KR|Horizon Review #22: Psadimyr

Toy prototype details
Name: Psadimyr^TM
Subtitle: mind-controlling monk
Line: KR|Horizon
Item type: action figure - Nº 18 in the line.

Character details
Name: Psadimyr
Classification: mutant human
Sex: male
Relationships: brother of Qermetas
Home: Tahron
Era: 15 years after Foundation
Affiliation: Destructomorph
Rank: hieromonk (formerly prior of the Drojyo'Bhakma^TM Monastery near the Ucamur^TM region).

Background
First appearance: KR|Horizon #1 - The Destructomorph legacy
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 into the shelter of the Drojyo'Bhakma Monastery near the Ucamur region. For years, the orphaned brothers Psadimyr and Qermetas were only two dejected cenobites in the monastery, where they offered their services to the mysterious chief monk Mohrdax. When Qermetas, desiring to become a menacing warrior, sided with the Dark Legion and its evil grand marshal Wordron in their conflict with the Forseha tribe, Psadimyr, wishing instead to one day be an accomplished sorcerer as strong as Mohrdax, decided to immerse himself in the study of black magic, learning the darkest secrets of his mentor. In particular, he sought the strength of mind control and the ability to bend another's will to his own, and discovered he could manipulate others' actions without being physically present when his power was channelled through wax replicas of his innocent victims. Later, Psadimyr became an adjutant of Mohrdax thanks to his extreme loyalty and shrewd acumen, and together with the dark sorcerer Muvaran, they secretly raised the daughter of Deptilion and Demo-Rha, Nemhetra, in order to make her into the unrivalled enemy of the Therioms. Known for his abilities to block telepathy and to temporarily hypnotise his foes, Psadimyr became a feared warlock in his own right. Combining science and sorcery, he created a mind-bending cybernetic weapon from the remains of an ancient relic once owned by the wizard-priest Sphenorat, which he modified specifically to enhance his string-pulling skills remotely. Yet, while his mental faculties could overwhelm most, when he crossed paths with the Therioms, Psadimyr found himself outmatched, since sufficiently strong-willed people, such as Masq-Lor, were able to partially resist his influence. His device destroyed, he sought other ways of exploiting his psychic senses and took refuge in the eastern wetlands, where his thought-transference powers enslaved the weak-minded denizens, allowing him to build a new army for himself.

Articulation
Standard.

Description
Head: blue-green skin, bald scalp, long and slightly pointed ears projecting outwards, solid orange glowing eyes with a prominent brow ridge, many exposed short sharp whitish teeth plus two long fangs protruding upwards from the lower jaw, and a fleshy chin. His right eye is marked with a black tribal tattoo, while his ears and pug-like broad flat nose are adorned with large bronze rings. Displaying his brow corrugated in a frown and his teeth clenched tightly gives his face an overall bad-tempered expression

Body: blue-green skin, spiky elbows, two black tribal armband tattoos. Curiously, his legs appear of a slightly different colour compared to the rest of his body, almost suggesting that he's wearing tights

Wearables: a thigh-length, torn brown garment with zigzagging lightning-like orange decorative patterns, two orange copper bracelets (the right one is a narrow studded band, while the left one is a large wrist guard embellished with an oval amber gemstone and zigzagging engravings) and two orange copper boots (each ornamented with a pentagonal amber gemstone near the top and zigzagging engravings on the shaft). The sleeveless garment is made of two rectangles of burlap that are stitched together with heavy whitish thread from the sides to form a cylinder, leaving two openings near the top for the arms. The cylinder is gathered around the waist with an orange rope, which carries a holder for a wooden-handled, steel-bladed non-removable chisel on the right hip. The dark-orange leather holder has a broad triangular shape with jagged edges, and is equipped with diamond-shaped bronze studs, copper rivets and a copper buckle. There's also an orange fabric sash worn over his right shoulder and reaching down to the opposite hip, where it seemingly ties to the rope belt. The hem of the tunic is trimmed with brown fur, while the shoulder sash is decorated with an oval amber gemstone that seems to have a spider web inspired design on it.

