Since this is my 50th review regarding the Key Raiders line (can you believe I have written that many already?), I think I have discussed the rich KR mythos on several occasions. That being said, the set I'm going to review connects to a part of the story that I have not had the chance to reveal yet. And I'm not doing it here, I'll wait for the relevant comic issue to come out.
This 10th multi-pack (technically a 2-pack, but actually a 3-pack... I'll clear this up) from PoliganToys is the third set that includes an action figure packaged with a creature - AlterokTM and Zor-KanTM!
It is strange though, Alterok is the second Herrion's variant I'm reviewing before the regular Herrion figure even shows up. The prototype run is going in some crazy cool directions... and I am just glad to be a part of the ride!
Alterok
Details
Name: Alterok
Real name: Herrion
Subtitle: monstrous alter ego
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: Destructomorph
Rank: interim chief marshal.
Background
Alterok's only appearance takes place in a KR comic issue that hasn't been printed yet, but I had the chance to preview. Like I said, I cannot reveal much about his backstory here; I can just anticipate that Herrion, once rescued from a long-lasting segregation, receives the third prodigious helmet from Elykta, in order to channel the same ancient power that Masq-Lor and Fai-Rha use to acquire incredible abilities. However, due to a reason related to his personal history that I can't explain now, something goes wrong and instead Herrion transforms into an evil monstrosity, Alterok, who teams up with Demo-Rha.
Articulation
Description
Head: he wears a silver helmet with a hideous red-orange visor, which displays two diamond-shaped solid light-blue plaques covering the eyes. This Deadpool-like design creates an interesting effect for me... I know where his eyes are supposed to be, but they’re not quite there. The exposed part of the face shows red skin around the diabolical mouth, from which two sharp whitish teeth protrude upward. The helmet has a circular opening on the upper rear that allows a long white ponytail to come through
Body: red skin, exposed torso, arms and legs, claw hands. He has a dark blue-green serpent coiled around his trunk, with the reptile's head emerging over his left shoulder. This snake-like creature is characterised by warty/scaly skin, a pair of purple eyes, a pair of small ears, a beak-shaped, orange-tipped muzzle, and a sequence of grey-brown spikes projecting from the upper side and spanning almost the body's entire length. Only the serpent's tail and neck are attached to Alterok's lower and upper back respectively, while the rest of its body crosses the front of the figure's torso diagonally, without being glued on it. Such a trick, together with a moderate flexibility of the snake's body, allows the abdomen to bend freely
Wearables: two golden bracelets, two golden boots, a golden belt and a medieval-style black armoured loincloth. His torso is split diagonally by the serpent - while the top-left part is bare, the bottom-right part is covered with a brown spiderweb-like vine net, which extends towards the back and ends in being absorbed by his skin.
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| Alterok's stylised helmet with frontal crests. |
Action feature
In the comics, Alterok is equipped with a pair of retractile pincers produced by his wrist guards. So, the figure comes with two long brownish grasping claws that can snap into the bracelets.
Weapons and accessories
Aside from the pincers attachments, Alterok comes with a menacing scythe, which has a large semicircular toothed silver blade at the end of a long black shaft.
Additionally (and surprisingly), we also get Herrion's head wearing the inactive helmet, i.e., without visor. There are a couple of interesting things to say about this accessory. First, this head basically combines Masq-Lor's face with a new helmet; it makes sense, after all they are identical twins, even if Herrion's skin colour, in my opinion, is slightly lighter. Second, this head doesn't really match Alterok's body; rather, it likely functions as an alternative head for Herrion's future regular release. Update: this alternative head will be probably included with Herrion's figure and replaced here with a mid-transformation head.
Zor-Kan
Details
Name: Zor-Kan
Subtitle: four-winged fighting bird
Classification: pseriform* bird
Sex: female
Home: Tahron
Affiliation: Theriom (formerly belonging to a reptilian faction)
Rank: military animal.
*PseriformsTM are fictional birds of prey.
Background
Zor-Kan makes several brief appearances throughout most of the KR comics series, but it's in the very same issue where Alterok also appears that she gets the spotlight. A bird of prey originally trained by Bi-Harr for hunting the mammalian enemies, Zor-Kan served as a fearsome fighter alongside Elykta, until the enchantress set out to end her own allegiance to the reptilian army. Elykta tried to convince Zor-Kan to follow her and join the fight to protect Tahron rather than destroy it, but the bird's thinking had been severely twisted by the reptilian influence. With time, Elykta' gentleness helped to heal Zor-Kan's mind, who eventually became a loyal member of the Theriom air force.
