While I had a ton of fun celebrating my first Thanksgiving in New York City (loved it!), it caused some KR reviews to be delayed. Today, I’ll look at one of the two (but they may be three... we'll see) KR|Origin items for December - Dark Flash!
One of the advantages of writing this blog is that I am given a chance to own figures that I never expected I'd add to my shelf. This 20th action figure prototype of the Origin series is a great example of this, even if I know that, despite looking like a bit of a Masq-Lor variant, Dark Flash is actually a crucial character at some point of the story.
Details
Name: Dark Flash
Real name: Desion, aka Masq-Lor
Subtitle: disguised hero
Classification: human-primivod hybrid (but he looks completely human)
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Era: 520 years before Masq-Lor's time (now renamed Foundation)
Affiliation: Theriom
Rank: warrant officer.
Background
First appearance: KR|Origin #2 - Battle for Tahron: Part I – The journey begins
Brief bio: using the power of the Antikythron, The Deity sent Masq-Lor and his heroic companions through a portal to the past of Tahron, back in a time when the newly formed Theriom faction fought for freedom against the Reptonoids. After accomplishing a dangerous mission, Masq-Lor decided not to travel back to the present and, instead, to stay and have a hand in the fierce conflict between the mammalian and reptilian forces. Although his actions would unlikely interfere with the history of Tahron on an overall scale, he was forced to hide his true identity and powers to his own ancestors, in order to avoid creating a time paradox. Armed with special bow and arrows, and disguised in a suit and mask borrowed from his fellow Tauton, Masq-Lor, under the alias Dark Flash, swiftly allied himself with King Khon-Uhr and his knights, assisting them in many battles and even turning the tide of the events in few occasions. During such battles, he acquired the knowledge of several ancient fighting secrets and eventually returned with this mastery to his own time, to finally defeat his archenemy Deptilion once and for all.
Articulation
Standard, except that the right hand is especially engineered with a front-to-back hinge to hold an arrow.
Description
Head: well, it is Masq-Lor wearing a black helmet with a half mask and gold details; a pair of green eyes is visible through the eye-holes, while the mouth, which suggests a daring expression, is surrounded by light brown skin. On the back we can see short tufts of black hair coming out from the base of the helmet
Body: covered from neck to toe with a glossy&matte black armour, whose components are in many instances reused from Myneran's and Elkymor's suits
Wearables: a glossy&matte black cuirass, two black wrist guards, two black leather-and-rope boots with black knee guards and shin guards, a studded black belt and two medieval-style black armoured tassets. Besides these basic components, he wears various glossy&matte black pieces of armour to protect the rest of his body, such as shoulder guards, rerebraces and thigh guards. There is an impressive amount of intricate decorative features all around the various components of this protective covering; I especially like the fine riveted golden edges of the wrist and knee guards, and the little gaps here and there that reveal black-coloured chain mail details beneath the armour. The cuirass displays a vac-metallised golden Theriom emblem on the breastplate, while the belt sports a buckle with a golden bow (and a lightning-shaped arrow) design as well as a few spare arrowheads all the way around. He also carries a black cape that is permanently attached to the cuirass.
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| Dark Flash's stylised helmet. |
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| Dark Flash's stylised cuirass. |
Weapons and accessories
Although Dark Flash is portrayed as a highly skilled archer and swordsman, his figure has no action feature, but it does come with a few great accessories: a dual-arrow bow, a quiver, a sword and a scabbard. The bow is incredible - it's basically a combination of two black recurve bows arranged in an "X"-shape, with two stacked barrel-shaped arrow rests and an additional piece that works as a grip, aiming aid and stabiliser. Conveying the complex construction of this bow with words is quite difficult, but you can get an idea by looking at this crossbow, which is the closest thing to it I found on the web. The two black trick arrows (with golden heads that fictionally possess some specialised functions, such as explosive or drilling) are separate pieces that can be held (one at a time) by the figure's special right hand and can detach from the bow, but there is no spring-loaded mechanism. The black quiver contains several arrows (not removable) and is attached to a loose fitting belt, a separate piece that can be repositioned to one's liking.
The sword, a repainted version of Masq-Lor's basic weapon, has a black hilt and a golden blade, while its black leather scabbard is another separate piece that, like the quiver, is connected to a loose fitting belt.
Overall, despite being a fairly marginal member in the ranks of King Khon-Uhr's servicemen, Dark Flash has got a decent (and extensively reused) sculpt and great accessories. There is a lot to like here and even though we know it is, in fact, Mask-Lor hiding under that suit of armour, the figure has a very unique look to him and if we want, we can easily pretend that he is a completely different character.
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