Zombicide Zombies - Season 2 Toxic Male Walkers 02

Here I present part two of my review of my male Toxic Walkers for Zombicide. Most of these came from from the Box of Zombies - set #2: Toxic Crowd. The others were free stretch goals I received for backing Zombicide Season 2.

The two Walkers at the far left of the two photos above and below have been converted very easily. One has had his left hand cut off and the other has lost his right arm just below the elbow. This is probably the easiest conversion to do, requiring no skill at all.

The next three Walkers in line are new sculpts not found in the Toxic City Mall expansion set. Instead, they come from the Box of Zombies - Set #2: Toxic Crowd. The two Walkers at the far right of the two photos above have not been converted at all, but they do have very contrasting colour schemes. For the Walker in the centre, wearing the yellow jacket, I gave him an Elvis Presley quiff of hair out of modelling putty. I got to wondering why all of the male Toxic Zombies lost their hair but the female Toxic Zombies didn't? So, "Elvis" here is my only male Toxic Zombie with hair and for that reason he  stands out from the rest. Here's a thought. Perhaps it is not his real hair at all but a wig. That would make sense if all males lose their hair, wouldn't it?

As above in my first two photos, the two Walkers at the far left of these photos directly above and below have been converted by me cutting off the right hand of the  first one in line and the lower arm of the second one. Once again, very simple conversions.

The two Walkers at the far right were free Kickstarter stretch goal figures that I received. They are the same sculpt as the three Walkers to the right of the first two photos. They have both been converted by having their left arm cut off at the shoulder. However, for the Walker in the orange coat, I glued his arm back on at the side of his body. The gap at his shoulder was filled with modelling putty.
By the way, I should mention that when I cut off limbs from my zombies, nothing gets thrown away. The offcuts go in my spare parts box. Quite often I'll use a spare body part to add to the base of a figure. It adds a piece of grisly decoration to the base.
Next up are my female Toxic Walkers.

Hasslefree and RAFM Elvis Impersonators

This is another set of figures that I've been meaning to review for months now. I'm glad I held back because when I was recently looking at the RAFM website, I saw that they had added an Elvis with a katana to the range. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Team Elvis!

 

Leading this group of Elvis impersonators is a Hasslefree Miniatures 28mm scale adventurer - HFA038 Bubba. Bubba is a lot fatter than the other guys in the group, so he's obviously basing his looks on Elvis in his latter years. The figure comes in three parts with the two arms separate castings. According to the Hasslefree website he is armed with a .357 Magnum revolver and a deadly guitar! Well, I suppose he could smash the guitar over someone's head! As always, Kevin White has done a superb job in sculpting this figure. I decided to paint him in a white suit with blue suede shoes. There is a lot of detail on his shirt and guitar. Even though the RAFM figures are well sculpted, I think Bubba just edges them for quality and that is why I've made him the leader of this group.
Next in line is the first of the four RAFM 28mm scale Elvis impersonators from their Modern Day Heroes USX range. This is RAF02831 the Pretender 3. He is armed with a Colt .45 pistol. His blue suit is adorned with gold patterns and he wears a gold belt, white silk scarf and white shoes. He's not a great figure but he helps make the numbers up.
I mentioned last time that I'd bought five new figures from RAFM. This is the figure that I didn't show you. He has only just been added to the range and he is RAF02861 Samurai Elvis. I'm not too sure about the samurai bit but he is armed with a samurai sword aka a katana. I just had to have this figure to complete my collection of Elvis impersonators. At first, I thought he was a conversion of the next figure in line but upon closer inspection I saw that he is an original sculpt. He's an Elvis impersonator with a katana - what more can I say?
Fourth in line is RAF02830 the Pretender 2. This red-suited gent is armed with a 5.56mm M16 assault rifle, giving the group some serious firepower. There is some writing on the back of his cape, which are probably the lines from one of Elvis's songs, although they are far too small to read in this scale. I don't know enough about the work of Elvis to hazard a guess at what song might be portrayed here.
Finally, is RAF02827 the Pretender, whom I would have made the leader if I didn't own the Hasslefree Bubba figure. He is armed with a pair of 9mm TEC-9 machine pistols with the 30-round ammo clips. I thought that painting his cape gold would make a nice contrast to his white suit. Like all of the other figures, his belt is gold-plated and his suit is very ornate with gold designs on the top and trousers.
These would make for a very interesting group of Gangers or Survivors in a game of ATZ. I have a scenario in mind that I'd love to try out sometime. Cold War Minis make a zombie Elvis. See my review here - http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.com/2009/11/cold-war-miniatures-zombies-06.html I was thinking, what if the zombie Elvis was the real Elvis? This group of Elvis impersonators may have heard that "the King" has returned and are on a quest to find him. Perhaps they enlist the help of your group of heroes to find him. I thought I'd call the scenario "The Return of the King!" If anyone else wants to run this scenario, please feel free to do so. I'd love to read about it.
Just for the record, I am not a fan of Elvis or his music. However, I can see a lot of fun to be had from this group and I'm sure it is only a matter of time before Team Vampifan encounters them. Prices of the figures are £4.50 for Hasslefree's Bubba and $4.95 for each of the RAFM Elvis impersonators.

Cold War Miniatures Zombies 06

And so I finally come to the last of my reviews of the Cold War Miniatures range of 28mm scale contemporary zombies. Here are sets 012 Cop This and 013 Good God. The two photos above show the five figures from set 012 Cop This, and they are, as you'd expect from such a title, all cops, three of them being ordinary American uniformed cops and two being SWAT troopers. 

