KR Review #69: Kinod

Another week has come and gone, and with it we have another KR review. With the rush to fill out the prototype roster before the year ends, PoliganToys chose to plug October's last slot with Kinod^TM!

I have some mixed feelings about this 53^rd action figure prototype. The character looks great on paper, but, in my opinion, is a little lacking in practice.

Details

Name: Kinod

Subtitle: thorny warrior

Classification: mutant holopodian^TM*

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Destructomorph

Rank: holopodian mutant commander.
*Holopodians are fictional large-sized echinoderms with some characteristics that are shared with crustaceans.

Background

Kinod's only appearance is in the 11^th KR comic issue Herrion's ordeal. Originally belonging to a spawn laid by a holopodian, an endangered species of giant echinoderms, Kinod and his fellows were created by Demo-Rha after submerging the unhatched eggs into an enchanted pool found in Dekropolis' understructure. The mystic water mutated the brood's genome, transforming the holopodian offspring into a ferocious army. During Demo-Rha's attempt to overtake Tahron alongside Alterok, many of these mutant soldiers were also fused with fearsome spike-studded and multi-pronged weapons for battling against the Therioms. Banished from Dekropolis after the defeat of most of Kinod's army, the surviving holopodian mutants are now outcasts who wander along the borders of Tahron.

Articulation

Standard, except that the left wrist is ball jointed.

Description

Head: his star-shaped, bumpy blue head has five "arms", which radiate from a central disc and are connected by a membrane. The top and the two bottom arms bear three curved sharp whitish horns pointing forwards, while the two remaining arms exhibit two evil pinkish eyes. The central disc carries the mouth, which is made up of five whitish jaws with a small tongue-like black structure within. The back of the head is protected by a dome-shaped black shell, which seems composed of bony plates and is covered with long, thick sharp glossy-black spines

Body: pinkish skin (which bears a number of projections in the form of porous warts), star-shaped claw feet. His right arm sports a claw hand, while the left arm ends with a steel hydraulic device that shows some great details, such as wires, pistons and tubes. His limbs and back are equipped with five separate black shell clip-on pieces, which have the same bony, spiny appearance of the head piece

Wearables: a light-blue armour with dark-blue details, two light-blue bracelets with star-shaped studs (the left one is concealed by the hydraulic attachment), two light-blue boots (each with a spiky top), a spiky light-blue belt and a dark-blue gorgonian-like loincloth (reused from Colotros).

Kinod's stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics, when Kinod is in danger, he folds over and turns into a spiny globular form, to roll into battle and drive back attackers. The figure did not retain this bending down feature, but, instead, its back, arms and legs are covered with spiny shell pieces that can pop/clip out and connect to an included extra piece. The sea urchin form is then completed simply by placing the detached figure's head on top, to seal the remaining hole. I couldn’t quite get the head to fully submerge, so there is a part of the spiky ball popping out a little bit, but this is probably due to the fact that the head piece doesn't actually attach to it, but just rests on top, which is a bit disappointing. Other than that, I have to say the effect works pretty well.

Kinod is also equipped with a five-pronged silver weapon that extends and contracts from his left arm. The feature requires two interchangeable pieces to accomplish: the retracted and extended versions of the weapon. Both pieces plug into the hydraulic component and are very well designed; the shrunk form looks like an elaborate spear tip, while the lengthened-broadened (and even spinning) form slightly reminds me of an egg-beater... of course more badass!

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the extra spiny fragment and the two arm attachments, Kinod comes with a cool assortment of accessories. First of all, his signature flail, which comprises a metallic dark-blue haft connected by a long real metal chain to a spherical silver-spiked dark-blue striking end, looks great.

In addition, the guys at PoliganToys tossed a few alternative pieces in the package, so that Kinod can match his fellows' styling. I never thought I would consider displaying that, but now that I have the chance, I am giving it a serious thought. The set includes a head, a back armour, a plain left hand and a number of weapons. First of all, it's necessary to remove all the spiky shell pieces, since Kinod's soldiers have a more "naked" look, except for their heads. In fact, the alternative head consists of a spherical bivalve black shell covered with spines and partially open, whose serrated opening allows a pair of evil green glowing eyes to peek out. The alternative back armour is also a black shell, but instead of being covered with spikes, it displays four strips that run down its length and bear comb-like bands of seemingly vibrating translucent light-blue hairs. The comb rows originate from an eye-like dark-blue decoration situated at the top part of the shell, while a pair of long pliable pinkish tentacles (each fringed with little filaments and ending in a bony tooth-like structure) emerges from the sides of the shell and projects forwards over the shoulders. Since the hydraulic arm attachment is a separate piece too, this can be removed to display the figure with two regular hands. As a further option, there is a selection of dark-blue&silver plug-in weapons for the left arm, which includes a rigid whip, an elaborate bow-shaped sword blade, a shield (which looks a little like the rotating arrangement of blades of a fan to me) and a spiked striking ball. The last accessory is interesting, because it may be replaced by Kinod's flail (whose haft can also plug into the arm) in order to simulate an extending/retracting feature of the same weapon. Of course, one can mix and match all these parts in various ways to create more original characters.

