Toy prototype details
Name: Dark Legion Plant CreaturesTM
Subtitle: deadly vegetal monsters
Line: KR|Dimness
Item type: multi-pack (3-pack) - Nº 4 in the line.
Character details
Name: Dark Legion Plant Creature
Classification: plant
Sex: male, female or hermaphrodite
Home: Tahron
Era: 5 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Dark Legion
Rank: footman, steed or queen.
Background
First appearance: KR|Dimness #1 - Into dimness: Part I – Awakening
Brief bio: when the ancient ReptonoidTM warrior RabidrissTM was killed during a fierce battle against King Khon-UhrTM and his TheriomTM armies, the deadly pits produced by his parasitic plant sank in the swamps of Ucamur and remained confined for many centuries. The seeds were eventually discovered by Wordron, whose wicked intentions led him to use them in an attempt to revive the mystical golem Clavisaur. The seeds transformed into voracious crawling critters and their hunger for life force was viciously tested on the Forseha people. Once Clavisaur reawakened, he transformed the parasites into a demonic army of soldiers and steeds, and enhanced them with new powers that allowed them to fight using toxic vines and to manipulate plant life according to Wordron's cruel will. The reclusive warrior Moh-QiTM, who initially refused Solamya's offer of an alliance, helped the heroes stop the evil monsters from becoming an even bigger threat for the entire tribe. Together, they used a powerful antidote to end the Plant Creatures' ruthless war upon the brave tribesmen, but couldn't prevent them from becoming a menace to all people of Tahron through their proliferation and spread.
The set includes three figures: a Plant-Man, a Plant-Beast and a Mother-Plant, which I'm going to describe separately.
Plant-Man
Articulation
Standard, with the addition of a ball jointed extra neck piece, two fully articulated arms with hinged pincers, and one fully articulated leg.
Description
Head: roughened brown appearance, two stacked pairs of devilish deep set red eyes. The top and lower jaws (between which a subtle dark-green, seemingly muscular membrane stretches) end in serrated edges fringed by tooth-like white protrusions, which make the mouth resemble the snap trap leaf of a carnivorous plant and look like displaying an evil grin. A cabbage-like black washed magenta structure on the top of its head recalls an unopened flower bud or seed pod. The decidedly creepy design of its head is completed by an extension piece that represents its forward-bent, branch-like knotty wooden neck
Body: its knotty brown wooden body comprises a trunk-like torso, four branch-like arms with spiny shoulders and forearms (the bottom arms have claw hands, while the topmost arms carry woody pincers) and three root-like radially arranged legs+feet with spiny knees and calves
Wearables: a torso covering made of veined dark-green leaves and trimmed with dark-brown woody vines; a Dark Legion symbol (i.e., a diamond-shaped gemstone, which, when looking deeply into it, shows a subtle discolouration resembling a demonic face) is placed at the centre. A number of spiny and ivy-leaved dark-green vines wrap around the forearms, lower legs and waist; these vines are also loosely connected to the upper arms, thighs and hips respectively, preserving the full range of motion. The design includes leaf-shaped details such as a tall collar, two shoulder pads and a loincloth, which are dark-green on the underside and dark-brown on the upper side.
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| Dark Legion Plant-Man's stylised covering; the circle at the centre of the chest piece represents the Dark Legion symbol. |
Action feature
The Dark legion Plant-Man has slightly longer arms compared to the standard figure, which allow for a menacing enemy-crunching action pose.
Weapons and accessories
The figure comes with two vine-based accessories, both with slender ivy-leaved dark-green tendrils that twine round larger spiny dark-brown woody stems. One is a tangled cluster of such vines that attaches snugly to the Plant-Man's claw-fingered right hand and looks like the monster is growing it straight out of its body. The other piece is a single vine that ends with a small carnivorous plant-like mouth ready to attack the Forseha people. This piece is bendy and can wrap around any one of the Plant-Man's arms or around other figures to ensnare them; when the monster is not using it, there are two little bumps on its back that can act like a weapon clip. While these pieces may have been even better with a lighter brown paint application, to match the Plant-Man's body colour, I’m not going to complain because they work so well with the figure and are easy to attach and pose.
Plant-Beast
Articulation
The Dark Legion Plant-Beast's articulation includes a ball jointed upper neck, a hinged lower neck, a swivel-hinged tail and eight swivel-hinged legs (each featuring two additional swivel-hinged joints at about one-third and two-thirds of its length).
Description
The roughened brown top and lower jaws (between which a dark-green, seemingly muscular membrane stretches) of this horrifying creature's head end in serrated edges (fringed by tooth-like white protrusions with trickles of resin-like drool) and have two pairs of devilish deep set red eyes each. Its crustacean-like knotty brown wooden body has four branch-like, spiny front legs (the frontmost of which don't touch the ground and carry a pair of mantis-like woody pincers), four root-like, spiny hind legs and a root-like tail.
Action feature
The Plant-Beast has two powerful raptorial legs on the front, each terminating in a large woody claw-blade curved downward and a cleft appendage curved upward. Aside from catching and holding a foe securely, these arms can alternatively lift the prey using their terminal appendages as hooks.
