KR Review #31: Fai-Rha

We have had the Sabre-Toothed Warrior since I started receiving KR prototypes from PoliganToys back in October, so finally, after a full four-month wait, we can add the Black-Tailed Amazon to the Theriom ranks - Fai-Rha^TM is here!

She is also the second Independent Warrior we have in-hand and up for review (the first was Bellius), which makes her a kind of borderline character. Anyway, let’s take a look at Masq-Lor’s little sister, to see how this 24^th action figure prototype stacks up.

Details

Name: Fai-Rha

Real name: Rhadiel

Subtitle: black-tailed amazon

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

Sex: female

Relationships: daughter of Tir-Hing, younger sister of Desion (Masq-Lor)

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom (formerly belonging to the Independent Warriors group)

Rank: service warrior (formerly deputy leader of the Independent Warriors).

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

Background

Fai-Rha first appears in the fourth KR comic issue A fateful secret, where she is presented as a member of the Independent Warriors, helping her leader Bellius to fight against the evil reptilian forces. Elykta recognises she is, like Masq-Lor, one of Tir-Hing's abducted children. Eventually, Fai-Rha also learns using a prodigious helmet to channel an ancient power and acquire incredible abilities. She then joins forces with the Therioms, who without Masq-Lor are struggling to overcome Bi-Harr's subversive actions.

Articulation

Standard, excluding hinged abdomen.

Description

Head: light brown skin, long black hair arranged into a ponytail (although not all her hair is pulled back), green eyes, daring expression; I think she's the prettiest female figure we've got so far

Body: light brown skin, exposed arms and legs

Wearables: a short, sleeveless red vest-dress with golden V-neckline, armholes, lapels and hem, two golden cuffs, two golden bracelets decorated with red gemstones around the biceps, two golden boots and a golden belt. The belt separates the fitted vest above the waist from the flouncy skirt below.

Fai-Rha's stylised helmet with side and top crests.

Action feature

Like her brother, Fai-Rha wears a silver magic helmet, which in certain circumstances produces a panther-like half mask (or visor) and gives her incredible physical and mental powers, changing her appearance slightly. The action figure comes with an alternative helmeted head, characterised by the black-panther visor activated, fierce feline eyes and metal cat ears. The helmet allows for her long ponytail to come through the back. There is no "inactive" helmeted head, but I'm pretty sure we'll get one with some future variants of this character.

When the helmet is activated, various accessories of Fai-Rha's become different: cuffs, boots and belt become more showy, and the vest-dress transforms into an armour. Like with Masq-Lor, most of these fictional improvements are brought to reality by means of clip-on bracelet and boot (with knee protector) pieces, while the outfit replacement takes a little more work. First, the dress, which is a whole solid removable piece including the vest, the belt and the skirt, must be taken off by unplugging a number of little fasteners on the back and slipping it off the figure. She looks kind of funny underneath, but that's because the female waist and hip articulation that is normally hidden, is now exposed. Oh, and since you were probably wondering, NO, she's not topless, there is a layer of red paint, which gives the impression that she's wearing a sports bra. Afterwards, the alternative armour, which is painted in gold with red details and includes the golden belt and a black furry skirt with red fabric frills, wraps around her body and connects on the back the same way as the vest-dress piece. Even though the tabs on the back must be plugged in one by one, the process works ok, but I'm wondering if there might be a better and simpler way to accomplish the same result. Nevertheless, both pieces are made of a soft plastic, so they don't block her articulation from the waist down.

During her transformation, Fai-Rha also grows a long black tail, which in the figure is connected to the back of the armoured belt/skirt via a ball joint and is made of flexible plastic. Additionally, a pair of long brownish claws can be attached to each enhanced-bracelet, to simulate the retractile claws seen in the comics.

Fai-Rha's stylised armour.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the already mentioned second head, clip-on pieces, claws and alternative outfit, Fai-Rha comes with a few accessories. First up are two jō/bō sticks, or better, one stick in two versions: normal, made of a reddish-brown wood and adorned with relatively simply designed silver ends, and enhanced, with bronze grip and stripes along the wooden rod and equipped with flower-shaped, spiked silver&gold ends. Only the normal stick can be inserted in a holster on the back of the vest-dress.

The other accessories are her Independent Warrior axe, whose handle (parallel to the cutting edge) is made of the same wood as the stick and bears a few sharp teeth opposite the stone blade, and a triangular wooden shield carved with what looks like a big cat face.