Comic

Together with the action figure we get the 11th comic issue Herrion's ordeal. At Theriom City, Herrion is slowly becoming accustomed with his new life. The Therioms are informed of a group of holopodians (i.e., giant marine creatures) attacking a coastal village. The heroes travel to the site, to save the villagers from the dangerous situation, and manage to force the holopodians back to the shore where their mother, the queen holopodian, has laid a large number of eggs. Herrion, who took part to the mission, is upset because of his very limited role in the operation, due to the fact that the helmet he received from Elykta, unlike his sibling's ones, didn't activate. During the night, Herrion feels urged by a mysterious force to wear again the helmet, which turns him into a monster. Under Demo-Rha's control, Alterok (this is how the monster calls himself) walks to the strand with the holopodian spawn. The two steal several of the queen's eggs and when the mother attacks, Demo-Rha traps her. The eggs are then magically dispersed over Tahron and the witch orders Alterok, after erasing his memory, to change back to Herrion. The day after at Theriom City, a crashing sound is suddenly heard from outside. The troopers investigate and they find a holopodian's egg on the residence grounds. The egg hatches and a baby holopodian appears, growing to full size in a matter of seconds. The creature attacks the people present, but Masq-Lor and Fai-Rha tackle and restrain it. Meanwhile, other soldiers report that several holopodians have invaded many parts of the territory. The Therioms plan a new mission, but when Herrion rushes to wear his helmet, he turns into Alterok again and hides inside the residence. At Dekropolis, Demo-Rha gains great pleasure as baby holopodians grow to full size and cause panic all across Tahron, while the Therioms reach as many locations as possible and confine the creatures. The witch journeys to Theriom City and upon arrival is welcomed by Alterok. Together, they seize the remaining Therioms inside the premises and overwhelm Tir-Hing outright. Masq-Lor and his entourage return to Theriom City just in time for Demo-Rha to seal the perimeter with a wall of fire. Clued by an armour ornament lost by the enchantress, Masq-Lor and Fai-Rha decide to reach Dekropolis, where they hope to find an explanation for what is happening. There, they confront an army of mutated holopodians and defeat them quickly. Masq-Lor has the idea of attaining the help of the queen, now freed from Demo-Rha's restraint, to extinguish the fire at Theriom City. He sends Fai-Rha back to the residence, where all the holopodians unite and thrust their collective jet of water against the fire, freeing the citadel. The Therioms regain control and attack Demo-Rha and Alterok, but the two manage to escape riding a giant bird and fly to Dekropolis. There, Demo-Rha commands Alterok to confront Masq-Lor and the two battle inside the fortress. When Alterok falls off the edge of a precipice, Masq-Lor grabs his hand and saves his life, causing a huge conflict of feelings inside him. This helps Herrion to separate himself from the evil entity within and turn back to his good human form. Demo-Rha disappears and Masq-Lor fights back the demon with enormous difficulties. Suddenly, the queen holopodian surprises the demon and kills him by destroying the ground beneath him. Herrion recovers and realises that the evil essence left by Deptilion is not part of his personality any more and he cannot be a threat again. Together with his brother, he watches the holopodians walking towards the sea, to return to their home.

Overall, I feel like Kinod is a good figure, but for some reasons I’m just not very excited about him. I think one factor is definitely all the hindering going on. His spiny armour can definitely make for a challenge while posing. Even without it, his head only seems to be able to look down comfortably, but other than that there’s no added bonus. I’m also a bit disappointed this wasn’t a two-pack with the holopodian mutant as a separate figure. Some of the best figures in this line are army builders. While that would make the pack more expensive, I also think the commander&soldier pair would go a long way in adding to its value.

About the comic, a bit rivalry between the good and the bad guys, some new characters, some morals - there we have another episode. It may not be too original, but it's a very gripping story, both entertaining and well drawn. And I love characters that have multiple personalities!

