KR Review #41: Lor-Drek

I'm actually ahead on my KR reviews, so I thought I’d end this month with a look at the first figure in the Spektrosaur^TM faction - Lor-Drek^TM!

This 32^nd action figure prototype from PoliganToys is so impressive! He has easily become one of my favourite figures in the line so far.

Details

Name: Lor-Drek

Subtitle: dreadful leader

Classification: reptile of uncertain group

Sex: male

Relationships: adoptive father of Fai-Rha

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Spektrosaur

Rank: marshal.

Background

Lor-Drek's first appearance is in the sixth KR comic issue Reptiles reunited. The last member of a race of magical dragon-like reptiles, Lor-Drek allied himself with Bi-Harr to fight in many epic battles during the war against the mammalian enemies. After several defeats, he became disgusted with Bi-Harr's leadership and left the reptilian army to form his own faction, bringing Tahron into a three-way war. For a long time the Spektrosaur army remained shadowy, until Lor-Drek was informed about the Rexodons’ plan to conduct a final attack against the Therioms. He decided to join Herrion/Loghar, seeking revenge against Tir-Hing, who had "stolen" his adoptive daughter Fai-Rha. Lor-Drek uses his ability to disguise himself as a human for tricking his foes by appearing harmless, but then reveals his true nature and leads his soldiers into battle.

Articulation

Standard, plus a hinged lower jaw, a pair of ball hinged wings and a tail that features two swivels at about one-third and two-thirds of its length.

Description

Head: similar to a Spinosaurus, but with a more dragonish look, characterised by a long and narrow snout, ochre (i.e., light brownish-yellow) skin, a large dark-green cranial crest, long pointy ears (each ending in a rather long, curved whitish horn), evil large dark eyes with vertical glow-in-the-dark yellow pupils, large sharp teeth along the edges of the jaws and a faintly forked tongue sculpted on the inside of the mouth

Body: ochre scaly skin, claw hands and feet. On the back, a dark-green neural spine sail and a pair of large bat-like wings project through openings in the armour. Also, a long, thick tail emerges from the bottom edge of the armour and extends downwards; this tail is a partial reuse of Li-Meh-Zor's appendage and ends with an ochre zigzagged point (which personally reminds me of Pikachu). The wings and the tail are painted in ochre on the underside and dark-green on the upper side. Additionally, the skin forming the surface of the wings presents several tears and holes

Wearables: a silver armour with brown details (the chest plate displays the Spektrosaur symbol, i.e., a greenish flame, at its centre), two silver bracelets, a brown leather armband around the right arm, two silver boots, a silver belt and a tattered brown scaly loincloth. Both the wrist guards and the belt buckle are shaped to resemble Lor-Drek's head slightly; while each bracer extends forwards to form a knuckle protector, the buckle holds a long strip of dark-green fabric.

Lor-Drek's stylised armour; the circle at the centre of the chest piece represents the Spektrosaur symbol.

Action feature

In the comics, flight is Lor-Drek's most obvious ability. This figure's impressive wings work in a different way compared to Alatryx's ones; they plug into the back armour (they can easily be removed, in case) and each only has one swivel/hinge point of articulation. However, they have a really great range of movement and I’m happy they are able to do more than just looking cool behind the figure.

Occasionally, by wrapping his wings around his body, Lor-Drek can disguise himself as a human. The transformation from reptile to human form takes a little work, but the process works ok overall. First, it's necessary to detach the head and the arms. Then, the armour, which is a whole solid removable piece including the sail, the wings and the tail, must be taken off by unplugging two little fasteners on the sides and disconnecting it from the back. Afterwards, a long cloak, whose soft plastic is painted in dark-green and shows a kind of "segmented" finish that somehow echoes the wings texture, wraps around his torso and legs, and connects on the back via a number of tabs that must be plugged in one by one. Finally, a pair of alternative arms and an alternative head must be attached. The arms are covered by long and wide dark-green sleeves and the hands show a white skin. The head wears a dark-green cowl that slightly extends downwards on the back, to blend in with the cloak (the extension is pliable and doesn't hamper the head movement). The face shows Hispanic features, white skin, darkened eye sockets (looks like he used quite a lot of black eye shadow), vaguely vertical slit-shaped dark pupils (just in case you've forgotten that he's in reality a reptile), strong cheekbones and a big black goatee on a prominent chin. This head sculpt is good too - despite the darkened, reptilian eyes (the latter isn't actually a very obvious detail), I don’t find him particularly villainous. He looks downright helpful, which is exactly the purpose of his camouflage.