Weapons and accessories
Although Psadimyr has no action feature, he does come with a few accessories, including a very interesting, even if rather odd-looking, weapon. The sorcerer-monk carries a sort of S-shaped (something like _/¯) bronze mind-snatching device, in which there appears to be copper-looking electronics and hydraulics involved. The handle of the weapon fits around the figure's right forearm (there is an included handgrip for him to hold, so that it doesn’t slide around) and ends with a telescopic arm that can lengthen a bit. At the other end of the mechanical arm there are two jagged metal gripping jaws on both sides, and what looks like a kind of upside-down salon hair dryer on the top. These three components are hinged, so that the two "jaws" snap out from the sides, rotate horizontally and grab an opponent by the face; at the same time, the "hood" is released from the structure, turns vertically, and directly surrounds the head of the victim. The weapon itself is beautifully sculpted and is packaged in two pieces that easily snap together. It is also light, so Psadimyr can hold it without toppling over, and can be attached to a hoop on the back of his shoulder sash. I especially like the green-painted "oxidised" details in the inner parts of the head-grabbing components.

Psadimyr uses his weapon to temporarily immobilise and hypnotise a victim, extract the essence of their mind, and then force them to do what he commands from a distance after placing the device on a wax replica of his target (which he sculpted himself). To enhance the effect of his powers during these remote mind-controlling rituals, he wears a burlap sack mask with built-in mechanisms that isolate him from the surrounding environment, removing any stimuli from all of his senses and allowing him to perceive reality exclusively through his victim's senses. So, the package includes an alternate head that is completely concealed by the torn brown mask, which is poorly stitched with heavy whitish thread.
Last up is an effect part - a large translucent yellow magic beam that fits over his left spell-casting hand. It’s ok, I guess, but I doubt it will get much face time in my display case.

Comic

Together with the action figure we get the third and final comic issue The last horizon. With the help of a revived Denortos, Nemhetra plans to take control of an asteroid flying through space, whose modified orbit could potentially help the Destructomorphs defeat the Therioms once and for all. Nemhetra aims at making the asteroid crash down on the multiversal walls site, and orders her Goblins to build a gravitational collimator, which is supposed to drag the meteor into Tahron's atmosphere. Meanwhile at Theriom City, Spelekos, Denortos' renegade brother, alerts the Therioms about the approaching catastrophe, explaining that if the walls are destroyed, Nemhetra will gain access to the hidden powers. The Therioms carry out a ground military observation of the skies to locate Dekropolis and ascertain Nemhetra's strategy, hoping to find a way to divert the asteroid to a different course. During the operation, they are attacked by a large number of Goblins, which they can hardly overcome. A huge battle ensues and the heroes only prevail over the enemy thanks to the help of Mor-Rak, who solves the conflict by transforming into a tornado in the very last moment. In the aftermath of a fight with Psadimyr, something seems to drain Masq-Lor’s sanity - it turns out that the sorcerer utilised an advanced, potentially fatal device to control Masq-Lor's mind and force him to unconsciously help the Destructomorphs wreak havoc, allowing Nemhetra to damage Masq-Lor's public image and weaken the Therioms. Masq-Lor's irrational tactical decisions lead his fellows, who are unaware of the evil scheme, to mistrust him and to depower his authority. After Xonedar locates Dekropolis thanks to a tracking device that he triggered during the previous battle, Sei-Lha, angry with Masq-Lor, decides to reach and attack Nemhetra directly in her flying stronghold. In the heat of the brawl, Sei-Lha drops a bomb into the chamber where Psadimyr is using his device to control Masq-Lor’s mind. The bomb's time-detonation impulse jams the devices' mind-controlling effect and breaks the Theriom leader free. With Masq-Lor's sanity restored, the Therioms travel to Dekropolis to rescue Sei-Lha, hoping to destroy Nemhetra’s gravitational weapon at the same time. Nemhetra, Denortos and Psadimyr flee from the flying fortress, trapping the Therioms in it with the bomb set to explode minutes later, but CoBoN manages to save the heroes before the aircraft explodes. The gravitational pull is eliminated, but no alteration in the asteroid's trajectory is possible anymore and the rocky body keeps falling towards Tahron. With the intent to stop the Therioms from jeopardising her plan further, Nemhetra activates her robatar and sets to attack Theriom City, but Masq-Lor, Fai-Rha and Herrion also deploy their robatars and confront her. In the meantime, Denortos attempts to kill the siblings while they are remotely controlling their robatars, but he's in turn killed by Spelekos. The heroic siblings succeed in overpowering Nemhetra's robatar, although the Destructomorph leader survives and is apprehended. With the asteroid out of control, the siblings try shooting at it to change its course, but they only succeed in destroying it when they impact on it. The asteroid explodes near Tahron's surface, where it can't harm anyone, just in time to prevent a cataclysm. The Destructomorphs are definitively defeated and the war is over. Impressed by her determination and considering their blood relationship, Masq-Lor earns Nemhetra's trust by showing forgiveness and decides to enlist her in the Theriom army. Eventually, she is chosen as the fourth protector of the Key.