KR Review #68: LoGoN

It might be easy for a relatively obscure character to get lost in the horde of KR prototypes that has been produced this year. But when you are LoGoN, a guy that looks like CoBoN on steroids, you demand your props!

Well, it also helps that this third large scale figure prototype from PoliganToys is the best piece of such proportions in the line yet.

Details

Name: LoGoN

Subtitle: hostile robotic machine

Classification: land vehicle

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Destructomorph (formerly belonging to the Theriom faction)

Rank: transport.

Background

LoGoN's only appearance takes place in the not-yet-printed final KR comic issue, the same episode where also the Xonatron and Tmohrr appear. LoGoN is said to be a prototype of CoBoN, originally designed and built by Xonedar and Koptros, and is depicted as an off-road armoured vehicle that looks identical to its successor, except for the colour being metallic-black rather than silver. It is recounted that LoGoN's AI algorithm became corrupted, causing unpredictable and dangerous responses of the automated vehicle. For that reason, it was deactivated and placed in storage. Believed to be non-functional, its central processing unit has been reactivated via an unauthorised data transmission by a mysterious Destructomorph member, who has eventually stolen the vehicle with the aim of using it as a powerful weapon against the Therioms.

Description

LoGoN is able to convert into an heavily armed humanoid-looking robot with wheeled legs that also functions as a powered exoskeleton for its driver. This is the only form of LoGoN included in the package. If a transport version is ever made available, this will merely be a black repaint of CoBoN's vehicle mode.

Like its heroic robot counterpart, this figure is 30 cm tall (around 12'') and, due to cost saving reasons, it is mostly rotocast, which means it's essentially hollow. Except for lacking the hinged abdomen, LoGoN has as much articulation as a standard KR character, which allows the figure to move sufficiently well and pose properly in a number of dynamic action scenes. It also has all of the attention to detail in sculpt that one should be expecting from such a figure. Its "body" has tons of little details, while staying very accurate to the vehicle configuration. The paint job is great too, with a glossy black colour on its bodywork components and flat black (plus some silver here and there) on the parts that become exposed after the transformation.

Basically, the lower body derives from the front and rear parts of the vehicle that include the wheels (its feet are essentially a pair of two-wheel in-line skates), the arms from the sides, the back from the canopy and the head from the nose. The head reminds me of Optimus Prime a bit, which doesn't look evil enough in my opinion, but after all, having being built by the good guys, it makes sense. However, the centrepiece is the front surface of its torso, which includes the chest plate (derived from the forepart of the vehicle, which displays a scanner bar, represented by a black lenticular sticker, with green and purple patterns, i.e., two lines that sweep horizontally and a central pulsing "eye" that allows its driver to see) and the abdomen, and consists of a removable shell made of metal and glass.

Action feature, weapons and accessories

This all-new robot comes complete with real rolling wheels and two large pivoting black&silver weapons (i.e., a spring-loaded rocket launcher and a plasma cannon) mounted between its torso and arms, so that they can either be set in a vertical rest position or flipped over the shoulders for attack.

Also, in the comic issue that I previewed, LoGoN is operated by a mysterious white-suited driver; during its transformation into robot, the vehicle merges the driver with itself as an enclosed operator. So, the figure's trunk includes a static-ish bust of the driver’s upper body, which can be seen through the transparent parts of the front shell and can be completely exposed by removing such shell. The only moving part of this bust is the helmeted head, which is a ball jointed piece and whose white helmet (with a black visor and a thin longitudinal ochre line on the top) looks like a combination of the Stig (Top Gear) and a Peacekeeper (Hunger Games) headgear. The driver's torso is covered with a white armoured suit that has few ochre details and some cyber elements (such as tubes and circuitry), and shows a slender figure that suggests it might belong to a woman. The bust also displays beautifully sculpted silver tech-mech parts that mimic the physical connection between the driver's suited limbs and LoGoN's internal structure.

LoGoN driver's chest plate.

Overall, while I would certainly have preferred a complete vehicle + driver + robot set, I’m not willing to end this review with a low score because of that one drawback. I don’t think I would have criticised PoliganToys much if they’d said it was too expensive to develop a CoBoN-style multi-pack version of LoGoN and not produced anything at all. But instead, they created an outstanding, well-sculpted and super-detailed amalgamation of two components of that hypothetical 3pk. And they deserve big respect for it. This is easily the all-around best giant figure in the KR line so far and potentially an absolute must-have for collectors.

KR Review #67: Herrion

After a long time, we have finally been given the opportunity to discover more about Herrion^TM, Masq-Lor's and Fai-Rha's brother.

