KR|Horizon Review #10: Tauton (Horizon Edition)

Toy prototype details

Name: Tauton^TM (Horizon Edition)

Subtitle: transformed fighting lieutenant

Line: KR|Horizon

Item type: action figure - Nº 9 in the line.

Character details

Name: Tauton, aka Evil Tauton

Classification: mutated human

Sex: male

Relationships: Herrion's love interest

Home: Tahron

Era: 15 years after Foundation

Affiliation: Destructomorph (temporarily)

Rank: first lieutenant; expert in hand-to-hand combat and weapons master.

Background

First appearance: KR|Horizon #2 - In the eye of the storm

Brief bio: at a young age, Tauton was asked by King Li-Khon to step into his army of brave Theriom soldiers and take up the arms against the reptilian forces. As a result, he fought courageously with Tir-Hing against Bi-Harr's thirst for tyranny, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant. In addition to his great abilities in combat and use of traditional weapons, Tauton was also a skilled engineer and constructed a pair of robotic gauntlets as well as a set of advanced electronic weapons, with which he heroically served Senior Minister Desion on the frontline throughout their battles with the revived Destructomorph army. Exposed to a malignant poison during one of such battles, he was uncannily transformed into a hideous, wicked monster. Still endowed with masterful fighting styles, great speed and skilful stealth, this monstrous assassin was equipped with a powered armour by Nemhetra and was given the mission to eliminate all of the Therioms as they battled for control of Tahron. At last, Tauton was forced to ambush and fight against Tarmann^TM, a young prodigy and expert of several forms of martial arts, who had been taken under his wing and trained rigorously, and who had since replaced him as the infantry's weapons specialist. In their epic duel, Tauton was seemingly wounded mortally by Tarmann's venomous spurs, but in the end, to everybody’s amazement, he recovered his human form thanks to the interaction between his poisoned blood and the valiant soldier's venom. Finally reunited with the heroic Therioms, Tauton was once again called to fight for justice, countering evil with his smashing power.

Articulation

Standard.

Description

Head: similar to a marine iguana, characterised by scaly, bumpy wrinkled blue-greenish skin, hideous deep-set solid yellow eyes, a wide open mouth showing a number of sharp teeth on the inner sides of the jawbones and a protruding tongue. He wears a golden removable helmet with black details, which looks like made of two different half-kabutos that have been joined by a poorly executed weld, and is topped with a jagged blade crest. Its design is highly asymmetrical, with one side hinting at some technological components; the weld running down the center seems very precarious, as if it's on the verge of cracking (and kind of looks like it extends through Tauton's face as a scar)

Body: torso, arms and legs covered with a tight black suit, claw hands and feet (the latter are bare and show scaly blue-greenish skin). The suit looks smooth at a distance, but up close it appears to be sculpted with techy circuitry patterns. A golden band worn around the right thigh carries a sheath with a small silver dagger, which is unfortunately not removable

Wearables: a black armour with gold details (including two horn-shaped ornaments near the collar, which in turn looks like a sort of mouth shield), two black gloves with wrist guards, two black shin guards (both the wrist and shin guards are ornamented with symbols that are vaguely reminiscent of Asian characters), a studded black tasset belt (with a golden central stud in front) and golden shorts. The armour is fitted with black furry armholes and two golden crossed straps, one of which is covered with studs, while the other has a cyan, glow-in-the-dark band that connects a Destructomorph symbol (i.e., a square-shaped spider, also cyan and GITD, whose back slightly resembles a demoniac face) at the centre of the chest to the left shoulder; the left arm is equipped with a 2-piece golden removable armour, consisting of a lamellar rerebrace attached to an oversized studded shoulder guard, and a spiked bracer with a hand guard extension.

Tauton's stylised helmet.

Tauton's stylised armour; the circle at the centre of the chest piece represents the Destructomorph symbol.

Weapons and accessories

Although in the comics Tauton is depicted as a skilled hand-to-hand fighter even in his mutated form, his figure has no action feature apart from the GITD details on the armour. However, it does come with some very interesting accessories. First up, what really takes his combat skills to the next level is a pair of kusarigama (or chain sickles), each consisting of a kama on a length of real metal chain with a grip (which doubles as a weight for flailing and striking) at the end. Both weapons are painted in black (shafts and grips) and golden colour (blades and chains). The two kusarigama can be stored on the back armour thanks to the presence of four clips (two for the shafts of the kamas and two for the grips), or can be combined into a single badass chain weapon by connecting the two grips.

