Toy prototype details
Name: ViluptraTM
Subtitle: woods goddess
Line: KR|Dimness
Item type: action figure - Nº 12 in the line.
Character details
Name: Viluptra
Classification: spirit
Sex: female
Home: Tahron
Era: 5 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Forseha (indirectly)
Rank: mother goddess.
Background
First appearance: KR|Dimness #2 - Masq-Lor's quest
Brief bio: Viluptra belonged to an elder race of elemental creatures, who once shared Tahron with many other supernatural entities. Her bizarre character was often mistook for naivety, but in reality she mastered the greatest magical secrets of the forests, despite some flaws in her sorcery wielding abilities. When the reptilian forces invaded many territories inhabited by mammalian societies, Viluptra only wanted to see the people of Tahron free from Bi-Harr's evil tyranny. After an ancient violent conflict, most of those mystical creatures were annihilated, but Viluptra managed to rise to a spiritual form and settled in the jungles near the UcamurTM region. The founders of the Forseha tribe regarded her as their mother goddess and through her worship they welcomed numerous refugees into the shelter of their terramare settlement. The Forseha people viewed Viluptra as a spiritual guide who could advise them in matters of inter-tribal relationships and, more importantly, as an ally during the struggle against Wordron.
Articulation
Standard, excluding hinged abdomen.
Description
Head: grayish skin with a pinkish tinge, vivid red lips, prominent chin. She wears a pair of flower-shaped gold earrings and a domed red-orange cap resembling the fungal growth of an Amanita muscaria (which is covered with numerous yellowish-white warts and presents a few cracks along the edge); her gill-like grayish hair (with a blueish tinge) is visible on the underside. Two yellow stamens seemingly protruding from the top of her flower-like suit end with a pair of anthers that form a sort of eyewear, through which her eyes display glowing sclerae/irises, large black pupils, and long black eyelashes that extend beyond the yellow-rimmed spectacles. I would have liked a pair of either solid black or GITD eyes better, but I think this is a good compromise between the two comic book looks
Body: striated grayish skin with a pinkish tinge. She has a number of mossy green vines that wrap around the upper arms and legs, and wears many rings on her fingers
Wearables: a dual-layer, high neck flower-like body suit, two veined orange bracers ornamented with flower-shaped cuffs and several narrow golden bracelets (from which an equal number of long liana stems hang), two veined orange sandal-boots adorned with flower-shaped tops and sharp extended thongs curled upwards, a veined orange waistband, a long skirt made of many liana stems hanging from an additional golden belt (equipped with a large buckle bearing the Forseha emblem, i.e., a seven-petalled flower that vaguely recalls a Plumeria) and a short, wide cape made of feathery green fern fronds. The Plumeria-shaped body suit is composed of an orange upper layer that resembles the flower's corolla (with a small butterfly-shaped yellow marking in the centre of each veined petal) and a golden lower layer that looks like the calyx; the latter appears golden thanks to leaf-like green, creamy yellow-striped sepals that are edged in maroon (this combination of colours is also used on the liana stems hanging from her forearms and hips).
Action feature
In the comics, Viluptra possesses a number of powers, including levitation as well as the ability to control and grow plants and flowers. The figure doesn't offer any of those qualities (although a flight stand or some vine-based pieces would have been welcome additions), but has a nice display feature - her fungal headgear is removable and an additional bushy grayish (with a blueish tinge) hairpiece can attach to her head. The real Viluptra has a mushroom on her head, while Masq-Lor's mental picture of her, as seen in the comic issue Masq-Lor's quest, doesn't; so, this is PoliganToys' way of giving us the option for either style. I think it looks great, I wouldn't have missed it if this wasn't included, but I appreciate the effort.
Weapons and accessories
Apart from her alternate hairpiece, Viluptra comes with two accessories: a mushroom sceptre and her funny fruity companion Jabak. The sceptre resembles a golden oyster mushroom cap with a long whitish stipe/shaft that is twined in ivy-leaved, flowery tendrils.
Additionally, her apricot-like, red-orange sidekick has a pair of large cartoonish eyes, a couple of green leaves on top of its head and a pair of feet with green grassy shoes, but lacks a mouth, nose and arms. There is really not a whole lot to articulate on a walking fruit, but he was afforded the essential two points of articulation - a swivel-hinge on each hip. This inclusion is kind of curious, however, because I'd have expected to get Jabak's enhanced jack o'lantern-like version with this figure. See, this figure represents Viluptra's true look, but in the comics she also appears briefly disguised as an elderly lady, who is characterised by a short, stocky body and wears large thick-lensed glasses through which her eyes look magnified as well as a hip-length, long-sleeved maroon jacket
Final thoughts
Character value: ♦♦♦♦ It’d be easy to just write Viluptra off as the Elykta of KR|Dimness, there are a lot of similarities in terms of supernatural abilities. I’m glad she got into the line and that PoliganToys did such a great job on her figure
Articulation: ♥♥♥ The lianas that dangle from her forearms have the potential to be the most discussed part of the entire figure. The concern over these obviously comes with how much they are going to impede posing options, and while they do so to some extent, it is definitely not nearly as much as I thought
Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣♣ Viluptra is one of the best designed and painted character that I’ve seen so far in this series and I cannot express how awesome she turned out
Accessories: ♠♠♠♠ She was given a few greatly sculpted accessories that are executed well to the end. The paint is crisp and the colours look fantastic on all of them
Playability: ♪♪♪ Although articulation works great, I would like to get a stand for some nice levitation poses. However, the figure is fun to pose and play with
Overall: ☺☺☺☺ I know Viluptra isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think we'll all have to appreciate the work PoliganToys did here when (and if) the figure is released.
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