Weapons and accessories

Besides the cloak and the swappable head and arms, Lor-Drek comes with a silver halberd, which is one of the four components of the Key (the one with the S-shaped blade) and the last halberd we get after Deptilion's, Tir-Hing's and Bi-Harr's ones. This means that we can finally assemble the Key! I think I've never mentioned this before, but, yes, the four halberds can actually be combined to form the legendary metal artifact, for the possession of which the four factions fight. It's all about joining the halberds two by two via small tabs between them and then fitting the two pairs of halberds together via two small slit-shaped recesses.

Finally, I am really glad for the inclusion of an additional accessory - a walking staff for Lor-Drek's human form. It's simply a long wooden stick, but it works as a human-hand-filler perfectly and has an undulating end that, again, evokes the true reptilian nature of the character.

Comic

Together with Lor-Drek's action figure we get the sixth comic issue Reptiles reunited, which has already been discussed in Kon-Rauan's review.

Overall, I’m really happy with Lor-Drek. Of course, the most positive thing about him might be that I finally got the chance to review the first Spektrosaur character after nearly seven months. However, I couldn’t have asked for a better figure to get started on that faction. The sculpt and the poseability of the wings are impressive. And both the heads alone are worth the whole figure for me. I can't wait to see the next Spektrosaur members, as Lor-Drek is pretty lonely at the moment.

KR Review #40: Loghar-possessed Herrion

April continues with the first, shiny Loghar variant - Loghar-possessed Herrion^TM! But wait... is it a Loghar variant or a Herrion variant? We haven't even got a regular Herrion yet, so I'm a bit confused.

Anyway, I have several characters I can’t wait to be recreated in the KR line. Believe it or not, this 31^st action figure prototype from PoliganToys is one of the figures I’ve been anxiously anticipating for quite a while.

Details

Name: Loghar-possessed Herrion

Subtitle: demonic identity of Herrion

Classification: uncertain

Sex: male

Relationships: supposed son of Tir-Hing, twin brother of Desion (Masq-Lor), older brother of Rhadiel (Fai-Rha)

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Rexodon

Rank: lieutenant general.

Background

Loghar-possessed Herrion appears between the end of the fifth KR comic issue The factory of doom and the end of the sixth episode Reptiles reunited. Following the murder of his master Bi-Harr, Loghar reveals that he's actually Masq-Lor's missing twin Herrion. Living with the spirit of the real deceased Loghar imprisoned in his body and hungry for supremacy, he challenges Masq-Lor but fails to win. After surviving the destruction of the Troopers' factory, Herrion takes command of the Rexodon faction with a decimated army. He then forms an alliance with his former fellow Lor-Drek with the intention of fighting the Therioms once again.

Articulation

Standard, except that the left wrist is ball jointed.

Description

Head: Herrion is Masq-Lor's identical twin, so it makes perfectly sense that the head of LPH resembles the helmet-less head of Masq-Lor's original release very closely, including the characteristic daring expression; however, since Herrion is possessed by the spirit of Loghar, there are a few differences in terms of paint. The skin is grey, the hair is very dark grey and the eyes are glowing red. Additionally, there are dark rings under the eyes and some subtle scaly details on the forehead, chicks and chin, which match the partially reptilian nature of the character

Body: the robotic left arm and right leg are a regular-Loghar reuse and have the same black metallic look, showing lots of machinery/circuitry patterns; the leg is equipped with a silver tripod and the arm ends in a ball&socket connection. The reptilian right arm and left leg, on the contrary, show a couple of differences. First, the grey skin has highlights and lowlights that I think help sell the scaly texture as something more realistic than the regular release. Also, the black armband and garter, around the biceps and thigh respectively, display more decorative features, though they are still not removable. Finally, these limbs still bear a claw hand and a claw foot, but the hand is now bare and not protected by a gauntlet

