KR|Horizon Review #2: Nemhetra

Toy prototype details

Name: Nemhetra^TM

Subtitle: captivating leader

Line: KR|Horizon

Item type: action figure (dual figure) - Nº 2 in the line.

Character details

Name: Nemhetra, aka Iron-Face

Family name: Amhalgaard^TM

Classification: uncertain, seemingly human

Sex: female

Relationships: daughter of Demo-Rha and Ir-Ash, cousin of Desion (Masq-Lor), Herrion, Rhadiel (Fai-Rha) and Mor-Rak, half-sister of Sei-Lha

Home: Tahron

Era: 15 years after Foundation

Affiliation: Destructomorph

Rank: chief marshal.

Background

First appearance: KR|Horizon #1 - The Destructomorph legacy

Brief bio: when Ir-Ash was magically mutated into Deptilion, the dark power of the spell affected the child that Demo-Rha was obliviously carrying, suspending the gestation in a timeless status. Years later, following Deptilion's demise after his final battle with Masq-Lor, the charm ended and Demo-Rha soon gave birth to a girl, whom she named Nemhetra and transported to safety to her sister Modi-Rha shortly before dying. With the help of his embittered son, Modi-Rha instructed a triad of dark sorcerers to secretly raise the infant, in order to make her into the enemy of the Therioms, who had exiled them a few decades earlier. For years, Nemhetra grew up under the sorcerers' tutelage in the shadow of a monastery near the Ucamur^TM region, and, despite her young age, she became a highly trained combatant. A creature of great intelligence, she was indoctrinated with tales of her parents and the power they had represented, making her develop, besides a coldblooded ambition and extreme cruelty, the desire to continue their legacy one day. After a supernatural process of transformation to an adult form, Nemhetra plotted, together with her spiritual advisers, to re-establish the Destructomorph army, defeat the Therioms and unlock the multiversal walls' portals. During a mission into the depths of Dekropolis, her parents' former stronghold, she learnt of the existence of the prodigious helmet that had been disassembled by her cousin Barkos, and succeeded in retrieving it. Owing to her complex biological and mystical heritage, Nemhetra could immediately control the full might of the helmet, which made her gain the moniker "Iron-Face" and act as a major adversary for anyone who would challenge her. Among the Therioms, only the three siblings' robatars could match her in a fight and, after their final battle, she was definitively defeated. Impressed by her determination and considering their blood relationship, Masq-Lor earned Nemhetra's trust by showing forgiveness and decided to enlist her in the Theriom army. She was quickly chosen as the fourth protector of the Key and was tasked with wielding her father's halberd. This arrangement at first resulted in a clash within the Therioms, but eventually, despite the wickedness her guardians had fed to Nemhetra, everyone came to recognise a good heart in her. By siding with the Therioms, she could finally make amends for her evil.

Articulation

Both figures have the standard articulation, excluding hinged abdomen.

In the comics, Nemhetra wears a magic helmet that in certain situations gives her incredible abilities and changes her look. Despite the two figures represent the same character, they render the two alternative forms and appear very different. Although it's not clear whether these figures will be released individually or in a 2-pack, I'm going to describe them separately.

Normal form: Chief Marshal Nemhetra

Description

Head: fair light-grey skin, long, thick red hair (with two loosely plaited locks worn at the back), green eyes. Her face is quite heavily coated with cosmetics (i.e., eye shadow and dark-red lipstick) and she wears a pair of yellowish teeth as earrings

Body: fair light-grey skin, long fingernails painted with red varnish. She wears several pieces of jewellery such as a Destructomorph emblem (i.e., a square-shaped blueish spider whose back slightly resembles a demoniac face) hanging from a black string worn round her neck, a snake-shaped silver armband adorned with a small skull on her left arm and a ring set with a greenish gemstone on her right hand

Wearables: a short sleeveless fit and flare dress, two silver chain mail fingerless gauntlets (which only have a loop for the middle finger), two silver boots with open diamond cuts on the shafts and vamps (revealing a pair of silver chain mail socks underneath), a belt made of several shiny silver discs laced together (with three small ornamented silver tassets attached) and a jagged, bat-shaped shawl/cape fastened to her arm bracers (which fortunately can be un-pegged). The belt separates the fitted silver chain mail bodice (whose armholes, two vertical "ribs" and lace-up U-neckline are trimmed with whitish bony ornaments) above the waist from the knee-length flouncy jagged off-white skirt (with a double slit) below, allowing for the waist swivel. The cloth cape is a thing of beauty, with its black and silver deco and camo design looking really great, and is wired to easily create a flowing effect.

