KR Review #14: Colotros

Since the KR line began to pick up steam, I've started going through the more obscure characters, to see who might get made. I recently ran across Colotros^TM, but didn’t have high hopes that this six-armed monster would ever get made.

Now that his action figure prototype (the 12^th I've received) is in-hand, I can definitely say that I’m glad PoliganToys proved me wrong!

Details

Name: Colotros
Subtitle: encrusted warrior
Classification: cnidarian
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Affiliation: Destructomorph (indirectly)
Rank: guardian of the cave in the Bay of Sortok.

Background

Colotros only appears in the second KR comic issue Hunt for the energy stone, where he is presented as the monstrous keeper of a supernatural stone. After the temporary defeat of the reptilian forces, Tir-Hing and Elykta hid the powerful energy stone deep inside the labyrinth-cave in the Bay of Sortok, to prevent their enemies from retrieving it. As a precautionary measure, they assigned the six-armed oceanic creature Colotros to remain there and guard the prodigious relic. Over the years, the quest for the stone and the wish to tap into its powers for both good and evil has begun to spread around Tahron. Now, Deptilion, the survived leader of the Destructomorphs, confronts the Therioms once again, in order to access the energy source. For Deptilion's own advantage, Colotros is forced to stride into battle, swinging his sharp harpoons to fight against the Therioms.

Articulation
Standard, with four additional fully articulated arms, two of which have ball jointed wrists.

Description

Head: similar to a statue made of a red porous rock (presumably coral), with antler-shaped stony branches as hair and beard, eyes emitting a faint yellow glow, half-open mouth through which four sharp whitish canines are visible

Body: made of a red porous fractured rock, three pairs of arms, claw hands and feet. The two top arms are equipped with barbed spear-like whitish structures instead of hands

Wearables: a dark-green armour with orange details and a convex grooved blue symbol, which resembles a brain coral, at the centre, two dark-green bracelets, two dark-green calf protectors, a dark-green belt and an orange gorgonian-like loincloth.

Colotros' stylised armour; the circle at the centre of the harness represents the "brain coral" symbol.

Action feature

The only real action feature is the presence of a structure on the back that works similarly to Ah-Rak's carapace - instead of arachnid legs, Colotros has two pairs of fully articulated muscled rocky arms. This part that includes the four arms can be removed, together with the armour, to transform Colotros in an alternative two-armed stony warrior, cool!

Also, in the comics Colotros' "harpoons" are extendable and can rapidly stretch out from the two arms towards his opponents; unfortunately, this feature hasn't been reproduced in the figure. Instead, we get two pairs of snap-on interchangeable harpoons in two versions: retracted and extended.

Weapons and accessories

In addition to the snap-on interchangeable parts, Colotros comes with a surprising pair of hands, which can replace the harpoons; in this way we can make a six-handed version of the figure, even if this never appears in the comics.

Colotros' weapon is a bladed copper boomerang. This is very nicely designed, with an interesting "S"-shape instead of the classical "V"-shape for this kind of weapon; also, to me it looks like the blades are toothed in such a way that they slightly resemble a pair of sea pens, but I'm not totally sure about this detail.

Moreover, we get Colotros' sidekick. At some point in the story, Colotros looses one hand due to a bad catch of his own returning boomerang; the amputated hand suddenly comes to life, generates three more stony fingers and transforms into a sort of spidery creature. This horrible beast eventually falls upside down and, in order to turn over, grows further, giving a hint that it's going to become a new Colotros. Fortunately, the Therioms succeed in destroying it before that happens. The accessory is the tentacled form, which has four small yellow glowing eyes, eight tendril legs, and one disturbingly lipped mouth. It really makes a great addition to the figure.

Finally, Colotros also comes with the energy stone and its crystal-like stand that appear in the comic book. The stone looks like a two-piece black meteorite with hints of light coming from its inside; the inner core of the stone is actually made of yellow-orange glow-in-the-dark plastic. Why two pieces? ***SPOILER WARNING (to read, select the following text)*** Because at the end of the story the stone is shattered in two on the ground.

Comic

Together with the action figure we get the second comic issue Hunt for the energy stone. In Mor-Rak's review I forgot to mention that the same comic book also comes with our young primivod friend. In the story we learn that Deptilion miraculously survived the destruction of the Quartz Tower and retained possession of the fourth halberd. Under his leadership, the Destructomorphs kidnap Tir-Hing, who knows about the location of the energy stone. This is a powerful relic that Deptilion needs to find, in order to regain his strength. While Masq-Lor and the Therioms set out to free their leader, Deptilion tricks Tir-Hing into telling the secret place. The Therioms succeed in finding where Tir-Hing is held and in saving him, but Deptilion is already on his way to obtaining the stone. Now both parties race to the stone's hiding place - the labyrinth-cave in the Bay of Sortok. There, Masq-Lor and his fellows encounter and fight Colotros, a rocky monster with multiple arms, before they finally find the stone. However, Deptilion is there too and he holds Mor-Rak as a hostage. Masq-Lor attempts to negotiate with his enemy and Deptilion pretends to free Mor-Rak in exchange for the stone. In the very last moment Deptilion orders his minions to kill all the Therioms, but Masq-Lor causes the stone drop and a clash ensues between the two opponents. In the meantime, a giant seaweed emerges from the ground impregnated with energy fluid within seconds. While the Therioms manage to escape, the giant seaweed destroys the cave and takes Deptilion with it.

Overall, I’m very happy with Colotros' figure, he’s damned close to perfection. He's also related to a pretty intriguing element (the energy stone) of the KR mythos and the line wouldn’t be complete without him. I can't say the same about the comic; the story is very stereotype, almost a repetition of the first issue (Deptilion wants something and kidnaps someone to get it), but somehow it has a certain flair. One interesting detail is the contrast between Colotros' background story and his role in the comic: in the former, Colotros is kind of hired by the Therioms to protect the stone and then turned against them by Deptilion, while in the latter he simply looks like being casually in the cave and annoyed by the intrusion of unexpected visitors.