Accessories
The figure comes with a removable bridle, consisting of an arrangement of spiny and ivy-leaved dark-green tendrils that twine round larger dark-brown woody stems (which develop into a pair of reins), as well as a saddle, which has a button closure on the bottom and is characterised by a dark-green leafy texture with dark-brown woody details (incorporating a pair of stirrups).
Mother-Plant
Articulation
The Dark Legion Mother-Plant's neck is a ball joint with a swivel-hinge at the base of the neck-peg, which gives it a full range of motion, wile her unique hip system accommodates five swivel-hinged legs in fantastic fashion; her shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees and ankles share the same swivel-hinge joint, allowing for excellent motion and play.
Description
The Mother-Plant is basically a larger-scale (roughly 38 cm tall, around 15''), less articulated version of the Plant-Man. Her roughened brown head is a hybrid of the Plant-Man's and Plant-Beast's heads, and carries a complex and bizarrely shaped bloomed flower on the top. The flower resembles that of Rafflesia arnoldii and has a few leafy green fronds surrounding its base, four fleshy maroon petals covered with whitish warts and poisonous spines, as well as a bowl-like central structure from which a number of lime filaments emerge. Additionally, a fifth, enlarged and highly modified petal on the front functions as a specialised lip and is divided into three lobes: the side lobes are erect and form a spur-like tubular projection that seemingly extends from the base of the bowl-shaped central structure, while the middle lobe has wavy lime ridges on the upper surface and a pair of slender whitish appendages that resemble fangs pointing upward.
Her knotty brown wooden body comprises a trunk-like torso, four branch-like arms with spiny shoulders and forearms (the bottom arms have large claw hands, while the topmost arms carry woody pincers) and five root-like radially arranged legs+feet with spiny knees and calves. Even if her leg articulation works pretty well and allows her to get into a standing pose, the Mother-Plant is meant to be displayed in a crouched/sitting pose with her knees bent.
There are leafy/woody/viny embellishments here and there, which recall the Plant-Man's design, such as a torso covering as well as a number of stalks that wrap around the limbs and the lower trunk.
Action feature
In the comics, the small animated vine creatures produced by the Plant-Men are eventually coated by a sticky, viscous resin exuded by the Mother-Plant's flower, transforming them into new, fully developed Plant-Men. At some point, Wordron has the intuition to use this process on his enemies, converting the Mother-Plant into a torture chamber of sorts. After the victim has been bound to the monster's trunk-like torso by her woody claws, and slimed over with the awful ooze of resin from the flower, the gruesome goop quickly solidifies and transforms the captive into a mindless zombie, who bursts from the translucent hardened material and shows total loyalty to Wordron. In the toy, the articulated arms can trap an action figure securely and, after filling the flower with a slime-like fluid (it's necessary to remove a cap hidden in the central bowl structure) and tilting the Mother-Plant's head forward, the slimy resin is dumped from the flower's lip onto the figure's head, slowly coating it completely.
Accessories
The figure comes with a 180 cc (approximately 6 fl. oz.) plastic container made to resemble a cauldron that contains a honey-orange oozy material. I'm not sure we can call this substance Slime, since that was a toy product manufactured by Mattel and introduced in the winter of 1976, but the main components of the material released by PoliganToys are the same polysaccharide guar gum and sodium tetraborate. Though not originally manufactured for the Key Raiders line, I'm happy that it found it's way into the series alongside the Mother-Plant prototype.
Additionally, the figure includes a base, onto which an unfortunate figure can be posed. This stand is fully sculpted and painted in beautiful grey stone detail.
Final thoughts
Character value: ♦♦♦♦ PoliganToys continues to find exciting ways to breathe life into the KR|Dimness series. It's been almost six months, and prototypes are still pouring into my mailbox. This multi-pack, comprised of an action figure, a creature and a large scale figure, is the best possible addition to the Dark Legion's ranks, although it is probably going to be so pricey that it'll be very unlikely to use it as an army builder
Articulation: ♥♥♥ Most of the usual KR articulation for anthropomorphic and animal-like creatures is here, even though it can be a bit restricted by different add-ons
Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ The design of these creatures matches up with their comic book representations nicely, and incorporates an insanely large number of newly tooled pieces. There's a hit of red tints with the eyes and flower pieces, but the rest of these monsters is painted in various shades of brown and green. I can totally live with that, as they're plants after all
Accessories: ♠♠♠♠ All the accessories (including the slimy resin material) are great, but my favourite piece is the snake-like chunk of vine (complete with open mouth) for the Plant-Man; it's a weapon of sorts, since it could bite an opponent, but it's also the monster's offspring... how creepy is that!
Playability: ♪♪♪♪♪ These items truly pop on the shelf and are a ton of fun. The articulation and accessories allowed me to have a really good time posing and... sliming them :)
Overall: ☺☺☺☺ These guys are characterised by a few issues here and there, such as lack of army-building potential and some odd decisions in the articulation and paint application departments, but nothing major or compelling. I love their head sculpts, and their overall design does a great job of using many new parts to create a unique look. This set would definitely be a solid release for the KR|Dimness line.
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