Overall, the first issue of this series had already set a high level, but this story is probably the best I've ever read about the Key Raiders. This is how I always wanted this comic book series to be - depicting a violent, dark and doomed world, close to utter destruction. The apocalyptic story is great and especially the characterisations of Denortos and Spelekos are spot-on. Lots of action-packed fights do the rest for this memorable saga finale!

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦ He might not be as exciting a figure when compared to guys like Mohrdax or Muvaran, but Psadimyr is of high quality, and he is very aesthetically pleasing. I love it when a prototype makes me like a character more and that is certainly the case here
Articulation: ♥♥♥♥ All of his joints seem to be in perfect working order with a great range of motion. Once again, really good quality control, something I'm glad to see consistently in the KR|Horizon line

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ The tunic pieces are sharp and the new bracers and boots get the details down just right. On top of all that rests one of the better head sculpts this year - I really like his head, although I don’t think it matches the artwork in the comics all that much; the likeness, however, has a lot in common with the one used for Qermetas last year. The paintwork is bright and vibrant, really making Psadimyr stand out
Accessories: ♠♠♠♠ The mind-snatching weapon is the real gem here. Its action feature works very well, the device is neatly modelled, and the inner part of the "hood" also features the typical Destructomorph logo - a fun Easter egg from the sculptor
Playability: ♪♪♪♪♪ All of his joints are tight and while the plastic used in the body is strong, the material used for his outfit is softer, so things like his skirt don’t impede much movement. His spell-casting left hand is a nice touch and, even if I'm not planning to use it, I am pleased that we got a “magical effect” with this figure - it can look really cool when you have him fighting against his opponents

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ I am glad that the Destructomorph faction continues to grow, and that we are very close to completion. Psadimyr really is a nicely designed figure and a great addition to the line. Lots of new sculpting, a superb paint scheme, and some fantastic, well thought out accessories certainly help. Also from a construction standpoint, he has no real weaknesses at all and continues the trend of high-quality figures we have been getting all year.

KR|Horizon Review #21: Tang-Lha & Wrapthur (Horizon Edition)

Toy prototype details
Name: Tang-Lha^TM & Wrapthur^TM (Horizon Edition)

Subtitle: hyper-technological soldiers
Line: KR|Horizon
Item type: multi-pack (2-pack) - Nº 3 in the line.

Characters details
Names: Tang-Lha and Wrapthur
Classification: partially humans
Sex: female and male
Home: Tahron
Era: 15 years after Foundation
Affiliation: Theriom
Rank: lieutenant colonels.

Background
First appearance: KR|Horizon #1 - The Destructomorph legacy
Brief bio: two former Troopers who had displayed unwavering loyalty to Senior Minister Tir-Hing, Tang-Lha and Wrapthur were among the most valuable members of the Theriom Armed Forces thanks to their intelligence and incredible fighting skills. Always eager to carry out their mission without question, the two soldiers were seriously injured and almost killed during the first battle of Ra-Hal^TM. They were eventually healed by their mentor and, in a way, adoptive father Colonel Xonedar^TM, who transformed and grafted their bodies with cybernetic parts by encasing each of their cells into a microscopic robotic structure, a technology previously invented by and applied to Xonedar himself. By adjusting the properties of those techno-elements in their bodies, Tang-Lha and Wrapthur gained the ability to shape their physical forms into a plethora of highly advanced devices for use in battle. Equipped with multi-optic visors that could effortlessly see through any structures and a wealth of built-in capture weaponry that could subdue any adversaries, the two warriors were soon back in the forefront of the defences of the Republic of Tahron, now providing an outstanding service to Senior Minister Desion. When confronted by particularly tough opponents, Tang-Lha and Wrapthur could even merge with Xonedar to form a towering mecha endowed with tremendous robotic strength, which would allow the Therioms to win in any combat situations.

