The character I'm going to review today is a mammalian creature that is prone to treachery and works for the reptilian enemies. That makes NoctyliusTM extremely interesting to me!
This villainous bat warrior is the 48th action figure prototype I received from PoliganToys. Let’s take a closer look at him.
Details
Name: Noctylius
Subtitle: bat warrior
Classification: chiropteran mammal
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Affiliation: Spektrosaur (formerly belonging to the Theriom faction)
Rank: officer candidate.
Background
Noctylius is a one-episode wonder that appears in the ninth KR comic issue The Cereutian menace: Part II – Salvation. The descendant of a line of mammals that are capable of flight, Noctylius has not always been an infamous accomplice of the reptilian forces. In the past, he loyally served the Theriom air force as a stealthy pilot officer, until he was expelled for causing an accident due to an irresponsible action. Having developed a deep resentment at being discharged, Noctylius joined Lor-Drek's faction for many years. Eventually, he allied with Denortos in an attempt to overpower both the Therioms and the Spektrosaurs. This treacherous plan ultimately met with failure and now this winged revengeful warrior is forced to scheme by himself against all who fight for freedom on Tahron.
Articulation
Standard, plus hinged toes.
Description
Head: similar to a bat, specifically a Carollia perspicillata, characterised by a grey-brown fur, a fairly long snout, large ears, black eyes and a lance-shaped noseleaf. The top of the head has a more evident strip of hair running centrally from the middle of the forehead to the back of the neck, while the mouth is open and shows a number of sharp white teeth
Body: dense grey-brown fur. Each hand includes two fingers of a normal size and three much longer ones connected by a veined translucent brown membrane. Each forearm (longer than the average length), triceps and thigh is equipped with a number (four, two and two respectively) of bony extra digits, also connected by a translucent brown membrane. Each foot bears two small outer toes and two large inner hinged toes, while a fifth toe protrudes backward and up from each calf. Each digit, either regular (on hands and feet) or additional (on arms and legs), displays an orange-ish skin and ends in a black claw. He also carries a rubbery removable neck piece that fits right on top of the body and mimics a woolly collar with a strip of fur that runs down the middle of the upper back, like an extension of his mohawk
Wearables: a dark-blue armour with silver details, two metallic dark-blue wristbands, two dark-blue furry calf protectors (each tied to the leg by means of two silver studded bands), a metallic dark-blue belt and a medieval-style silver armoured loincloth. The armour possesses highly technological components, which I imagine help Noctylius cope with such an energetically demanding activity like sustained flight. However, the back of the armour looks more like a harness and leaves the furry mane piece exposed. A bulging detail on the back of the loincloth suggests the presence of a short tail, although there is no evidence of that.
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| Noctylius's stylised armour. |
Action feature
In the comics, thanks to the extra set of digits that form broad leathery bat wings along his arms, Noctylius is able to perform spectacular flying manoeuvres. Due to an injury caused by his past accident, he is blind, but possesses a super-sensitive hearing and can employ echolocation as a method of navigation during flight and orientation in combat. He emits intense, high-pitched sound waves that originate in his mouth, and can hear the echoes of those waves when they bounce off nearby objects. He can also use those ear-shattering screeches to overwhelm his enemies or to shake and disintegrate targets. So, the figure comes with a conical clear sonic blast effect that plugs into his open mouth tightly. It's not a lot, I know, but I'm very pleased to finally see a new mouth effect in addition to the "splashing" one that was originally made for Nibeon and has been used so many times.
Weapons and accessories
Apart from the above-mentioned sonic-scream effect, Noctylius comes with a shield in the shape of a massive bat surrounded by flames. Besides being completely vac-metallised silver, this shield has a neat design that greatly combines the bat nature of the character with the flame motif of the Spektrosaur symbol, and is conceived to fit over Noctylius's either bracer. However, it looks purely ceremonial to me, since it has a massive gap between the wings - a design that doesn’t look like it would lend itself to much protection.
Additionally, we get a translucent stand, which is very similar to the one included with Zor-Kan. It has a clip that allows it to be used as a flight stand, but can turn into a kind of perch by replacing the clip with a T-shaped horizontal piece. The latter structure is designed to let Noctylius rest upside down, by making him clasp the bar with the toes sticking out of his calves.
Comic
Together with the action figure we get the ninth comic issue The Cereutian menace: Part II – Salvation. After succeeding in finding and activating an ancient machine buried deep beneath Theriom City, Denortos creates an inter-dimensional bridge between Tahron and Cereutis. Masq-Lor, Fai-Rha and Lor-Drek realise that Denortos' actual plan was to open a portal that would lead him beyond the multiversal walls. Instead, due to a malfunction of the machine, he opened a portal to his own dimension, from which more creatures similar to him were knocked over Tahron. The Therioms and the Spektrosaurs see only one way to overcome this new threat - to form a coalition and fight together. Empowered by the presence of his sidekicks, Denortos begins hunting for the halberds that compose the Key, starting from the ones in Lor-Drek's possession. The Cereutian creatures aim at imprisoning the Spektrosaur leader within his own dominion in Artelon, but the Therioms are also there. During a spectacular fight, Denortos offers Lor-Drek to rule Tahron together, but the reptilian marshal declines and gets severely injured. The Therioms can't save him, but just before drawing his last breath, he gives his halberds (together with a mysterious amulet) to Masq-Lor and commands his army to keep on fighting alongside their allies against the evil invaders. With the help of the Spektrosaurs (except for a few renegades), the heroes are even able to lead the fight for a while, but eventually the Cereutians unite to form a huge monster that neither Masq-Lor nor Fai-Rha can beat. Xonedar decides to use a prototype feature of CoBoN's to create an equally large robot, which proves a match for the creature's strength. Meanwhile, Masq-Lor rides back to Theriom City and reactivates the machine to reopen a portal to Cereutis. The robot formed by CoBoN and Xonedar forces the monster to be swallowed by the portal just seconds before the machine is destroyed and the inter-dimensional bridge disappears.
Overall, Noctylius was not a character particularly high on my wish list, but the final figure turned out really cool. His wings are attached to the arms and, despite their complete anatomical inaccuracy, they are smartly designed not to hinder the figure's movement. Paint is also great, the fur sculpt has a light highlight to it, and the belt and wristbands have a gloss blue finishing that adds a nice touch to the figure.
About the comic, on the whole this is possibly one of the weakest issues in terms of plot. But the artwork is great... the monster shown towards the end looks amazing and I seriously hope it will come in the form of an action figure at some point! The only very interesting thing about the story is the good and the bad guys being forced to work together against a new and stronger threaten than anything seen before. That is enough to make this comic a very good one.
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