Toy prototype details
Name: Wordron (Dimness Edition) & SondakorTM
Subtitle: fiendish duke's true identity and beastly steed
Line: KR|Dimness (although Sondakor belongs to the KR|Enmity line)
Item type: multi-pack (2-pack) - Nº 2 in the line.
Wordron
Character details
Name: Wordron
Real name: SilefTM
Classification: reincarnation of a reptile of uncertain group
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Era: 5 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Dark Legion
Rank: grand marshal; archaeologist.
Background
First appearance: KR|Dimness #1 - Into dimness: Part I – Awakening
Brief bio: once the powerful leader of an ancient reptilian kinship group, Silef perished while fighting a rival mammalian clan in the age before King Tah-RonTM. To ensure a glorious future for the reptilian people and the annihilation of their enemies, a mysterious saurian wizard attempted to resurrect Silef with magic, but instead channelled the essence of the deceased chieftain into himself, increasing his abilities ten-fold. Yet, even his new powers could not prevent the transformed wizard from being controlled by the former headman's psyche. Centuries later, the wizard acted on his desire to remove the spirit of Silef from his body, passing on his life force into a wounded mercenary called NemhistoTM, giving all of his wickedness to the young soldier of fortune. When after a few years Nemhisto and a noblewoman of O-Kin had an affair, the spirit was transferred to their illegitimate child, Wordron, who eventually gained control of the demon inside him and exploited it to lead his ruthless Dark Legion until his exile at UcamurTM.
Articulation
Standard, plus a hinged lower jaw, two swivelling horns, two pairs of ball hinged "wing-bones" and a tail that features two swivels at about one-third and two-thirds of its length.
Description
Head: similar to a Spinosaurus skull, but with a more dragon-ish look, characterised by a long and narrow snout, a creamy-white ivory colour, a large cranial crest, a pair of long curved, pointy horns, large eye sockets with small amber eyeballs (each with a vertical black pupil) and large sharp steel-coated teeth along the edges of the jaws. Interestingly, the inside of the mouth is painted in a pinkish colour
Body: anthropomorphic creamy-white ivory skeleton (whose shoulder, elbow and knee joints slightly -and strangely- resemble human skulls), hands and feet with large steel-coated claws. On the back, a comb of extended neural spines and two additional pairs of large bony limbs (probably meant to support wings) project from his backbone. Also, a long, bony tail extends from the bottom of his spine and stretches downwards, ending with a zigzagged steel-coated point (which, like with Lor-Drek, personally reminds me of Pikachu)
Wearables: two narrow spiked bronze bracelets, two brown furry calf protectors with turndown tops (which show a paler shade of brown on the inside) and a bronze belt that 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) and holds a short strip of silver chain mail hanging down in front. The breastbone running down the centre of the chest, to which the ribs are attached, sports a large bony brooch, which bears a complex heraldic design (a dragon skull with two pointed bones crossed below it on a web-like background) and holds what looks like a brown fur tail hanging down in front. However, this additional decorative detail, which is never shown in the comics, can be detached (exposing a socket) and is meant to be replaced with a much more meaningful piece that will be included with another prototype.
Action feature
In the comics, Wordron has the ability to shoot a hail of sharp steel-coated claws at his enemies as well as to form back together after getting blown up into a pile of bones. The figure is characterised by the new articulation scheme, in which every point of articulation is a ball&socket joint that allows for part swapping. This not only sort of works like having an appropriate action feature, but also makes it possible to remove the bracelets, shin guards and belt for recreating a more comic book accurate bare-bones look. Still, I wish there were a trigger to make his body burst apart, with the bones flying around.
Weapons and accessories
Apart from his removable items of "clothing", Wordron comes with an interesting sceptre, which is composed of an arrangement of two pointed creamy-white bones crossed around the base of a silver blade and tied with a length of brown rope to the top of a long wooden staff. While the crossbones recall the shape of his bony wings, the blade and the staff are the remainders of Duke Wordron's dagger and spade from his days in O-Kin.
Additionally, the figure includes a head, a piece of armour, a hand and an arm that can be used to update the Enmity version of Wordron's normal form and make it more similar to his human(ish) appearance in the Dimness series. The head is almost identical to the regular one, except that it looks a bit older (e.g., all the three mohawks are whitish with greyish roots and the right eyebrow is greyish), lacks the ponytail and wears a more traditional eye patch instead of the monocle-like covering over his left eye (the black patch has a silvery rim and is attached around the head by a black string).
The attire is a combo piece comprising a bronze chest armour with silver details (which kinda resemble a ribcage), two brown leather shoulder pads ornamented with silver skulls, a high standing collar (which is split into two parts and looks like a pair of dragon wings), a cowl edged with bone-looking silver details and a 3-part cape (whose bottom is jagged and tattered). The collar, cowl and central part of his cape seem to be made of a brown fabric and are all one piece with the chest armour, while the shoulder pads are moulded with the side pieces of the cape and are separate parts that are attached via a rubber “hinge” to the shoulder armour, so they retain a little movement in the shoulders. The whole assemblage is pretty heavy, but balance has not been much of an issue for me so far.