With the addition of the 10^th comic issue to Mal-Ah-Kros' prototype, some details about Herrion's story have been revealed and, after enjoying two variants based on him (Loghar-possessed Herrion and Alterok), it's now time to meet this dude "in person"!

This 52^nd action figure prototype from PoliganToys is a very fun specimen. Yes, most of the figure's components are reuses/repaints of Masq-Lor's and Apprentice Minister Masq-Lor's parts, but it's really cool to get a character in plastic that has been on the fringe of the KR mythos for more than a year.

Details

Name: Herrion

Subtitle: bright-eyed warrior

Classification: human-primivod hybrid (but he looks completely human)

Sex: male

Relationships: son of Tir-Hing, non-identical twin brother of Desion (Masq-Lor), older brother of Rhadiel (Fai-Rha)

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: service warrior; trainee.

Background

Herrion first appears at the end of the 10^th KR comic issue Evanescing act, but his presence becomes significant from the 11^th issue Herrion's ordeal onward. During his childhood, Herrion was abducted, together with his twin brother and younger sister, by his uncle Ir-Ash and sent through a mystic vortex created by Demo-Rha into the body of the future Destructomorph leader. Many years later, Masq-Lor succeeded in separating his brother from the defeated Deptilion, to whom Herrion had given much of his vital force unbeknown to everybody. Once rescued from his long-lasting segregation, he received the third prodigious helmet from Elykta, in order to channel the same ancient power that Masq-Lor and Fai-Rha had been using to acquire incredible abilities. However, at first, due to a remainder of Deptilion's wickedness left in his inner-self, something went wrong and instead he transformed into an evil monstrosity, Alterok. Upon his definitive healing, Herrion swore in gratitude to defend the free people of Tahron alongside his siblings forever.

Articulation

Standard.

Description

Head: like his siblings, Herrion wears a silver magic helmet, which in certain circumstances produces a bobcat-like half mask (or visor) and gives him incredible physical and mental powers, changing his appearance slightly. Herrion's default head wears the helmet in its inactive form, i.e., without visor. His face is very similar to his brother's one and has the same green eyes and daring expression, but the skin colour seems lighter. I'll get more into the details when I describe the alternative unhelmeted head

Body: the arms are exposed and show cream white skin, while the legs are covered with black trousers

Wearables: a black vest with golden edges and armholes (this piece includes a burgundy ascot tie), two golden bracelets, two golden boots, a golden belt and a black crotch piece.

Herrion's stylised helmet with frontal crests.

Action feature

Since this figure encompasses both the institutional and the fighting appearances of Herrion, we get a great deal of add-ons, to upgrade his outfit accordingly.

Let's start with his apprentice advisor mode. First, there is an unhelmeted head that, at a first glance, might look identical to the one seen with Apprentice Minister Masq-Lor. However, this head is actually characterised by fairly lighter complexion and hair, respectively cream white and dark-brown. The thick hair also shows a slightly different style, but apart from that, the two brothers share the same green eyes and "at ease" look. The default vest can be complemented with an extra piece composed of a short black skirt with golden hem, a burgundy belt with a golden buckle that resembles the Theriom symbol (i.e., a seven-pointed star with the two side points elongated), a burgundy shoulder sash and a short burgundy cape. All those components have been combined in a single removable piece, which is a repainted replica of AMM's add-on.

For his combat mode, the figure comes with an alternative helmeted head that displays the lynx visor activated, fierce glow-in-the-dark eyes (from which, in the comics, he can radiate powerful light beams, at either a very high or very low temperature) and metal cat ears. Like with his siblings, when the helmet is activated, various accessories become different: the bracelets, boots and belt become more showy, and the vest transforms into a golden armour with black leather details. These fictional improvements are rendered by means of clip-on bracelet, boot and belt pieces, while the armour can be worn easily after removing the vest. Additionally, a pair of long brownish claws can be attached to each enhanced-bracelet, to simulate the retractile claws seen in the comics. Finally, similarly to Masq-Lor, the skin of the torso and the arms develops jaguar rosettes when using warm water or a hairdryer over it.

Herrion's stylised armour.

Weapons and accessories

Aside from the two alternative heads, formal outfit, armour, clip-on pieces and claws, Herrion comes with a few more accessories. First up are two battleaxes, or better, one axe in two versions: normal, with a black haft and a broad silver blade (whose cutting edge is parallel to the handle), and enhanced, with a longer haft, a bronze grip and a double-bladed silver&gold head. Each axe's handle can be inserted in a loop on the back of either the vest or the armour. Additionally, the figure includes a round metallic-black shield decorated with a number of golden bolts, which can be clipped on Herrion's either wrist (obviously when the clip-on wrist guard is not attached).

