As much as I love the Halo Mega Bloks line (and I love the Halo Mega Bloks line), there are some things that you just can’t have within that universe. No, I’m not talking about exotic humanoid races like Orcs and Elves and Goblins–those are close enough to Brutes and Elites and Jackals for me. What I’m talking about is fantastical quadruped beasts and mounts. And while nothing like that exists in the Halo universe, the World of Warcraft universe is rife with just such beasts–hundreds of them. So it’s pretty encouraging to see that two of the very first wave of World of Warcraft Mega Bloks sets are devoted to just these types of creatures. Today, I’ll begin with the first: the Swift Wyvern 91020 with Tauren Hunter…

The Right:

The big star of this set is the Swift Wyvern, the Swift Red Wind Rider of the Horde. (The Wyvern, by the way, is not a creature unique to Warcraft–it’s a legendary beast with wings and a barbed tail that’s been somewhat re-envisioned for use in the Warcraft universe.)

For a value-priced set such as 91020, I think that the Swift Wyvern is about as cool as possible. Literally every one of his joints is ball-jointed, so he has a huge range of motion and flexibility all over his body. In total, the Swift Wyvern has 8 points of articulation including a ball-jointed neck, legs, wings, and (bendy!) tail.

The Wyvern has a fierce head sculpt befitting such an intimidating beast, a seat sculpted into his back that works perfectly for comfortably carrying a rider, and a bendable rope that functions as reins for that figure to hold onto. His wings are translucent and look fabulous, and I adore that they’re designed to be on ball-joints themselves, making them vastly more dynamic and poseable than they would be if they were just molded into the front legs. The front legs also feature two removable pieces of matching armor that complement the armor on his head, rear legs, and tail.

I think MEGA Brands did a great job with getting as much articulation and paint deco onto the Swift Wyvern as they could at this set’s cost. This is only a $13-$16 set with 24 pieces, which means there are limitations to what can be done with the Swift Wyvern and the levels of detail and articulation that can be reached at that price-point. Would I have liked it if this set cost $20-$22 and had much more detailed paint deco on the Wyvern, along with multiple points of articulation in the tail and legs? Absolutely–and I hope we get a more expensive Wyvern later in the line, because the beast is just that cool. But for the low cost of this set, I think MEGA Brands did the best they could with the resources they could afford.

The rider included for the Swift Wyvern is one of two Taurens in the first wave of Mega Bloks World of Warcraft sets–the Tauren Hunter figure. (Apparently, this particular Tauren Hunter is named Scarbuck, according to the World of Warcraft Mega Bloks official site. That’s not written anywhere on the box, so I’m just going to primarily refer to him as the Tauren Hunter in this review.)

The Tauren Hunter figure is, quite simply, incredible. I praised Valoren and Ragerock up and down as being some of the finest figures I’d ever purchased as Mega Bloks, but the Tauren Hunter just blows them away. This figure is huge and fearsome, exactly as a Minotaur-like being should be. But besides its size, the level of detailing on the sculpt of this figure is out-of-this-world as well.

Scarbuck the Tauren Hunter includes one weapon: a crossbow-looking “War-Box”. I’m not familiar with what a War-Box is exactly, but it looks quite lethal and fits nicely into the Tauren Hunter’s hand. It can be attached to Scarbuck’s back for storage, where the skull-like sculpt of the War-Box makes the Tauren Hunter figure look even more dangerous and powerful.

Despite being one of the largest Mega Bloks figures, the Tauren Hunter is still packed with articulation. He has a ball-jointed head, ball-jointed shoulders, hinge elbows, swivel wrists, swivel waist, ball-jointed hips, and hinge knees. For a two-inch tall action figure, that’s utterly fantastic, and really all of the articulation the Tauren needs to strike fear into the hearts of Alliance Mega Bloks figures everwhere.

The actual build for the Swift Wyvern set takes less than two minutes. I posted photos earlier in the week showing the unassembled pieces of this set and the in-progress build, and if you’re interested, you can check those out right here. The assembly for this set is fast and easy–your Wyvern and Tauren Hunter rider will be all set to go wreak havoc almost instantly.

The Wrong:

As exquisite as the Tauren Hunter’s sculpt is, my enjoyment of it is severely hurt by something I’ve never had to complain about in a Mega Bloks set before: bad paint applications. The Tauren Hunter has brown slop on the horn on his face, one eye that’s gigantic and another that’s tiny, a beard that’s totally uneven, and parts of his hair that were accidentally left unpainted. Plus, there’s spatters of red on the white bones on his way-cool chest plate, black bleeding onto the white of his hooves, and a line yellow (!) paint in the hair on the back of his head. I understand that good paint applications are difficult at this very small size and scale, but none of the Halo or World of Warcraft Mega Bloks figures I have are messy like this. The Tauren Hunter is such a knockout figure in every other way that it really stings to see him brought down by poor paint apps.

Surprisingly, the Swift Wyvern itself has similar problems, despite have far fewer paint apps. There’s little red splotches on the Wyvern’s teeth, grey bleeding onto the maroon armor, stray gray splotches on his yellow skin, a bunch of small gray dots visible on the yellow inside his left ear, and a blue blotch on his central spike of hair. As a result, the Wyvern really doesn’t look all that impressive up-close, as all the blemishes and imperfections tend to draw your eye. I’ve seen much worse paint apps in my life, but I’m surprised to see problems on a MEGA Brands set, which are usually exceptionally well-done.

Also, as I mentioned in my in-progress build impressions, my Swift Wyvern came with two right rear legs. They’re actually different pieces, with “R2” embossed on one and “R3” on the other, so I’m not sure exactly what happened here. I’d assume I should have gotten “L2” or “L3” for a left leg instead, but it didn’t work out that way. MEGA Brands’ customer service is aces, so I’m not concerned about getting the proper piece I need–I know they’ll get it to me quickly and efficiently. But for the purpose of this review and the photographs in it, the Swift Wyvern 92010 unfortunately has two right back legs.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

I got my Swift Wyvern & Tauren Hunter in the mail from BA Toys earlier this week for $14.99, and they currently have this set and all of the other small vehicles and mounts in stock and available for shipping.

If you don’t want to shop online, the World of Warcraft Mega Bloks Swift Wyvern 91020 set should be available at most major retailers within about a month from now.

Overall: If this Swift Wyvern 91020 set didn’t have serious quality control issues, this set would be a ‘A-‘. Unfortunately, my Wyvern came with two right rear legs, and the paint applications on both the Wyvern and the Tauren are sloppy. These don’t look like Happy Meal toys or anything ridiculous like that, but these are really the first Mega Bloks figures I’ve ever bought that had less than excellent paint apps–much less really bad. If this set cost about $5 more and had better paint deco and more articulation for the Swift Wyvern, it seriously might be an ‘A+’ set. But as things are, this set ends up being merely “good”.

The Tauren Hunter figure is absolutely phenomenal, and among the coolest figures MEGA Brands has ever put out. I am ecstatic that MEGA Brands is starting to dig into the expansive universe of the mounts so early, and the red Swift Wyvern is a killer choice for one of the first. This set earns a recommendation as the World of Warcraft Mega Bloks Swift Wyvern & Tauren Hunter 91020 is a fun set that WoW fans will love, but sub-par quality control and a lack of a bit more detail and articulation on the Wyvern leave this set falling a little short of excellence.

GRADE: B