KR SDCC 2017 Exclusive: Ultimate Curse set (LoGoN vehicle form & driver)

PoliganToys will be in attendance at this year's San Diego Comic-Con!

Their SDCC exclusive release is the Key Raiders Ultimate Curse 2-pack, which contains the vehicle form of LoGoN and its "mysterious" white-suited driver.

CoBoN's evil counterpart is one of the more interesting machines shown during the several episodes of the KR saga. We already got LoGoN's robot configuration last year, but if its vehicle form hadn't been produced, there would have been an empty space on the shelf.

This very first release (not a prototype!) from PoliganToys is mostly a reuse of CoBoN's vehicle mode with a few differences:

- The bodywork is painted in a glossy black colour

- The front mounted scanner bar is recreated with a black lenticular sticker displaying green and purple patterns

- The voice display on the dashboard is painted in colours closer to the blue part of the spectrum, rather than to the red one

- Neither the central multi-spectral detector/holographic projector nor the clawed continuous tracks pieces are included

- The two Gatling guns are replaced by a spring-loaded rocket launcher and a plasma cannon (in black&silver).

The package includes a full-body version of LoGoN's white-suited driver, which is my personal favourite Demo-Rha's variant. The head and the torso are reused from the static bust that came with the original LoGoN, while the rest of the body is made of white&ochre repainted pieces from Combat Sei-Lha, specifically:

- The arms (with gloved gripping, non-removable hands)

- The legs (with glued leg guards)

- The belt and the crotch piece.

The articulation is the female standard and no weapon is included.

This KR exclusive will be available for $100 at the convention.

They will also have plenty of prototypes on display at their booth all weekend long! I wish I could be there...

KR|Origin Review #15: Loghar (Origin Edition)

The wait for Loghar^TM is over! Despite this version of the reptilian sorcerer and engineer is completely "organic" (i.e., without robotic parts), I can confirm he is still as awesome as he was in the regular series.

This 13^th action figure prototype in the KR|Origin series has a few parts that have never been seen before for this character, such as a new head, left arm and right leg. He also comes with two extra heads, including the coveted unmasked standard head. So, ultimately when you have this figure, you will end up converting regular Loghar (or his possessed Herrion variant) into an unmasked version, because the head is an amazing piece.

Details

Name: Loghar (Origin Edition)

Subtitle: ruthless sorcerer and engineer

Classification: archosauromorph reptile

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

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

Affiliation: Reptonoid

Rank: brigade general.

Background

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

Brief bio: an evil Reptonoid member with skills in both sorcery and engineering, Loghar was one of the first acolytes of Bi-Harr. He assisted the reptilian leader in his ambition to rule Tahron for many years, frequently overpowering numerous mammalian enemies. As good with his magic hallucinatory powers as he was technically competent, Loghar helped design various devices to assist the reptilian forces, including enhancements to his master and an army of robot enforcers that wouldn't be developed for several centuries. Loghar was eventually forced to enhance his own body by the aid of bionic apparatuses of his own devising, after a fight with his fellow sorcerer and rival Sphenorat had left him severely injured.

Articulation

Standard, except that the wrists are ball jointed.

Description

Head: his face is supposed to resemble an Iguanodon, but it is flattened in order to acquire a more humanoid look. It has grey skin, a dark-grey cranial crest (composed of a row of three bony bulges supporting a kind of skin sail), pointy ray fin-shaped ears, amber eyes with vertical slit-shaped red pupils, and a closed beak-like dark-grey mouth encircled by long tendril-like whitish moustache and beard (the end of the latter is tied around what I assume is a dinosaur's thumb spike). He wears a metallic black crown decorated with silver studs, on the back of which a shock of long whitish "real" hair is rooted by way of the separate scalp piece

Body: grey scaly skin, claw hands and three-toed feet (both equipped with large conical dark nails)

Wearables: a tattered, loose sleeveless black furry garment (reaching to the thighs), two spiked silver bracelets, two silver calf protectors (each with a spike sticking out of the side) and a black sash decorated with silver studs. The right arm and the left leg display a silver armband and a sort of silver garter (each bearing a spike and not removable) around the biceps and thigh respectively. He also wears a gladiator-like silver harness with some black details here and there, which has an attached cape. The cape is bicolour, black at the top and red at the bottom, with the two colours separated by a jagged motif. Personally, I find the tunic+harness too bulky. I'd rather remove the garment but leave the armour, as they are two separate pieces. I think I prefer this look over the fully covered torso.