Finally, we also get a long burgundy cape, which is meant to be worn by Alterok. The mantle's surface sports a cool dark symbol that represents a stylised stencil-like depiction of Alterok's head. I particularly enjoy this addition, it’s a nice touch.

Overall, the figure had to grow on me a little bit. There were things I liked immediately, such as his combat gear, and things I wasn’t sure about, like his repurposed formal outfit. But, after having fun with him, I came to the conclusion that he is a cool figure. He’s another solid piece in a line that, in my opinion, hasn’t missed yet. My biggest issue with him is that he's got too many display options and I don't know which one I should choose for my shelf. Most likely, he’ll end up as a front-line feline warrior.

KR Review #66: Combat Sei-Lha

Combat Sei-Lha^TM is one of those figures that was flying a bit under the radar for me, due to everything else that is expected to show up at the end of this year. But I am very pleasantly surprised by her.

PoliganToys has pulled out all the bells and whistles for this 51^st action figure prototype. So, let’s take a look at this cool new "Iron Woman" variant of Sei-Lha.

Details

Name: Combat Sei-Lha

Subtitle: brave armoured soldier

Classification: human

Sex: female

Relationships: daughter of Xonedar, Masq-Lor's love interest

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: second lieutenant; expert in electronic & computer engineering and veterinary medicine.

Background

Sei-Lha's first appearance in her combat armour takes place in the 11th KR comic issue Herrion's ordeal. Here, we learn a bit more about Sei-Lha's hyper-technological backpack, which was originally engineered by her father while working alongside Koptros. The two heroes put their invention to the test during their joint service in the Theriom armed forces, but eventually Xonedar reprogrammed the device to be utilised by his daughter. Similarly to Xonedar's body, the backpack is comprised of a series of microscopic technological elements, which can rearrange themselves in innumerable configurations, allowing Sei-Lha to exploit incredible tools in battle against enemies. Now, thanks to her backpack, Sei-Lha can even transform into a cyber-soldier with a spectacular arsenal of fire power.

Articulation

Standard, except that the wrists are ball jointed and there is no hinged abdomen.

Description

Head: protected by a full face silver helmet with light-blue details and a black glass visor. This helmet is a little Boba Fett, a little Iron Man and a little G.I. Joe Cobra Commander, but it works somehow. It includes a removable face plate, which can be magnetically attached to the front (i.e., covering the face) or to the top (i.e., flipped up) of the helmet. The inside of the face plate displays a surprising amount of sculpted features, which make the piece look very high-tech. Sei-Lha's face underneath bears a striking resemblance to the regular figure's face, but has some additional details, such as a light-blue cyber eye mask (with an eye hole on the right and a translucent green scope, for looking in on targets, on the left) and a silver headset microphone that runs down the right cheek

Body: covered from neck to toe with a silver armoured suit with metallic light-blue details. There is an impressive amount of intricate decorative features all around the various components of this suit and, in fact, there are very few spots on the figure that do not have some kind of sculpted tech-mech embellishments, such as cables and tubes, bolts and pistons, gauges and switches. But it all works together and does not get too busy

Wearables: the non-removable chest armour recalls the harness seen with regular Sei-Lha and carries a beautifully sculpted silver Theriom symbol that juts out from the light-blue background of the chest plate, while the armholes look like ammo belts. She also has silver gauntlets, silver thigh protectors, silver boots (with fin-shaped flight control surfaces and jet engines), a silver belt (which also looks a bit like an ammo belt) and a light-blue crotch piece, everything with a lot of great cyber details.

Combat Sei-Lha's stylised chest armour; the oval at the centre of the chest plate represents a silver version of the Theriom symbol.

Action feature

Like with Sei-Lha's regular version, the real strength of this figure lies in the add-ons that come with it. First of all, in the comics the armour features multiple blasters that flip out from the wrists, thighs and chest. In the figure, the leg guards and the chest plate flip down (revealing some nice circuitry patterns underneath) and all the metallic light-blue guns are separate pieces that can be added during Sei-Lha's combat mode. We get two pivoting arm guns (which plug into the inner sides of the gauntlets), two knee guns and a chest double-barreled laser cannon (with the barrels that actually move in and out).