Wearables: a silver armour with black details (not removable), a silver bracelet and a silver boot on the reptilian limbs, a silver cuff on the robotic arm, a silver belt and a Roman-style black leather loincloth decorated with silver studs. Compared to regular-Loghar, the boot still has a spike sticking out of the side, but also shows more details, while the loincloth looks a bit shorter. He also wears a new vac-metal gold shoulder armour with black details, which doesn't have an attached cape, but instead displays a hood-down variant of the regular headgear. Even if the hood hampers the head movement a little bit, good poses are still possible.

Loghar-possessed Herrion's stylised armour.

Action feature

Like with regular-Loghar, the mechanism attached to the robotic arm extremity is the main feature of LPH. However, this device looks quite different and holds a black spinning fire-disc thrower. The weapon consists of a pivot with two curved, flat blades attached, each showing a hollow space along its concave edge; when flicked, the blades spin around a rotation axis that is perpendicular to LPH's arm. The whole thing can be detached to make the forearm look like a kind of cannon.

LPH also carries the same technological backpack seen on regular-Loghar, with identical sculpted details, such as wires, panels, piping, tubes and dials. The backpack has a sort of insulated tube that runs to the cuff on the robotic forearm and fictionally works as a portable fuel tank engineered to feed the incendiary device.

Weapons and accessories

LPH comes with a few accessories. The main one is his staff, which, like the regular version, is composed of a black shaft topped with an Iguanodon skull. Besides the different colour of the skull, which this time is ivory rather than grey, the weapon also has a brand new action feature - the skull can pop off and then, by remaining attached via a retractable string to the hollow shaft of the staff, be used as a sort of ball-and-chain flail.

Furthermore, we get two plug-in flaming effects for the fire-disc thrower, one for each blade. These effects can also be connected to an alternative arm-attachment, to create a sort of double fiery axe.

Finally, there are two fun accessories. The first is Loghar's loose, cracked demonic golden mask, which is a great supplement that I really hoped it'd be included. The second is a small shape-shifting object, which possesses the ability to transform from a smooth egg-like shape into some form of dinosaur, probably a little Iguanodon, characterised by a prominent pair of tusks protruding from the mouth and curving upwards. The gimmick is fairly simple and doesn't require much effort to transform; it's all about pulling the shell halves apart, unfolding the head, tail and legs, and snapping the shell shut. I'm not sure about where this comes from, but it's a welcome addition.

Overall, Loghar-possessed Herrion is a nice looking piece. I’ve waited for this figure for some time and I'm pleased that he meets my needs. I hoped that I could mix and match parts easily with the original Loghar, to create "unconventional" variants, and my wish has been fulfilled. I’m also happy they added a new shoulder armour, even though I'm slightly worried that the gold layer will begin to fracture and flake at some point, LPH has now taken the first figure’s place as group leader on my shelf... sorry Bi-Harr, there’s a new boss in town. To look even cooler, he just needs a ride...

KR Review #39: Kon-Rauan

A lot has happened in the world of Key Raiders during the first months of this year. Most notably, we have seen a few multi-packs, one of which (for me totally unexpected) includes the prototypes of an amazing vehicle and a giant robot. Now the reviews are getting back to simple figures.

PoliganToys sent out their 30^th action figure prototype, so we are going to hit the ground running with the second-to-last Rexodon to enter the line - Kon-Rauan^TM!

Details

Name: Kon-Rauan

Subtitle: amphibious warrior

Classification: amphibian

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Rexodon

Rank: warrant officer.