Additionally, the figure includes a few pieces that are meant to update Foundation Tauton, for representing his older version in the ranks of the Theriom army. The set includes a head, a pair of battle gauntlets and two blast effects. The head is characterised by Asian features, olive brown skin, black hair (with a receding hairline and a classic man bun), hazel eyes, a long narrow moustache whose ends taper and droop down to the chin, and a small pointed chin puff. The two disproportionately large golden snap-on techno-gauntlets can replace the standard hands of the Foundation figure and, like their original counterparts, work both as armoured gloves and sleeve armours. While the gauntlets are characterised by different poses (fist for the left one and chopping hand for the right one), both have been provided with countless details, such as an ornamental grid on each arm guard that reveals parts of the mechanical interior underneath. Each plating on the back of the hand is designed to resemble the head of a wild beast with glossy red (for the left gauntlet) or metallic blue (for the right gauntlet) eyes and a little nose-barrel that shoots blasts of heating (left) or freezing (right) energy, making it easier for Tauton to smash solid objects afterwards. The blast effects, one translucent red and one translucent blue, are awesome and each can plug into a hole on the respective gauntlet.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦ I think Tauton is an awesome character and he was translated so amazingly to his Horizon evil version - he just exudes badassery! However, I understand that some might not feel so strongly about this figure, due to him not being a character they got as invested in as others. Nonetheless, I do think he deserved his representation in the line

Articulation: ♥♥♥ He is articulated just the same as any KR figure. He has no extra articulation, nor does he have any flaws

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣♣ Tauton turned out to be a pretty big success in both the sculpt and paint departments. He’s excellently done, crisp and clean!

Accessories: ♠♠♠ Although he comes with more accessories than the average KR figure, I wish he had been given more pieces to create a more accurate Horizon heroic version of the character

Playability: ♪♪♪♪ No matter what version of Tauton you have on your shelf and what add-ons you give him - evil with weapons or heroic with updates, you know this is one figure that is going to rock it, no matter what options you use

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ I anticipated Tauton to be one of my favourite figures of the KR|Horizon series based on the production photos I was shown. In hand, he’s a pretty solid toy and I think most collectors would be happy with him. Yet, while this figure is damn cool and makes another great addition to Nemhetra's army, the lack of a Horizon-accurate good-guy version of this character will probably cause some controversy.

KR Review #83: Queen Holopodian (SDCC 2020 Exclusive)

In a tweet directed at potential attendees, the organisers of San Diego Comic-Con gave the impression that this year’s convention (scheduled for July 23 – 26, 2020) could still happen. This despite warnings that the Covid-19 pandemic could last well into summer. Update: soon after I had drafted this post, the organisers behind the annual pop culture celebration, announced with deep regret that there will be no Comic-Con in 2020.

If that “show must go on” approach is serious, PoliganToys' SDCC 2020 exclusive release will be the Queen Holopodian^TM!

Now, this large scale figure, officially the sixth in the KR|Foundation series, really makes for a visually stunning addition to the line.

Details

Name: Queen Holopodian

Subtitle: thorny protector

Classification: holopodian*

Relationships: creature venerated by the inhabitants of the island city-state of Semhadar^TM; holopodian mutants' biological mother

Sex: female

Home: the depths of the sea between Tahron and the island of Semhadar

Affiliation: Theriom (temporarily)

Rank: ally.

*Holopodians are fictional large-sized echinoderms with some characteristics that are shared with crustaceans.

Articulation

The Queen Holopodian's articulation includes a ball jointed upper neck, a hinged lower neck, a swivel-hinged tail (the end of the tail is made of bendy rubber with a sturdy wire inside for posing) and 14 swivel-hinged legs (four of which feature two additional swivel-hinged joints at the elbows/knees and at the wrists/ankles, plus double hinged fingers/toes parts).

Description

Holopodians are marine, crawling/swimming creatures, though capable of dwelling on land and standing upright over short distances. When upright, the Queen is bipedal in form and her most prominent feature is her greater size compared to other characters, standing around 23 cm (around 9") in height, one and a half times the height of a normal KR figure and double the height of most other holopodian creatures seen in the comics. However, most of the time she either adopts a more hunched stance or remains vaguely "quadrupedal" when walking or sprinting.