Action feature
In the comics, besides being described as having an excellent long distance vision, Zor-Kan is showed to absorb part of the power of Alterok/Herrion's helmet via a sort of panther spirit, acquiring various enhanced features. Unlike Ki-Wun and Merados though, such improvements are not included with the figure as add-ons, even if this possibility was actually explored and eventually discarded. Instead, we get two different figures, one for Zor-Kan's normal form and one for her enhanced appearance, which I'm going to describe separately with regard to sculpt, paint and articulation.
Normal form
In her normal form, Zor-Kan essentially resembles a multicoloured eagle. Her dark-red head displays a pair of green beady eyes and a hooked yellow beak, and the ruff (i.e., a ring of feathers round the neck) has light-orange and black stripes. The upper back has a great green to black fade across its length, while the lower back and rump are golden-yellow. She also has a scarlet breast, flanks and underparts, including the upper legs, but the lower legs and feet are covered with dull yellow scales. The feet have black talons (three of which point forward and one goes backward) that can grip a perching surface, but they are also designed to stand on their own. The tail has black feathers spotted with reddish-brown marks and includes two much longer black feathers, each ending in a reddish-brown fan (in the comics it is explained that this unique twin tail is used for balancing her body weight as she hunts or lands). She may look like a common bird until one notices that she has four wide blue, dark-red tipped wings, two on either side. Articulation-wise, she can look down and to the sides thanks to the ball jointed neck, while each leg features two points of articulation: a hinged hip and a swivel ankle. Each wing is connected to the body via a ball-hinged joint, which allows the wing to fold, spread and flap.
Enhanced form
Zor-Kan's enhanced form has a heron-like appearance and, although similar to the normal form in terms of texture and paint job, her great multicoloured feathery body is larger and has longer neck and legs. Her head has a very nice sculpt, characterised by a metallic red-orange-brown (I'm going to call this colour/material "rust" from now onward) headpiece or face-mask (which includes a magnificent white crest with a rust wing emblem embedded in each side) and a large, long arcuate beak with a hinged lower jaw. An S-shaped neck extension with light-orange and black stripes connects the head to the body. The back is equipped with a rust harness, which carries a white saddle and a pair of tail-mounted white booster rockets, to help speed her in flight. The upper legs are muscular and feathery, while the lower legs are slim and mostly covered with a rust scale armour. The feet have long sharp steel talons in an open pose and the peacock-like tail has nine feathers spotted with glowing-translucent orange "eyes". But it's the two pairs of broad rust, flaming wings that steal the show. With an impressive wingspan of nearly 45 cm (18"), this baby is going to take up so much space on my shelf! However, the gap between the front and hind wings allows the saddle to accommodate for Alterok (or another figure) with no problem. Also, for being "just" a bird, the articulation is quite impressive. She can look in any direction thanks to the ball jointed upper neck and the hinged lower neck, each wing has a ball-hinged joint and the nine-tipped tail is simply hinged. Additionally, each leg features four points of articulation: ball-hinged hips, hinged knee and ankle, and swivel-hinged talons.
Weapons and accessories
Zor-Kan comes with a small set of accessories. First up is a translucent crystal perch, onto which the bird's normal form can alight; this perch can turn into a flight stand for Zor-Kan's enhanced form by replacing the horizontal bar with a large clip.
The other accessories are two white pivoting side guns, which can plug into the headpiece, and two propulsion-blast effects for either the booster rockets or the side cannons.
In addition, we get the small translucent blue panther spirit (a wrong repaint of Merados' one—it should actually be orange!) that allows Zor-Kan's enhancement.
Overall, this multi-pack makes a stunning entrance into the KR world. Alterok is certainly a winner, I love the look of this figure and I am very happy to get him. Even though my evil-side shelf already has a lot of weird monsters, this guy breaks up the leaders clan and surely increases the evilness; he's most definitely in my villains top five. Also, the fact that he's a Herrion variant makes me want to see the definitive incarnation of this character coming into the line even more; so, bring that missing brother figure on soon! I also think Zor-Kan is a complete knockout in the looks department and does a wonderful job in fitting in with the creatures club. She's beautiful and strong in both versions, but I think the double-figure solution will make people feel very split on her final construction. Personally, I like the idea of having a Zor-Kan for each Herrion version: normal and... altered.
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