Loghar's stylised harness.

Action feature

Loghar's abilities in the comics include casting spells to create rune shields of light, which he then throws to his enemies to cause hallucinations. So, the figure comes with a pair of attachable effects to help create his magic powers. These “blasts” in the comics do look somewhat like Dr. Strange's magical mandalas, so I see that is what they went for here and I'm actually a big fan of them. They fit fine (each is held by a handle on the back side) and look great in translucent yellow-orange and blue-purple plastic. In addition to these, PoliganToys has tossed in a cool extra left hand with a clear red “throwing” effect that can be attached to either light disc for some really dynamic posing.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the two magic effects, Loghar comes with one weapon and two extra heads. The weapon is a devastating four-bladed axe, which is composed of a long black haft and two double-bitted axe heads intersecting each other (such that the four broad silver blades, whose cutting edges are parallel to the handle, appear as a cross in top view and as a flame in front view).

The first extra head depicts Loghar in a battle-ready setup and displays grey skin, solid red eyes (why a different colour? I like to think that he has his third eyelids completely closed) and a beak-like dark-grey mouth encircled by tendril-like whitish moustache and beard (the latter is shorter than in the regular head and has no decoration). The mouth is slightly open, to show a number of sharp white crooked teeth as a sign of aggressiveness, and the nostrils look smaller than in the standard head. Additionally, this head wears a metallic black non-removable helmet, which carries a silver blade crest on the top and two long curved silver horns projecting forwards and pointing down. On the back, we can see the whitish hair (in this version shorter and sculpted) coming out from the base of the helmet.

The second extra head shows how Loghar looks under his demonic golden mask in the regular series, and is characterised by a skeletal, charred appearance, a row of three bony bulges on the top of the skull, deep sunken eye sockets (which emit a red glow), tendril-like whitish moustache and beard (same style as the previous head) and a subtle remainder of sculpted hair on the back. This head includes a black removable hood, which has a V-shaped point in the centre of the edge over the forehead, and works best on Loghar-possessed Herrion, making it become a true unmasked Loghar figure (that action figure came with a loose mask that helps complete the picture).

Overall, this is a cool figure with probably the best bonus accessory yet in that new unmasked-Loghar head sculpt. Unlike other Origin Edition figures in the series, this version of Loghar is free of regular-resemblance limitations and the detailed sculpt, the colours, the rooted hair (a rarity for the KR toyline) and the accessories make it one of my favourites for 2017 by a large margin.

KR|Origin Review #14: Khon-Uhr

The first monthly KR|Origin item slot for July is used very wisely by PoliganToys with Khon-Uhr^TM!

This 12^th dual-action figure prototype of the Origin lineup comes into my hands half way through the year, to satisfy my demand for a strongly wanted and necessary character without having used up all the fun at the initial phase of this line that started in January.

Details

Name: Khon-Uhr

Subtitle: savage king

Classification: primivod mammal

Sex: male

Relationships: son of Tah-Ron, partner of Kai-Xi, ancestor of the Amhalgaard family

Home: Tahron

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

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: king of Tahron.

Background

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

Brief bio: the son of the first Theriom king Tah-Ron, Khon-Uhr served as his father's young assistant during the mammalian stand against the rising Reptonoid dominance. Despite Tah-Ron's relative broad-mindedness towards the reptilian people, his son grew rancorous and cursed Bi-Harr after he had killed the monarch in battle. Nicknamed "savage king" for his boldness, Khon-Uhr succeeded his father as a great leader, ruling along his army of valiant warriors, but repudiated any intents of reaching an armistice or showing mercy in case the Therioms would win the war. Chosen to hold the artefacts forged by Galamars alongside other brave combatants, Khon-Uhr called upon all their prodigiousness to thwart the cruel reptilian chief, but was ultimately defeated. He passed his mission to Kai-Xi with his last breath, ensuring that only his heirs could guard the dangerous powers hidden behind the multiversal walls.