Background

Kon-Rauan's only appearance is in the sixth KR comic issue Reptiles reunited, where he is presented as an extremely brutal creature, armed with strong legs that allow him to quickly reach enemies in battle. Once a member of a lacustrine ethnic group, Kon-Rauan was among the Rexodon army last recruits. Later, after Bi-Harr's death, he acted as a double agent within the Spektrosaurs and, although he is loyal to his faction, he was tempted to serve Lor-Drek temporarily. More openly fiendish than most of his Rexodon fellows, Kon-Rauan often aims at infecting his foes with his venomous skin and flogging them with his cleft sticky tongue.

Articulation

Standard, except that the wrists are ball jointed and the right hand is especially engineered with a hinge to hold an arrow.

Description

Head: similar to a frog, characterised by a wide shape, green skin with few white stripes and large protruding purple eyes

Body: green wrinkled skin with white salamander-like stripes, webbed hands and large webbed feet; each finger (three per hand) bears a pad (or disc) located on its tip, while each toe (four per foot) displays a claw

Wearables: a short, sleeveless red tunic, a golden shoulder/chest armour with red details, two red gloves, two red calf protectors, a red leather belt and a golden loincloth. The armour sports a quiver, which contains several arrows (not removable), on its back and a strange symbol on its front. The symbol looks like a sort of upside down crown, but it may represent a webbed three-toed foot with pads; the shape of the loincloth is an elongated, narrower variation of the same symbol. The right arm carries a studded silver armband, while each of the gloves and of the shin guards has three spikes sticking out of the side (these spikes are connected by a membrane, making the whole structure resemble the chest plate symbol).

Kon-Rauan's stylised shoulder/chest armour.

Action feature

In the comics Kon-Rauan shows several abilities. First and foremost, thanks to his remarkably long and strong legs, he's an exceptional jumper. In fact, Kon-Rauan has new legs, which help render his stouter frame and are, from hips to ankles, 2 cm (almost 1'') longer than the standard figure's legs. This means that the figure is notably tall at full height, for example when posing in a jump action scene. However, he can be displayed in a crouching position, both to bring him to a more standard height and to give him a characteristic "froggy" posture.

Additionally, Kon-Rauan can shoot out and retract his sticky tongue at great speed, in order to, for example, take weapons away from his opponents. So, the figure comes with an alternative head, which displays squinted eyes, the open mouth armed with large teeth and the long, cleft pinkish tongue out. In this way the two interchangeable heads, one with tongue out and one with tongue in, make it possible to recreate the tongue extending/retracting action.

Last but not least, Kon-Rauan's skin has many glands, which often exude a toxic substance. This wasn't an easy feature to recreate, but the guys at PoliganToys found an excellent way to do it. The figure's gloved hands can be replaced with an alternative pair of bare hands, which have, besides studded silver bracers, a plume of greenish smoke spreading from the tip of each finger. A really nice touch!

Weapons and accessories

In addition to the swappable head and hands, Kon-Rauan comes with his nicely designed golden bow and fire wooden arrow. The arrow, which can be held by the special right hand, was originally meant to have a toxic point instead of fiery, by using the same greenish effect seen on the alternative hands. But apparently the colourist of the comic issue that features Kon-Rauan misinterpreted the plume as a flame and painted it red. At the end the mistake turned into a cool idea that has also been kept in the action figure and that's why we receive a burning arrow.

Also, we get a fun accessory, which is a clip-on insect, most likely a dragonfly, that can be attached to the extended tongue. The effect is really amusing!

