October Toys Skeleton Warriors

OMG, these things are the GREATEST modern action figures ever! What are they? They're part of a relaunch of the "Skeleton Warriors" action figure line. They're scaled smaller than the original 1990's era toy line by Playmates, with the articulation cranked way up to 26 points of articulation.

October Toys original intent was to make these as "Titan Skeletons", meaning that they'd tower over the puny humans at 1:18 scale. A 6 foot tall human being would be represented in 1:18 as a 4" tall figure. These guys, at 4.75" tall (as measured with a caliper) are intended to be 7 feet, 2 inches.

However, I don't work in 1:18 scale. My preferred scale is 1:14 to 1:15- something that was established in the late 1960's with the Jungle Book jiggler line (more on that later). By recalculating these skeletons at 1:15 scale, they're "normal sized beings" at 5 feet, 11 inches.

The link below is very handy:

Scale Conversion Calculator

First order of business is to do a paint wash on the skeletons. They're molded in a single color straight-outta-the factory. But, there's a whole lot of hidden detail that comes out when you apply a paint wash. You can use diluted acrylic black paint, but Testor's had just recently marketed an acrylic stain. The one on the left was left as-is straight from the factory baggie. The one on the right was treated with Testor's with a final clear coat of Krylon's low odor clear (acrylic) finish. See the diff.

It doesn't even take a lot of talent to do this. Just shake the bottle, open the bottle, use any paintbrush and glob the paint wash on. Wait a few minutes and use a rag to wipe off the excess wash. The paint wash will stay in the recessed details of the figure. Spray or brush on the clear coat. Done!

Half unpainted, half-painted skeleton:

RELATED PAGES:
A Collection of Toy Skeletons