Of course, she's always equipped with her silver hyper-technological backpack, which is basically identical to the one that came with the regular figure, but this time it also has some moving and opening parts, to render the suit up machinery seen in the comics. Aside from the exoskeletal armour, the backpack can fictionally produce some other tools, which are included as accessories and can be placed (one at a time) on the figure's back after removing a piece that is comprised of the backpack itself and the shoulder armour (it's necessary to detach the head too). The first accessory is a shoulder/back armour equipped with two weapons (a grenade launcher and a flamethrower, with a separate large-calibre projectile and a blast effect respectively) mounted on two adjustable armatures, so that they can either be set in a vertical rest position or flipped over Sei-Lha's shoulders for attack. The second accessory is another shoulder/back armour equipped with swivelling wings. The wings are incredibly detailed, with hinged air-flaps and sculpted rocket launchers and turbojet engines. Surprisingly, since this is never shown in the comics, the outboard parts of the wings can be disconnected from the central structure and grabbed by Sei-Lha's hands (holding the plugs that normally fit tightly into the inboard parts), perhaps to be used as shields or blades or handheld missile launchers.

Lastly, in the comics the armour is shown, in at least one occasion, to activate a self-operating mode, eject Sei-Lha and then surprise the opponents by suddenly bursting apart. To mimic this autodestruction feature (or, more precisely, the moment immediately before the blast), there is a thin glow-in-the-dark line that splits the front armour in two down the middle. The figure also comes with an alternative full face helmet, which is amazingly sculpted in such a way that it looks like exploding, with shooting parts (especially the face plate) and flames.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the five plug-in guns, the two additional shoulder/back armours and the exploding helmet, Combat Sei-Lha comes with a few more accessories. First, the figure includes a total of five swappable hands, which add a nice variety for posing. There is one pair of gloved open-palm hands to be used with the pivoting wrist guns, one pair of gloved gripping hands for clutching the wing-weapons and, just for fun, one ungloved relaxed left hand.

Also, the guys at PoliganToys have thought to give us an additional head that is actually meant for regular Sei-Lha, since it's a battle damaged version of her original helmeted head. This is a very nice piece, with the partially crushed and scratched helmet displaying a misshapen microphone, a bent antenna and a broken glass visor. The visor is my favourite detail, exposing a kind of light source used to illuminate the inner display panel when slid into place over Sei-Lha's eyes. The helmet can be removed, revealing a brand new Captain America-style headgear with a beige&brown camouflage colouration.

Finally, the figure includes a surprising weapon that is also meant for a previous Sei-Lha variant. It's an energy whip version of the sword that came with Possessed Sei-Lha, meaning that it has the same greenish oxidised bronze hilt and golden blade tip, both similar to small tridents, at each end. The lash portion is translucent yellow with silvery glitter mixed in and is made of an extremely soft plastic, so it really feels like a whip. I'm not sure about the relationship between this weapon and Combat Sei-Lha, but it's still a welcome addition.

Overall, I like Combat Sei-Lha an awful lot. The sculpt of this figure looks great and has been engineered really well. She has a lot of robotic feel to her and is very unique in both character and appearance. I think she is going to rank higher than I originally thought for my prototype collection. This Combat variant completes all the possible versions of Sei-Lha in the comics. I know a lot of people don’t like too many variants, but this is the kind of thing that makes the line cool to me, so I am very glad to have her as well.

KR Review #65: Mal-Ah-Kros

As far as action figures are concerned, parts re-use keeps costs down. PoliganToys has proven extremely creative with re-using parts in their prototypes and this strategy has already given me a ton of figures to review in a relatively short time. But every now and then, I get a treat... and Mal-Ah-Kros^TM is a fantastic example!

You will see why this 50^th action figure prototype from PoliganToys would be difficult to make. This Cereutian guy is really weird, with no apparent way of making him that wouldn’t cost a bundle.

For some time I have tried to figure out how to assemble this character by re-using parts from previous toys, but apparently they decided to produce this as a 100% newly-tooled figure with absolutely no recycling.

Details

Name: Mal-Ah-Kros

Subtitle: hard-shell warrior

Classification: crustacean

Sex: male

Home: Cereutis

Affiliation: Destructomorph (temporarily)

Rank: leader of the Mal-Ah-Krill squadron.

Background

Mal-Ah-Kros appears in the 10^th KR comic issue Evanescing act, where he is presented as the leader of the Mal-Ah-Krills, a Cereutian group of crustacean soldiers. Mal-Ah-Kros became an auxiliary member of Deptilion's army after Denortos had crummily failed his mission on Tahron. An agile scout, shrewd strategist and keen combatant, he fought alongside the Destructomorph Troopers, leading a squadron of Cereutian warriors, during Deptilion's unexpected homecoming. With his hard shell that protects him from attacks, dreadful over-sized appendages and frightening protruding eyes, it's nearly impossible for the Theriom adversaries not to be clobbered by this uncompromising monstrosity.

