KR|Dimness Review #17: Terebror

Toy prototype details

Name: Terebror^TM

Subtitle: baleful destroyer

Line: KR|Dimness

Item type: action figure - Nº 13 in the line.

Character details

Name: Terebror

Classification: mutant human

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Era: 5 years before Foundation

Affiliation: Dark Legion

Rank: lieutenant commander.

Background

First appearance: KR|Dimness #3 - Into dimness: Part II – Escape

Brief bio: during the Reptonoid domination of O-Kin^TM, the kingdom's population suffered the mutating effects of the chemical weapons deployed by Bi-Harr for psychological manipulation. A small percentage of the inhabitants who emerged were born with defects, and while some were fitted with electromechanical prostheses, some others were ostracised and banished from O-Kin. Those outcasts were eventually welcomed by the mysterious chief monk Mohrdax^TM into the shelter of his monastery near the Ucamur^TM region. When Wordron befriended Mohrdax, many cloisterers, including an armless and disfigured man named Terebror, sided with the Dark Legion in their conflict with the Forseha tribe. Terebror's desire to become a skillful warrior allowed Wordron to lure him into his laboratory with promises of fame and glory, but instead he was transformed into an insane cybernetically-enhanced minion. Half-man half-machine, Terebror relentlessly fought his enemies by shooting vicious chisel-like projectiles with his robotic arms.

Articulation
Standard, except that the "wrists" are ball jointed.

Description

Head: he wears a tech biter mask (which features two upwards curved rostra on the chin, as well as some rivets, grooves and tubes, making him look like a weird mash-up of Hannibal Lecter and Bane from The Dark Knight Rises) and a side-crested helmet topped with a spike (similarly to a Pickelhaube) that resembles a fairly large conical drill bit; both items are painted in metallic light-blue with shiny purple details. While not much of his face is exposed here (only his dark-brown eyes surrounded by taupe skin are visible), his furrowed brow suggests a fierce expression. The top part of the helmet can be removed, exposing Terebror's bald and disturbingly scarred scalp, while the biter mask extends over the ears with a kind of headphone-like device (to which the two side crests are actually attached) and buckles at the nape

Body: the only exposed parts of his body are the shoulders, which are the remnants of his human arms and show taupe skin, although they are mostly concealed under two purple shoulder pads that are embellished with metallic light-blue bolts and attached via a rubber “hinge” to the armour. His torso seems to be wearing a sleeveless black shirt, while his legs are covered with sturdy light-blue trousers (is he wearing blue jeans?) that bear black leather knee pads and two large side pockets, from which two sculpted chisel-looking metallic light-blue implements peek out

Wearables: a purple bulletproof vest with metallic light-blue details, two purple leather combat boots that buckle up at the sides and a purple leather belt with a four-bladed gunmetal shuriken as a buckle. A gunmetal compressor-backpack is placed on his back, and is attached to two criss-crossed purple armoured straps that run around his shoulders and chest over the vest.

Terebror's stylised helmet with side crests.

Terebror's stylised harness over bulletproof vest.

Action feature

Terebror displays his iconic huge robotic arms that he is most dreaded for in the comics. These are essentially replacements for his human arms, and sport functioning pistons and connected wiring/tubing above the "elbows". The design of these cybernetic limbs just generally gives them a martial, weapon-ish look and makes them reminiscent of other crazy concepts such as Power Arm Terminator and Dutch Schaefer from the Alien vs Predator arcade game. Instead of traditional hands, Terebror fictionally carries several tools that release, and often shoot, from his mechanical forearms (which bear blade-like shiny purple spikes sticking out the sides), and that he uses to demolish enemy structures and generate earth tremors. The jackhammer-like gunmetal arms are connected via two black pliable tubes to the two ends of a cylinder placed horizontally at the bottom of his backpack; the backpack, in turn, is connected to a slot of the biter mask on Terebror's nape with the aid of an additional black tube departing from its top.

The figure comes with a nice set of metallic-light blue add-ons that plug into his wrist-chucks: two pairs of large chisel-bits and a pair of piledriver pistons. The bits include a pair of flat blades and a pair of pointy, cross-shaped tips, while the piston-like parts (which feature a sort of release mechanism, as you can slide the shafts out) transform his arms into powerful piledrivers that, when pounded against the ground, can cause violent earthquakes.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from his tools/projectiles, Terebror comes with two pairs of metallic light-blue robotic hands and a pair of translucent orange firing effects. The cyber hands plug into the same chuck-like sockets used for the tools, and each open hand can swap out with a closed-fisted one.

Additionally, each mechanical arm can be equipped with a flamethrower effect that attaches to another slot just below the chuck.
Finally, to deal with a slightly inconsistent design in the comic book, there's an alternate unhelmeted head, which is identical to the standard one except for a black leather strap that runs centrally over the head from the biter mask to the nape.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦ After some really cool, imaginative designs through the first half of 2019, this one still shines as a solid figure and will fit in nicely with the rest of the KR|Dimness lineup

Articulation: ♥♥ The overall articulation is as outstanding as ever, but the torso and waist are a little restricted by the armour+backpack this time around. It's not terrible, but considering how good this base body is, that's a bit disappointing

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ As I said, there are a couple of different themes going on here - a bit of Bane or Hannibal with the mouth mask and a bit of Terminator vs Predator (how cool would that be!) with the arms. The detailing on both the head sculpt and the arms looks terrific; the paint work is solid, but metallic paints are always tough ones to work with. There are a few slops here and there, and some of the edges are off by a bit. Update: PoliganToys informed me that some details such as the face mask and the bolts on the shoulder guards will probably be repainted in gunmetal colour if and when the figure is released

Accessories: ♠♠♠ The sculpts are solid here too, although the paintjob on the piston pieces is pretty skimpy

Playability: ♪♪♪♪ This is a very fun action figure. Actually, with the general bionic man-like theme, one might not even realise he is a bad guy, and could have him playing either side of the field

Overall: ☺☺☺ Despite a few nitpicks, Terebror is a pretty sharp figure. The limbs sculpt is incredible, the head looks great, and it’s nice to have a cyber-themed action figure in this barbarian-filled series.