Ever since I learned about this action figure back in 1997, it has fascinated me. It’s not the best toy in the world, but it’s definitely one of my favorites. And here’s the craziest thing about The Conqueror: the character doesn’t actually exist, yet has two action figures!
The TOTAL CHAOS line was McFarlane Toys employees (some of whom would end up becoming the toy company THE FOUR HORSEMEN) just coming up with crazy ideas for figures that they would like. From what I remember reading in an issue of either WIZARD, or more likely their sister, toy-centric publication, TOYFARE Magazine, one of the figures (Gore, I want to say?) ended up with a production error where it was significantly smaller than the other characters in the line. Management (possibly Todd McFarlane himself) didn’t feel right charging full price for an undersized toy that wasn’t up to their standards.
So, they took an unmasked SPAWN head, cast it in translucent green, stuck it on a repainted a Spawn Series 1 MEDIEVAL SPAWN body, added accessories from some other figures along with a cloth tunic, and voila, THE CONQUEROR was born, and added to the second run of TOTAL CHAOS figures.
Later, a differently-painted Conqueror toy was made available in a two-pack with a repaint of Total Chaos‘ DRAGON BLADE figure. This set was only available exclusively through the McFarlane Toys Collectors Club, which, if I remember correctly, sold some leftover figures after they’d left retail shelves, but was mostly notable for their repaints and redecos of pre-existing figures at a slightly-higher-than-retail price point.
Anyways, the Conqueror is cool. I bought both of the figures back in the ’90s, although I’m not entirely sure where one of them is. So I re-bought both of them in 2020, and now they are hanging on my wall.
Conqueror will be the basis of some more future blog entries, for sure.
Great sharing!
This character always fascinated me. I personally bought the first version fresh off the assembly line when it was released in 1997.
And I only managed to snag the second version still mint in package for my birthday today after all these years. Such an awesome enigma…the ‘Unsaid Spawn’ of sorts!