The new grasping left hand is meant to hold the above-mentioned piece that will come with another figure. I don’t mind the overly detailed sculpt of this hand, but it looks a little odd with nothing to hold. So, this is another opportunity where the line benefits of swappable hands.
Finally, the alternate right arm can be attached to Duke Wordron's figure by popping the regular arm off at the elbow. This new limb features the skeletal head of Wordron's draconic form emerging forcibly from the forearm of his human host. The head corresponds exactly to the full-body form's head and has identical hinged lower jaw and swivelling horns, as well as one point of articulation that makes it turn around on a swivel.
Sondakor
Character details
Name: Sondakor
Classification: xenarthran mammal
Sex: female
Home: Tahron
Era: 20 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Dark Legion
Rank: steed.
Articulation
Sondakor's articulation features a ball jointed head, swivel shoulders/hips, swivel-hinged elbows/knees, swivel-hinged wrists/ankles and a tail on a swivel. It isn’t great, but it’s adequate enough to achieve a few nice poses.
Description
Sondakor resembles a Megatherium (i.e., a giant ground sloth) with a shaggy grey-brown fur and five large curved claws on each foot. However, similarly to a nodosaurid (e.g., Edmontonia), she is also adorned with rows of ridged ivory-coloured bony deposits on her head and back, as well as several sharp spines along her back and tail. Additionally, she possesses a large mace-like spiked tail like that of a glyptodont (e.g., Doedicurus).
Sondakor's head armour presents a large flat ossification on the skull roof, while her tank-like body is covered with bony plates and bordered by spikes on both sides. The four largest projections jut out from over the shoulders on each side: one spine pointing obliquely towards the front, a very large forward-pointing spike that is bifurcated, another large spike behind it pointing more sideways and a smaller fourth one that is directed obliquely to behind. The row of side spikes is continued to the rear, but there the spines are smaller and curving strongly to behind.
Action feature / Weapons and accessories
This heavily armoured giant is further covered in a large tortoise-like metallic shell of individual steel plates that can open up to reveal an armament of guns (including two large central cannons) and ambush unsuspecting foes. Such body shield is removable (it straps across her belly) and is topped by a sort of howdah, i.e., a seat for riding on the back of this deadly beast, which can accommodate a figure and is equipped with two additional removable guns: a Gatling-type cannon and a laser blaster with sight.
Final thoughts
Character value: ♦♦♦ The first figure in this set is a rather obscure version of Wordron that only makes its full appearance in the last KR|Dimness story. The thing that I don't like about this inclusion is that, damn it, I want multiples of this figure, but since it will probably come at a high price point, that makes army building pretty much impossible. Sondakor is not a figure I needed to complete the Enmity line, but she came out really nice, and I know plenty of fans would want this creature to carry Duke Wordron
Articulation: ♥♥♥♥ Wordron's articulation is consistent with the rest of the reptilian guys of his kind, such as Lor-Drek and Reptile Masq-Lor. The joints are tight, with very thick, high quality pins. On the other hand, I have to say, Sondakor’s articulation is not great. Most of her joints don’t feel like they have all the movement they should, but, still, without the armour she can take the poses that matter, including various ways of mauling her foes
Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ I can’t really think of any major complaints about Wordron's sculpt... well, those teeth and claws could have been slightly sharper. He’s an intimidating monster, though, especially thanks to some very well done paint work that creates a realistic skeletal appearance. Sondakor? Oh, she's huge! But in the the comics she is even more ridiculously large, so this isn’t exactly accurate to the comic book design, but I’m glad they changed that up a bit to fit in more with the KR style
Accessories: ♠♠♠ Wordron's terrific new staff fits great in his hands and looks extremely threatening. The extra arm piece to update the regular figure has a very creative, imaginative nature and adds a ton to the value of this prototype, but I really miss the cloak thing that in the comics hangs loosely from the right shoulder to cover his deformed arm. Sondakor's armour feels a bit awkward at first, too far down her back; it also slides and tips easily, and might toss her rider. If a figure has a non-removable robe or cape, he or she will have trouble riding, though a lot of KR toys are just fine
Playability: ♪♪♪ The tradition of including in one 2-pack a figure and a large scale item that don't fit each other continues. However, pretty much everything about Wordron is enjoyable, while Sondakor is a big, mean beast, but she really does need her master from the Enmity series
Overall: ☺☺☺ I found myself liking this multi-pack more than I had expected.
Special thanks to Alec Karfonta for allowing us to use the name Wordron.
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