KR|Horizon Review #15: Hadjti

Toy prototype details

Name: Hadjti^TM

Subtitle: scaly amazon

Line: KR|Horizon

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

Character details

Name: Hadjti

Classification: chondrichthyan

Sex: female

Home: Tahron

Era: 15 years after Foundation

Affiliation: Destructomorph

Rank: auxiliary warrior.

Background

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

Brief bio: evolved from an ancient species of deep-sea creatures endowed with both gills and rudimentary lungs, Hadjti was the quartermaster of a group of marooners feared by many anglers who had only heard legends of those dreaded sea rovers. After their defeat by the hands of the Semhadrians, she was one of a handful of pirates who escaped and didn't surrender to their rival marine tribe. Eventually, Hadjti agreed to join the Destructomorphs and swore her allegiance to Deptilion. Because of her low rank within the faction and a considerable appetite for power, she ultimately joined forces with two fellow soldiers, the greedy Agledas^TM and the silent but menacing Eldogrum^TM, with whom she saw her opportunities for advancement grow. However, the trio was forced to stand idle following Deptilion's demise during his final battle with the Therioms, and they survived by subjugating local folks and devouring livestock. When years later Nemhetra learnt of the existence of the powerful helmet that had been disassembled and hidden by her cousin Barkos, Hadjti was ordered to retrieve one of its fragments, which was enshrined in a temple on the island city-state of Semhadar^TM, and took great pleasure in obeying her new master's command.

Articulation

Standard, excluding hinged abdomen and with the addition of a ball jointed tail.

Description

Head: similar to a mix of different types of sharks, characterised by grey-brown skin and an elongated, narrow flattened snout resembling a sword blade. About halfway along it, the snout bears a pair of long barbels as well as two additional flattened blade-like lateral projections on either side (each with a nostril and a small solid blue eye placed at the end), while its slightly keeled end is edged with large, sharp whitish teeth along each side. Two more pairs of small solid red eyes are located at the base of the rostrum, and behind each pair is a spiracle. The jaws are lined with prominent long, narrow nail-like whitish teeth, and are fictionally highly protrusible - although they are normally held flush against the underside of the head, in the figure they are extended almost to the end of the snout

Body: fairly slender; the grey-brown skin has a rough texture from a covering of placoid scales (or dermal denticles). The shoulders and the thighs are equipped with triangular flashy fins, whose margins are translucent grey; a similar, prominent dorsal fin (with a venomous spine located at its leading edge) projects from her back. While her 3-digit right hand and both feet are webbed and clawed, her left hand is replaced by two snake-like, flexible appendages. She also carries an extra neck piece that fits right on top of the body (it is glued on, but it might be possible to pry it off if one had will to do so) and shows three pairs of gill slits. Finally, she has a long, thin whip-like tail, which is a separate piece emerging from a hole in her suit and bearing a short tail guard at its base, a silver-spiked black cuff halfway down its length as well as a serrated ivory-white venomous sting at the end of a subtle heterocercal caudal fin

Wearables: a segmented, close-fitting one-piece black garment (similar to a swimsuit that covers the torso, except the back and upper chest) with light-blue details (including a trim along the upper edge, a stingray-like, diamond-shaped mark sculpted in relief on the front, and the entire part that covers the crotch), two black bracelets and two black calf protectors (each made by wrapping a disk-shaped piece of material round the forearm or the lower leg and fastening it with silver spike-rivets to create a rounded, spined fin-like structure sticking out of the side), and a studded glossy black belt. All the black (except for the belt) and light-blue components of her outfit seem to be made of scale armour and laminar armour, respectively. Additionally, she has two fairly large lizard-like, vampire squid-faced creatures wrapped around her trunk, with the beasts' heads emerging over her shoulders. The creatures' tails and necks criss-cross behind Hadjti's lower and upper back respectively, while the remaining parts of their bodies intersect each other diagonally on the front of the figure's torso. Their seemingly gelatinous bodies vary in colour from velvety black to pale and dark shades of red. A webbing of skin connects their eight facial arms, each lined with rows of whitish spines and equipped with suckers at the end. Their fairly large globular eyes appear blue with reddish streaks in the irises, while their beak-like jaws are ivory-white. Each has four short salamander-like clawed limbs, as well as a pair of ear-like fins projecting from the sides of the head and spanning almost the body's entire length, joining near the tail and kind of resembling wings.