Comic

Together with the action figure we get the sixth comic issue Reptiles reunited. Loghar, whose spirit possesses Herrion's body, summons some new warriors for his army and orders Kon-Rauan to contact Lor-Drek, the leader of the Spektrosaurs, in order to propose an alliance. The soldier must also act as his spy within the Spektrosaur faction. Lor-Drek doesn't want to subordinate himself below Loghar, but Kon-Rauan advises him to follow his orders for the moment and to rebel later. Meanwhile, Tir-Hing is upset because he feels his warrior skills are fading. He even struggles to defeat a training robot and has to be saved by his Troopers. When he is visited by a trustworthy looking guy, who claims that his village is under attack, Tir-Hing decides to lead a rescue operation. The Therioms try to save the villagers, only to find themselves attacked and knocked out by the Spektrosaurs - they fell into a trap. Now the Therioms, imprisoned in the Spektrosaur's headquarters, have to watch Loghar and Lor-Drek combining their powers to conquer Tahron. In reality, Lor-Drek's intention is to make Masq-Lor resentful enough to kill Loghar. Masq-Lor and a bunch of Theriom soldiers go to rescue their comrades. Once arrived at their destination, Masq-Lor manages to break into the base and cause enough confusion among the bad guys to free all the hostages. Their escape is interrupted by Lor-Drek, who attacks Tir-Hing, and Loghar, who, while confronting Masq-Lor, reveals that he's in reality a droid (like Deptilion previously) and not his twin brother Herrion. Tir-Hing manages to beat Lor-Drek, then he rushes to help Mask-Lor and decides the battle almost alone. The Rexodons are definitively defeated and Tahron is saved once more. Now the Spektrosaurs are the new menace.

Overall, Kon-Rauan is a great figure and a solid addition to the KR line. The newly sculpted legs give him a unique look that is only matched by his awesome interchangeable parts. I was "worried" that his non-reptilian appearance would make him stand out too much amongst his fellows, but at the end I’m happier to add him to the shelf than I thought I’d be.

The comic tells a nice story that teaches us something about the past relationships between the two reptilian factions. Also, the main focus in this issue is on character development. Tir-Hing is getting old, but he still can't forget when he was fighting for equity personally. Masq-Lor is once again a brave and smart warrior with a concern for justice and peace. Kon-Rauan acts both as a spy from Loghar and a rebel against him. Lor-Drek also gets some depths - at the beginning he's full of self-doubt, then, thanks to his wish to see her adoptive daughter Fai-Rha again, he proves himself a ruthless villain.

KR Review #38: CoBoN

In April the KR universe is going to get really big. Not only because the Therioms get their second vehicle (lucky them, what about the others?), but also because the very first giant figure in the line is getting a prototype. I mean... a vehicle and a large scale figure together!

This seventh multi-pack on steroids from PoliganToys takes the form of CoBoN, an all-terrain fighting vehicle that can fictionally transform into a big guy with whom you don’t wanna mess.

Details
Name: CoBoN

Subtitle: robotic fighting vehicle

Classification: amphibious vehicle

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: transport.

Background

CoBoN's appearances go back to the very first KR comic issue The hidden halberd, where it is presented essentially as an advanced supercomputer on wheels with the ability to think, learn, communicate and interact with the other characters. It was created by Xonedar and eventually improved by Sei-Lha with several innovations, including an autopilot system. Besides its high-level computational capacity and fighting features, it shows a kind, humorous and occasionally sarcastic personality. In a comic issue that I had the chance to preview, it even transforms into an enormous robot.

The items in the multi-pack are CoBoN's two different configurations, which I'm going to describe separately.

Vehicle mode

Description

CoBoN's armoured bodywork is painted in a silver colour and its four wheels sport nicely sculpted all-terrain tires. It displays a front mounted scanner bar, represented by a black lenticular sticker on the nose, with red and yellow patterns, i.e., two lines that sweep horizontally and a central pulsing "eye" that allows CoBoN to "see".

The canopy is the only transparent part of the vehicle and is hinged at the front; in this way it can open by folding up and forward, in order to reveal the cockpit/cabin. In the comics CoBoN actually has two Lambo-like scissor doors, which make it way cooler, but I understand that the proposed solution was much easier to engineer and I appreciate the fact that the hinge at the front reflects the scissor doors rotation in a way. Also, in the comics CoBoN is proportionally bigger and can carry up to six characters, including beasts, while this toy version only fits one figure.

Inside, the high-tech dashboard/handlebar shows tons of sculpted controls and resembles the instrument panel of an aircraft, rather than a road vehicle. Two features well recreated from the comics are worth being mentioned: the voice display, which fictionally shows coloured lights that diverge horizontally when CoBoN's AI module speaks, and the all-purpose physico-chemical analyser.