Articulation

Standard, with the addition of two removable hinged chelae, four ball hinged arms and two fully articulated legs.

Description

Head: his bulky head seems encased in a purple carapace with a bumpy texture and is characterised by a spiny cranial crest, two pairs of antennae (the first of which is shorter and branching into two parts), a small greenish beady compound eye situated in the middle of the forehead, a sort of spiky nose and a small circular mouth (whose edges are thickly fringed with black hairs) flanked by three pairs of whitish jaws (the uppermost of which is larger than the other two). In his eye-sockets, where one would obviously expect to find the eyes, he actually bears a pair of small yellowish monster heads, each displaying a single bulging white eye with a vertical black pupil, a jagged bony brow ridge (slanting down towards the middle of Mal-Ah-Kros' face) and a hooked brownish horny beak (whose upper jaw ends with an ivory fang, while the lower jaw fits into the upper one and has two more fangs protruding upward from its sides)

Body: his body is protected by a purple chitinous exoskeleton with a cracked and bumpy texture. Each of his two main arms and 4 (four!) legs bears a line of fin-shaped appendages (whose fringes and folds detailing makes me think of a respiratory or sensory function) that runs down the side. His legs sport three-toed clawed feet, while his arms end with large, differently shaped chelae: a heavier, bulbous ghost crab-like crusher pincer on the left, and a longer, toothed fiddler crab-like cutter pincer on the right. Two pairs of additional arthropod-like limbs, each terminating in a forked claw, project from his back, which is concealed in a huge, beautifully sculpted and coloured empty gastropod shell

Wearables: a segmented (similarly to a shrimp's or a lobster's abdomen) golden armour with cracked orange details, two narrow golden bracelets, four segmented golden calf protectors (each with knee and instep guards; the rear feet look obviously bare, while the front feet are painted in gold, suggesting that he actually wears boots on those legs), a golden belt and an orange tail fan-like loincloth decorated with golden studs. The armour, the shin guards and the belt all carry a symbol consisting of three vertical wavy blue lines on the front.

Mal-Ah-Kros' stylised armour; the circle at the centre of the chest plate represents a Cereutian symbol.

Action feature

In the comics, Mal-Ah-Kros shows a number of abilities. First up, he can hold approaching opponents tightly with his frightful chelae and then spin like a hammer thrower to knock them down. In the figure, each pincer exhibits a gripping movement and includes a spring-loaded snap-back feature.

Also, Mal-Ah-Kros' monster-eyes can pop-out to terrorise his enemies. So, the figure comes with "standard eyes" as well as an alternative pair of pop-out eyes. All the eyes are separate plug-in pieces and can be interchanged easily, although this requires Mal-Ah-Kros' mouth to be removable as well. Each stalked monster-eye shows a bloodshot appearance and the open beak with a finely toothed tongue sculpted on the inside of the mouth.

Finally, his whole body can retract into the sea snail shell that he carries on his back, which acts as a shield against his foes. Of course this skill couldn't be rendered in the figure, but the shell is a removable piece. Once detached, it also allows the rear of Mal-Ah-Kros' segmented armour to be exposed, showing a cracked orange spinal crest and the four ball jointed shoulders (each carrying a peg that connects to the seashell) at the base of the additional arms (the illusion is that those arms come out through the armour).

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the pop-out monster eyes, Mal-Ah-Kros comes with his threatening bazooka. While in the comics this badass tubular copper-coloured rocket launcher simply emerges over his shoulder from the seashell when required, in the figure the process takes a little work, since it's necessary to replace one of the four additional arms with the weapon. First, the seashell has to be removed and any one of the four extra arms (not necessarily an upper one) must be detached. Then, the bazooka, whose butt bears a curved element that ends with a ball joint, can be plugged into the free socket and the shell can be reattached. There is also a golden rocket that is a separate piece and can detach from the weapon's barrel, but there is no spring-loaded mechanism in this case.

As I mentioned above, the figure features interchangeable eyes, to recreate the pop-out action feature. However, to accommodate this, the mouth of the figure was made to be removable. Taking advantage of this design requirement, the guys at PoliganToys have created an awesome alternative mouth for Mal-Ah-Kros, which recalls the razor-sharp toothed jaws of a Dungeness crab to an exact likeness.

