There just isn’t enough time, money, or space for me to indulge in all of the temptations the hobby of toy-collecting brings me. A lot of my focus is tied up in the franchises I grew up with – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, Spider-Man, Lego, etc. We live in a golden age of action figures, but there just isn’t enough space to devote to them all (in more ways than one). One victim of this has been Boss Fight Studio’s line of musclebound dinosaur dudes – Saurozoic Warriors. It was about 2 and a half years ago that I looked at a figure from the line’s first wave and came away mostly pleased. Despite that I’ve never found a chance to go back to it until this past December when Boss Fight Studio got my attention with a buy 1 get 1 free daily deal that I couldn’t ignore. I had always planned on getting more so the only question was just which two should I get? I was tempted to go for four, but wisely opted not to go overboard and instead grabbed the pair of Staze Akiden and Javvik Mosa.
Staze Akiden comes from the line’s second wave while Mosa comes from the third. I had always planned on getting Staze because I thought he just looked cool. He’s an ankylosaurus, everyone’s favorite dinosaur, with both guns and melee weapons while Mosa is an aquatic dinosaur who reminds me a lot of another character from a property Boss Fight Studio once had the license for. If you’re new to the line, Saurozoic Warriors is kind of like a dinosaur Masters of the Universe with updated articulation for modern times without going so far as to lose some of that retro charm. I don’t know if the line has a true scale, but if you collect something like Masters of the Universe Origins these might fit it to your liking.
Let’s talk Staze Akiden first who is something of a samurai, I take it. There is a character bio on the box, though some of the charm with this line is that it isn’t tied to an IP and it’s fun to look and imagine what the character embodies rather than read it. This guy is only about 4.5″ to the top of his head while the back of his neck sits higher as he’s hunched over. He’s quite the chonker as there’s real heft to this guy even if he’s not particularly tall. He’s also very red as he’s clad in bright, red, armor with a pinkish hue to the ridges on his neck and back. The flesh is closer to purple and there’s some blue to balance things out under the armor and his gloves. There’s nice sculpt work throughout as his spiny appearance can be painful to squeeze and the armor features numerous dents and gashes. There’s some design work on the pauldrons though they’re left unpainted. There’s texture to his pants and the sculpt makes it appear to resemble denim, an interesting choice of material for an armored dinosaur. Paint is reserved for some of the detail work – the eye patch, teeth, guns, buckles, claws. There’s some nice shading to the spikes on his back, a piece that is removable if you prefer along with the neck spines, and there’s some air-brushing on the end of his tail.
As for Mosa, he is an all together different color palette and size coming in at around 6″ in height. His skin is a turquoise with a touch of blue shading in places. The body suit he wears is an earthy tone, something of a red-brown, while there are some gray straps holding his armor and weapon sheaths in place. The helmet and apparatus on his chest is a metallic copper with a yellow oxygen tank strapped to it. He has a removable helmet as well with translucent, green, lenses over the eyes. There are two hoses that connect from the helmet to the chest piece which are done in the same translucent green. It’s a fun look and it reminds me of the Bucky O’Hare character Al Negator, a bright, purple, dinosaur creature with copper armor. The only thing I don’t like about the presentation are these hoses. The plastic is so rigid that you lose a lot of ability to pose the head when they’re in place as they’ll just pop out. There were renders of the character being able to look up with the hoses still in place like he was swimming, but such a feat is all but impossible. I’m tempted to heat the hoses to see if I can re-shape them a bit to provide more range. Aside from that, I enjoy the various finishes on the figure between the scales, wet suit, and the mechanical bits. I do wish they had painted the claws on his hands and feet, but the paint that is present is rather clean.
Both characters come with a solid assortment of accessories. For Staze, he has a rifle, mace, and a short sword with a sheath. They’re all molded in a dull, purple, plastic with the blade of the sword painted silver. The handle of the mace is silver and there’s a light air-brushing of the same at the end of it. The rifle has a suppressor in the muzzle which has been hit with silver paint that extends past it. I think it’s intentional, but the way the spray of the paint just fades away is a bit odd looking on both the gun and the mace. Staze has two gripping hands, but the gun doesn’t have a traditional trigger molded onto it. I would prefer that it did and that one hand was molded as a trigger finger hand, but that was not done here. For Mosa, he has the helmet plus a pair of knives and his own gun. The knives are done in the same translucent green plastic as the hoses with brown wraps painted onto the hilt. There’s a sheath strapped to his left arm and right calf for weapon storage. His gun is molded in green plastic with a ribbon of large rounds extending from the bottom. Unlike Staze, this weapon does have a trigger and a trigger finger right hand to go with it. For both figures though, their hands are extremely rigid and getting them to hold onto anything will likely require heat the first time. Especially with Staze who does have paint on his hands that you would hate to see rub off. Mosa’s helmet is also a snug fit, but entirely do-able with added heat. Getting it off is arguably harder than getting it on and more heat may be required there.
Articulation for both is pretty basic. For Mosa, he articulates at the head, jaw, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. Elbows and knees are single hinges that also swivel while the waist swivel is a ball joint. The head has good range on the hinged ball joint there and his right hand features a vertical hinge while the left a horizontal one. For Staze, he has the same setup plus articulation at the neck and tail. His hunched posture means he needs that neck articulation to look side-to-side while the tail is pretty self-explanatory. That tail is tough to get in place without heat and once on fits very snug to the point where you probably won’t be posing it. He lacks a vertical hinge on either wrist which is a shame as it would be preferable for all of his weapons to the horizontal orientation. The limited articulation means two-handed poses are out of the question where weapons are concerned. The bulky proportions for both characters means you’ll likely be forced to stick with basic poses, though the oversized feet can help with one-footed stances.
Staze was the priority for me going in and was the figure I always intended to buy, but now that I have these two in hand, I think I prefer Mosa. I like the colors in use which are more evocative of the early 90s which is the vibe I liked most about the first figure in the line I purchased – Range Brakhion. Staze plays things straight, and while I like the design, it doesn’t have that outlandish factor to the colors. Mosa is also a bit more fun to pose, even with the hose issue, and I’d be lying if I said the similarity to the Bucky O’Hare character wasn’t charming me to a point. If the designs appeal to you and you don’t mind the limited articulation then these will add a nice splash of color to the shelf.
For more from Boss Fight Studio give the following a look:
Saurozoic Warriors Range Brakhion
These days, the buzz word in the entertainment industry is “content.” Everyone wants content, especially streamers. It all goes back to the value of intellectual property. It’s costly and difficult to turn a new product into a popular one. It’s far easier, and less risky, to just throw money at an existing brand and create…
Boss Fight Studio Bruiser the Betelgeusian Berserker Baboon (Bucky O’Hare)
2019 was not a plentiful year for Bucky O’Hare product. After receiving my two-pack of Toad Storm Troopers from Boss Fight Studio on Boxing Day 2018, I had not received a new Bucky sculpt until now. Not that 2019 was necessarily light on Bucky developments, it’s just the nature of the game when a small…
Boss Fight Studio Sam & Max
Sometimes a toy comes along that I just can’t ignore. There’s just something neat about it, or the aesthetic so on point, that I want to own it even if I have little or no attachment to the source material. Such is the case with the Boss Fight Studio release of Sam & Max. I…
The Nostalgia Spot 