Action feature

Although the normal form of Nemhetra doesn't have any action feature, we still get a removable piece of armour designed to protect her right shoulder and to enhance her outfit. This consists of a single mean-looking large dome-shaped pauldron that covers the shoulder and includes additional multiple plates and lames riveted to it, to defend the upper arm as well as parts of the back and chest. Its off-white (i.e., a white colour with a grey tinge that resembles tarnished silver) metal parts are engraved with a scale pattern and have shiny silver borders. The chest guard, which is embossed with a Destructomorph symbol, has a long, wide black leather strap that fastens to the back plate and buckles at the left flank.

Weapons and accessories

Aside from the additional armour, the figure includes several weapons. First up is a halberd, which is one of the four components of the Key (the one whose sawtooth blade is curved inward) and the same halberd that belongs to Deptilion in the Foundation series, except from being painted with some metallic-blue details here and there rather than plain silver.

The second weapon is a new version of Demo-Rha's sceptre, which is composed of a short whitish bony staff topped with a modified version of the Destructomorph symbol, i.e., a square-shaped black spider, whose back resembles a human skull with two silver shiny nuggets embedded in the eye sockets.

The third and final weapon is a clip-on metal sheath with a stiletto, which snaps on to either boot and is identical to the dagger accessory that came with Foundation Demo-Rha.

Furthermore, there is an additional hair piece wearing a four-horned whitish bony tiara, which is only shown briefly in the comics and is very reminiscent of her mother's headgear in the Foundation series, although the two outer projections are more similar to sorts of bat-shaped ears rather than horns. To display Nemhetra with this alternative hairstyle, it's necessary to remove the double-plaited-lock back piece of the hair that’s plugged in, add the ring-shaped extra bit, which gives the hair a little more height and includes the bony tiara, and replug the back piece.

Enhanced form: Iron-Face

Description

Head: similarly to other characters in the KR universe, Nemhetra wears one of the silver magic helmets, which in certain circumstances produces a silvery mask and gives her incredible physical and mental powers, changing her appearance significantly. The figure comes with an helmeted head, characterised by the metal mask activated and a pair of red glowing eyes. The mask is fictionally formed of two smooth halves that slide horizontally and then "deflate", to create devilish facial features, which are similar to those of her mother Demo-Rha. The helmet allows for her long unbound hair to come through the back and, in addition to the standard side crests, has a slit-like opening on the top that allows a badass red mohawk to come through

Body: fair light-grey skin, exposed abdomen, right upper arm and part of the thighs. Her hands are equipped with silver fingernail guards

Wearables: a sports bra-like silver armour with off-white tarnished details (including a pair of bra cups adorned with a cracked design), a silver rerebrace on the left arm, two fingerless gauntlets (ornamented with snake motifs on the sleeves and with spiked wrist guards), two thigh-high lobster claw-shaped boots (embellished with snake motifs on the shafts, open diamond cuts on the vamps, spiked calf protectors, toothed toe-caps, skull-shaped knee guards and turndown silver chain mail sock tops), a wide silver belt with a cross-shaped buckle (set with a greenish gemstone) that holds a number of off-white leather lappets, and a pair of white shorts. The armour is equipped with several serrated spikes, a metallic-blue Destructomorph symbol right below the chest, and a shoulder guard composed of two skull-shaped, spiked spaulders and a collar. It doesn't look like the most functional outfit for going to battle, but in the comics it is explained that, during her transformation, Nemhetra grows a kind of metallic underskin.

Nemhetra's stylised helmet with side crests.

Action feature

In the comics, Nemhetra's enhanced form is equipped with Swiss army knife-like bracers, which incorporate liquid metal retractable appendages. These appendages can morph into solid metal bladed weapons or tools, which she can even shoot against her opponents or combine to form more complex weapons. The figure comes with many different silver attachments (including a sword, a spear, an axe, a mace, a lash and a sort of bow and arrow) and the feature is that you can detach the spiked piece on the side of either forearm, attach a weapon and reattach the piece, so it looks like the wrist guard had opened up and the weapon came out.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from her many weapon attachments, the enhanced form of Nemhetra comes with two alternate heads: one displays her normal face and wears the inactive helmet without the visible mohawk, while the other is a mid-transformation head with the face covered by the two sliding halves of the metal mask, which shows no facial feature except for two subtly devilish sculpted eyes and a groove that splits the mask in two down the middle. This heads work as the necessary bridge between the unhelmeted and the helmeted-with-metal-face heads.