At the far left of the two photos is a female cop, leaning over to her right. I rarely ever use gloss paints on my figures but for my three uniformed cops, I gave their shoes, belts, pouches, holsters and cap peaks a coat of Humbrol gloss acrylic paint. Any brand would do, I just happened to have a very old pot of Humbrol gloss black in my box of paints. This gives the afore-mentioned items a highly polished look, which is what I was after. She suffers from a small bite wound to her lower right arm, a much bigger wound to her upper right arm and a couple of largish holes in the centre of her back.

Her colleague next to her is also leaning over to the right, but whereas she had her arms hanging loosely by her sides, this slightly overweight cop is stretching out with his right arm. He has quite an impressive bushy moustache. You don't see many zeds with moustaches, do you? He only has the one wound, and it's a nasty one. All of the flesh has been stripped from his lower left arm and hand.

The cop in the centre of the group has lost his cap. His head is thrown back and he is reaching out with his left arm. He sports a number of wounds - a chunk has been taken out of his stomach; there are holes in his upper left arm and left shoulder blade and his left knee has been scraped.

The first of the two SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) troopers shambles forward with his upper body bowed down as if he is totally exhausted. He has suffered a similar fate to the overweight cop in that the flesh has been stripped from his left arm, only his wound is worse as it is his whole arm that has been affected, not just the lower half. Notice that his goggles are missing from his helmet.

The second SWAT trooper stands with his arms stretched out to either side. Note that he has his goggles in place. Most of the time when I describe what wounds a zombie has suffered, it is pretty obvious to see them from my photos. But with these five, because of their dark uniforms the dark blood stains don't always show up so clearly. They are much easier to see in real life, I assure you. This guy has a nasty bite wound on his left thigh and a deep cut to his upper right arm. Blood has dribbled from one corner of his mouth onto his flak vest.

Set 013 Good God was accurately described by 6MilPhil, one of my followers, as religion, religion, religion, religion and Elvis. Whether you think Elvis is a god is for you to decide. I appreciate the figure but I'm not sure this is the right set for him to appear in. Again, 6MilPhil raised an interesting point with me - how come no-one makes zombie Muslims? Too controversial? Possibly, but no zombie is going to refuse to eat the flesh of anyone just because of the victim's religious beliefs.

Anyway, let's look at what is on offer here. Anyone who has seen George A. Romero's superb Dawn of the Dead film will appreciate the inclusion of the Buddhist monk in his orange robes, carrying a tambourine after Fran was memorably attacked by one in the movie. He appears to be bald but look closer, and you can see he has a small ponytail at the back of his head. He wears large "jam-jar bottomed" spectacles. I've said before that not enough zombies wear glasses, so this figure gets a big thumbs up from me. His two wounds appear at the front of his right leg and the back of his left leg. The more I look at his face the more he reminds me of Mahatma Gandhi!

The zombie nun came in two pieces, with her arms and a strip across her shoulder blades being a separate piece. I actually think her arms are too long and her head too big, making her one of the weakest looking figures in the entire range. There are no obvious wounds on her so I have added blood oozing from her mouth. I like the idea of a zombie nun, but I must say that Griffin Miniatures made a far better job in the sculpting department with their zombie nun.

Next in line, Cold War have once again come up with something truly unique - a zombie rabbi. His style of clothing and his beard readily identifies him as a member of the Jewish faith. Once the zombies got hold of him they made quite a mess of him. He stands lopsided because of a twisted ankle and large bite wound to his right leg. His shoe and sock have been torn off as well. He has also been bitten in both arms. He is a stand out figure!

Set 014 Survivors (reviewed here
http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.com/2009/09/cold-war-miniatures-survivors-victims.html )
 contains a priest holding a cross and a bible. This figure is clearly based on him as both figures share very similar looking heads. The zombie priest has lost his cross and bible. He has wounds to his lower back, left arm and left leg, along with a couple of small holes to his chest and right arm. I like the idea of survivors and zombie versions of them. It is something I'd like to see a lot more of.

Finally, we come to the Elvis Presley zombie. Is he the real deal or just an Elvis impersonator? Well. that's for you to decide. He wears sunglasses and I've painted him in a white suit with lots of gold sequins. The white certinly shows off the blood stains to maximum effect. There is large gaping wound in his right armpit. His lower legs, especially his right leg, have been badly chewed. Finally, he has a deep hole in his left arm. This is one dude who is "all shook up!"

By now you must surely know that each set costs £7.00 and that you can buy each figure individually for just £1.75. As a reminder, you can buy all 14 sets for the bargain price of £80.00, saving you £18.00 over buying them separately. It's the option that I went for but I do appreciate it was a lot to pay in one go and not everyone can afford that amount. Plus, some folk might not want every pack in the range.

These are both very useful sets to own. Like doctors and nurses, cops are going to suffer heavy casualties when the zombie apocalypse kicks off. So dedicating a set to just cops makes a lot of sense. The religious set contains three unique figures - the Buddhist monk, the rabbi and Elvis. The nun is a disappointment but the zombie priest is a welcome addition. Don't let one bad figure out of this set put you off purchasing them. On the whole, all of the Cold War Miniatures zombies from their The Dead Will Walk range are extremely well sculpted and they fit in very well with other 28mm scale ranges. I heartily recommend not only both sets but the entire range.