Comic

Together with Fai-Rha's action figure we get the fourth comic issue A fateful secret, which has already been discussed in Li-Gah-Tor's review.

Overall, Fai-Rha, with her two heads, three weapons and several add-ons, is one of the better 2016 prototypes so far. The only real issue I have with her is the outfit change functionality, which I expected less tricky. I like the look of the figure; in particular, the heads are executed near perfectly, but I have to wonder how long it’s going to take to get a Fai-Rha variant wearing her "formal" outfit and including the mid-helmeted head.

KR Review #30: Combat Deptilion

Time for Combat Deptilion^TM getting his due! This is THE Deptilion variant as far as I’m concerned and I was actually anticipating him a little more than Alatryx this month.

This 23^rd action figure prototype from PoliganToys is not just a repaint of the previous Deptilion. He has plenty of new pieces and when you have him paired on the stands with Combat Masq-Lor, well, he rocks!

Details

Name: Combat Deptilion

Real name: ***SPOILER WARNING (to read, select the following text)*** Ir-Ash

Subtitle: armoured monstrous leader

Classification: uncertain

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Destructomorph

Rank: chief marshal.

Background

Deptilion's only appearance in his combat reinforced armour takes place in the second KR comic issue Hunt for the energy stone, where he's shown to have survived the collapse of the Quartz Tower. This new armour is created by Demo-Rha using dark magic, in order to help Deptilion protect his highly injured body. The monstrous leader can then use his temporally renewed strength to kidnap Tir-Hing and find the energy stone. A similar form of armour is eventually created by Masq-Lor, in an effort to combat the powerful battle suit worn by his enemy during their fight inside the cave in the Bay of Sortok.

Articulation

Standard.

Description

Head: the face is basically identical to the one included in Deptilion's regular release, characterised by dried-out livid skin (in some spots, especially on the left side of the face, the flesh is worn-out and the whitish skull underneath is visible), empty eye sockets which emit a faint red glow, two whitish tusks that look like a sort of handlebar moustache and several orange teeth which protrude from the diabolical mouth. Compared to the previous version, the most obvious difference is the absence of the helmet, which reveals, besides the two whitish horns, a multitude of dark-green living snakes in place of hair; these snakes are fictionally the same that come out from Deptilion's eyes, mouth and neck in the regular release, and now make their way through his cranium

Body: the left arm and the right leg are exposed and show the livid skin with bony deteriorated, half-rotten appearance (in some spots the flesh is worn-out and the whitish skeleton underneath is visible, especially on the arm); also, the two dark-green snakes seen in the regular release are still coiled around these limbs, but this time they are fully removable and not partially glued, allowing for many more display options. The right arm and the left leg are protected by a shoulder/biceps armour and a thigh/knee armour respectively, both red with dark-blue details. He still has claw hands and feet, but with few differences: the hand nails are painted in black and the feet are painted in red (suggesting that he's actually wearing boots rather than just calf protectors)

Wearables: a red armour with dark-blue details, two red bracelets, two red boots, a red belt and a dark-blue scaly loincloth. The blue components of the armour have a nice metallic shine, while each boot bears a Destructomorph symbol on the shin guard.

Combat Deptilion's stylised armour; the oval at the centre of the breastplate represents the Destructomorph symbol.

Action feature

Like with Combat Masq-Lor, the front armour acts as a shell that can accommodate two interchangeable breastplates, one undamaged with the Destructomorph symbol (i.e., a square-shaped blueish spider, whose back slightly resembles a demoniac face) at its centre and one with a significant battle damage, like a big scratch. The plates snap in tightly from the inside of the armour, which must be removed in order to change them. In a similar way, the undamaged shoulder and thigh pads can be removed and replaced with their respective damaged counterparts.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the already mentioned snakes and interchangeable armour pieces, CD comes with a few cool accessories. The first accessory is his inward-curved-bladed halberd, which is identical to the original one, except from being painted with some subtle blue shades here and there rather than plain silver.

Then we've got two pairs of additional snakes, which plug into two sockets on the back armour and project over the shoulders towards the front; the impression is that these four snakes emerge from Deptilion's armour, to attack an opponent. The cool thing is that these snakes are a bit different from the ones on his head and limbs - they are painted in a more reddish hue and look like cobras, whose neck extensions resemble silver blades. They even have a swivel joint near their necks, amazing indeed!