Action feature

In the comics, Hadjti's two parasite creatures can fall off her body and help her attack their adversaries. Unfortunately, this feature cannot be recreated entirely with the toy, meaning that the two beasts can be removed from the figure's body, but cannot separate from each other, which is a bit disappointing. To display Hadjti without the two critters, it's necessary to detach her head, unplug a little fastener between the two tails, and slip the whole thing off the figure. Once the piece is removed, you can see a structure in the form of a suction disc on the underside of each creature, which can fictionally take a firm hold against Hadjti's body similarly to a remora. Nice little detail!

Additionally, Hadjti has the ability to store up immense amounts of energy in her left-hand appendages, then burst out in an electrocuting action, stunning her trapped foes before snatching them up by rapidly extending her jaws. So, the figure comes with two translucent blue lightning effects that can be attached to the two electric eel-like parts.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the lightning effects, Hadjti comes with a devastating four-bladed axe, which is composed of a long metallic light-blue haft and two broad, differently shaped silver blades (whose cutting edges are parallel to the handle) at two opposite sides of each end. Each blade is roughly shaped like a fish tail fin: one resembling a pointed rhomboid, one ending in a jagged, more-or-less vertical edge with a slight inward curve, one shaped like a crescent moon and ending in two prongs, and one ending in a number of rounded cutting edges. The haft can also split in the middle, to produce two smaller double-bitted battleaxes.

Additionally, the figure includes an open reliquary, on which one of the three fragments of the lost helmet is displayed for veneration by the local community. The reliquary resembles a small fluted Corinthian-style limestone column supporting the helmet piece (which comprises part of the skull and the back).

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦ I mean, she is a shark-woman with multiple glowing eyes, a stinging tail, electrocuting tentacles, and an intricately frightening face. It’s like she is Tahron’s answer to a PredAlien, and, honestly, her characterisation is pretty much perfect for me. All those elements certainly make for an interesting action figure

Articulation: ♥♥♥ All of the joints are strong, but still fluid, and nothing inhibits the articulation. She does have her tail, but that is only articulated at the base, while I would have loved to see some more posing options there

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ The head sculpt is absolutely beautiful and it is one of those perfect representations in the line; I don’t have anything to criticise here, and, you know, if the head is this detailed, the rest of the figure is surely following suit. If I did have to nitpick something in the paint department, I wish the wrist and shin guards were coloured more like in the comics, where they're more of a tarnished silver, but that is pretty slight

Accessories: ♠♠♠ Her axe is unique and looks good, but I had to take a hairdryer to straighten it out from the packaging. Now, while I certainly wasn’t expecting them to do it, it would have been kind of cool if PoliganToys had done something to recreate the retractable jaws. I am not saying to add a real feature, but an alternate head would have been a nice homage, especially since Hadjti doesn't even get separate versions of her two monsters

Playability: ♪♪♪♪ As far as construction and engineering go, I don’t have anything to point out in terms of design, she's just an enjoyable figure to stare at, as there are many little details that are fun to discover

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ I love this figure - she brings all of the detail and uniqueness with her (really, the sculpt and engineering put her very much in a class all of its own), but she still fits in perfectly with the rest of the line. She is definitely one of the best female villains in the KR world, and I think she lands near the top of the 2020 figure lineup as well.

KR|Horizon Review #14: Mor-Rak (Horizon Edition)

Toy prototype details

Name: Mor-Rak^TM (Horizon Edition)

Subtitle: tenacious warrior

Line: KR|Horizon

Item type: action figure (dual figure) - Nº 12 in the line.

Character details

Name: Mor-Rak

Classification: primivod mammal

Sex: male

Relationships: cousin of Desion (Masq-Lor), Herrion, Rhadiel (Fai-Rha) and Nemhetra, Elahdin's fiancée

Home: Tahron

Era: 15 years after Foundation

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: infantry-division commander.