Articulation
Standard, except that the wrists are ball jointed and there is no abdomen crunch.

Description
Heads: each former Theriom Trooper constantly wears a cyber helmet, which only allows us to see their mouth surrounded by cream white skin, while the rest of their face is covered by a single large dark-purple (almost black) bionic eye. Wrapthur's helmet is blocky and glossy black with silver details (such as a number of wires, a knob at the top as well as two ornamental wing-shaped side plates), while his visor is rectangular with concave sides; he also sports a brown soul patch. Tang-Lha's helmet is made from overlapping metallic red segments and has a raised silver cyber crest running centrally from the middle of an ornamental silver front plate to the back of the helmet as well as two silver horns projecting outwards from the sides, while her visor is kind of V-shaped; she also has a mole near the upper lip

Bodies: arms and legs feature lots of machinery/circuitry patterns (i.e., cables, panels, springs, cogs, wires and bolts) and a striking paint job, split down the middle between metallic dark-blue and matte black; the limbs look particularly reinforced in the shoulder, elbow, thigh and knee areas. Under the armour, each figure displays a clear torso accented with steel edging, inside which a complex combination of bluish-grey gears, valves, wires and organs (e.g., heart, lungs and guts) is visible

Wearables: each character wears a silver armour (with details that are glossy black for Wrapthur and metallic red for Tang-Lha - the two colours alternate clockwise), two silver gauntlets with armoured wrist guards, two silver boots (displaying details similar to tank treads for Wrapthur and to wheels for Tang-Lha) with armoured shin guards, a silver ammunition waist-belt (holding "laser bullets" all the way around) and a cyber jockstrap-like ridged crotch piece (glossy black for Wrapthur and metallic red for Tang-Lha). Wrapthur's armour is fully removable, while in Tang-Lha's case only the chest plate can be detached (it simply sits on the large shoulder guards); however, both coverings have several tech-mech details such as wires, tubing and a central piece showing a sculpted interpretation of the fractal print seen on Foundation Xonedar's chest, therefore replacing the original lenticular sticker.

Tang-Lha's and Wrapthur's stylised armour; the circle at the centre of the chest plate represents the power reactor.

Action feature

Although neither figure has the moving gears inside the chest nor the extending neck, arms, legs and torso that we saw with Xonedar, both their heads feature some gimmicks. Wrapthur's visor can be detached (revealing a few cool cyber details underneath) and replaced with an alternate piece bearing a projecting glow-in-the-dark blast effect, for recreating his ability to shoot energy beams from his eyepiece. The whole helmet is actually removable, making it possible to rotate the head by 180°, in order to expose a new mouth with some serious teeth-grit before reattaching the headgear. There's also a surprise in Tang-Lha's head - a piece of her helmet, including parts of the back and the sides, can be removed from her noggin and with a few twists of the horns (which turn into wings) it becomes a remote spy drone that roves around on its own (there's even an included clear stand for it). Additionally, the removable drone, when detached, allows the light to pass through her cyber-eye, making it glow.

They also come with multiple silver interchangeable weapon attachments that can replace their left hands. Wrapthur includes a net thrower (something that looks like a mix of a fly swatter and a butterfly net, but holds a blue laser mesh), a pincer-shaped handcuff with green jaws, a large cylindrical drill bit, and a double laser rifle with a longitudinal drum magazine placed between the two side-by-side barrels. Tang-Lha features a bolas launcher (it resembles a crossbow a bit, but is designed to release a two-headed red laser bolas), an extended grabber with four green gripping jaws arranged in an X shape, a lance-like weapon, and a laser gun with a revolving cylinder.

