Name: Demo-RhaTM (Enmity Edition)
Subtitle: valiant cadet
Line: KR|Enmity
Item type: action figure (dual figure) - Nº 10 in the line.
Character details
Name: Demo-Rha
Classification: human
Sex: female
Relationships: Modi-Rha's younger sister
Home: Tahron
Era: 20 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Theriom
Rank: officer cadet; bomb disposal and explosives specialist.
Background
First appearance: KR|Enmity #2 - Terror from the clouds
Brief bio: raised together with her older sister Modi-Rha by NemhistoTM, Demo-Rha became more and more estranged from her sibling after their father's murder and decided to travel Tahron alone. Eventually, she joined the Theriom royal army and learnt the ways of military combat from Ir-Ash, who had his eyes on her. While aiming at mastering new capabilities, in order to improve her range of skills, Demo-Rha met and fell in love with an enterprising soldier named XonedarTM, thanks to whom she became competent in handling dangerous ordnance.
Articulation
Standard, excluding hinged abdomen.
Description
Head: half-Asian features, her skin, long hair and eyes have an albino character, but their colour, instead of being completely white, tends to a very light-toned blue
Body: arms and legs covered with a tight red military uniform with black details (i.e., single-strapped sheaths and double-strapped holsters/quivers on the sleeves and the trousers). Her light-toned blue hands wear a pair of black fingerless gloves
Wearables: a purple bulletproof vest with a golden Theriom badge on the right side of the breast piece, two light-blue bracelets, two light-blue boots, a light-blue belt and purple shorts.
Action feature
In the KR|Enmity comics, Demo-Rha is mostly featured in her military look, but she also briefly appears in two other forms. So, the figure will be released in a 2-pack that will include Demo-Rha's standard version and one of two possible variants. Actually, three possible variants (!), which I'm going to describe individually.
The first variant is her Extra-Corporeal form. In the Enmity era, Demo-Rha is already aware of her paranormal abilities, but she's not very proficient at using them yet. One of such powers is shown fleetingly during a fight with her sister Modi-Rha over the roofs of Theriom City, when Demo-Rha momentarily moves outside her body hoping to gain the upper hand. Sculpt-wise and colour-wise, this figure is an exact replica of the standard one, but is moulded in a translucent plastic. Additionally, this variant includes a clear stand that clips around the waist and allows for some floating poses.
The second variant, my personal favourite, is her Bomb Disposal look. At the end of the second comic issue of the Enmity series, Demo-Rha is forced to disarm a bomb activated by the Dark Legion. She first tries by remotely controlling a bomb disposal robot, but then she decides to handle the matter on site by wearing a heavy suit of body armour derived by the device itself. The robot, which unfortunately is not included in the pack, transforms into the blast suit by outspreading along folding joints, similarly to the Dark Legion Troopers (except for the arm components, which are produced by outstretching the vertical mount that in the collapsed form houses pairs of cameras and mechanical limbs, and encases the suit's helmet). This figure heavily resembles her LoGoN's driver variant (now we know where Demo-Rha got that suit!), and is made of white&ochre-painted parts reused from the static bust that came with the original LoGoN (head and torso) and from Combat Sei-Lha (limbs and crotch piece). However, there are several additions in the form of bulky tech-mech clip-on elbow and knee guards derived from the robot's vertical mount and wheels respectively. Also, the open palm hands are equipped with two pivoting tools (sorts of screwdriver and scissors), which plug into the inner sides of the gauntlets.
Finally, the third variant is her Old Lady form seen in The ultimate curse comic of the KR|Foundation series. I'm very happy that the folks at PoliganToys decided to include this option. One really cool feature on this variant is that her jagged maroon cape (which has four protruding points that connect to her wrists and to an ivory brooch at the front of her garment), high standing spiky collar and mouth veil is a removable one-piece part that fits between the head and the neck. So, it'll be possible to display her wrinkled, yellowish-skinned head (wearing a black veil) without any gear around her neck, if one has will to do so. For the rest, she's pretty much covered with tattered light and dark grey robes from neck to toe and only shows her yellowish-skinned hands (with purple-painted nails) emerging from the long and wide sleeves. The right hand can grasp a wooden walking staff, which has some wrapping around the handle that blends in nicely and a metallic top that holds a tapering milky clear tip similar to a stalagmite. It’s a cool little item known as the staff of concealment, which in the Foundation comics serves to amplify Demo-Rha's already impressive transformation skills (sometimes she's shown to wear the stalagmite piece hanging from a chain round her neck).
