This first May figure has never been on my short list of prototypes I’d like to review. I don't know, I simply never found him interesting enough. But now that Torp-TorTM has showed up, I’m definitely glad to be proven wrong.
Torp-Tor is the 33rd action figure prototype I received from PoliganToys and the last member of the Rexodons, which is now the only complete faction among the four Key Raiders groups.
Details
Name: Torp-Tor
Subtitle: air-combat warrior
Classification: archosauromorph reptile
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Affiliation: Rexodon
Rank: flying officer.
Background
Torp-Tor's only appearance is in the sixth KR comic issue Reptiles reunited. Once the evil leader of a dynasty of gliding reptiles who lived on the western cliffs, Torp-Tor engaged with his people in a long war against the Therioms for conquering Tahron. After a series of defeats, he was convinced by Bi-Harr to put aside his desire for supremacy and join the Rexodon army, in order to work together. Both a tough warrior and a skilled engineer, he often leaves his technical duties to fight in the airspace above the battlefield. Torp-Tor's massive wings and powerful jet engines give him the ability to move through the air at an incredible speed, which he uses to reach his mammalian enemies and then attack with his destructive weaponry.
Articulation
Standard, with the addition of a ball jointed extra neck piece, a hinged upper jaw, a ball jointed tail (which features two articulation points, two swivels at about one-third and two-thirds of its length) and two hinged wings.
Description
Head: similar to a pterosaur, perhaps a mix of a Pteranodon and a Pterodactylus, characterised by yellowish skin, a narrow, backward-projecting cranial crest, and blue eyes. The jaws form a long, slender beak with a full complement of large sharp teeth visible along the edges. Thanks to the articulated upper jaw, Torp-Tor's mouth can open and show the tongue sculpted on the inside; to be honest, I'm not a fan of hinged upper jaws, they look kind of awkward to me. This, after Zourr and Staurok, is the third time we've got something like that and I hope it's also the last one. I understand that there may be engineering reasons behind the decision of which jaw should be articulated, but I just think hinged lower jaws look much better. Both his head and neck extension are on ball joints, which not only give him a slightly longer neck, but also make it possible for him to look in all directions
Body: yellowish scaly skin with purple blotches, claw hands, feet with large black talons. His biceps and thighs are equipped with small, sturdy skin appendages that look a bit like wings and might work as stabilisers. On the back, a pair of large wings projects through the sides of the armour; these wings are formed by membranes of yellowish skin with purple blotches and are sustained by two long brown bones (each with a protruding claw in the middle). Also, he has a long, thick yellowish tail that ends with a diamond-shaped purple vane; this tail is a partial reuse of Li-Gah-Tor's appendage and is a separate piece that snaps into a socket under his loincloth
Wearables: a dark-blue armour with light-blue details (including a cool pterosaur motif on the chest plate), two dark-blue bracelets, two dark-blue calf protectors, a dark-blue belt and a light-blue metal loincloth.
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| Torp-Tor's stylised armour. |
Action feature
In the comics Torp-Tor is a jet-powered air soldier, who can perform different tasks in combat, such as air-to-air fights and airstrikes. Apparently, his wings are just leathery structures suited to a gliding style of flight rather than active. For that reason Torp-Tor wears a rocket pack (equipped with two massive turbojet engines) on his back. Two joystick-looking devices can be held in his hands and fictionally used to control the jet pack, to which they are connected by means of two cables. The wings (which are somewhat flexible and, in case, removable) are articulated on hinges at the sides of the jet pack and can move back and forth, allowing the figure to simulate a kind of wing-flapping action.
Torp-Tor is armed with an impressive assortment of weapons. A metal mount is implanted in the centre of the surface of each wing and connected by a (sculpted) wire to the jet pack; each mount bears a pivoting triple-barreled gun on the upper side of the wing and a detachable rocket-assisted bomb on the underside. Also, by pressing a fin on the bottom part of his jet pack, a spring-loaded mechanism opens a hinged cover on the top part, revealing a double-missile launcher; in fact, one of the two missiles is a trigger that, when pressed, fires the second missile. I think this is the first time a KR figure features two back-to-back spring-loaded mechanisms, which is pretty cool.
Weapons and accessories
Apart from the already mentioned bombs and missile, Torp-Tor comes with a small selection of accessories. First up is a triangular shield cast with the Rexodon symbol, i.e., a reptile skull. The shield is completely painted in light-blue, except for the skull's eye sockets that are red, and is designed to fit over Torp-Tor's left bracer, since his hands are busy holding the joysticks to control the jet pack.
Additionally, we get two propulsion-blast effects, for either the jet engines or the rocket-assisted bombs, and a flight stand. The latter is mostly made of clear plastic, but has an excellently sculpted and painted base with a stone-and-steel appearance and lots of incomprehensible symbols on it; it clips around Torp-Tor's waist and allows for various flight poses, also thanks to its single point of articulation and the figure's extended range of head movement (he can look forward when displayed horizontally).
Overall, even with a balance issue due to his heavy wings/jet pack/weaponry, Torp-Tor is an amazing figure, mainly thanks to his design, which made a real impression on me, and great use of additional points of articulation (except for the upper jaw). I really think he may be the best KR figure of the month, and not just because it’s a great translation of one of the most complex designs to this toy line so far.
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