KR|Enmity Review #2: Wordron

Toy prototype details

Name: Wordron

Subtitle: fiendish duke
Line: KR|Enmity

Item type: action figure (dual figure) - Nº 2 in the line.

Character details

Name: Duke Wordron, aka Skull-Face

Family name: Cleorsu^TM

Classification: seemingly human

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Era: 20 years before Foundation

Affiliation: Dark Legion

Rank: duke and, temporarily, overlord of the small Kingdom of O-Kin; grand marshal of the Dark Legion; archaeologist.

Background

First appearance: KR|Enmity #1 - Flares of enmity

Brief bio: an aristocrat from O-Kin's high society, Duke Wordron spent most of his early life learning the secrets of archaeology and became obsessed with locating the mythical helmet that had been worn by King Khon-Uhr five century earlier. After successfully retrieving the legendary relic thanks to Bi-Harr's technological support, Wordron became convinced that his native realm would be better off with him as its ruler and used the magic of the helmet to overthrow O-Kin's true leader. Eventually gaining the moniker "Skull-Face", he formed an army of outcasts and modified machines, the Dark Legion, and leaped into battle against the Therioms, challenging King Li-Khon^TM for his crown. The king’s royal sons heroically joined together and, fighting blade to blade with Wordron himself, defeated the tyrant. Although he failed in his mission, the duke's deadly mastery of the helmet's power left its mark and allowed him to persist in bringing terror to all who got in the way of his quest for supremacy.

Articulation

Both figures have the standard articulation.

In the comics, Wordron 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: Duke Wordron

Description

Head: dark brown skin, partially shaved scalp with three mohawks (the two on the sides are shorter and whitish with greyish roots, while the taller one in the middle is greyish with black roots and develops into a long windblown-looking ponytail), long and thin greyish/whitish facial hair, i.e., sideburns (connected to his nape by two strips of hair), moustache (split in the middle) and pointed beard; his right eye is green with a bushy black eyebrow, while the left one is marked with an obvious scar and covered with a roundish black patch that almost looks like a monocle. Displaying his brow corrugated in a frown gives his face an overall bad-tempered expression

Body: arms and legs covered with a tight pale-brown undergarment; the trousers bear two black leather straps with silver rivets around the thighs. The straps hold two daggers, each with a wooden hilt and a pointed, edged silver blade. Although these weapons are separate, kinda pivoting pieces, they are permanently attached to the upper thighs, a solution that overcomes the limited room to manoeuvre in that area if they were removable (but I wish they were...)

Wearables: a middle-brown vest with short puffy sleeves, grey cuffs, a ruffled grey collar and silver buttons down the front, two middle-brown leather gloves equipped with studded bronze bracers (the right one is a narrow bracelet, while the left one is a larger and more elaborate wrist guard), two knee-high middle-brown leather boots (whose turndown lapels exhibit embroidered grey meanders), a bronze belt and short grey trunk hose. The belt is decorated with a large Dark Legion emblem (i.e., a diamond-shaped black gemstone, which, when looking deeply into it, shows a subtle discolouration resembling a demonic face) on the front and a sort of clip on the back that I'm not sure what's for. Over his vest, he wears a separate middle-brown leather shoulder/chest armour with silver details, which consists of a chest piece, a pair of large curved shoulder guards (similar to armholes) and includes a dark-green cape. The cape's bottom is embellished with the same grey meander motif seen on the boot tops, while the two sides of its upper portion are fixed to the front of the armour using two pale-brown strings that converge toward a large silver brooch bearing a complex heraldic design (a dragon head in front of two crossed swords on a web-like background).

Action feature

In the comics, Duke Wordron is depicted as a bladed weapon (namely knife and sword) expert. So, in addition to the two non-removable daggers, a double-bladed silver piece can snap into his left wrist guard, to mimic the two short blades that spring out from his signature wrist-mounted pushbutton dual knife.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the double-bladed knife, the figure includes a spade, which Wordron uses as an excavation tool during his archaeological activity. The tool comprises a silver blade, a silver rest for the foot (to drive the spade into the ground) and a long wooden handle.

Enhanced form: Skull-Face

Description

Head: similarly to other characters in the KR universe, Wordron wears one of the silver magic helmets, which in certain circumstances produces an ivory-coloured bony 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 skull-like visor activated, a devilish right eye and dark brown skin plus greyish/whitish facial hair around the mouth. Some of his facial features are slightly different in comparison to the normal form: his mouth displays an evil teeth-grinding, silvery smile and his beard is triple-pointed. In addition to the standard side crests, the helmet is also adorned with a fan-like arrangement of long ivory-coloured bony spines

Body: dark brown skin on the exposed parts of his torso, arms and legs, claw hands and feet; his biceps, forearms and thighs are adorned with several ivory-coloured bony spines

Wearables: a middle-brown metal&leather armour with silver details, two middle-brown leather gloves equipped with segmented (i.e., made of overlapping bronze plates) wrist guards that are spiked on the underside, two middle-brown leather boots (with bronze knee guards and steel-looking claws protruding from the toes), a studded bronze tasset belt (the tassets seem to be partially made of leather though) and a rather long silver chain mail loincloth. The armour is composed of a bronze chest plate (bearing the Dark Legion emblem at the centre), leather shoulder pads (topped with large silver spikes) and straps (ornamented with silver studs and eyelets).

Wordron's stylised helmet with side crests.

Skull-Face's stylised armour; the circle at the centre of the chest piece represents the Dark Legion symbol.

Action feature

The main draw for this form of Wordron is a pair of four-bladed silver claws, to simulate the retractile steel claws that he uses to climb walls and slay enemies in the comics. They fit over the wrist guards thanks to a friction clip and look menacing enough, but I thought they might be a bit more detailed, or even accented with some metallic paint.

Weapons and accessories

Aside from the snap-on steel claws, Skull-Face comes with two sabres, which are enhanced variants of the daggers strapped to the normal form's legs. Each weapon has a bronze hilt, two horn-shaped ivory-coloured ornaments sticking out of the hand guard and a slightly curved, single-edged silver blade that has extra bronze burrs on the tip.

Skull-Face also includes an enhanced version of his spade. This very cool halberd-like weapon comes in the form of a combined spear, battle-axe and kama, with a wooden haft and silver grip, blades and tip. Additionally, the figure has a number of loops to store the two swords (on the sides of the tasset belt), as well as the halberd (on the back of the loincloth) and I love it when a figure can carry all of its accessories.

Moreover, there is an alternative head that displays a pissed-off expression and wears the inactive helmet, i.e., with neither the skull visor activated nor bony decorations. This head works as the necessary bridge between the unhelmeted and the helmeted-with-visor heads.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦♦ I am thrilled to finally be getting a new villain

Articulation: ♥♥♥♥ Both figures are well executed from an engineering point of view

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ I love all the head sculpts and the extra sculpted details on the new pieces

Accessories: ♠♠♠♠ He comes with more accessories than I expected, but I would’ve liked removable daggers and wrist-mounted knife in the normal form

Playability: ♪♪♪♪♪ He's new, but so appropriately KR, and that makes him a lot of fun

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ I really dig Wordron, he's a great dual-figure.

Special thanks to Alec Karfonta for allowing us to use the name Wordron.