KR|Origin Review #2: Bi-Harr (Origin Edition)

Checking the second action figure prototype off the KR|Origin series today, with the Origin Edition of Bi-Harr^TM!

I really love this guy, and the figure does deliver some great sculpting and an awesome look. Having a long snaky body that can do more than stand up straight is always a good thing. So, let’s take a look at this new version of Bi-Harr.

Details

Name: Bi-Harr (Origin Edition)

Real name: Anfis

Subtitle: double-headed supreme ruler

Classification: archosauromorph reptile

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Era: 520 years before Masq-Lor's time (now renamed Foundation)

Affiliation: Reptonoid^TM

Rank: field marshal.

Background

First appearance: KR|Origin #2 - Battle for Tahron: Part I – The journey begins

Brief bio: born as an abomination, over the years the dual-headed creature Anfis became a blessing for the reptilian species. Thanks to his two minds working together, Anfis was cleverer than any other living thing. Taking the name Bi-Harr, he raised an army and challenged the free mammalian people for rule over Tahron. Being gifted with twice the brain power of his rivals, his tactical advantage was doubled. Although he defeated several leaders of the Therioms, these heroes finally succeeded in trapping his mental faculties beyond the multiversal walls.

Articulation

Standard down to the waist of each upper body; the lower body is composed of 35 ball jointed pieces.

Description

Bi-Harr is a sort of four-armed amphisbaena (i.e., a snake-like creature with a head at each end), who has an elongated tubular lower body running from one torso to the other. Normally, he uses two of his arms as legs, in order to acquire a bipedal posture, and hides his convoluted body structure under his armour. But now we finally get him in his unfolded form, which is briefly shown in a flashback scene in the comics and is executed extremely well here. I'm going to describe each of the two upper bodies (referring to their position in the regular figure) and the lower body separately.

Left upper body

Head: similar to a Pachycephalosaurus, characterised by wrinkled dark-blueish skin, a large bony dome atop its skull, a pair of large amber eyes with vertical black pupils, a muzzle ending in a pointed reddish beak, and a fairly long, thick neck. The dome's rear side is edged with yellowish bony bulges, which extend towards each eye forming a sort of bumpy eyebrow, while a number of short yellowish bony spikes project upwards from the snout (the most central of these spikes is covered in skin). The only difference between this version and the regular one is that the mouth is wide open, instead of closed, and shows small sharp yellowish teeth along the edges of the jaws

Body: the arms and the torso show a wrinkled dark-blueish skin; the arms bear several yellowish bony bumps and claw hands

Wearables: a copper chest armour with silver details (which is embossed with round motifs), two yellowish leather fingerless-gloves, a silver belt (which somehow reminds me of a chastity belt...) complemented with round studs, visible chain mail lining and three tassets, and a tawny furry loincloth.

Bi-Harr's stylised "left" upper body armour.

Right upper body

Head: vaguely similar to an Apatosaurus (or a similar sauropod), characterised by scaly reddish skin, a large brown cranial crest, two short ossicones covered in skin, a pair of large light-blue eyes with vertical red pupils and a thick neck (slightly longer than its counterpart's). The sole difference between this version and the regular one is the almost completely closed mouth, which only offers a glimpse of the several sharp white teeth that line the jaws

Body: the arms and the torso show a scaly reddish skin; the arms have large brown ridges, which run down the sides, and claw hands

Wearables: a brass chest harness with silver details (which is embossed with diamond motifs), two brass armbands around the biceps (where the ridges present troughs), a brass bracelet around the right wrist, a brass gauntlet on the left hand, a diamond-studded brass belt and a scale armour (consisting of several overlapping copper plates laced together) loincloth. The bracelet, armband and gauntlet are all decorated with arabesque patterns, while the belt has a skull-shaped goldish buckle, whose elongated lower jaw covers the middle of the loincloth partially.

Bi-Harr's stylised "right" upper body armour.

