the helmets are a big fail though as some already mentioned.

I'm still thinking of getting the Griffin Knight I dread to think how much the duties will be thanks to chaos-it .

I was wondering if the helmet matched any of the other sets? perhaps keep the 'real' one for carrying and the other if the character is needed to wear it?

Are you just interested in the Griffin knight or also the horse for her?

I think I'll go for the knight on her own I am interested in some of the up coming Mr Z horses so will probably tack them out myself.

to be honest the picture that did it for me from the promo was the one with her striding in sans helm with her hair and cloak flying out behind her as if she was marching in to give a report to her commander

That’s a fine and thorough review, Annalise. Sorry to hear about the trouble, and I can’t say I’m surprised (especially about the helmets). My big gripe about all these sets is the “need” for all the real metal — I see absolutely no justification for the added weight or expense, when painted plastic looks just as good for half the cost and a lot less weight — not to mention, it might be easier to get the helmets on without causing damage to the heads — since you can heat the plastic up enough to make it flexible. An option to consider if you wanted to use the helmets is to get another (cheap) head sculpt that doesn’t have hair, or strip the hair off, to use.

Yes, there are several smaller headsculpts out there these days that would possibly work inside the helmet.

stryker2011 wrote:That’s a fine and thorough review, Annalise. Sorry to hear about the trouble

travelguide wrote:Thanks for all the pictures and the extensive review, Annalise. the figures do look nice

Thank you so much!

Helmet Update:
I was able to get the dragon helmet closed and latched around the POP head although it would take a lot more time and patience to get every strand of hair inside.





The griffon helmet does seem "impossible". I managed to get it closed on a YMT015 head with thin short hair, but the visor still won't clear it's forehead and close all the way., Looks like I will need to find an even smaller head to try.

Delanie wrote:I was wondering if the helmet matched any of the other sets?

I was wondering the same thing. Maybe this Coomodel helmet?

I use a old head and removed parts of the back of that head to fit the poptoys helmet

I also have the coomodel helmet you mentioned, this one is far bigger and easily fits bigger heads like "normal" man heads.

Valiarde wrote:I use a old head and removed parts of the back of that head to fit the poptoys helmet

I also have the coomodel helmet you mentioned, this one is far bigger and easily fits bigger heads like "normal" man heads.

Valiarde, you mentioned you switched out the original Poptoys body for another one. Can you post a picture of what the body looks like? I'm curious if there's a Phicen body that's similar in shape and proportions. I've been thinking of converting my knight to a Phicen body if there's a body type that's close enough.

sucks that you are having trouble getting the head into the helmet. I think that's poor production design from poptoys. The armors do look nice.

Valiarde wrote:I use a old head and removed parts of the back of that head to fit the poptoys helmet
I also have the coomodel helmet you mentioned, this one is far bigger and easily fits bigger heads like "normal" man heads.

Thanks, I like the old head idea. I have a very old tan Phicen head with no matching body I can try.

Do you think the Coomodel helmet would look way too big with this armour?

gooboo wrote:

Valiarde wrote:I use a old head and removed parts of the back of that head to fit the poptoys helmet

I also have the coomodel helmet you mentioned, this one is far bigger and easily fits bigger heads like "normal" man heads.

Valiarde, you mentioned you switched out the original Poptoys body for another one. Can you post a picture of what the body looks like? I'm curious if there's a Phicen body that's similar in shape and proportions. I've been thinking of converting my knight to a Phicen body if there's a body type that's close enough.

I can post pics tomorrow. It is a basic poptoys body. Like the xing series. Maybe i also have some pics pn my phpne from undressing.

Annalise wrote:

Valiarde wrote:I use a old head and removed parts of the back of that head to fit the poptoys helmet
I also have the coomodel helmet you mentioned, this one is far bigger and easily fits bigger heads like "normal" man heads.

Thanks, I like the old head idea. I have a very old tan Phicen head with no matching body I can try.

Do you think the Coomodel helmet would look way too big with this armour?

I can put that coomodel helmet on her and show you pics...tomorrow. I own the full armored coomodel figures with these helmets. My guess is that it looks too big.

gooboo -- I think Valiarde just meant that he had replaced it with another PopToys body, rather than a tbleague.

The tbleague body that is closest in height to the PopToys female bodies is the s25b. However, it is a completely different shape to the PopToys body, so I have a feeling the PopToys armour would not fit it properly at all.

Would be great if there were equivalent tbleague bodies to the PopToys -- they are some of the few 1/6 bodies that are both shorter in height *and* have actual small bust options.

I understand what he meant by replacing the body, I just wanted to see what it looked like without the armor, and if there was a similar tbleague body I could use instead. Even if I have to modify or cut it up a bit.

The hands that the knights come with are just terrible and fall of constantly.

Found the pics on my phone:







I should have checked if the semi seamless xing body has better hands, but i only had the same body available as the defect one. So i still have problems with wesk hands on this figure.
Full tbleague would be better but also a bit wasted on a full armored figure like that.

I know what you mean by "wasted" on a fully armored figure, but it's undeniable the Phicen hands stay on far better than these do. I would be interested in knowing if the xing body does better however.