Background

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

Brief bio: the humorous son of Gax-Uhr^TM and Sih-Len^TM, and a member of the Theriom elite, Mor-Rak stood out for his great resourcefulness, curiosity and acrobatic skills since a very young age. After the rise of Deptilion and his Destructomorph army, evil outweighed the forces of good and Mor-Rak was recruited by his uncle Tir-Hing^TM as a trainee, in order to fight for the Therioms and to serve them throughout Tahron’s future. Before he was even allowed to participate in open conflicts, he acquired incredible abilities from the Antikythron^TM, a device infused with mysterious power that could harness energy from nature. By using these powers, Mor-Rak loyally assisted and watched over his fellows, often turning the tide in battle, until Deptilion's defeat. While as a boy he was hot-headed and too quick to action, a trait that his father had often condemned, Mor-Rak eventually became a committed pacifist. Although he despised war, he could not stand by and watch the re-emergence of the Destructomorph faction, and chose to continue with his military career and to fight alongside the Therioms. Using once more the power of his Antikythron to combat their sinister foes, Mor-Rak was instrumental in helping Masq-Lor and his siblings win their war against the evil Nemhetra and protect freedom for all people of Tahron.

Articulation

Standard, with the addition of hinged toes and a ball jointed tail.

Description

Head: predominantly monkey-like (similar to a mandrill, even if he's a primivod, a fictional anthropomorphic marsupial), characterised by an elongated hairless muzzle with a red stripe down the middle and protruding blue ridges on the sides, a large brown/black mane with a yellow beard and white tufts, big close-set bright green eyes (which kinda give the feeling that they move as they are viewed from different angles), red nostrils and lips, and powerful jaws with long, sharp whitish canine teeth. The face is very well sculpted and definitely looks like an adult version of his Foundation counterpart, but also bears a resemblance to his father. Additionally, displaying his mouth wide open gives his face an overall bold expression

Body: large build, thick brown to white fur, olive-green skin at the hands and the bare feet, dark-grey nails, short stub tail. The fur on the torso is brown with black blotches and yellow bands on the back and white on the front, while the fur on the limbs is brown with black blotches on the outer parts and white on the inner parts. Giving the figure hinged toes makes it possible to display the feet in a grasping pose

Wearables: a light-green armour with brown details (a repaint from his father's armour), two light-green bracelets, two light-green calf protectors, a light-green belt and a brown fabric loincloth with a leather purse on the front.

Mor-Rak's stylised armour.

Action feature

Also in the KR|Horizon comics, Mor-Rak often uses the incredible power of his antikythron to transform into a giant warrior, who, depending on the situation, can be made of different materials. So, the figure will be released in a 2-pack that will include Mor-Rak's standard form and one of three possible post-transformation variants, which are all 23 cm (around 9") tall and I'm going to describe individually.

The first variant is his Stone Warrior form. The figure is basically a repaint of the Titanic Fighter prototype that I reviewed at the end of 2015, so if you want more details about that figure, you can look at my old post. This variant has the same buck and the same articulation, but not the same accessories. Except for the eyes, which have a bronzy shine, the figure is painted in such a way that it seems made of craggy, coarse-grained rocky plates, each with a banded texture characterised by alternating darker and lighter grey coloured stripes. The figure also has an action feature, just like his 2015 version did - he can launch the left hand, which is in a fist pose and slightly bigger than the right hand, via a spring loaded mechanism. Although in the comics the Stone Warrior is shown to be capable of folding over and turning into a boulder for protecting Elahdin during a battle, unfortunately the toy doesn't have that ability. Instead, it comes with a stone shield that looks like a smaller 2D version of the boulder; curiously, the inside features some circuitry and a little blaster, giving it a peculiar high-tech look.

The second variant, my personal favourite, is his Plant Warrior guise. The conical/globose design of this figure's head recalls a cardoon bud with numerous massively spined, triangular green scales (two of which form a pair of large ears) as well as several violet-purple filaments emerging from its top. His humanoid face is characterised by bloodshot yellow eyes, a branch-like nose (which is fortunately removable, leaving an empty nasal cavity that I like much better), a sharp-toothed mouth and a grass-like beard. He has a thick, robust green-skinned, purple-veined body made of a tangled mass of vines, twigs and leaves, which fictionally makes him almost invulnerable to physical harm and able to regrow limbs or change his body shape if necessary. Several parts of this fully articulated body even have a grass-like flocking and a forest scent. His brown-spined limbs end in veined (i.e., showing the branching ribs that typically run through a leaf) clawed hands and pointy hoofed feet. In the comics, he is able to further extend his limbs as streams of vines that he can use as whip-like weapons, for creating shields or as a threat display. So, the figure carries a number of long prickly green pliable vines that are twined around the limbs (and also the torso) as separate, loosely attached pieces. A similar coil-shaped vine piece is also included and has some stretchable properties, so you can get it around the torso of a standard KR figure, to look as though it has been tied up in a plant trap. I really dig this "weapon", it is a thoughtful feature for the character, but also well executed to serve its purpose.