The creature's head at first glance appears to be enclosed within a double, roughly spherical black hinged shell covered with long, thick sharp glossy-black spines and partially open, which seems to lack facial features (apart from a pair of green glowing eyes that peek through the serrated opening), until it unfurls like a flower to reveal a star-shaped, bumpy blueish face. When spread out, her head is larger than those of other individuals of the same species and is protected by a broad, crown-shaped carapace, which is composed of spiny, black bony plates derived from the above-mentioned shell. The five "face arms" radiate from a central disc that has a single round nostril, and are connected by a blueish, seemingly muscular membrane. The two top arms exhibit a pair of menacing pinkish eyes (they change colour to adapt to different light intensities), each surrounded by rough, brownish calcified outgrowths, and bear two flat membranous lobes resembling "bat wing"-shaped ears. Below the eyes on either side of the head are tentacle-like fleshy tubes, which inflate when breathing. The bottom arm is a snout-shaped mouth, which can open extremely wide, revealing a threatening upper jaw and four other side/lower mandibles, which are lined with several large, fang-like sharp whitish teeth in the front, followed by circular rows of many small dreadfully jagged teeth. The monster’s complex, large segmented maw is powerful enough to smash through bone and metal and is filled with a black prehensile tongue that can extend from it. The figure is packaged with the spread out head (with mouth closed) as the standard portrait.

With the exception of her face, which is blueish (although you can see some pink flesh on the back of each arm), and underside, which is covered by a series of overlapping, articulated brownish calcified plates that give protection while also providing flexibility, her skin is pinkish and slimy, and bears a number of projections in the form of porous warts. Her back displays four dorsal ridges that run down its length and bear comb-like bands of seemingly vibrating translucent light-blue hairs (which are probably gills), and is equipped with unconnected black armoured shell fragments, which have the same spiny, bony appearance of the head piece and are the remainder of her egg-form's shell (the "eggs" are actually inactive immature forms of adult individuals). An extra Y-shaped, light-blueish chitinous shell on her chest is present in the form of another armoured carapace, which is fictionally so resilient that it's even capable of repelling sustained gunfire. Similar chitinous outer cases protect the penultimate segments of her elongated limbs, which comprise three pairs of forelimbs (one digitigrade and two insect-like) and four pairs of hind limbs (one digitigrade and three insect-like). The two primary arms are long and thin compared to the body core and have webbed, six-fingered hands with four long skeletal middle fingers and a pair of stubbier opposable thumbs. The two primary legs are stocky and end in five-digit webbed feet, with three toes in front (the middle toe has a much longer claw than the other two) and two in back. In addition to her primary limbs, four secondary, much smaller arms and six secondary legs, each ending in a claw-like finger/toe, extend from the centre of her underbelly and tail, respectively. Each primary limb is equipped with three feathery, tendril-like pinkish prehensile appendages fringed with little filaments and terminating in bony teeth-like talons, which are fictionally sticky and can be used for offensive attacks. Finally, she has a long segmented, blade-tipped prehensile tail; the blade design closely resembles a bifurcated telson and acts as a slashing weapon. The tail also has a flat ridge of spines at the base of the telson, which helps the creature swim efficiently.

Action feature

Aside from having great physical strength, holopodians are equipped with wide, armoured carapaces on their heads, into which they are able to withdraw their face and mouth as a means of protection. This structure is also thought to serve as a sort of sensory antenna, allowing the creatures to detect thermal, bioelectric and biochemical signals with great sensitivity. The Queen figure comes with three interchangeable heads: furled, spread out with a closed mouth and spread out with a gaping mouth.