Finally, the figure includes a surprising weapon, which is an extended version of the sceptre that comes with the normal form. Here, the sceptre becomes a whip with a length of silver cord fastened to a bronze handle on one end and to a flaming Destructomorph symbol on the other end. I'm not sure about the exact meaning of this weapon (it's probably supposed to be an enhanced version of her wand, which is never shown in the comics), but it's still a welcome addition.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦♦ Nemhetra, the latest ruthless leader of the Destructomorphs, is the new biggest enemy of the Therioms!

Articulation: ♥♥♥♥ She has the usual female KR articulation. Her normal form's shawl, while being beautiful and comic book-accurate, is fortunately detachable, otherwise it'd limit her articulation in horrible ways

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ Both figures look great. Her normal form's hair from the front looks pretty good, but from the back it looks impressive, while her enhanced form's face sculpt is absolutely beautiful. The paintjob is remarkable too and I don’t have any issues with my prototypes other than a stray spot of paint or two

Accessories: ♠♠♠♠♠ The many weapons for the enhanced form are easy to swap in and out. Hopefully one day we'll also get her robatar and super-robatar forms. However, if you want to rely on Nemhetra to take her opponents out without those further enhancements, she can have that demonic look...

Playability: ♪♪♪♪ Really, I'm so happy her normal form's outfit is not restricting, she wouldn't just be a lot of fun to play with. In the end, it’s just nice to have a chick on hand to fight the Therioms

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ I would say this dual figure is a home run! There is a lot to love about this set - both of Nemhetra's forms are excellent figures with superior detailing and sculpting. Good things are coming from PoliganToys and the KR|Horizon line, and I can’t wait for more figures like these.

KR|Horizon Review #1: Masq-Lor (Horizon Edition)

Happy 2020!! As usual, we start the new year with a brand new line in the world of Key Raiders!

The upcoming reviews will be about recently developed prototypes that belong to the latest Key Raiders wave. Unlike Origin, Enmity and Dimness, this is a sequel (and not a prequel) series, which will be titled Key Raiders: Horizon (stylised as KR|Horizon) and will concern a universe characterised by a futuristic vibe, recounting events happening 15 years after the adventures of the KR|Foundation series:

à				Timeline (intervals in years)			à
		500		15		5		15
	Origin		Enmity		Dimness		Foundation		Horizon

So, let's start with the first prototype review of this new series!

Toy prototype details

Name: Masq-Lor^TM (Horizon Edition)

Subtitle: powerful ruler

Line: KR|Horizon

Item type: action figure - Nº 1 in the line.

Character details

Name: Masq-Lor

Real name: Desion Amhalgaard^TM

Classification: human-primivod* hybrid (but he looks completely human)

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Era: 15 years after Foundation

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: Senior Minister of the Republic of Tahron; commander-in-chief of the Theriom Armed Forces.

*Primivods^TM are fictional anthropomorphic marsupials that can interbreed with some other species of mammals and produce fertile offspring.

Background

First appearance: KR|Horizon #1 - The Destructomorph legacy

Brief bio: several years after triumphing over Deptilion and mourning the passing of Tir-Hing, Desion took his rightful place as his father's successor and was elected Senior Minister of the Republic. While ruling over all Tahron with his keen mental discernment and good judgement, he married Sei-Lha and together they trained their son Sajron^TM in the fighting and magical arts, so he could take over the chosen warriors' legacy as a new protector of the Key. But the threat of the Therioms' old enemy, the Destructomorphs, once more called Masq-Lor and his siblings to one final conflict. By wielding their halberds and recovering an ancient power hidden in their prodigious helmets, the three courageous warriors could at last return to their mission in a glorious new form. Through an arduous struggle across Tahron, the Therioms aimed at defeating the evil Nemhetra^TM and her army of dreadful creatures in an epic combat once and for all.

Articulation

Standard.