Finally, the third variant is his Tornado Warrior form. Having the appearance of a funnel-shaped translucent blueish cloud, this one-piece variant looks like a vortex of rotating winds with a subtle structure resembling a face on one side. The figure can move using a ripcord, i.e., a long serrated strip of plastic that is included; by slipping the ripcord from either side of the figure, pushing it all the way in and pulling it out fast, you can set the figure on its rotating tip and watch it sway and race around erratically across a smooth surface. You can even place it on either a clear stand (for a spinning action on a stationary point) or a debris accessory (which whirls under the steady Tornado Warrior), both included in the package. Interestingly, the figure's ability to spin like a top is not hampered by the apparent imbalance presented by its sculpt.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from his augmented form, Mor-Rak comes with his inseparable antikythron, the device that he uses to combine himself with the forces of nature and become an enhanced warrior. Like the version that came with Foundation Mor-Rak, this antikythron is a short metal staff characterised by an interesting technological design, and has a brown leather baldric that can be worn by the figure for easy carry. However, it shows a few differences. The silver&bronze handle is designed in such a way that the weapon can be held either vertically or horizontally (in the Horizon comics, Mor-Rak often utilises it as a blaster). The part near the handle displays six large coloured buttons plus a few smaller black switches and sliders all the way around. The top bronze part is fictionally composed of five pieces that can open (in an upside-down umbrella fashion) to reveal the machinery inside; like with its predecessor, this feature hasn't been reproduced in the toy accessory and instead we get three interchangeable snap-on top pieces, which are the closed, the open inactive and the open energised version respectively. The open inactive form shows the five sides spread out and a central silver axis, on which three short horizontal coaxial red arms hold one vertical coloured crystal each (in the comics, depending on the orientation of these components, the device generates a different power); all these pieces, i.e., the whole top part, each coaxial arm and each crystal, spin vertically and individually via swivels. The energised version carries a well-designed glow-in-the-dark energy vortex/blast at its centre and also spins.

The basic figure also comes with an alternate head sculpt, a rope and a bunch of paper. Yes, the standard head gives us a pretty close match up to Mor-Rak's depiction in the battle scenes. However, like with his father, there is a small issue with the basic head sculpt that annoys me a little - the aggressive expression on his face makes it a bit hard for me to reconcile the figure with his bio of placid character. And that’s what the second, calm head sculpt is for; strangely, this head also displays smaller pupils and hairless ears. The coil of thick brown rope, which represents his whip/lasso weapon, can be worn across the figures’ chest as a bandolier or simply hung over the shoulder. Finally, the stack of worn out pages seems to be the remainder of Al-Mih-Tek's notes about the antikythron, which explains in what way Mor-Rak learnt how to use it.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦ I love Mor-Rak! Believe me, I absolutely appreciate the grittier storylines of the post-Foundation (technically they're pre-Foundation) series, but if you ask me to picture Key Raiders in my mind, I'm picturing little Mor-Rak transforming into some Elemental-like giant. This new edition of Mor-Rak for the KR|Horizon line is intended to give the character an adult look as well as new versions of his transformed form

Articulation: ♥♥♥♥ Except for the Tornado Warrior, all the figures have the standard KR articulation

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣♣ Despite the many reused parts, adult Mor-Rak turned out a great looking figure with a fantastic sculpt and excellent colours. I think the Stone Warrior came out well too, although just being a repaint, and the boulder shield was a great idea. I'm not quite as enamoured of the Tornado variant, though its action feature is a great bonus. The Plant Warrior is definitely one of my favourite figures of the year; he just hits all the right spots with me - he’s badass looking, has an awesome accessory and is just fun overall. The paint applications on all the figures are fairly neat and clean, with very little or no slop

Accessories: ♠♠♠ The calm head offers just the right touch of that "committed pacifist" look. The wrist clip of the Stone Warrior's shield is a bit too soft and it causes the piece to periodically fall off when trying to pose the figure’s arm

Playability: ♪♪♪♪ When compared to the standard figure package, I believe this set is going to be a fairly good deal; you get both a full figure and an oversized, great-looking variant, plus five or six accessories. That's quite a lot to play with

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ I am really really happy with this set. I love the basic Mor-Rak figure, and the post-transformation variants are a great extra to boot!