I love Deptilion, he's probably my favourite KR evil character so far... Yes, I know, he's also the only one we've got. Well, not anymore, since his henchman is now standing on my shelf as well and is ready to challenge Deptilion for the "coolest villain" title. His name is Ah-RakTM!
Ah-Rak is the fourth action figure prototype I've received from PoliganToys.
Details
Name: Ah-Rak
Subtitle: hideous warrior
Classification: arachnid
Sex: male
Home: unknown
Affiliation: Destructomorph
Rank: rear marshal.
Background
Ah-Rak appears in the first KR comic issue The hidden halberd and briefly in the second issue Hunt for the energy stone, where he is presented as the last remaining member of an ancient army of alien invaders. Centuries before, at the end of a period of his race's dominance on Tahron, Ah-Rak was driven away by the Therioms. Deptilion, together with his assistant and lover Demo-Rha, magically resurrected Ah-Rak and hired him to bolster his forces against the mammalian enemies.
Articulation
Standard, with the addition of a tail, which is a ball jointed separate piece (it features two articulation points, two swivels at about one-third and two-thirds of its length), and four ball hinged arms.
Description
Head: the head resembles the entirety of an arachnid's body and is composed of two parts: the upper part is a black cracked shell/helmet, which carries four red eyes in the front (two quite large lateral compound eyes and two smaller central eye spots; there are three more structures that look like eye spots, but they are completely black, so they might be different organs, such as chemoreceptors, or just bulges), a dark blue crest on the top and four pairs of dark blue spines (curved downward) on the sides; the lower part is dark blue with a bumpy texture and presents two chelicerae, which terminate in white venomous fangs, near the small mouth and two pretty large pedipalps, which terminate in scorpion pincers, more externally... damn, he looks frightening!
Body: dark blue and black striped fur (I love the hairy texture, it makes him very "spidery"), 2-clawed hands and feet. He also carries an extra furry neck piece that fits right on top of the body; this piece is glued on, but it might be possible to pry it off, if one had will to do so
Wearables: a red armour with black details (including a modified version of the Destructomorph symbol, i.e., a square-shaped black spider whose back slightly resembles a human skull, at the centre), two red bracelets, two red calf protectors (with armoured trimming on the bottom and top edges), a studded red belt and a black furry loincloth (which has a really cool off-white wash that totally brings to mind spiderwebs with its colouring). To be honest, so much red kinda annoys me. Not because it reminds me to Spider Man, but because red is already the dominant colour in Deptilion's equipment and when they're displayed together... well, it's simply too red.
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| Ah-Rak's stylised armour; the circle at the centre of the chest piece represents a modified version of the Destructomorph symbol. |
Action feature
Most of Ah-Rak's action is strictly related to his body structure, especially his back, which is covered by a black carapace. I like the cracked and bumpy texture of this shell and how it blends with the black edges of the armour in the figure. The lower part of the carapace ends with an articulated scorpion tail, which terminates in a bulbous structure and an arched poisonous sting. The middle part exhibits a reddish hourglass-shaped marking (typical of black widows) and hosts two pairs of additional arthropod-like limbs, each terminating in a single claw. The uppermost part of the carapace ends with a sort of cannon that shoots spider-webs, which Ah-Rak uses for climbing or capturing his enemies; this is perhaps the detail of the figure that I like the least, since it's rendered using a silvery string, which bears a plug-in element at one end (this connects to the web-cannon) and a pliable plastic web at the other end. I don't know how this could have been made better, maybe a retractable mechanism together with a suction cup would have done the job, but I understand that it's not the best cost-saving solution. The carapace can be removed together with the armour and used with most other KR figures, which is a cool display option.
Weapons and accessories
Apart from the above-mentioned plug-in gossamer/web, Ah-Rak comes with a nicely designed large scimitar, whose silver blade is ornately engraved, while the black hilt resembles the spider/skull symbol on the chest plate; unfortunately there's no scabbard or attachment to place the scimitar when it's not in Ah-Rak's hand (which, by the way, manages to hold the weapon firmly despite only featuring two claws), that would have been a nice touch. Update: there's actually a little longitudinal slit in the middle of the carapace, where the scimitar's blade can plug into.
Overall, I really like Ah-Rak, he just looks dreadful! I would improve some action feature details, but anyway I think he's going to replace Deptilion as my favourite KR villain, at least for a while.
This is my last review for September. I'll receive more prototypes next month and hopefully I'll be quick in keeping you updated with new reviews. Talk soon!
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