Action feature

CoBoN's cockpit seat has a 4-point safety belt and is detachable, so that it works both as an ejection seat for its pilot and an engine cover; once exposed, its amazingly sculpted turbine engine can be admired, although there is no way to figure out its classified fuel requirements.

Additionally, the drive shaft can partially swing, pivoting on a transverse axis, and allows the front wheels to mimic a sort of wheelie action, although only the bodywork is raised off the ground, not the wheels. This is a reference to CoBoN's fictional ability to jump into the air and pass over obstacles.

CoBoN is also equipped with two side hideaway missile launchers (each can swing down and spread out, and has two detachable missiles) towards the front and two side rotating (around a transverse axis) laser guns towards the back.

Last but not least, CoBoN is capable of a hyper-speed transformation, which provides an extra-boost in velocity beyond the vehicle's original top speed. This consists of retractable wheels for hover conversion, rotating front/rear spoilers and side wings for aerodynamic stability, and powerful rocket boosters (revealed by the rear spoiler) for enhanced acceleration. It also has an emergency braking system consisting of a front braking booster (revealed by the front spoiler) and adjustable air panels to create air friction (two on the wings and one on the rear spoiler).

Weapons and accessories

CoBoN comes with a small set of accessories. First are three plug-in components for the front part of the vehicle: a central device, which collectively reproduces several pieces of equipment seen in the comics, such as a multi-spectral detector and a holographic projector, and two side Gatling guns.

Additionally, to facilitate movement over particularly rough ground, each wheel can be equipped with a snap-on clawed continuous track, which flip-flops end-over-end forward. Damn, this makes the whole thing really look cool!

Robot mode

Description

This figure is 30 cm tall (around 12'') and, taking into account the toy vehicle size (and not the supposed true relative size), I think it came in at the right height. It’s tall enough to be a gigantic robot, without being so tall that he stands out too much in a crowd of regular figures.

Due to cost saving purposes, it is rotocast, which means it's essentially hollow. What really surprises me is that cost restriction didn't affect the articulation count. Yes, CoBoN has as much articulation as the standard KR figure! Now, since the points-of-articulation factor is going to have a substantial weight on the final price, I don't know if this POA scheme will be kept in the release version. If it isn't, it will be a pity, since this prototype moves extremely well and it's possible to pose it in lots of dynamic action scenes.

CoBoN also has all of the attention to detail in sculpt and paint that one should be expecting from such a figure. Its "body" has tons of little details, while staying very accurate to the vehicle configuration. The paint job is also great, with silver colour on its bodywork components and black (plus some blue here and there) on the parts that become exposed after the transformation. Basically, the lower body derives from the rear of the vehicle, the arms from the sides, the back from the canopy and the chest from the front. Alright, but wait... what about the head? That's a slightly different story, since the head is not generated by CoBoN itself. In the comic issue that I previewed, Xonedar is actually shown to be capable of transforming into the head of the giant robot, virtually taking control of it. In fact, the ball jointed head is a bigger, more robotic version of Xonedar's mouth-shielded head.

Action feature, weapons and accessories

CoBoN's robot form can launch both its hands, which are in a closed fist pose, via spring loaded mechanisms.

Additionally, it can make use of all the vehicle's accessories, which can be plugged into a number of sockets: the two Gatling guns near the shoulders, the techno-device at the top of the head and the four continuous tracks in the wheels near the feet and the shoulders.

Overall, I am absolutely thrilled with this multi-pack, it really helps flesh out the variety of my shelf. The vehicle is an amazingly fun toy and I love that I can finally hold a large scale figure after several months of reviews. I think CoBoN represents a pretty strong message from PoliganToys - there are a lot of exciting things coming in all sorts of shapes and sizes to the KR line. We are just getting started here!

Special thanks to Michael F. Nelson of Cobon Plastics Corp for allowing us to use the name CoBoN.

KR Review #37: Staurok

The Rexodons can finally count themselves as an almost complete faction thanks to the addition of a long-awaited member - Staurok^TM!