Comic

Together with the action figure we get the 10^th comic issue Evanescing act, where we discover that Deptilion, using an extremely dangerous magic spell cast by Demo-Rha that almost killed them, previously fled to the extra dimension of Cereutis. There, he stole large amounts of a metal from local ores, to regenerate his crumbling body and rebuild his army of robotic troopers. In the present, Demo-Rha absorbs the energy of the inter-dimensional bridge between Cereutis and Tahron (created by Denortos) into her sceptre, making it capable to generate a ray that can teleport anybody from one dimension to the other. After punishing Denortos for failing his mission on Tahron, Deptilion hires the Mal-Ah-Krills, a Cereutian group of evil crustacean soldiers. His plan is to lead his all new militia of robots and aliens against the Therioms and to use the power of Demo-Rha’s sceptre to take over Tahron. Meanwhile, at Theriom City, the heroes are dealing with the aftermath of the Cereutian invasion; suddenly they hear some distant explosions and rush to identify the source, which they locate in a desert area. While several Theriom soldiers led by Masq-Lor and Fai-Rha travel towards the origin of the mysterious explosions, Deptilion and his lackeys launch an assault on the now-defenceless Theriom residence. The warlord demonstrates the power of Demo-Rha’s sceptre on Gax-Uhr, Tir-Hing’s brother, in order to force the Senior Minister to surrender the three halberds in his possession. After decimating most of Tir-Hing's fellows by teleporting them to Cereutis, Deptilion succeeds in completing the Key, paving the way to his dominion over Tahron. In the desert region, the Therioms find and confront Deptilion’s alleys; the Mal-Ah-Krills soon get the upper hand until Mor-Rak, who managed to escape from Theriom City, arrives and defeats the villains by transforming into a sand giant. Mor-Rak informs the heroes about the situation at Theriom City and, anticipating Deptilion’s next target, they all decide to journey to the multiversal walls. When, after their march to the walls and much to their dismay, the Destructomorphs find the Therioms waiting there, a battle between the two factions ensues. Elykta conjectures that the eye-stones of Demo-Rha’s sceptre must be crushed to save their companions. When the witch attempts to throw a lightning to Masq-Lor, he deflects the blast with his sword, causing Demo-Rha to drop her staff into a crevice in the ground. Due to the energy released by the sceptre, a mysterious arena emerges from the ground between the walls. The Deity, who is responsible for maintaining balance between conflicting forces, appears and explains that, in order to decide who really deserves to own the Key, Masq-Lor and Deptilion must fight in the arena. Deptilion, seeing his plans of supreme power in jeopardy, reluctantly accepts the contest in the arena. Although both the opponents are enhanced by the power of the Key transferred into two prodigious weapons, it is Masq-Lor who becomes the ultimate winner. Using all his strength, the hero even succeeds in separating the defeated Deptilion from his twin brother Herrion, who for many years has lived unbeknown to everybody inside the body of the Destructomorph leader, giving him much of his vigour. Deptilion, vowing revenge, manages to flee and Masq-Lor tricks Demo-Rha into giving him the recovered (but now useless) sceptre in exchange of one of the halberds from the Key. Demo-Rha consents and Masq-Lor transfers the energy of the arena back into the sceptre. He pulls out the magical eye-stones and begins to squeeze them, but the arena starts collapsing into the ground, taking the hero with it. Upon breaking the stones, the vanished Therioms are safely transported back to Tahron and Masq-Lor resurfaces from the debris. Later at Theriom City, everyone celebrates the completed reunion of Tir-Hing’s family, even if, unfortunately, the threat of Deptilion is far from over.

Overall, I don't only find Mal-Ah-Kros to be an outstanding figure (there’s no doubt about it), I genuinely think he is the best Destructomorph figure created so far... sorry Ah-Rak! This figure got turned from a potential weird crab-man into a solid surreal alien, and I love it. I can’t decide whether to pose him with his eyes in or out, with or without his bazooka, with or without his shell... but no matter what I do, this creepy arthropod is awesome and easily a candidate for figure of the year. I hope that PoliganToys will remember the possibilities of the great execution Mal-Ah-Kros represents when considering the near future of the KR line, since there are a few figures still left to be done.

About the comic, well, it's simply one of the best so far, both in terms of plot and illustrations. The fight between Masq-Lor and Deptilion in their Ultra configuration is amazing. And, ***HUGE SPOILER***, discovering that Deptilion is actually Tir-Hing’s brother and is also responsible for his children’s abduction, damn, is unsurpassable!