When Four Horsemen Studios revealed our newest line, Infinite Legions, the collaboration with Onell Design that kicked it off marked nearly two decades of friendship and partnership reaching an exciting high point. In this article we will take a look back at the shared history of our two companies and how it all led to the reveal of the Infinite Legions Pheyden and Phanost figures.
Working with Glyos Compatibility
In the early years of Four Horsemen Studios, well before the first Mythic Legions Kickstarter, we released a number of different toy lines. These included both original IPs like Seventh Kingdom and Gothitropilis, as well as the licensed properties of Power Lords and Outer Space Men. Those licensed lines were both made using the Glyos system of compatible parts that Matt and Michelle Doughty began in 2007 with the founding of Onell Design.
Our first project with the Glyos system of parts launched in 2008 with our take on the Outer Space Men. Originally released in 1968 as bendable figures, our versions of these characters were made use of the “peg and socket” system that Onell Design had created, and it allowed us to work closely with an incredibly inventive toy creator in Matt Doughty.
A mutual respect and deep friendship quickly formed between the two companies as we released multiple waves of Outer Space Men over the 4 years that the line ran. The partnership Matt and Onell Design continued into our next Glyos-compatible project – Power Lords!
Based on a toy line from the early 1980’s, we began to release Power Lords figures in 2013, debuting the first releases at Power-con that year. The first full line of Glyos-compatible Power Lords would be released in 2014 and the line would wrap up the following year.
While both of these lines featured licensed properties, our studio was also focused on cultivating our own original IPs, and the success of our Gothitropolis Ravens Kickstarter in 2013 gave us the confidence to take that leap as we planned our next original line of figures – a high-fantasy line of knights, orcs, skeletons, and more called Mythic Legions!
A more recent Glyos project that a member of our studio had a prominent hand in creating is the Gauss Armor from Toy Pizza (Knights of the Slice). Revealed at Toy Pizza Con in 2022 as the first “super articulated Glyos figure”, the Gauss Armor was sculpted by Bill Mancuso of Four Horsemen Studios based on a design by Gavin Mackie. We also helped prototype the first release, and our involvement goes even beyond that! Some comments from Matt Doughty on the Gylos wiki for the Gauss Armor further explain the 4H-connection.
“Another fun secret aspect of the Gauss Armor project is the bald human head it comes with. That part was originally sculpted by Eric Treadaway of the 4H for the Glyan, based on drawings that Nate Baertsch and I had done some years back that focused on our in-house character we call Ruger. The sculpt actually has three versions, and the Gauss bald human head is only one of them, just scaled up. We hope to finally roll out Eric's original Glyan head sculpt in the near future.”
Mythic Legions Glyos?
It may be surprising to think about now, but Mythic Legions was nearly our third Glyos-compatible line. From the very start of planning for Mythic Legions, we imagined it as a 4-inch scale line using the Glyos system of parts. The very first Cosmic Legions were also sculpted to be Glyos figures, with the OxKrewe armor having been conceived as a Glyos figure many years before that design debuted in the Cosmic Legions line. You can see a few of these early development images below, including a very early Mythic Legions knight sculpture where you can actually see the Glyos connectors under the sculpting material!
When we debuted Mythic Legions at the Toypocalypse show in 2014, the figures we had on display were 2-UP prototypes of what we intended to make (see images from that show below_, which meant they stood about 8” tall each. People reacted so well to that larger size, and that aforementioned Gothitropolis Ravens Kickstarter had done so well for us with 7” figures, that we made the decision to scale Mythic Legions up – but we kept the spirit of interchangeability that Glyos offered intact by creating what is now called the Legions Build System.
We have no doubt that Legions would not be the success that it is today without the system of swappable parts that it includes – an idea that was 100% thanks to Onell Design and the Glyos System. We say all the time that the DNA of Glyos remains in the Legions lines, and coupled with our friendship with Matt and all the Glyos creators, those bonds have really been strengthened over the years and our communities of fans have begun to cross over in exciting ways, thanks in part to our annual LegionsCon event.
Glyos at LegionsCon
The first full 2-day LegionsCon in 2022 was also the first time that makers from the Glyos community would be a part of the event. The show had begun to embrace other small toy companies with the “Independent Toy Creator Showcase” aspect of LegionsCon, and the Glyos creators had a few tables in the corner of the showroom that year.
Many Legions fans did not know what to make of these Glyos figures at first as they initially seemed far different than the Legions lines A deep love of the figures and Glyos community amongst members of the studio, along with repeat appearances of the Glyos makers at LegionsCon in 2023 and 2024, helped to gradually introduce more and more fans to the various Glyos creators and the amazing figures that were available, and the Glyos tables quickly became a “must visit” section of the show for many LegionsCon attendees.
It was at LegionsCon 2024 where the Infinite Legions line, and the partnership with Onell Design, was first announced. There was an immediate buzz after the announcement was made amongst both Legionairres and Glyos fans. It turned out to be an amazing partnership that resulted in some very cool new figures while also kicking off a new range of collaborative projects for Four Horsemen Studios.
Creating Infinite Legions Pheyden and Phanost
By the time the Infinite Legions partnership was announced publicly, we were already well into design process on the Pheyden figure having had numerous back-and-forth conversations with Matt about this new release. Some of the design sketches and iterations can be seen in the video that was shown at the start of the Infinite Legions reveal special, and you can also watch that video here.
This entire project was truly collaborative, as discussed at length in that aforementioned video. Everything from the sculpture of the figure and the items included, to the photography used to showcase this new release, to the marketing of these figures – every step of the way we worked with Matt and Onell Design to ensure we were in lockstep, making this entire creation process one of the most special projects we’ve worked on in a long time!
As the Pheyden figure was getting close to completion, an idea to also do an alternate colorway for the figure was discussed. The Glyos community is well known for their variant colorways, and certain styles within the Glyos universe have fanbases all their own! This idea of a second color for Pheyden quickly evolved into bringing an entire additional character over into Infinite Legions and Phanost made his way into the project joining Pheyden, along with the alternate heads for Scar Pheyden and Sarvos, in the first Infinite Legions release. You can see an image of the two final figures below.
A Very Special Visit
As part of the process of capturing footage for the video that accompanied the Infinite Legions reveal special, and also to allow Matt to see the Pheyden prototype in hand for the first time, members of our studio visited the Onell Design offices in Acton, MA in early 2025. While some of that footage made its way into the video clip linked above, there was so much great conversation from that visit that ended up not making it into the final cut. We knew that there was some absolute gold in that footage and that fans may enjoy being a “fly on the wall” of our time with Matt and Marc, so we have uploaded an extended cut of content from that day to our YouTube channel. You can watch that here.
Order Your Pheyden and Phanost
The direct preorder for the Infinite Legions: Pheyden and Phanost figure is done, but these figures can still be preordered from many of our Approved Retailer partners. You can see a list of our retailers at SourceHorsemen.com/retailers
Published on 07.06.25