Additionally, the figure includes a stand, which is similar, but not identical, to the one packaged with Combat Masq-Lor. It is as fully sculpted and painted in beautiful detail as the other one; the stone and seaweed look perfectly matches the design of the labyrinth-cave seen in the comics. It also includes a small removable wall of stones that easily attaches anywhere on the base and allows us to build our display in countless ways.

Overall, I really couldn’t be more pleased with Combat Deptilion. I’ve been waiting for him since I first saw Combat Masq-Lor a couple of weeks ago. The armour, the helmet-less head and all the accessories look great, though I might have liked him to keep his Roman-style loincloth. However, the figure is a bit overshadowed by his Theriom peer, simply because the pack misses something for Combat Deptilion to ride… if only Dinophys had been packaged together, instead of being released by itself!

KR Review #29: Alatryx

I'm ecstatic! Alatryx^TM is finally here! She’s the winged amazon of the Rexodon faction, ready to expand the reptilian army. You might wonder why a bird-woman should be fighting alongside reptiles... well, hasn't science taught us that birds are the closest living relatives to dinosaurs?

This action figure prototype (the 22^nd I have received from PoliganToys) is probably one of the most prominent ones we’ll be getting this year. And she's bowling me over.

Details

Name: Alatryx

Subtitle: winged amazon

Classification: archosauromorph reptile with bird-like traits

Sex: female

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Rexodon

Rank: observer captain.

Background

Alatryx's only appearance is in the fourth KR comic issue A fateful secret, where she is presented as a wicked warrior fighting on the Rexodon's side. She used to be a member of a civilisation of winged reptiles, who lived high on the peaks of southern Tahron acting as destructive scavengers, until the war between the mammalian and reptilian forces started. She eventually saw in the Rexodons an opportunity for her people to recover and expand their power, and offered her service as an air soldier to Bi-Harr. Despite her ability to fly like an angel, she has proven a merciless monster when engaged into battle.

Articulation

Standard, excluding hinged abdomen. The figure also has a hinged lower jaw and a pair of wings, each with two articulation points.

Description

Head: similar to a bird of prey, characterised by large black eyes, which are surrounded by grey feathers, a relatively long grey-feathered neck and highly elaborate, elongated, colourful (light-blue, purple and orange) feathers extending towards the back similarly to hair. She has a fairly large hooked, serrated yellowish articulated beak with cracked details, nares and, due to a backward-curved bony spike projecting from the extremity of each mandible, a hammer-like shape. There is no question that the beak gives the figure an imposing weight. And I love how wide it opens!

Body: arms covered with colourful feathers, legs covered with grey feathers, scaly yellowish hands and feet with large black talons (three of which point forward and one goes backward in each foot), long tail rimmed by colourful feathers similar to the "hair"

Wearables: a brown armour with dark-blue details, two brown bracelets, two knee-high brown leathery calf protectors, a brown belt and a dark-blue feathery loincloth.

Alatryx's stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics Alatryx is able, thanks to her wings, to perform extraordinary flying acrobatics and create winds that eventually form thick storm clouds. So, the figure features a great pair of large angel-like wings, which present an excellent paintwork, with sharp lines and vibrant colours that match the hairpiece, the arms and the tail. These wings are articulated via two pegs at half of their length, so that they can expand and fold; when they are fully spread, you can get an idea for how big they are compared to the figure. An alternating hinge attached to Alatryx's back (and normally concealed by the long hair) allows the wings to flap; this joint is moulded to match the feathers colour, thus clarifying that the wings fictionally belong to her body and emerge through an opening in the armour. The articulation itself allows for a lot of good movement and posing options, but... I'll come back to this point later.

Weapons and accessories

Alatryx includes three accessories, a spear, an alternative headdress and a flight stand. The dark-blue spear, with its pointed tip resembling a feather, looks rather offensive with the figure.

