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.