With the end of my first year of KR reviews and the news that PoliganToys will continue to send me their prototypes but not official releases yet, we’re at a point of mystery, speculation and confusion. In fall 2016, the first KR figures were expected to be introduced to the public. However, this now seems more and more unlikely to happen.
Nobody knows what PoliganToys' plans are for the KR brand. All I know is that they do intend to make it come into being in some form.
I should hang my head in shame too. The purpose of this blog was (and is still) to help the brand take off, by creating a mist of curiosity and hype that would eventually lead to demand. It didn't succeed so far.
Believe me, writing a blog about something so visual like action figures and not being allowed to post pictures of those figures is a pretty difficult task. But I'm not going to give up. I really enjoy receiving those prototypes, analysing them and writing their reviews. I *just* need to improve my promotional skills, with the hope to push for the Key Raiders being put on the market sooner rather than later.
Anyway, after that, this week I'm reviewing the formal-outfit variant of Fai-Rha -or Apprentice Advisor Fai-RhaTM-, which is the 47th action figure prototype I received from PoliganToys.
Details
Name: Apprentice Advisor Fai-Rha
Real name: Rhadiel
Subtitle: future supporter
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
Rank: trainee.
Since the background story of the character has been covered before and the articulation is standard (excluding the hinged abdomen), let's get straight to the point, which is all about the figure.
Description
Head: light brown skin, long unbound black hair, green eyes. Unlike the helmet-less head included in Fai-Rha's regular release, the eyebrows are in a more relaxed position and the mouth displays a subtle smile. She also wears a golden tiara decorated with a red gemstone; the tiara clips into two notches in her hair that allow for it to be reversible, exhibiting either of two slightly different designs
Body: the arms are covered with the long sleeves of a dark-grey shirt, while the legs are partially exposed and show light brown skin
Wearables: a long-sleeved dark-grey shirt underneath a long sleeveless red dress, two golden bracelets decorated with red gemstones, two golden boots and a dark-grey leather belt. The dress is characterised by a metallic shimmer, a deep V-neck, ruffles down the skirt and a double slit. The belt separates the fitted part above the waist from the skirt below and has a big golden buckle that bears a more graceful reinterpretation of the Theriom symbol, with what seems a big diamond at its centre. The dress is made of a soft plastic, so it doesn't block her articulation from the waist down. The fairly high slits allow us to see the shirt underneath being actually a leotard and the boots showing turndown dark-grey lapels.
Action feature
Like with Apprentice Minister Masq-Lor, despite the figure doesn't have any real action feature, we still get something to enhance AAF's clothing, presumably for highly formal occasions. This comes in the form of a red cape with white ornamental frills along the collar, which is fixed to the front by a small gold chain. The same shiny, glittering effect seen on the dress also characterises the mantle, except that it fades to solid red towards the upper edge.
Weapons and accessories
Apart from the extra cape, AAF comes with an indispensable accessory - an alternative head that displays a daring expression and wears the inactive helmet, i.e., with neither the black-panther visor activated nor metal cat ears. Like with Masq-Lor, this new head works as the necessary bridge between the helmet-less and the helmeted-with-visor heads, both included in Fai-Rha's regular release.
Additionally, the figure includes alternative versions of Fai-Rha's normal bō stick and triangular shield. The stick is made of a reddish-brown wood and adorned with relatively simply designed golden (instead of the original silver colour) ends, and, similarly to Fai-Rha's first release, it can be inserted in a holster on the back of her dress. The shield is completely made of gold and engraved with what looks like a big cat face.
Overall, Apprentice Advisor Fai-Rha is yet another great figure. She does run a little bit taller than her regular counterpart, but just posing her with a slightly wide stance will make her end up being the right height. The paint lines are very well executed and the head sculpt is nearly perfect. She deserves to be welcome on my KR shelf, regardless of how I feel about "institutional" variants being displayed among the more combative characters.
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