I believe the headdress is a new piece, since it never appears in the comics, but it's a great addition and it actually has a reason to exist. The regular hairpiece, although beautifully sculpted and painted, hampers both the head movement and the wings flapping significantly; as a consequence, good poses are extremely limited. One solution is to disconnect the whole wing system, allowing for full head mobility; even though the long hair covers the ugly socket on Alatryx's back, with this expedient she loses her main feature. So, the other solution for having both head and wings mobility is to remove the hairpiece and replace it with the alternative headdress; this is a dark-blue helmet with brown details, topped with two elaborate semicircular decorative elements, which are set perpendicularly to each other. In this way, when looking at the front-facing figure, the helmet gives the impression of being endowed with a sort of halo, while from the side it appears to have a crest of feathers. The front part of the helmet bears a couple of subtle bird-related sculpted details, such as a pair of eyes and a small beak. The cheek protectors extend downward forming two feathery ornaments that reach the shoulders on the front; these elements are actually pliable and don't limit the head movement at all. Personally I don't even mind to display Alatryx with neither hairpiece nor helmet - this bald look gives her a kind of vulture nature that matches the wickedness of the character.

The last accessory, the flight stand, is a major add-on extra for the figure. It has a cool storm-cloud appearance and snaps onto the bottom of the wing assembly (a little plug was created specifically for it), allowing for various flight poses. Alatryx, without her hairpiece, has enough great articulation to make good use of it.

Overall, I like Alatryx. The wings are fantastic and so much of the figure is solid. Sure, I’m not happy about the “hampering hairpiece”, but the guys at PoliganToys can do awesome accessories, so the figure looks great even if it needs a little adjusting to be good. She stands out enough to get a front spot on my shelf and the flight stand puts her above some of the other figures.

KR Review #28: Combat Masq-Lor & Ki-Wun

For long I have wished to get a Ki-Wun^TM prototype, much before getting Dinophys. But finding one of the coolest variants of Masq-Lor packaged with his steed really went beyond my expectations. Now, I know that the original Masq-Lor's release should be the standard, but once I had opened this multi-pack (the fifth I've received from PoliganToys) and got to do some play-testing, I was sold. Combat Masq-Lor^TM is much, much cooler!

Combat Masq-Lor

Details

Name: Combat Masq-Lor

Real name: Desion

Subtitle: armoured sabre-toothed warrior

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

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: leading warrior.

Background

Masq-Lor's first appearance in his combat reinforced armour takes place in the second KR comic issue Hunt for the energy stone, where his mastery in tapping further into the power that his helmet unlocks is revealed. Masq-Lor can use such abilities to create new forms of armour and weapons for confronting his enemies. This combat armour was created to protect himself during his fight with Deptilion inside the cave in the Bay of Sortok.

Articulation

Standard.

Description

Head: at a first glance CM's head might look identical to the helmeted head included in Masq-Lor's regular release, characterised by the sabre-toothed visor activated, metal cat ears, fierce feline eyes and light brown skin around the mouth. However, at a closer look the helmet actually bears a few scratches that make it look a bit worn and somehow more realistic

Body: the left arm and the right leg are exposed and show the light brown skin with black-tawny ocelot stripes (there is no colour change in this variant); the right arm and the left leg are protected by a shoulder/biceps armour and a thigh/knee armour respectively, both golden with black details

Wearables: a golden armour with black details, two golden bracelets, two golden boots, a golden belt and a Roman-style black leather loincloth decorated with gold studs. The golden components of the armour are the only vac-metal coated parts. The bracelets, the boots and the belt are great updates of the clip-on elements seen in Masq-Lor's regular release.

Combat Masq-Lor's stylised armour; the oval at the centre of the breastplate represents the Theriom symbol.

Action feature

The front armour is actually a shell that can accommodate two interchangeable breastplates, one undamaged with the Theriom symbol (i.e., a seven-pointed golden star with the two side points elongated) at its centre and one with a significant battle damage, like a big scratch. The plates snap in tightly from the inside of the armour, which must be removed in order to change them. In a similar way, the undamaged shoulder and thigh pads can be removed and replaced with their respective damaged counterparts.

Additionally, similarly to Masq-Lor's regular release, a pair of brownish claw can be attached to each bracelet, to simulate the retractile claws seen in the comics. The only difference is that in this case the claws are more similar to blades, have silver elements and, when flicked, spin perpendicularly to CM's arms.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the already mentioned spinning claws and interchangeable armour pieces, CM comes with two accessories that are nice upgrades of his original weapons. The first accessory is his enhanced sword with a black hilt and a golden blade placed between the two halves of a silver blade. The idea that during Masq-Lor's transformation the normal sword blade splits into two parts, to make room for a larger blade, was also suggested in the original weapon, but here everything looks much more detailed. Furthermore, since turning seems to be the main theme in this version of Masq-Lor, the blade of this sword can rotate 90° around a longitudinal axis. Not indispensable, but still a nice touch.

