'Super' Miniatures from Reaper/Pathfinder

As a comics fan long before I was a wargamer, and a wargamer now most of my life, I am an irredeemably dedicated fan of the SuperSystem superhero/supervillain miniatures skirmish game, and of the game-specific line of Superfigs miniatures which accompanies it (the dedicated SuperSystem website seems to be down presently; information--as well as a tremendous variety of play-aids--can be had at the SuperSystem Annex and award-winning miniatures painter Agis Neugebauer has a showcase of his Superfigs work.

Great as Superfigs are, one can never have too many four-colour hero and villain models. Reaper Miniatures has some dedicated candidates in their wonderful--and wonderfully diverse--Chronoscope line (how I would love a shot at developing a coherent miniatures skirmish game out of *this* collection of models!), but it is their more recent Pathfinder Fantasy series which has my current attention: ostensibly Paizo's 'D&D 3.5+' fantasy system, the Pathfinder world must have a great deal more than traditional dungeon-delving going on, if these epic good guys and bad guys are wandering around in it! I have used links to Paizo's site as I have used them often through the years (and they offer a discounted price on most of the miniatures in question); if you want to see more and/or order directly from the source, Reaper has a great reputation for customer service, as well, and you can start at http://www.reapermini.com.

Grey Maiden

Grey Gardener (a pulp masked hero if ever one walked down a shadowy alley)

Red Mantis Assassins (male and female)

Hellknight

Pactmaster

Plague Doctor (especially suitable for a pulp campaign)

Skinsaw Man

Skinspawn (a perfect henchman for the above)

Stag Lord

Scarecrow

The Scribbler

Whispering Tyrant (the figure which of them all just radiates 'master villain')

I hope some of this piques curiousity about SuperSystem--I know I could use more opponents, and more Friendly Local Game Stores (FLGS) willing to carry the line!
+++

Enter--the Helicarrier!

Sometimes something gets made that one just must have. That thing for our household this holiday season is a toy I never expected anyone to make, despite it's unalloyed coolness: the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier! A fixture in the Marvel Universe from it's first appearance in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's uniquely-Marvel answer to the sixties spy craze, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.*, the Helicarrier rose to greatest prominence in the late-seventies 24-issue Marvel Godzilla comic book, as it and various of Nick's supporting agents pursued the great Toho monster across the Marvel universe:

Like so many supporting elements of that comic book universe, however--the Warriors Three, Zabu the sabertooth from the prehistoric Savage Land, Stegron the Dinosaur Man, the Prowler--it's charms always seemed appreciated by too small an audience to ever expect to see it brought to any kind of three-dimensional life. The success of the 'deformed' Super Hero Squad mini action figures line, however, has led to an animated TV series starring same...and a centerpiece therein is their 'flying headquarters,' which has been incarnated as a centerpiece toy for the Christmas season. And though it's name may have changed, and it's design been 'kiddified' consistent with the source--make no mistake that under the garish colours and superdeformed proportions is...the greatness of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier!

Fortunately, this household happens to have an eight-year-old boy who loves his superdeformed superheroes, who will be profiting from his father's decades-long Helicarrier mania this Christmas.

*--and S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law Enforcement Division, no matter what irremediably more idiotic and less memorable moniker current deconstructionist Marvel talent insists on rebranding upon it; Stan Lee said that's what S.H.I.E.L.D. means, and that's the end of the conversation, for me.
+++