Articulation

Both figures have the standard articulation.

Description

In the comics, Khon-Uhr wears a magic helmet that in certain situations gives him incredible abilities and changes his look. Despite the two figures represent the same character, they render the two alternative forms and appear very different. Although it's not clear whether these figures will be released individually or in a 2-pack, I'm going to describe them separately.

Normal form

Head: predominantly leonine (even if he's a primivod, a fictional anthropomorphic marsupial), characterised by a buff face with a thick reddish mane, green eyes and a bold expression. His mane has a pair of gathered hanks of hair hanging down at the sides and is topped with a golden diadem bearing the Theriom emblem (i.e., a seven-pointed star with the two side points elongated)

Body: thick buff fur, claw hands

Wearables: a Y-shaped chest harness with leather&copper straps, two brown leather gloves (each with a large studded copper wrist guard that has four small claws projecting forward), two brown leather boots, a brown leather belt and a scale armour loincloth consisting of several overlapping copper plates laced together. Additionally, he wears a greenish furry cape, characterised by a substantial collar that is permanently attached to the breast plate. The large collar is, like the cape, covered in greenish fur and bulges on the back similarly to an additional mane, giving the figure a hunched over look; it also has two curved copper spikes that project forward from near the shoulders and are pierced in order to hold two brown ropes, from which a skull hangs at the centre. There's quite a lot of reuse in this figure: the loincloth is reused from Bi-Harr, while the left wrist and the collar are from Tah-Ron (the latter is retooled in order to hold an undefined reptile head's skeleton, perhaps from a victim of Khon-Uhr's revenge for losing his father).

Khon-Uhr's stylised harness; the circle at the centre of the chest piece represents a socket, to which the furry collar connects.

Enhanced form

Head: similarly to the other protectors of the Key (i.e., Kai-Xi, Myneran and Elkymor), Khon-Uhr wears one of the silver magic helmets, which in certain circumstances produces an ebony half mask (or visor) and gives him incredible physical and mental powers, changing his appearance significantly. The figure comes with an helmeted head, characterised by the ebony visor activated, fierce eyes and a covering of greenish hair around the open mouth (which exposes a number of large, sharp whitish teeth). In addition to the standard side crests, the helmet is also adorned with two long, flat frontal ebony decorations resembling stylised horns. In my opinion, the most exciting aspect of his head is that, unlike the other three helmets which had already appeared in the regular series, it features a completely new helmet, never seen before

Body: he exhibits the bulkier sculpt that has previously been used for Grabtrak, which displays a greenish fur and claw hands and feet (unlike the normal form, this version of Khon-Uhr has ungloved hands and is barefoot)

Wearables: two pairs of brown leather wrist and shin guards with prominent copper spikes, an elaborate leather&copper jockstrap with a buckle that recalls the Theriom emblem and a brown furry loincloth.

Khon-Uhr's stylised helmet with side crests.

Action feature

To simulate the retractile claws seen in the comics, a pair of large brownish claws can snap into each bracelet of Khon-Uhr's enhanced form.

Weapons and accessories

Khon-Uhr's normal form comes with a copper double-purpose staff that is a repaint of his father's weapon. One end of the pole is four-pronged and holds a translucent blue-green hemisphere, while the other end bears a pointed tip. So, depending on its orientation, the staff works either as a royal sceptre or a spear.

The enhanced form is equipped with a silver halberd, which is one of the four components of the Key (the one whose blade is curved outward) and a shinier version of the halberd that belongs to Bi-Harr in the regular series.

Finally, there is an alternative head for the figure's normal form, which wears the inactive helmet, i.e., with neither the ebony visor activated nor the frontal decorations. This head works as the necessary bridge between the unhelmeted and the helmeted-with-visor heads.

Overall, Khon-Uhr is another dual-figure in the Origin series that I really feel a strong connection with. Being such an important staple in the KR cannon, I am excited to see him be finally added to the line. However, probably due to the many similarities between his normal form and other primivods (e.g., Tir-Hing and Tah-Ron), as well as between his enhanced form and... hmmm... a furry version of the Hulk, I just didn’t go bonkers for the figure(s) like I did with others, for example Kai-Xi and Elkymor. Too bad, after such a long wait.