Description

In the Horizon comics, it is revealed that each prodigious helmet holds a sample of liquid alloy, which was hidden by Galamars after forging the enchanted artefacts. When the liquid metal is combined with a tiny amount of the helmet wearer's blood, a small cyan ball lightning arises and creates a statue (called totem and made of the same material as the helmets and halberds) of an animal, behind which there is a sort of chair. When the helmet wearer introduces their halberd into a slot on the side of the totem, and sits in the chair with their hands and feet positioned on apposite rests, a connector automatically inserts into the helmet's socket, i.e., the hollow left after extracting the liquid alloy vial. The wearer appears to lose consciousness, when in fact their consciousness is relayed into a robotic avatar (called robatar) that forms from the totem moments later. Masq-Lor's totem is a sitting sabre-toothed cat and his robatar, which is the figure included in this pack, can be described as follows:

Head: very similar to the White Ranger's helmet, characterised by a silver outer shell with a pair of cat ears and a sabre-toothed mouth guard, a golden-yellow face shield with tiger-like black stripes, and a glossy black visor surrounded by a cyan glowing edge that is connected to two fierce feline eyes on the forehead

Body: protected by a vac-metal gold cuirass with bronze details, vac-metal gold gauntlets, boots (with knee guards) and belt, and a bronze crotch shell. Besides these basic components, there are various golden-yellow pieces of armour with tiger-like black stripes to protect the rest of the body, such as shoulder guards, rerebraces and thigh guards. There is an impressive amount of intricate decorative features all around the numerous components of this protective covering; I especially like the small Theriom emblems embossed on the wrist and knee guards, and the little gaps here and there that reveal steel tech-mech details beneath the armour.

Both the helmet and the cuirass display a few decorative details that recall Foundation Masq-Lor's outfit, including a vac-metal gold top crest and a Theriom emblem (i.e., a seven-pointed star with the two side points elongated) on the breastplate (see the images below - although they are not related to Masq-Lor's robatar, they still bear many similarities with it).

Action feature

To simulate the retractile laser-like claws seen in the comics, a pair of long cyan glowing blades (kind of reminiscent of ULTRAMAN's specium blades) can snap into each forearm armour. Additionally, two articulated flaps at the back of the armour on the calves can reveal a pair of leg boosters with cyan glowing propulsion effects.

Weapons and accessories

Masq-Lor's robatar comes with a set of accessories that are meant to update Apprentice Minister Masq-Lor for representing an older Desion in the role of Senior Minister. The set includes three heads, a cuirass with an attached cape and two weapons. The first head is characterised by light brown skin, thick black hair and beard with a touch of grey, green eyes and a very visible scar running down the left side of his face (I am sure he probably got it in the final battle with Deptilion); he wears a golden diadem bearing the Theriom emblem and a small, discoloured light-blue gemstone in its centre, which used to belong to his father Tir-Hing. The other two portraits are identical, except that they wear the silver magic helmet, one in its inactive form and one that displays the sabre-toothed visor activated.

The armour is painted in shiny gold with light-blue details (including a small triangular gemstone at the centre of the chest emblem) and incorporates a blue cape whose collar/hood and bottom are lined with white fur that is brownly marked with blotches and stripes.

The weapons include a halberd, which is one of the four components of the Key (the one whose blade has four tips) and the same halberd that belongs to Tir-Hing in the Foundation series, except from being painted with some golden details here and there rather than plain silver. The other weapon is Masq-Lor's signature sword with silver blade and brown wooden hilt, but in a very worn condition, i.e., tarnished, dinged up, chipped and gouged; even part of the hilt seems to have been broken and given a light-blue metallic replacement.

Finally, the figure comes with two further surprising accessories, a cyber-steed and an extra cyber-head that serve as the first instalment of a new Build-a-Figure concept in the KR|Horizon series. Basically, some of the action figures in the line will come with a number of components needed to build an even larger figure, specifically a heroic super-robatar that is shown at the end of the KR|Horizon comic book series. The included creature is a robotic version of Ki-Wun, which in the comics also forms from the totem together with the robatar. This figure features joints all over the place: hinged jaw (revealing a slot inside the mouth, to which an included cyan-coloured energy blast effect can be attached), ball jointed upper neck, hinged lower neck, swivel-hinged shoulders, hips, elbows, paws and tail, hinged knees and hocks, and a final ball jointed abdomen. It is, of course, an all-new sculpt and, I have to say, the guys at PoliganToys have done an exemplary work here. It closely resembles Masq-Lor's original steed and has a detailed gold&bronze body, a single straight horn projecting from its forehead, a translucent red mane and tail tuft, and a pair of shoulder-mounted pivoting cannons with two separate missiles (which can be replaced with two included light-red laser beam effects). The extra head (which is supposed to form from the robatar's body when Masq-Lor's sabre-toothed visor is activated, and to become the head of the super-robatar) looks like a large scale, Voltron-like robot sabrecat head. Once I get all the necessary parts, I'll go into detail about this super-robatar formation.