Lower body

The pieces that compose the figure's tubular lower body are sculpted very nicely and reflect the skin texture and colour of the respective torsos. A cool detail is the midway overlap of the two body types, where the wrinkled blueish skin and the scaly reddish one melt into each other. Most of the underside of the lower body is flattened, so the figure will not be falling over.

Action feature

Bi-Harr's great power lies in his mental abilities, which are described in the comics as knowledge absorption and thought manipulation, one for each of his brains. Such faculties allow Bi-Harr to possess a genius-level intellect, as well as to be a master strategist, tactician, manipulator and deceiver. However, since these skills cannot be rendered easily in an action figure, the designers at PoliganToys thought about something else. Although this is never shown in the comics, Bi-Harr can use his long tubular body to tie up his foes and asphyxiate them. His spectacular snaky lower body is long enough (35 cm, around 14”) to keep the two torsos positioned straight up (thanks to a ratchet feature of the ball joints) and coil round a standard figure at the same time.

Weapons and accessories

Bi-Harr comes with a number of accessories, which include two short swords, one for each of his torsos. Each sword has a wavy copper hilt that resembles a snake, whose mouth holds a silver blade. Like a snake's tongue, the end of the sword is separated into a split blade (there is an additional cutout at the base of the blade), while two horn-shaped goldish elements emerge from the sides of the hilt, probably representing two fangs.

The other accessories are meant to be used with regular Bi-Harr, in order to make him more similar to the way he appears in most of the Origin series. This set comprises an armour, a belt buckle, a weapon and a pair of battle gloves. The silver armour bears two collars and two shoulder protectors on the top, and an asymmetric skull-symbol on the front. The collars are embossed with two different designs: a round pattern on the left and a diamond-shaped pattern on the right. These patterns are also replicated on the two shoulder protectors, which, like the collars, are made of two different metals: copper on the left side and brass on the right side. The asymmetric skull-symbol is located right under the gap between the two collars, but its lower jaw stretches down to the bottom edge of the armour; each half of the skull resembles the correspondent head and is made of a metallic material, again copper on the left side and brass on the right side. Despite the similarities with the regular version, this new protective covering presents several peculiar features, such as a series of four spikes along the back of the shoulder armour (which match the motifs and the materials of the collars and the shoulder pads), a few decorative patterns and chain mail details on the front, and a much more elaborated skull-symbol (with jagged edges and spikes sticking out of the sides). Additionally, I've just discovered that regular Bi-Harr's belt buckle can be detached and replaced by a new plug-in piece that represents the Reptonoid symbol, i.e., a reptile red eye.

The weapon is a two-pronged copper fork, whose prongs have different shapes (one has angular edges, while the other is curvier) and are articulated at the top of the long shaft, so as to allow them to be opened and closed.

Finally, we get a pair of golden techno-gauntlets, which can be worn over the regular hands (they don't replace the hands) and are characterised by a closed fist pose. These advanced gauntlets, which are definitely (and intentionally) disproportionate, work both as armoured gloves and sleeve coverings. Each gauntlet sports a layer of silver chain mail (which is visible on the underside, as well as on each finger and the thumb) beneath the golden armour and a silver blade (pointing forward) mounted on the outer side. In the comics, the gauntlets are built by Loghar and represent a sort of prototype of the various electro-mechanical components that will form the Rexodon Troopers centuries later. They communicate directly with Bi-Harr's nervous system and are capable, for instance, to magnetically attract (they actually incorporate real magnets, to which you can attach small metal objects) and easily crush large metal objects.

Bi-Harr's stylised new armour; the shape at the centre of the chest piece represents the asymmetric skull-symbol with the elongated lower jaw.

Overall, this new form of Bi-Harr is a pretty nice variant of the regular figure. He really looks great, with a unique body design, excellent sculpting and some fine paint work. The accessories to upgrade the regular figure, including the two new figure's heads, are kind of awesome too. The only addition that I would have really liked to be included is the wooden dummy (with three moving arms) shown as Anfis' training device in the comics.