Additionally, these creatures have a fluid maintained under pressure in a water vascular system between a double layer of tissue: an internal layer of bony plates and an external layer of skin. This system is connected to their facial tubes, through which powerful jets of water are expelled from the vascular interspace by alternately contracting their muscles. So, the Queen comes with two spurting water effects that plug into the ends of her muscular siphons snugly.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the three alternate portraits and the water attachments, the Queen Holopodian only includes two accessories, one of which is another head. However, this head is meant to be used with Kinod in his generic holopodian mutant form. We know that, thanks to a few additional pieces, Kinod can also be displayed as one of his soldiers; these pieces include an alternative head that consists of a spherical bivalve black shell covered with spines and partially open, whose serrated opening allows a pair of evil green glowing eyes to peek through. In the first issue of the KR|Horizon comic book series, we meet Tenophar^TM, the last surviving member of Kinod's army and unauthorised guardian of Dekropolis, who shows that, like the bestial holopodians, he can spread out his head-shell to reveal a star-shaped, bumpy face. This unfurled version of the head looks different from both Kinod's and the Queen's heads. While its back is still protected by a spiny black carapace, the five "arms" are connected by a pinkish, seemingly muscular membrane and radiate from a central disc that has an anthropoid brownish calcified nose. The two blueish top arms exhibit a pair of evil pinkish eyes, which are topped by rough, brownish brow ridges and bear two elongated lobes resembling sensory appendages. Below the eyes on either side of the head are bunches of tendril-like pinkish filaments, which look like the stinging tentacles of a jellyfish. The blueish bottom arm is similar to a protruding chin and carries a humanoid mouth, which is slightly open and reveals several sharp whitish teeth. It's interesting to note that this head was originally depicted as similar to the entirety of a shell-less, green-eyed pink jellyfish, with a number of tentacles surrounding its supposed mouth; this concept design was finally discarded because considered too similar to Cthulhu.

The other accessory is a repaint of Xehrea's trident, which has been retooled slightly in order to be grasped by Tenophar. This weapon is a metallic dark-blue staff that has a trishula-like trident at one end and a swordbreaker blade at the other end, and features a translucent light-blue gem at the base of the central prong.

PoliganToys usually excels in the sculpting category, and the Holopodian Queen is no exception. Every little crevice of bony carapace is rendered beautifully, and as far as I can tell, looks exactly like the comic book version. Some might argue that the Queen, though big, is still too small; I'd say that compared to the standard figure, the scale looks right. The paintjob really brings out the intricate sculpt, displaying an appropriate salmon-pink skin tone with washes of shiny slime and brownish sand all over her. Apart from several heads, there's not many accessories here - you don't get much in quantity, but the quality is there. In the comics, the egg-laying queen possesses a large brood chamber attached to her lower torso; the inclusion of this egg sack would have definitely been great. The figure is only hurt by use of soft rubber pieces in several areas of articulation to allow movement, which may decay over time. Even with these minor problems, it's edging extremely close to a 10/10 rating, and really has the potential to be a crown jewel for any collector of KR figures. This is (hopefully) popping up at SDCC 2020, so be sure to check it out if you're attending.

KR|Horizon Review #9: Herrion (Horizon Edition)

Toy prototype details

Name: Herrion^TM (Horizon Edition)

Subtitle: heroic counsellor

Line: KR|Horizon

Item type: action figure - Nº 8 in the line.

Character details

Name: Herrion
Family name: Amhalgaard^TM

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

Sex: male

Relationships: non-identical twin brother of Desion (Masq-Lor), older brother of Rhadiel (Fai-Rha), cousin of Nemhetra

Home: Tahron

Era: 15 years after Foundation

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: Senior Advisor.

Background

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

Brief bio: during his childhood, Herrion was abducted, together with his twin brother and younger sister, by his uncle Ir-Ash and sent through a mystic vortex created by Demo-Rha into the body of the future Destructomorph leader. Many years later, Masq-Lor succeeded in separating his brother from the defeated Deptilion, to whom Herrion had given much of his vital force unbeknown to everybody. Once rescued from his long-lasting segregation, he received the third prodigious helmet from Elykta, in order to channel the same ancient power that Masq-Lor and Fai-Rha had been using to acquire incredible abilities. After an arduous initial struggle due to a remainder of Deptilion's wickedness left in his inner-self, Herrion swore to defend the free people of Tahron alongside his siblings and ultimately helped vanquish the Destructomorphs. Eventually, while serving in the role of Senior Advisor, the threat of the Therioms' old enemy once more brought Herrion and his siblings to one final conflict with the evil Nemhetra and her army of dreadful creatures. By wielding their halberds and recovering an ancient power hidden in their magical helmets, the three courageous warriors could at last return to their mission in a glorious new form.

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. Herrion's totem is a sitting lynx and his robatar, which is the figure included in this pack, can be described as follows:

Head: similar to the White Ranger's helmet, characterised by a silver outer shell with a pair of cat ears and a sharp-toothed mouth guard, a golden-yellow face shield with cheetah-like blotchy black spots, 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 black details, vac-metal gold gauntlets, boots (with knee guards) and belt, and a black crotch shell. Besides these basic components, there are various golden-yellow pieces of armour with cheetah-like blotchy black spots 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 engraved 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 (with vac-metal gold frontal crests) and the cuirass (with added Theriom emblem, i.e., a seven-pointed star with the two side points elongated) display a few decorative details that recall Foundation Herrion's outfit.