The second accessory is an oval black shield decorated with a big golden Theriom symbol and two silver axe blades emerging from the sides.

Furthermore, either weapon can clip onto a red holder, which can be attached to the back of the armour.

Additionally, the figure includes a stand, which is fully sculpted and painted in beautiful detail; the stone and seaweed look perfectly matches the design of the labyrinth-cave seen in the comics. It also includes a small removable wall of stones that easily attaches anywhere on the base and allows us to build our display in countless ways.

Ki-Wun

Details

Name: Ki-Wun

Subtitle: fighting catlike steed

Classification: ormurid* mammal

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: steed.

*Ormurids^TM are fictional carnivorans.

Background

Ki-Wun's appearances go back to the very first KR comic issue The hidden halberd, where he is presented as a member of Masq-Lor's forest tribe. Ki-Wun has been Masq-Lor's devoted companion since they were both very young and assisted the hero during his quest to join the war against the evil reptilian forces. Afterwards, he was enhanced by the helmet power to fight alongside the Therioms, carrying his master into battle.

Articulation

The articulation is impressive! The ball joints for Ki-Wun's head and abdomen allow for great movement. He can look up and to the sides thanks to the ball jointed upper neck, and can also look down thanks to the hinged lower neck. Shoulders, hips, elbows, paws and tail are all swivel-hinged, while knees and hocks are simply hinged. Last but not least, the lower jaw is hinged, so Ki-Wun can have his mouth either closed or open, which looks good both ways. All these articulation points really give the figure lots of expressiveness and cat flexibility.

Description

Ki-Wun is, of course, an all-new sculpt and, I have to say, the guys at PoliganToys have done an exemplary work here. He resembles a large cougar and has a detailed tawny fur from head to toe. The head sculpt is extremely good, with a round shape, erect ears, yellow eyes and (believe it or not) whiskers. The oddest detail is a large, pointed, spiralling dark-brown horn projecting from his forehead, which definitively makes him different from any real life big cat. The claws are not visible, so they are probably retracted.

Action feature

In the comics Ki-Wun is often shown to stand on his hind legs, in order to fight with his front claws. The nice and tight articulation allows for displaying the figure in such a pose with no problem, but the overall look is negatively affected by the retracted claws.

Occasionally, Ki-Wun can absorb part of the power of Masq-Lor's helmet via a sort of sabre-toothed cat spirit, acquiring a stable quadrupedal posture and various features that are included with the figure as add-ons:

- A golden chanfron with brown details, which extends from the ears to the muzzle (but has a hole for the horn) and includes two silver protections for the eyes; this face mask is connected to a flaming lion mane and the whole thing is held on snugly

- A flaming tuft, which easily fits over the tail end

- An armoured saddle characterised by a brown leather texture and equipped with various golden bolts and spikes, a pair of badass stirrups and a technological handlebar

- A clip-on brown protector with silver claws/blades for each paw

... everything is amazingly well executed!

Weapons and accessories

Ki-Wun's armour has three sockets towards the front (two over the shoulders and one over the lower neck) and one at the rear, which allow to display the figure with different looks thanks to seven plug-in pieces. Four of these have studs and spikes that make them look like they’re extensions of the saddle (the front left and right ones even have clips to store Masq-Lor's weapons and are definitely my favourite). The other three pieces are firearms, namely two side guns (with spring-loaded missiles) and one central gun; the latter can be plugged into either the front or the back of the armour and displayed with a multiple blasting effect (without the effect it looks more like a head/tail-light).
In addition, we get the small translucent yellow sabre-toothed cat spirit that allows Ki-Wun's enhancement.

Overall, this is a great 2-pack. I don’t know how it couldn't be loved. I’m excited to finally have this version of Masq-Lor, with a stunning piece of armour and awesome accessories. Ki-Wun is a pretty cool figure, even with the retracted claws. His head is a great representation of the comics, plus it gives him lots of personality. To be totally honest, I’d be interested in a "real fur" (flocked) form, but this one is good enough. It doesn't make much sense to pick a "best of" for the year in February, but if any other prototypes this year out-impress this multi-pack, then we’re in for an amazing year!