KR Review #56: Koptros

Yes, I’m missing review deadlines. And I can see the effect - traffic is down. It’s not that terrible, but still...

To compensate for my slightly long absence, here is the review of a long-awaited prototype - Koptros^TM!

Koptros has been one of my most anticipated figures in the line. The novelty of being a retired member of the Theriom faction always made him look interesting to me.

There is a lot to like on the sculpt of this 43^rd action figure prototype from PoliganToys. He has a few new pieces that all look sharp. Getting the figure right, anyway, was all about the head and the defining action feature that comes with it. The guys at PoliganToys needed to make it right. And they did!

Details

Name: Koptros

Subtitle: knowledgeable auxiliary

Classification: human

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: formerly marshal of the Theriom air force; expert in astronomy, communication engineering and espionage.

Background

Koptros appears in the exciting KR comic double-issue The Cereutian menace, where he plays a crucial role in discovering Denortos' evil plan. The descendant of an ancient engineer, who masterminded the construction of the multiversal walls, and a former member of the Theriom air force, Koptros left King Li-Khon's army after a battle injury and found peace in a remote astronomical observatory on the Gumazir^TM plateau. Although he is dedicated to a solitary and contemplative life in his hermitage, when he is called to protect justice, Koptros is still available to assist his one-time fellows with the help of all the skills and technology at his command. In particular, using his talent for disguise and telecommunication, he can act as a double agent in the reptilian armies.

Articulation

Standard, except that the wrists are ball jointed.

Description

Head: Native American features, dark brown skin with a reddish tinge, long box-braided black hair partly arranged in a ponytail, brown eyes

Body: dark brown skin with a reddish tinge. The exposed parts of his torso, arms and legs are covered in coloured tribal tattoos, which even glow in the dark to some extent. Also, his chest and back are mildly hairy

Wearables: a silver harness with red details, two silver fingerless gauntlets with a few studs around the wrists, two silver boots fastened with criss-crossed leather laces, a silver belt with some bullets all the way around and red trunks. The harness features a number of tubes along the straps and an electronic panel on the front. The gauntlets, the boots and the belt show an overlapping-plate structure with a hint of technology. He also carries a silver backpack, which, together with the harness, kind of resembles Sei-Lha's battling gear.

Koptros' stylised harness.

Action feature

Koptros is equipped with a hyper-technological backpack, which probably has a similar origin to Sei-Lha's one. Fictionally, this backpack can produce a number of tools, some of which are included as accessories with the figure. These silver&red tools, which can plug into two sockets on the top and the side of the backpack, include a rod-shaped antenna for radio communications, a rotating radar dish for land surveying, a corded gun-shaped loudspeaker for sounds and voices simulation, and a corded gun-shaped 3D scanner.

In the comics, the backpack also has the ability to produce a disguise, especially a mask, after performing a 3D scan of an enemy by the apt handheld device. So, the figure comes with six interchangeable faces that can be stored inside the backpack. To change Koptros' face, it's necessary to remove the hairpiece, rotate the head by 180°, connect the new face to the exposed socket and reattach the hairpiece. There are six faces, two of which show Koptros' regular visage with additional details: a sort of virtual reality visor and a headset (with a visible earpiece and a mouth shield-like microphone) respectively. Three other faces have been added, I suppose, for fun and resemble Masq-Lor, Deptilion and Mor-Rak respectively (Masq-Lor's face is the only one that may work well with Koptros' body and hair). But the most important face is the one that resembles Sphenorat^TM, the Spektrosaur three-eyed wizard, because this is the disguise that Koptros uses in the Downfall episode. The camouflage can be completed with an additional brown cowl that replaces the hairpiece, two alternative emaciated reptilian hands and a slightly pliable poncho-like brown robe (as a result, the arms are covered by a pair of loose sleeves only on the front side and are stuck in a preset position). It's pretty amazing to get a forthcoming figure lookalike even before the regular prototype is ready! But I'm not going to describe this guise in detail, since the real Sphenorat will be reviewed soon.

Weapons and accessories

Aside from the backpack tools, alternative faces and camouflage outfit, Koptros comes with his manifold laser pistol. This metallic red gun has three interchangeable terminal parts: a single-barreled piece (with three silver blades projecting from it), a double-barreled piece (each barrel is placed at one end of a curved horizontal silver blade, slightly making the pistol resemble a crossbow) and a triple-barreled piece (one of the three barrels, which are positioned at the apexes of a triangular pattern, is actually a spring-loaded missile launcher). Additionally, the double-barreled component can be reversed, to show a horned reptile eye, and then connected to a wooden shaft, in order to mock Sphenorat's sceptre. Now, that's a nice touch!

Overall, although this is a great addition to the KR line, Koptros is a middle-shelf figure. Don't get me wrong, I’m delighted that Koptros is finally upgrading my shelf, there’s really a lot to like about him, but he just doesn't deserve the front spot. His look is unique enough that he will still pop. He received a great head sculpt with a cool feature and I think the PoliganToys designers couldn't do better than this. My only complaint is about the poncho solution for the additional robe. I'm afraid it doesn't really match Sphenorat's cloak from the comics and, more worrying, from the upcoming action figure. Maybe a fabric robe (perhaps reversible, to get even more display options) would have served as a better strategy to really enjoy it.