How the reviews are presented.

After the introduction and a brief description of the background of Key Raiders^TM, this is the last "preliminary" post before the first review (looking forward to that... I've just received the first prototype!)

The way by which such reviews are presented is the topic of this post.

An important detail to clarify at the beginning of each review is what type of item is going to be reviewed; the main types are:

- action figure

- large scale figure

- multi-pack

- accessory

- creature

- vehicle

- playset

Most of the reviews are about action figures, so the following description is related to that kind of item.

First of all, the basic facts regarding the character are provided:

- Name, alternative/real name

- Subtitle

- Classification, sex, relationships

- Home, era

- Allegiance, rank, career history (i.e., former allegiances/ranks)

Then, a little background of the character in the context of the story, including its origin (i.e., where the character first appeared), is presented.

Next, the articulation. Most of the action figures are 16 cm (a bit more than 6") tall and have 21 points of articulation. The standard scheme resembles the one used for other very popular action figures, e.g., Masters of the Universe Classics, and is the following:

- neck (ball jointed)

- shoulder (ball hinged, x2)

- biceps (swivel, x2)

- elbow (hinged, x2)

- wrist (swivel + hinged -for left wrist front-to-back movement and right wrist side-to-side movement-, x2)

- abdomen (hinged, usually for male characters only)

- waist (swivel, in some cases it may present a spring loaded torsion action feature)

- hip (ball hinged, x2)
- thigh (swivel, x2)

- knee (hinged, x2)

- calf (swivel, x2)

- ankle (double hinged -for both front-to-back and rocking movements-, x2)

In case there are any variations from this scheme, it will be mentioned in the review.

The description of the appearance (shapes and colours) of the figure follows these steps:

- head

- body (torso, arms, legs)

- wearables (armour -removable for male characters-, bracelets/gloves, calf-protectors/boots, belt, shorts/loincloth, cape); unless stated otherwise, any references to materials, such as metal, fabric and leather, are just related to the appearance of the items and not to the actual material, which is always plastic.

Of course, this is the most challenging part of the review, as I'm not allowed to post images of the prototypes.

When an action feature is present, this is described in details.

The review ends with an account of the weapons and accessories included in the package.

In some instances, a comic issue may also be included; in such a case, a short summary of the story is provided.