Weapons and accessories
The standard version of Demo-Rha comes with two accessories that represent the two forms of her signature weapon - a collapsible crossbow. The inactive form is basically a small metallic purple kite shield that the figure can wear on either forearm. This piece of armour is fictionally able to absorb and reflect kinetic energy, enabling it to withstand strong impacts, and its pattern is curiously reminiscent of the design on the crotch piece of Demo-Rha's outfit. The active form is a fully expanded compound crossbow with metallic light-blue limbs, cams, sight and detachable bolt (whose head possesses an explosive function in the comics), which can also clip to the wrist.
Comic
Together with the action figure we get the second comic issue Terror from the clouds. Enraged at his previous defeat at the hands of the Therioms in his arena, Wordron teams up with IgnitrysTM, an evil Cereutian android sent by Denortos. Taking advantage of a flight test, the villains attack a Therioms' newly built aircraft. In spite of Xonedar's and Gax-Uhr's counterattack on two Aviotak gliders, the heroes are knocked down by Ignitrys and the flying machine is forced to land in a deserted area. Immediately afterwards, Wordron and his Dark Legion rush to the emergency landing site and succeed in seizing the aircraft and in stealing the cyber-backpack from the half-conscious Xonedar. Except for the helpless Gax-Uhr, who is taken prisoner, the Therioms manage to flee on a sentient vehicle (LoGoN) stored in the plane's hull. Before the heroes can plan a rescue mission for freeing their fellow, a strike on Theriom City begins, with Wordron and Ignitrys operating the blasters of the aircraft from the sky, while Modi-Rha and Fasyan lead the ground army. Xonedar understands that the only way the Therioms can win this fight is to attack Wordron directly, so he takes an Aviotak glider to reach the plane. The hero meets the evil duke on the fuselage of the aircraft and a mid-air fight ensues. With the help of Koptros, who has come to Xonedar's aid, the good guys finally gain the upper hand against their foe and shoot him down. Xonedar rescues Gax-Uhr, who was trapped inside the craft, while Koptros tries to distract Ignitrys. Since the flying machine is obviously superior to the hero's helicopter-pack, Koptros can only win with a trick - he dives towards a pinnacle and pulls up in the very last moment. Being not as manoeuvrable as Koptros' backpack, the aircraft crashes. The attack is over, the Dark Legion retreats and Wordron's only chance to win is to remotely activate a bomb, but Demo-Rha manages to disarm the device.
Overall, this story is good, even if there are few illogical twists in my opinion. For example, why does Xonedar wear his cyber-backpack again when he fights against Wordron? Did he have a spare one? And where was Koptros hiding all the time between his appearance at the beginning and then again at the end? However, I love the artwork and the action scenes of this comic book - the mid-air battle is simply amazing! And the Gyrocarrier, that is the name of the craft, is really great! It's good to know that they flight-tested it before it'd be used again in the future... it's shown with a different paintjob in The ultimate curse story, serving as a transporter for the new version of CoBoN. It's worth spending a few words about its look, because I really wouldn't mind to see it in toy form, maybe even including its spectacular domed heliport with elevated runway (I know, I'm just dreaming). The general shape of this stealth aircraft reminds me of the Starship Enterprise a bit, featuring a cigar-shaped hull (equipped with retractable landing gear -wheels in Terror from the clouds, skids in The ultimate curse-, a front-facing viewport, a pair of folding wings -aftward in Terror from the clouds, upward in The ultimate curse-, a movable tail rudder with an embedded tail rotor, and a rear cargo hatch/ramp -in The ultimate curse the belly can also open to deploy CoBoN via a set of cables that are subsequently reeled back by use of a rotating winching mechanism inside the craft-), a saucer-shaped main section (bearing a tapered front-facing cockpit/nose, a chin turret with a pivoting set of guns, twin side-mounted missile launchers and a two-bladed overhead rotor that also functions as a slotted antenna) and a pair of rear jet engines (housed in two tilting nacelles, which generate either vertical lift force for takeoff and landing or thrust for forward flight).
Final thoughts
Character value: ♦♦♦♦ When I’d first heard rumours that a Theriom version of Demo-Rha was a possibility for KR, I couldn't see this figure in my mind’s eye. When it came into my hands, I was totally blown away
Articulation: ♥♥♥ Apart from the long hair hampering the head movement a bit, no problem here
Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ The colours and shapes pop, both in the standard version and in the three beautiful options for the accompanying variant. Yes, I think I dig her
Accessories: ♠♠♠ She has a very cool looking weapon, but if I could change or add anything, I would really like to see some removable guns, knives and bolts coming out of those holsters and sheaths
Playability: ♪♪♪♪ This figure makes me like the idea of a "good" Demo-Rha far more than I ever did before
Overall: ☺☺☺☺ I’m very pleased with the figure, she makes a great addition to the Theriom side of the display.
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