Additionally, the emblems at the centre of their chest plates, which are fictionally reactors that power their vital functions, can be disconnected and attached to their exposed transparent torsos for an accurate bare look (in the comics, the reactors belong to their bodies and not to their armours).

Even if this cannot be recreated with the action figures, it's interesting to sum up the way Xonedar, Wrapthur and Tang-Lha combine and convert into an imposing armoured robot in the Horizon comics, to appreciate all the cool details. After each warrior retracts their head and arms into the chest, Xonedar forms the mecha's upper body by folding up his legs to his back; thanks to some hiding of bits, spinning of parts and folding of pieces, the legs produce a jetpack with a pair of wings, while his head is replaced with a much larger version (very similar to CoBoN robot-mode's head). Wrapthur flips upside down to become the mecha's lower torso, while his legs fold down to the sides to form the arms, and the massive feet compress to reveal a pair of hands. Tang-Lha's body splits in half, leaving two sections that flip upside down and turn 90 degrees to become the mecha's legs, while the large shoulder guards form the feet as a result.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from their set of snap-on weaponry, Tang-Lha and Wrapthur come with a few more accessories. Each has an armoured mouth guard and a weapon. The mouth shields, which are fictionally produced by their cuirasses, snap into the helmets, giving them an extra ironclad look; I like the tech details sculpted on the inner side of the guards.

Weapon-wise, since their arm attachments weren't enough, Wrapthur has a machete-like sword with a black hilt and a silver blade, and a round shield with a mostly translucent yellow disc (in the comics, the sword unfolds into the fan-like laser shield, so the two pieces represent two versions of the same weapon), while Tang-Lha has a tech laser-bow with a metallic red grip, rocket-shaped barrel and aiming aid, and silver limbs, which can be stowed onto her back or can be complemented with an included translucent purple blast effect.

In addition, Wrapthur includes a black battle-tech shoulder belt that fastens to the breastplate via a peg placed behind an alternate version of the chest emblem, which resembles the Theriom symbol, i.e., a seven-pointed golden star with the two side points elongated. The broad back of the shoulder belt carries a scabbard for his sword as well as three sheathed daggers, which look like smaller versions of his sword and are not removable. For equality, Tang-Lha also gets a similar alternative version of her chest piece, but without any belts.

Moreover, the package comes with a set of accessories that are meant to update Foundation Xonedar, for representing his older version in the Horizon series. The set includes a head, three arm attachments, and a weapon. The head is identical to the original one, except for having no action feature and sporting a black moustache with a touch of grey. This head is also compatible with some of the old accessories such as the microphone, mouth shield and listening device. The new arm attachments include a rocket-shaped cannon, and two (for both arms) conical drop-hammer mallets with some fictional light-up details, which he uses to crush opponents. Finally, his weapon is a sort of trident-halberd, which consists of a not-so-long dark-blue shaft and a double bitted silver battle-axe topped with a silver spear spike. The axe/spear head and the handle can separate and then reconnect via a wavy translucent light-blue plastic attachment, in order to create a whip-like weapon with a swinging blade on the end; alternatively, either the bladed piece or the energy whip piece can also be attached to his arm, so that they look like they have been produced by his cyber-body.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦ I think in the next months I'm going to see some great prototypes that will potentially blow more than a few minds. In the meantime though, these two guys make for a wonderful addition to my KR|Horizon collection

Articulation: ♥♥♥♥ I had no problem with loose joints, though some of them started out a bit tight
Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ Each figure is highly elaborate in both sculpt and paint with minute tech-mech elements highlighted with shiny details. For the most part, the paint applications on my figures are clean and sharp
Accessories: ♠♠♠♠♠ They are a considerable value compared to other figures, as they not only have working action features, but also a great deal of accessories

Playability: ♪♪♪♪ The chest armours restrict the shoulders movement quite a bit, but the rest of the joints are free to move cleanly, so the figures can pose extremely well

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ PoliganToys has taken two of the least important good guys from the Foundation series and has made them very impressive. I'm still not sure when we'll get a five-star figure in this line, but Tang-Lha and Wrapthur are pretty damn close.