KR|Origin Review #9: Reptonoid Troopers

It's time to bolster the ranks of Bi-Harr's military force and punch up the reptile stable with this army-builder 2-pack - the Reptonoid Troopers^TM!

Yep, this second multi-pack prototype of the KR|Origin series has been unleashed by PoliganToys to stock my shelves.

Details

Name: Reptonoid Troopers

Subtitle: gliding troopers

Classification: lepidosauromorph reptiles

Sex: male and female

Home: Tahron

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

Affiliation: Reptonoid

Rank: corporals.

Background

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

Brief bio: once belonging to a tribe of spear throwing warriors, these lizard-like assassins were selected and enslaved to mindlessly serve Bi-Harr as foot soldiers in his dreadful reptilian army. With their gliding abilities and deadly thrashing tails, these corporals enforced their evil master's will and stormed the mammalians' homelands with overpowering ferocity. Eventually, they willingly became devoted members of the Reptonoid faction and fought loyally in the armies of Bi-Harr against the heroic Therioms.

Articulation

Standard, except that the tails are ball jointed and there is a hinged tongue in the open-mouthed head. The female figure lacks the hinged abdomen.

Description

Heads: both figures' heads have a similar appearance to a common iguana, characterised by scaly greenish skin and purple eyes. While the male character has his mouth closed, the female one displays her mouth wide open, showing sharp teeth on the inner sides of the jawbones and a fairly long forked tongue that is actually articulated (it can move left and right on a little disk set at the back of the mouth), which is a very nice touch. Each of the two troopers wears a red helmet with purple details and has an extra gular fold piece that fits right on top of the body, around the neck (it is glued on). The heads are swappable and look great (and in no way disproportionate) on both figures

Bodies: both figures show greenish skin with few V-shaped dark-brown markings on each left biceps and right side of the abdomen, but the body structures are very different. The male trooper shows a scaly texture (except for the smooth abdomen, which is also painted in a more yellowish colour) and large ridges that run down the sides of the limbs. The female trooper has a more slender frame and displays a wrinkled skin, rather than scaly, with an orange paint on the abdomen. Each trooper has a row of extended brown spines supporting a large sail along their back, which is a completely separate piece that snaps into a socket on the back. Finally, each figure has claw hands and feet, and a long, thin greenish tail, which is also a separate piece emerging from under the loincloth and is painted in a different colour on the underside (yellowish for the male character, orange for the female one)

Wearables: each trooper wears a purple shoulder/chest covering with a diagonal scale armour strap (consisting of several overlapping red leather plates laced together), purple bracelets, purple calf protectors (the right one of each figure has a sheath with a small silver dagger, which is not removable), a purple belt (displaying a triangular buckle and a number of small leather pouches all the way around), and a red fabric loincloth resembling a forked tongue. Each armour, whose size and shape are adapted to the type of torso (the female version is not removable), displays the Reptonoid symbol, i.e., a reptile red eye, on the left side, while the strap carries a small leather pouch on the lower part and gives the illusion of fastening on the base of the spine sail. Additionally, both are equipped with scaly ochre spaulders and wicker thigh pads, which show V-shaped dark-brown markings on the right and left respectively.
It is worth noting that while most of these figures' sculpt was reused from the Spektrosaur Troopers, several parts are newly tooled, i.e., the forearms, the shins, the male's armour and female's torso, the belts and the gular folds.

Reptonoid Trooper's stylised helmet.

Action feature

In the comics, the Reptonoid Troopers, while not capable of powered flight, have the ability to move by gliding thanks to two membranous structures that extend between their arms and the sides of their bodies. These skin flaps, which are fictionally sustained by elongated ribs, are actually made of a very flexible plastic and are of a greenish colouration with dark-brown stripes and patterns. Each figure has two "wings" that connect to six sockets on the back (on the shoulder armour, on the bracelets and on the belt) via an equal number of pegs. When opened by raising the arms, the skin flaps create a sort of wingsuit that, similarly to a gliding lizard, allows the trooper to glide long distances. Despite the soft material (in fact, it's probably the softest and most pliable plastic in the line ever), the flaps hamper the arms and waist movement quite considerably, but luckily they are removable.

Furthermore, the troopers' whip-like tails, which can be used to deliver painful strikes, are made of bendable plastic and are detachable (a little flap on the loincloth was also created to cover the exposed hollow). Unlike their regular series' counterparts, this pair doesn't come with handles to transform their tails into whips.

Reptonoid Trooper's stylised armour; the circle at the side of the chest piece represents the Reptonoid symbol.

Weapons and accessories

Each Reptonoid Trooper comes with a few weapons, one of which is an exact replica of the Spektrosaur Trooper's spear-thrower. This piece consists of a reddish wooden shaft and a white bony spear. The shaft resembles a snake coiled around a stick, whose head at the end of its bent up neck supports and propels the butt of a curvy, forked tongue-like GITD spear (which is a separate piece not designed to be "fired").

Additionally, this 2-pack comes with two red leather quivers (each containing several non-removable spears) that can connect to the back of the shoulder armours when the wings are detached.

Finally, two silver combat daggers, whose blades can be inserted in two loops on the front of the armour's strap, are included with each figure.

Overall, I don't care that much about the fact that the Reptonoid Troopers are essentially the Spektrosaur Troopers in construction, I really like these two reptilian characters and I'm happy to see them again with a different coloured skin and a few new parts/accessories. But I’m also hoping that we’ll get more variants of previous figures, to reflect the variety seen in the comics - soldiers similar to Li-Meh-Zor, Blomok and the Rexodon Troopers in their reptilian mode all appear among the Reptonoid ranks. Further 2-packs could go a long way in building a large enough army for all of Bi-Harr's troops to command. Finally, while I would like less hindrance to the articulation in the arms and torso when the "wings" are attached, I’m not crying about it.