Herrion's robatar's stylised cuirass; the oval on the chest plate represents the Theriom symbol.

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

Herrion's robatar comes with a set of accessories that are meant to update Foundation Herrion, for representing his older version in the role of Senior Advisor. The set includes three heads, a piece of armour with attached shirt and cape, and two weapons. The first head, apart from having features that make him resemble Masq-Lor, is characterised by cream white skin, thick dark-brown hair and goatee with a touch of grey, green eyes and a thin gold headband (I'm glad they took the approach that they did with the minimal-yet-ornate circlet design). The other two portraits are identical, except that they wear the silver magic helmet, one in its inactive form and one that displays the bobcat visor activated.

The armour/harness is painted in shiny gold with black details (including a gold-studded leather strap) and incorporates some permanently attached items such as a burgundy shirt with glossy black buttons, and a burgundy cape with an elaborate golden ornament that works as a loop to store one of his weapons at the back.

The weapons include a halberd, which is one of the four components of the Key (the one with the blade curved outward) and the same halberd that belongs to Bi-Harr in the Foundation series, except from being painted with some reddish-brown copper details here and there rather than plain silver. The other weapon is Herrion's signature battleaxe with a black haft and a broad silver blade; the blade's chipped cutting edge is parallel to the handle and its tarnished appearance has been rendered using black speckle added to the silver colour.

Finally, the figure comes with some great additional accessories: a cyber-flying steed, an extra cyber-head and two pairs of interchangeable hands that serve as the second instalment of the Build-a-Figure plan in the KR|Horizon series. As explained previously, 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 Zor-Kan, which in the comics also forms from the totem together with the robatar. This figure features joints all over the place: hinged beak, ball jointed upper neck, hinged lower neck, ball-hinged wings and hips, hinged knee, ankle and tail, and swivel-hinged talons. It is, of course, an all-new sculpt that resembles a mix between the Therioms' four-winged fighting bird and Jeeg's Big Shooter, and has a detailed metallic-red&silver body, a crest projecting from its head, translucent orange feathers/anti-shock bodies embellishing the two pairs of wings and the tail, and two overwing nacelles that encase a pair of podded jet engines on the back and a pair of cannons with two separate missiles on the front. The extra head (which is supposed to form from the robatar's body when Herrion's bobcat visor is activated, and to become the left wrist of the super-robatar) looks like a large scale, Voltron-like robot lynx head, while the four hands (two fisted, one weapon gripping and one splayed open) are painted in black with golden knuckles. It's worth noting that the two thruster panels on the back of the cyber-bird can flip down and the four hands can be stowed away for later use... or you can pretend to launch them for a devastating rear attack! As promised, once I get all the necessary parts, I'll go into detail about this super-robatar formation.

Senior Advisor Herrion's stylised helmet with frontal crests.

Senior Advisor Herrion's stylised armour (worn over a shirt); the circle on the chest plate represents the Theriom symbol.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦ I make no bones about Herrion being my favourite of the three siblings, and one of my favourite KR characters overall. I love his characterization, and the fact that he rides a 4-winged bird in the comics and in my action figure adventures makes him the tops for me

Articulation: ♥♥♥♥ Herrion's robatar's articulation matches Masq-Lor's one. The joints also work extremely well, allowing for a ton of poses

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣ This is the same figure that was originally designed to be Masq-Lor's robatar. Keeping that in mind, there is a lot here that definitely feels like Horizon Masq-Lor and yet the figure has a very unique look to it. All around, the vac-metallizing on the figure looks fantastic, but there does seem to be a weird area where coverage is lacking on the top of the left boot. Hopefully this doesn't lead to any flaking over time

Accessories: ♠♠♠♠ The figure comes with what I would consider to be all of his required accessories. I like the little chips out of the axe blade - it adds a lot of character to the accessory

Playability: ♪♪♪ While there might be some issues with the paint for me, the decent articulation and great accessories make for an exceptional action figure with plenty of play potential

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ Herrion's Horizon edition is certainly good enough to stand on his own, but I really hope that, given the current pandemic situation, things will turn out right in the end and that Fai-Rha's robatar will join her brothers' prototypes soon, so all of the Key protectors will finally be together on the battlefield.