KR Review #1: Masq-Lor

I'm super-excited! Finally the first Key Raiders review!! And it couldn't be about anyone but the hero of the story - Masq-Lor^TM!

(Sorry this took forever, but I hadn't realised how difficult it is to put together a review without posting any pictures!)

Masq-Lor is the very first action figure prototype I've received from PoliganToys.

Details

Name: Masq-Lor

Real name: Desion

Subtitle: sabre-toothed warrior

Classification: human-primivod* hybrid (but he looks completely human)

Sex: male

Home: Tahron, a vast land surrounded by an ocean on an (at the moment) unknown planet

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: leading warrior.

*Primivods^TM are fictional anthropomorphic marsupials that can interbreed with some other species of mammals and produce fertile offspring.

Background

Masq-Lor appears in the very first KR comic issue The hidden halberd, where he is presented as a brave warrior who decides to leave his forest tribe to join the war against the evil reptilian forces. Eventually he discovers to be one of the lost children of Tir-Hing, the wise ruler of the Republic of Tahron, and is chosen to protect his threatened homeland. At first Masq-Lor is not sure about his suitability for such a demanding role, but soon he learns using a prodigious helmet to channel an ancient power and become the hero that everybody needs. He then guards the safety of Tahron alongside the courageous Therioms.

Articulation

Standard.

Description

Head: light brown skin, thick black hair, green eyes, daring expression, it personally reminds me of Conan the Barbarian
Body: light brown skin, exposed torso, arms and legs

Wearables: a big gold necklace with a medallion resembling the Theriom symbol, i.e., a seven-pointed star with the two side points elongated, two golden bracelets, two golden boots, a golden belt and a furry brown loincloth.

Masq-Lor's stylised helmet with top crest.

Action feature

In the comics Masq-Lor wears a silver magic helmet, which in certain circumstances produces a tiger-like half mask (or visor) and gives him incredible physical and mental powers, changing his appearance slightly. The action figure comes with an alternative helmeted head... and here I feel a bit disappointed. Because in addition to the version with the sabre-toothed visor activated, fierce feline eyes and metal cat ears, which by the way looks very cool, I would have liked to get an "inactive" helmeted head or at least a removable visor. I understand that three heads would be too much in terms of costs, but it's a pity not to get the whole head spectrum: helmet-less / helmeted / helmeted-with-visor.

When the helmet is activated, various Masq-Lor's accessories become different: bracelets, boots and belt become more showy, and the medallion transforms into a harness made of leather and gold (with the right shoulder-strap enhanced into a shoulder-protector). These fictional improvements are brought to reality by means of clip-on bracelet, boot and belt pieces, while the harness can be worn easily. Two details are interesting: a pair of long brownish claws can be attached to each enhanced-bracelet, to simulate the retractile claws seen in the comics, and the harness, once worn, covers completely the necklace, to simulate the transformation of the latter into the former.

OK, but something is still missing... during his transformation, Masq-Lor's skin also gets a few black-tawny ocelot stripes. And here is the magic: the skin changes its colour in warm water! Simply by immersing the action figure in a bowl with warm water, the stripes will appear on his arms, legs and torso. I honestly think this is a nice touch, but I'm not a big fan of it. First, because the stripes disappear as soon as the figure reaches room temperature again, which happens after a rather short time; second, because I'm not very keen to soak my action figure too often, as it might cause some damages in the long term, e.g., discolouration and lime-scale in the articulation points. So, I tried it, I enjoyed it, but I'm not going to do it again any soon.

Masq-Lor's stylised harness. It is mainly made of leather with gold details; the circle at the centre of the chest piece represents the Theriom symbol.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the above-mentioned second head, clip-on pieces, claws and harness, Masq-Lor comes with two swords (or rather, one sword in two versions: normal, with silver blade and wooden hilt, and enhanced, with silver&gold blade and bronze hilt; only the normal sword can have its blade inserted in a reddish leather scabbard attached to a loose fitting belt, a separate piece that can be repositioned to one's liking), a clip-on leather sheath with a dagger (which can be attached to one boot) and an oval wooden shield decorated with a big golden Theriom symbol. I'm sorry that the bow seen at the beginning of The hidden halberd is missing, but after all he loses it very soon during a fight, so its absence kinda makes sense. I'm also wondering if we'll ever get another version of Masq-Lor wearing his "formal" outfit, since this figure only features tribal and warrior gears.

Comic

Yes, together with the action figure we also get the very first comic issue The hidden halberd. The story sums up what the whole Key Raiders universe is about. However, I'm not going to talk about it here, I'll do it during my next review, since the same comic comes with another very important character in the series. Stay tuned!