Pulp Arcana Studios: Solid Gold

Solid Gold: Xesray Studios Combatants Fight for Glory Gold Hildr (2025 Event Exclusive)

In action figure collecting, you hear a lot of hype.”This figure is the best of the year.” “That figure is a total game-changer.” And so on. I always kind of enjoy this hype, if I am being totally honest. Often, I feel it comes from a place of love. Whatever figure the person (whether a reviewer or a fan) is talking about has inspired such excitement, such love from the speaker, that they cannot hold back their praise.

Truth be told, often that excitement is contagious.

If someone is heaping praise on a figure, especially in online spaces that often lean towards the simplistically negative, I’m immediately curious. I want to get my hands on this figure, and see if it will inspire the same feelings of joy in me.

Towards the end of the year last year, I started hearing people talking about Xesray Studios Combatants Fight for Glory Gold Hildr. Originally this figure was a convention exclusive. However, Big Bad Toy Store got some in stock and I was lucky enough to grab one.

Come with me and together we will open this mysterious black box and search for the golden treasure that supposedly lies within.

A PULP ARCANA FIGURE FIELD REPORT Mission Brief:

Artifact Identified:

Gold Hildr

Combatants Fight for Glory

Xesray Studios

OUT OF THE CRATE:

The first impression you get of this packaging is class. There is an elegance to the box, with its dark color and the light silhouette of Gold Hildr on one side, and the Combatants: Fight for Glory logo on the other side. While you don’t get to see the figure herself yet, the initial impact is impressive.

When you remove this sleeve, however, there is the figure in all her glory. Even in the packaging, this figure looks incredible. The clear window shows off the figure and some of her accessories, while the packaging around the window frames her with the Combatants: Fight for Glory on the bottom and a small Xesray Studios logo in the upper corner.

On the back, there is a fantastic photo of Gold Hildr herself, walking forward with her fur cape draped casually over one shoulder. Huge shout out to the photographer for this shot. It is masterful. The posing gives her a sense of life that is rare in most toy photography. Really excellent work.

THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS:

Wow.

I mean, seriously. Wow. This figure is staggeringly beautiful. My first impression out of the box is genuinely one of shock.I cannot believe how good this figure looks in hand. There is so much going on here that it is almost difficult to figure out where to begin.

First, the face. The portrait is genuinely beautiful. However, what really caught my attention is that her face is distinct. Marvel Legends and even Mythic Legions tend to have a very generically pretty face on their figures. The result is that a lot of times, the female figures have a sameness in the features. This portrait goes a different direction. Gold Hildr looks like…Gold Hildr. Her eyes are slightly narrowed rather than pushing towards the more standard wide-eyes we typically see on female figures. The expression on he lips, showing just a hint of teeth, gives her a look curious and defiant at the same time. There is personality here, and a strength that just fits for this character.

The namesake golden hair looks fantastic. Full and draping realistically in braids over her shoulders, the style is both wild and pulled back for battle. It perfectly suits this female barbarian. This is a genuine character and shows so much personality.

The clothing accessories take what is already impressive and pushes it even further. The detail work is amazing. From the design on her arm bracer to the teeth on her necklace and belt, there are so many little details and features that the more I looked, the more I noticed.

Accessory-wise, Xesray Studios went hard. Gold Hildr comes with a huge axe, fitting her barbarian heritage, as well as a hand axe. A straight sword fits snugly into a scabbard that can affix to her belt. This was the only area of the figure that I struggled with. Trying to get the peg of the scabbard to fit securely into the belt hole was a bit frustrating, and ultimately, I ditched it to help with posing and photography. She comes with a small knife that fits in a sheath at her back. Everything looks functional and realistic, with great detail and paint.

One of the coolest features of this figure though is the helmet. This is a full helm that looks similar to the iconic helmet design in the video game Skyrim. I was excited for the helmet, but figured it was going to be a pain fitting it over the hair. But I was absolutely wrong. Because the top part of the hair actually is removable, allowing the helm to fit perfectly over her head and line up perfectly with her eyes. It is a simple, smart design executed perfectly.

As if that all is not enough, the figure comes with two fur soft good pieces. Each has a set of snaps on it to help it wrap around the figure. One is smaller, and works great as a skirt piece, while the other is more a full cloak, for her to brave the cold, northern winds. These look way, WAY better on the figure than I thought they would, and can give her not only a completely different silhouette, but a different vibe to this fierce warrior.

MOBILITY AND MANEUVERS:

You know what I didn’t expect? That a figure that looks this good would be able to move well. But Gold Hildr moves like an absolute champ. The articulation is fantastic. There is so much smart engineering going on here, and it is all really well disguised so that the overall look of the figure is not compromised by it.

Where the heck did Xesray Studios come from with this? And are all their figures this good?

Good movement at the head and neck allows that stunning head sculpt to give even more nuance and expression when posing. The arms and shoulders allow her to hold the weapons in practical, real ways, including getting that big, intimidating axe in a two-handed swing. The legs and feet give a mixture of stability and great posing.

But the articulation on this figure is greater than the sum of its parts. The fact that it can move like this and still maintain the aesthetic is what is really remarkable. Every pose I put the figure in looked great, and photographing the figure was absolutely delightful.

RECOVERED EVIDENCE:

FINAL RECKONING:

When it came time to do a glamour shot for Gold Hildr, I knew I wanted something that would show the fierceness and strength of the character rather than anything cheesecake. The articulation let me pull this off easily, capturing her mid-leap, ready to bury her axe into the head of some horrible, ancient monstrosity.

And that is where the real magic of this figure hit for me. The motto of Pulp Arcana Studios is “Every figure tells a story.” This figure is made for story-telling. The expression, the posing, the soft-goods, all work together to create a character that steps out of the static photos and tells a story.

This is the first figure I have looked at from Xesray Studios, but I am now following them very closely.