Senior Minister Masq-Lor's stylised helmet with top crest.

Senior Minister Masq-Lor's stylised armour; the oval at the centre of the chest plate represents the Theriom symbol.

Comic

Together with the action figure we get the first comic issue The Destructomorph legacy. Thirty-five years ago, a warlord called Wordron tried to conquer Tahron using King Khon-Uhr's lost helmet as a weapon. He failed and the helmet was eventually split into three parts, which were scattered all across Tahron. Nemhetra, Demo-Rha's and Deptilion's daughter, now tries to assemble it again. She enters Dekropolis, tricks a creature who is guarding it to show her all the secrets and then imprisons him. Using a mystical device, the whole background about the helmet is revealed to her and she carries this information to her spiritual advisers, who each send a soldier to retrieve one part of the helmet. Elykta, the new Deity, alerts Masq-Lor, now Senior Minister of the Republic, to the danger. It turns out Nemhetra's campaign has already begun: several villages, where the helmet parts are enshrined, have been attacked and the Therioms hurry to battle, struggling fiercely with the new enemy. Meanwhile, Masq-Lor, Fai-Rha and Herrion travel to Dekropolis, where a mysterious source of negative energy seems to be located. Nemhetra summons the corpses of creatures brought back to life by her advisers' magic, and creates a new army of Destructomorph Goblins. The heroes are attacked by these monsters and are finally overpowered. Masq-Lor manages to free himself from the creatures' hold, but a group of Goblins eventually capture Fai-Rha and Herrion, and imprison them inside their stronghold. Within the heats of these battles, the evil spiritual advisers all touch their respective parts of the helmet, triggering the spell to combine it again. Using the power of this artifact, Nemhetra can now transform into an enhanced warrior. Masq-Lor returns to Theriom City to consult the Deity. He discovers a new power hidden in his helmet and activates a robot avatar, who, under his mental control, goes back to Dekropolis, allowing his siblings and fellows to break free and fight off the army of Goblins. While the new battle emerges, Masq-Lor's avatar tries to overpower Nemhetra. Everything seems lost for the Destructomorphs when Masq-Lor throws her off the roof of the shipyard's central building, but Nemhetra manages to escape when Dekropolis unexpectedly leaves the ground and becomes airborne. Tahron has been saved for now, but the Therioms must face a new threat.

Overall, this episode has the obvious advantage of being the beginning of an exciting story finale, so a comparison might be unfair. Still, even accounting for the additional thrill, The Destructomorph legacy is a lot better than some of the other comics of the previous series. This epic story is constructed very well, there are lots of well known major characters as well as many imaginative new entries. Definitely a good read!

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦ This version of our hero represents a whole new realm of stories and the future of Key Raiders

Articulation: ♥♥♥♥ In terms of articulation, Horizon Masq-Lor isn’t anything special for a KR figure, being built on the standard articulated body that we’ve seen over and over in this line. The joints on my prototype are tight, with no floppiness or other quality control issues

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ The sculpt is a real shining point here. The paint detail is also absolutely great, and the intricacies on the head and body make for a very tight figure. The vac-metal gold paint really stands out thanks to the sheen and gloss that are much higher than the other colours used on the figure

Accessories: ♠♠♠♠ Believe or not, among all the amazing accessories the battle damaged sword is my favourite. The detail here is just remarkable

Playability: ♪♪♪ My only issue is with the additional armour - the attached cape looks pretty cool, but definitely gets in the way of the recipient figure's poses, and the weight can make it totter a bit on the shelf

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ This first prototype of the Horizon series is solid with nice articulation, fine details, astounding accessories, and great sculpting. Although not my favourite version of Masq-Lor, the figure is really well done and represents the very future of the property.