KR|Origin Review #25: Shaurus

While this year I've reviewed a fairly respectable brood of reptilian beings, there's always room for one more. Enter Shaurus^TM, the most gruesome of the Reptonoids and the KR|Origin final figure!

This 21^st action figure prototype of the Origin series is one of the best I’ve reviewed in 2017, up there with Galamars, Denortos and Gollyop. He’s got an excellent look, he’s just creepy and menacing all around, and really stands out on the shelf.

Besides, the idea of a dead mammalian creature, revived and transformed into a hideous monster by infesting snakes, and destined to participate in the creation of the main villain in the regular series, well, seems really awesome to me!

Details

Name: Shaurus

Subtitle: gruesome warmaster

Classification: the reanimated corpse of a catlipomor* that was turned into an irrational zombie-like creature by snaky parasites

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

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

Affiliation: Reptonoid

Rank: officer.

*Catlipomors^TM are fictional rare intelligent hybrid mammals, composed of the parts of several animals.

Background

First appearance: KR|Origin #3 - Battle for Tahron: Part II – Bi-Harr’s retribution

Brief bio: a nonspeaking, blood-thirsty undead beast from the Northern Forest, Shaurus drew Bi-Harr's attention after he showed his ability to cruelly stalk mammalian creatures, entangle them with his powerful long arms and torture them with the many snakes parasitising his body. Quickly enlisted into the Reptonoid troops, Shaurus often acted as a thoughtless, heartless enforcer during the war against the Therioms. While this made many heroic warriors perish through his brutality, it also drove him yet more insane, leading Bi-Harr to dismiss him because unfit for combat and imprison him in a dungeon beneath Rokang Tar for several centuries, waiting to find a way to tame him. He was at long last released by his master, to serve in battle once again, after a new generation of enemies threatened Bi-Harr's dream of conquest. During an epic conflict between several factions, the sorcerer Sphenorat merged an injured rogue Theriom member named Ir-Ash^TM with the monster, saving the defector's life and transforming him in an even crueller monstrosity, one of the most dangerous ever appeared on Tahron.

Articulation

Standard in the humanoid upper body; in the quadrupedal lower body, besides a ball jointed triple-tail, each leg features three hinge joints: at the shoulder/hip, at the knee/hock and at the fetlock.

Description

Head: vaguely similar to a horse skull, characterised by a yellowish-ivory colour, a mane composed of a multitude of dark-green living snakes and a strip of light-brown hair (the latter running centrally from the middle of the forehead to the back of the neck, where it develops into a fairly long ponytail made of four rattlesnake tails), a pair of bull-like horns (displaying growth rings typical of goats), evil large hollow eye sockets that emit a faint red glow, a beak-shaped nose, two whitish tusks that split apart at the ends, several sharp orange teeth that protrude from the mouth and short tufts of light-brown hair on the chin and cheeks. The larger snakes in his "serpent-hair" are bendy, whereas the smaller ones are not (but they are flexible)

Body: centaur structure, grey skin partly covered in scales and partly in warts. The upper body is composed of a cadaverous torso and a pair of long snake-like arms that end with large black-clawed hands. The quadrupedal part of the body shows lizard-like features, long slender legs with subtle fin-like ridges down the sides, three-toed black-hoofed feet, and three long slim tails partly covered with light-brown hair and ending in rattles. His body shows several yellowish-ivory bony details, such as the upper rib cage and spine, rings and ridges along the arms, an obvious quadrupedal spine ridge (with a pair of processes that look like tiny, ragged wings, which help him seem a little demonic), and spikes sticking out of the front knees and of the back of the hind light-brown hairy cannon bones. Additionally, three dark-green snakes are coiled around the left arm, the right front leg and the left hind leg; however, these snakes are bendy and fully removable, and allow for a number of display options

Wearables: a brown armour with dark-green details (including elements similar to eyes and fangs, giving the armour a subtle snake face look), two brown studded bracelets (with a slithering snake pattern between the studs), two front brown cannon bone protectors (with a gem-eyed, gaping-mouthed snake face design; the feet are coloured in brown like the greaves, suggesting that they might actually be toeless boots), two hind brown gaskin protectors (similar in design to the front greaves, but much simpler), a brown studded belt (whose buckle recalls the Reptonoid symbol, i.e., a reptile red eye) and a dark-green furry loincloth/peytral accompanied by two scaly tassets decorated with fang motifs.

Shaurus' stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics, Shaurus has the ability to use his lengthy, strong arms to get hold of his foes. The figure's bendable arms are beautifully sculpted and long enough (25 cm -around 10”- each!) to coil round three standard figures at once. The great thing is that, owing to its centaur body structure, the figure won't fall over because of the arms' weight. It is also worth noting that all the bendy parts in this figure feel sturdy and flexible, and are really good, easily some of the better I’ve dealt with in this line.

Moreover, Shaurus is able to use the snakes that infest his body for further entangling his enemies. So, the figure can be displayed in a sort of snake-attack mode thanks to a set of alternative/additional pieces. First of all, his head can be replaced with an alternate one, which features a metallic dark-green helmet (very similar in shape to Deptilion's helmet, equipped with two holes for allowing the horns to emerge and ornamented with a wavy bronze snake on the top) and a number of snakes projecting from several parts of his cranium: two dark-green pythons from the eye sockets, one large blue-green anaconda from his mouth and four light-brown vipers from under the nape protector (supposedly derived from his ponytail). Four additional reddish cobras can be plugged into four sockets on the back of Shaurus' armour, near his shoulders and flanks. Furthermore, each hand can be replaced with an articulated serpent head, which is characterised by an arrow shape, grey scaly skin, a yellowish-ivory bony sagittal crest, a pair of yellow eyes with thin slit-shaped red pupils, a hinged upper jaw and black spikes (reminiscent of the standard hand's claws) sticking out from the brow ridges (four) and from the chin (one). To be honest, I find this a bit confusing, since both the standard hands and the snake heads are quite different from what is shown in the comics, where Shaurus' arms appear to end in something similar to tentacles.

Finally, the figure makes a rapid succession of short, sharp knocking sounds when shaken, similarly to a rattlesnake.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the alternative head and hands, and the additional plug-in snakes, Shaurus comes with a vicious war club. This heavy wooden weapon is made of a brown core with a thick end, around which two intertwined greenish snakes are coiled. I like this accessory quite a lot, it has tons of detail and, surprisingly, two different plastics in its make up, despite it is supposed to be a one-piece carved stick.

Overall, although I have not decided if I like him or Gollyop more yet, as the final addition to this line I think Shaurus is a definite winner. For the most part, all consideration was given to this badass member of the Reptonoid faction - well-executed sculpting and paint, as well as great looking alternate parts and extra accessories really make him shine. I’m very happy to add him to my collection. Shaurus also makes me remember all the excitement and happiness with the KR line over the last two and half years and what, in terms of prototype production, has been accomplished so far. Wow, so yeah, I look back on the moment, almost a year ago, Kai-Xi stood lonesome on my Origin shelf; now, I'm looking how many of her fellows and enemies I have gotten in my collection during the past 11 months! Again, thanks to PoliganToys for sending me their KR prototypes for this blog. We will be back soon for something completely different in terms of new KR items. Stay tuned!