The Xonatron was a fantastic entry into the KR line a few months ago. At the time, I knew he wouldn't remain a one-of-a-kind entity. He is, in fact, an amalgamation of two characters: Xonedar, an old acquaintance of ours, and PleutronTM, a most wanted specimen that is finally in my hands.
Pleutron was supposed to come in a three-pack, which would also include his fellows SeutronTM and DeutronTM. Instead, probably for cost-saving reasons, he's come all alone. Apart from some simple part-swapping, the companion-less figure doesn't offer as many possibilities as a three-pack would have given. However, we can finally mix and match Pleutron's and Xonatron's components, to create innumerable different display options.
Incidentally, this fourth large scale figure prototype from PoliganToys gets us at the end of the Destructomorph faction and one step closer to a complete Key Raiders line.
Details
Name: Pleutron
Subtitle: multiform warrior
Classification: poriferan
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Affiliation: Destructomorph
Rank: sergeant major.
Background
Pleutron's only appearance takes place in the 13th and final KR comic issue The ultimate curse. A gruesome giant from the eastern swamps, Pleutron was gifted with shape-shifting powers, which allowed him to separate his body cells, each endowed with its own evil sentience, and to reassemble himself in numberless different ways. His skills were observed by Deptilion and eventually he was enlisted as a sergeant major for the reestablished Destructomorph army. Serving his newly enrolled chief marshal Tmohrr on his quest to vanquish the Therioms, Pleutron and his fellow sergeants led a horde of dreadful invaders into the city of Ra-Hal. There, however, he was finally overpowered by Xonedar and destroyed by Sei-Lha along with the rest of the invading giants.
Articulation
Standard, except that the connection points at the waist, shoulders, hips and tail are ball&socket (but the shoulders and hips are also hinged), and the neck features a double ball joint.
Description
Head: characterised by an irregular flame-like shape, porous yellowish skin, pointy ears (with a silver ring located on the helix portion of the left one), deep set purple glowing eyes, boar-like nose, several sharp-pointed white teeth that protrude from the diabolical mouth and a prominent pointy chin
Body: the figure is 23 cm tall (around 9'') and displays a richly porous yellowish skin. The arms and the legs bear few spiny translucent white appendages at the shoulders/biceps and the thighs respectively. The left hand has two white claws that form a sort of pincer, while the right hand has three of them. Each leg shows some dark wash towards the thigh and a four-toed foot with white claws. Finally, he has a short, thick segmented (i.e., formed of a longitudinal series of similar parts) tail emerging from his trunks, which is painted in a more greenish colour on the upper side
Wearables: a dark-green armour with segmented (i.e., made of overlapping metal plates) silver details, two dark-green bracelets, two dark-green calf protectors, a dark-green belt and a segmented silver crotch piece; all the dark-green components display a bumpy texture, suggesting that they are fictionally made of a multitude of pointed mineral structures. Additionally, both the wrist and the shin guards are equipped with spiky ray fin-shaped ornaments protruding from the forearms and the calves respectively.
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| Pleutron's stylised armour. |
Action feature
In the comics, Pleutron is depicted as a shape-shifting giant who can rearrange his cells to acquire countless monstrous forms, as well as stretch, squeeze and tear apart his jelly-like body, and then recover his original form. In the figure, Pleutron's transforming abilities are well recreated by a modular action feature that involves several snap-on body parts, namely his head, neck (double ball jointed), torso, pelvis, arms, legs and tail. The figure is not only fully modular with itself, but it's also fully modular with the Xonatron. As they all share the same ball&socket joints, parts can be swapped back and forth between them at random, and they can be combined into a vast array of creatures, including a single crazy enormous monster. Yes, I know, theoretically the Xonatron already comprises Pleutron, but the two figures provide enough body parts to swap around for hours, as one can try to find all the possible combinations. Now, that's great fun to play with!
Weapons and accessories
Aside from his own several rearrangeable pieces, Pleutron includes a few accessories, the first of which is a silver handheld trebuchet. I had no idea that such a ballistic device could actually exist, until I've come across this video. Although the weapon has no spring-loaded mechanism, it possesses a pivoting throwing arm, whose end holds (and fictionally hurls) a separate six-pointed translucent white caltrop. The butt of the trebuchet bears two slots that allow the weapon to connect to Xonatron's blaster.
Also, we get a number of additional body parts: one extra leg, an alternative tail and three Y-connector joints. The third leg looks identical to the other two and, after removing the tail, can plug into the socket on the backside of the crotch piece, to produce a three-legged monster. The alternative tail has a mixed mecha-spongy look, which matches both Pleutron's and Xonatron's appearances, and carries two sockets on the sides to hold additional legs. This piece functions as an extension to create four- or even six-legged monstrosities. Finally, the organic-looking (i.e., with a porous and segmented texture) yellowish&black Y-connector joints make it possible to form double shoulders, hips and neck, and generate, for example, amazing double-headed, four-armed creatures.
Comic
Together with the action figure we get the 13th and final KR comic issue The ultimate curse. The new Destructomorph army led by Tmohrr invades the city of Ra-Hal, in order to get possession of a powerful machine owned by its inhabitants. The evil leader uses the prodigious instrument to cause fierce storms and create great disarray on Tahron. Following an unsuccessful first attempt to free the city, Masq-Lor and the Therioms endeavour to battle Tmohrr and his army at a newly built fortress within Ra-Hal, but are trapped in an underground prison. Meanwhile, a disguised Demo-Rha sways some nearby villagers to occupy Theriom City, in order to trap the governing body. After regaining their freedom together with the inhabitants of Ra-Hal, Masq-Lor and the others head back to the surface and fight the Destructomorphs again, retaking control of the machine. Tmohrr is revealed to be a robotic suit used to envelope the decaying body of Deptilion, who is confronted by Masq-Lor. The two rivals engage in a spectacular mental battle and the hero finally manages to destroy Deptilion once and far all, saving Tahron. Demo-Rha is captured, but after a brief period of detention she succeeds in escaping.
Overall, Pleutron is, to me, everything right about a figure that allows us to make different configurations by moving the various parts around. The sculpt on this guy is fantastic, with tons of great detail texture on all the different surfaces, and the engineering is really good for the most part. I’m just sad that he’s the only one of his kind in the package. When you’ve got a concept so brilliant as a fully modular monster, one (or two, if we also include the Xonatron) just doesn’t seem like it’s enough. Luckily, the folk at PoliganToys will understand this, so they will go back to the modular idea for another go-round.
About the comic, I just love this one! My synopsis is intentionally kinda quick and dirty, to preserve surprise and suspense for first-time readers, but I have really enjoyed the issue since opening it. The plot and the solid artwork are particularly satisfactory... too bad that it's the last episode.
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