So far the Rexodons have been some of the most fortunate recipients of PolyganToys' creativity in the KR line and their (mostly) reptilian designs have been beautifully rendered. Let’s see if this 29^th action figure prototype keeps the trend going.

Details

Name: Staurok

Subtitle: multi-horned warrior

Classification: archosauromorph reptile

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Rexodon

Rank: lieutenant.

Background

Staurok makes his only short appearance in the fifth KR comic issue The factory of doom. Before Bi-Harr created his reptilian faction and challenged the mammalian forces, Staurok was the tribal chief of a ceratopsian clan, which often conducted raids and loots in neighbouring villages. After Bi-Harr's army had consecutively killed two Theriom kings, the reptilian leader enlisted Staurok to track down pockets of resistance around Tahron. With his dreaded crown of horns, Staurok is still one of the most menacing Rexodon soldiers and is ready to challenge the Therioms over and over again.

Articulation

Standard, with the addition of a ball jointed extra neck piece and a hinged upper jaw.

Description

Head: similar to a ceratopsian dinosaur, most likely a mix of a Triceratops and a Styracosaurus, characterised by bumpy blueish skin with few orange blotches, and yellow eyes. He bears several large horns, whose colour fades from orange to white to black: a single horn protruding from his snout (above the nostrils), a pair of horns above the eyes and three long horns extending from each side of his large bony neck frill. The underside of his throat displays a small beard-like black structure, which might be a reference to a reptile often known by the common name "bearded dragon"

Body: blueish (a blue neither light nor dark) scaly skin with orange blotches, claw hands and feet; his shoulders, forearms and calves are adorned with several bony bulges covered in skin, which, where needed, project through openings in his worn items

Wearables: a dark-blue armour with yellow details, two dark-blue bracelets (with elbow guards and knuckle protectors), two dark-blue boots (without claw protectors and with two yellow fur rings at the top of each boot), a dark-blue belt and a tattered yellow fabric loincloth. The chest plate looks like made of two broken pieces that have been joined by a poorly executed diagonal weld and shows a strange electronic device at its centre. The back armour is adorned with a number of spikes that kind of resemble his horns, while the belt carries an array of pockets on the back. He also wears golden pairs of shoulder and thigh pads.

Staurok's stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics Staurok has the ability to deal nasty multi-horned assaults to enemies and obstacles. The action figure presents an interesting double ball-jointed neck, meaning that both his head and neck extension are on ball joints. This definitively adds to the feel that Staurok is hunched over and also gives him an extended range. Surprisingly, the complex shapes of the two pieces don't hinder the movements at all - he can look in all directions, in particular he can bend his head forward in order to crush his opponents.

Additionally, thanks to the articulated upper jaw, Staurok's mouth can open and chomp down to inflict deadly bites to his foes.

Weapons and accessories

Staurok includes two accessories. First is his yellow multi-purpose weapon; this has two perpendicular handles, so it can be held either vertically or horizontally and displayed as a silver-tipped spear, a silver-bladed axe (by turning it upside down) or an energy whip (by connecting a clear light-blue plastic attachment to the end near the axe blade). Due to the fact that the handle is placed in the middle of the long shaft, when grasped horizontally the weapon can only be held effectively below the forearm, if you know what I mean; however, the spear piece can also be detached, so that the energy whip can be held more comfortably, like a gun. The weapon has a neat technological design and I wonder if the device on the chest armour works as a sort of remote control for it. I only wish the whip had been made of pliable plastic instead of rigid, but the wave-like shape it is cast in helps to add to the effect of a vicious lash anyway.

The second accessory is a nice addition to the figure - a silver rack that fits firmly onto the two supraorbital horns and carries two yellow pivoting cannons.

Overall, among all the Rexodons that I have looked at recently, Staurok got a decent figure, but he just doesn't strike me enough. I like him better than Li-Gah-Tor, but not as much as Traark. The head sculpt is fairly menacing (I was afraid he would end up coming out a little goofy) and the usual bulk is covered by an interestingly designed armour. I think what I’m not happy about is his odd colour scheme, although it really comes alive on this figure. Still, he’s a welcome addition to my shelves.