KR|Emergence Review #17: Ir-Ash (Emergence Edition)

Toy prototype details
Name: Ir-Ash^TM (Emergence Edition), aka Apprentice-Warlord Ir-Ash
Subtitle: sinister-looking mentee
Line: KR|Emergence
Item type: action figure - Nº 14 in the line.

Character details
Name: Ir-Ash

Classification: primivod mammal
Sex: male

Relationships: Demo-Rha’s lover
Home: Tahron
Era: 3 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Unnamed Clan (formerly belonging to the Theriom faction)
Rank: service warrior.

Background
First appearance: KR|Emergence #1 - The cradle of evil
Brief bio: King Li-Khon^TM's and Queen Par-Sya^TM's firstborn son and heir to the throne of Tahron, Ir-Ash undertook an unremarkable military career and became enraged by his father's decision to transform the kingdom into a democratic republic. Inflamed with hatred against his brother Tir-Hing, who had first proposed to allow the people of Tahron to choose their ruler, he was subsequently banished from the Amhalgaard^TM family. Possessed by a choleric and vengeful nature, Ir-Ash became an outcast and revenged his debarment by kidnapping his brother's children. He travelled Tahron seeking alliance with his former enemies and was almost killed by Loghar after being rejected by the Rexodon army. Demo-Rha, who had fled Theriom City together with Ir-Ash, saved his life by magically infusing him with the latent strength, endurance and cleverness of the young Herrion. Eventually being welcomed by Lor-Drek's Unnamed Clan, Ir-Ash learnt of ancient fighting techniques and came to realise that to ever take vengeance upon the Therioms, he would have to seize power for himself. Several years later, his life was once again saved by evil magic when Sphenorat merged him with the bloodthirsty, zombie-like creature Shaurus^TM, thus transforming him into a monstrous form. After setting up his headquarters in a decommissioned military shipyard previously built by the Therioms, Ir-Ash, now known as Deptilion, gathered an army of fellow outcasts and led them into battle against both his brother's and the reptilian forces, swearing to establish his rule and endeavouring to dominate Tahron.

Articulation
Standard.

Description

Head: predominantly ursine (even if he's a primivod, a fictional anthropomorphic marsupial), characterised by burnt, reddened skin, three yellowish bony sagittal crests protruding from his scalp, a subtly pointy ear on the right side, a pair of bloodshot blue eyes with reddish pupils, and a large nose. While there is some thick middle brown sculpted fur on the head and chin on the right side, in some spots, especially on the left half of his face, the flesh is worn-out and the charred skull underneath is visible (it definitely gives off a Mimashi from Steel Jeeg or Two-Face vibe). Displaying his brow furrowed and his mouth wide open in a dastardly grin (exposing his four massive, sharp yellowish fangs) gives his face an overall menacing expression

Body: burnt, reddened skin (which is wrapped in ecru bandages here and there), hands and feet with long dark-grey claws. In some spots, especially on the left side of his body, the flesh is worn-out and the seared, blackened bones underneath are visible

Wearables: a golden-yellow armour with red details (including a triangular gemstone at the centre of the breast plate and two gold-studded leather-fringe shoulder pads), two studded black leather wrist bands on the left arm, a black leather fingerless (except for the thumb) glove and an ornamented golden-yellow wrist guard on the right arm, two black cross-strap leather toeless socks with dual-layered, ornamented golden-yellow greaves (including a pair of knee guards), a studded golden-yellow tasset belt (whose buckle is shaped like the Unnamed Clan insignia, i.e., a snake emerging from an upright, spirally coiled conic shell), and a Roman-style skirt made of golden-studded red leather lappets. All the two-tone golden yellow items in his outfit have a heavily tarnished, worn out quality and some of them look like they used to show embossed (on the knee guards) or engraved (on the wrist guard) Theriom emblems that have eventually been scraped away. His armour is embellished with motifs, such as an embossed star design around the neck and a set of eight small red leather straps holding the gem at the centre of the breast plate, that are reminiscent of the Theriom and the Destructomorph emblems, respectively.

Ir-Ash's stylised armour.

Action feature

To recreate the scene of the Emergence comics in which Ir-Ash finds his flesh consumed by fire after being attacked by Loghar, the package comes with a number of pieces for modifying the Enmity version of this character. There is an alternate portrait, which depicts his flaming head, as well as a burning version of his armour and eight flame attachments for his limbs (one for each upper arm, forearm, thigh and lower leg). The portrait is definitely one of the coolest headsculpts ever in a KR line and I'm just absolutely loving it; the mouth is wide open as if full of anguish, the flames are translucent, and the visible reddened right eye is terrifying! This is probably how I'm going to display the old figure most of the time.

Weapons and accessories

In the Emergence comics, Ir-Ash is depicted as a skilful flail-fighter. So, apart from his many flaming pieces, the figure comes with a one-handed flail consisting of three striking heads attached to a wooden haft by three short flexible ropes (or maybe straps). This weapon has a red leather strip wrapped around the handle for a more comfortable grip, and features variously shaped steel anti-personnel projections embedded in the three cylindrical wooden striking ends (namely eight knife-edged flanges, six flanges combined with a pointed tip at the top of the head, and a number of spiked studs, respectively), making it capable of penetrating the enemies' armours with no problem.

Furthermore, Ir-Ash includes a hood and a tattered cloak, both seemingly made of a coarse dark brown fabric. The hood is a new piece that sits over the head naturally, while the cloak is reused from Horizon Denortos, but it's pretty much perfect as it fits him well.
Lastly, the package comes with two nice little bonuses: a lifepod-like silver and black crib that holds a (non-removable) toddler version of Desion, and an extra Deptilion head based on the art of the very first KR comic issue The hidden halberd. My go-to Deptilion head is still the one from the original prototype, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love this one - apart from wearing a deep purple helmet, its distinctive features (longer crooked teeth, larger eyes, complete lack of symmetry in the horn department and lots of shading, especially thanks to a darker wash on his exposed bones than the standard figure) really make for one of the creepiest depictions of Deptilion around. It’s that cool.

Final thoughts
Overall: Ir-Ash turned out to be a great figure thanks to his delightfully creepy look and incredible set of accessories, especially those alternate flaming and Deptilion heads. This is one of the more exciting prototypes of the year as I have wanted a burning/burnt version of Ir-Ash for some time. It's nice to see some unique, strong entries like this in the series and while the KR|Emergence toyline is mostly focused on variants of secondary characters, Ir-Ash gives me hope that there's still a lot of freshness left in it

Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ / 5