Toy prototype details
Name: Torp-TorTM (Emergence Edition), aka Sky-Blitz Torp-Tor
Subtitle: air-combat warrior
Line: KR|Emergence
Item type: action figure - Nº 17 in the line.
Character details
Name: Torp-Tor
Classification: archosauromorph reptile
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Era: 3 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Rexodon
Rank: flying officer.
Background
First appearance: KR|Emergence #2 - The war of all against all: Part I – Breach
Brief bio: once the evil leader of a dynasty of gliding reptiles who lived high on the western cliffs, Torp-Tor engaged with his people in a long war against the Therioms for conquering Tahron. After a series of defeats, he was convinced by Bi-Harr to put aside his desire for supremacy and join the Rexodon army, in order to work together as allies. Both a tough warrior and a skilled engineer, he often left his technical duties to fight in the airspace above the battlefield. Torp-Tor's massive wings and powerful jet engines gave him the ability to move through the air at an incredible speed, which he utilised to reach his mammalian enemies and then attack them with his destructive weaponry.
Articulation
Standard, with the addition of a ball jointed extra neck piece, a hinged upper jaw and two hinged wings.
Description
Name: Torp-TorTM (Emergence Edition), aka Sky-Blitz Torp-Tor
Subtitle: air-combat warrior
Line: KR|Emergence
Item type: action figure - Nº 17 in the line.
Character details
Name: Torp-Tor
Classification: archosauromorph reptile
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Era: 3 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Rexodon
Rank: flying officer.
Background
First appearance: KR|Emergence #2 - The war of all against all: Part I – Breach
Brief bio: once the evil leader of a dynasty of gliding reptiles who lived high on the western cliffs, Torp-Tor engaged with his people in a long war against the Therioms for conquering Tahron. After a series of defeats, he was convinced by Bi-Harr to put aside his desire for supremacy and join the Rexodon army, in order to work together as allies. Both a tough warrior and a skilled engineer, he often left his technical duties to fight in the airspace above the battlefield. Torp-Tor's massive wings and powerful jet engines gave him the ability to move through the air at an incredible speed, which he utilised to reach his mammalian enemies and then attack them with his destructive weaponry.
Articulation
Standard, with the addition of a ball jointed extra neck piece, a hinged upper jaw and two hinged wings.
Description
Head: similar to a pterosaur, perhaps a mix of a Pteranodon and a Pterodactylus, characterised by yellowish skin, a cranial crest (which compared to the Foundation version is more vertical and has a broad forward projection) and solid blue eyes. The jaws form a long, slender beak with a full complement of large sharp teeth visible along the edges. Thanks to the articulated upper jaw, Torp-Tor's mouth can open and show the tongue sculpted on the inside. Both his head and extra neck piece are on ball joints, which not only give him an extended neck (longer than in his Foundation counterpart), but also make it possible for him to look in all directions
Body: yellowish scaly skin with purple blotches, hands with long serrated black claws, digitigrade legs (each knee is bent to accommodate the foot portion with the heel section high up). His biceps and thighs are equipped with small, sturdy skin appendages that look a bit like wings and might work as stabilisers. On the back, a pair of large wings projects through the sides of the armour; these wings are formed by membranes of yellowish skin with purple blotches and are sustained by two long brown bones (each with three protruding claw-like steel, seemingly articulated digits in the middle). Also, he has a short, thin pointy yellowish rubbery tail that is permanently glued to the figure’s rear
Body: yellowish scaly skin with purple blotches, hands with long serrated black claws, digitigrade legs (each knee is bent to accommodate the foot portion with the heel section high up). His biceps and thighs are equipped with small, sturdy skin appendages that look a bit like wings and might work as stabilisers. On the back, a pair of large wings projects through the sides of the armour; these wings are formed by membranes of yellowish skin with purple blotches and are sustained by two long brown bones (each with three protruding claw-like steel, seemingly articulated digits in the middle). Also, he has a short, thin pointy yellowish rubbery tail that is permanently glued to the figure’s rear
Wearables: a dark-blue leather harness with a metallic light-blue buckle, two laminar, spiked metallic dark-blue bracelets (long enough to reach to just below the elbows), two spiked metallic light-blue thigh/knee guards, two metallic dark-blue boots, and a two-tone (dark and light) metallic blue belt/loincloth piece. The harness is complemented by an additional shoulder guard formed of two scale armour spiked metallic dark-blue pauldrons connected by a light-blue collar (which is jagged on the front and high-standing on the back; the pauldrons are attached via rubber “hinges” to the collar, so they retain a little movement in the shoulders). The massive boots are equipped with large, serrated steel talons that are seemingly articulated, and with calf-mounted booster rockets.
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| Torp-Tor's stylised harness (excluding shoulder guard). |
In the Emergence comics, Torp-Tor is a jet-powered air soldier, who can perform different tasks in combat, such as air-to-air fights and airstrikes. His turbine-powered wings are just leathery structures suited to a gliding style of flight rather than active. For that reason, Torp-Tor wears a rocket pack (equipped with two massive turbojet engines) on his back. Two joystick-looking devices can be held in his hands and fictionally used to control the jet pack, to which they are connected by means of two cables. The wings (which are somewhat flexible and, in case, removable) are articulated on hinges at the sides of the jet pack and can move back and forth, allowing the figure to simulate a kind of wing-flapping action.
Torp-Tor is armed with an impressive assortment of weapons. Two metal mounts located on the underside towards the tips of the wings bear two pairs of fictionally launchable (in reality just detachable) javelin-like steel weapons in an side-by-side configuration. Also, by pressing a fin on the bottom part of his jet pack, a spring-loaded mechanism opens a hinged cover on the top part, revealing two stacked toothed discs with slightly different designs (one has straight teeth and the other has curved teeth); in fact, one of the two discs is a trigger that, when pressed, fires the second buzz saw blade.
Torp-Tor is armed with an impressive assortment of weapons. Two metal mounts located on the underside towards the tips of the wings bear two pairs of fictionally launchable (in reality just detachable) javelin-like steel weapons in an side-by-side configuration. Also, by pressing a fin on the bottom part of his jet pack, a spring-loaded mechanism opens a hinged cover on the top part, revealing two stacked toothed discs with slightly different designs (one has straight teeth and the other has curved teeth); in fact, one of the two discs is a trigger that, when pressed, fires the second buzz saw blade.
Aside from the different weaponry and the addition of the metal claws, one new design aspect I like a lot compared to the Foundation version are the two pivoting impellers built into the centre of the surface of each wing and connected by a (sculpted) wire to the jet pack. While Torp-Tor is shown flapping his wings in the comics, it is hard to imagine how simple flapping would be enough to give such a heavily armed and armoured soldier adequate lift. It makes more sense that he has an extra method of lift, which these fans offer.
Weapons and accessories
Apart from the already mentioned javelins and bladed disc, Torp-Tor comes with a small selection of accessories. First up is a rhomboid shield cast with a cool pterosaur design on the front, which is reminiscent of the emblem on his Foundation chest armour. The shield is designed to fit over Torp-Tor's left bracer, since his hands are busy holding the joysticks to control the jet pack, and is painted in metallic light-blue, except for the pterosaur motif that is silver and whose beak, wings and tail project from the shield's vertices in the form of four steel blades. These blades are fictionally launchable missiles, while in reality only the "tail" can be detached.
Apart from the already mentioned javelins and bladed disc, Torp-Tor comes with a small selection of accessories. First up is a rhomboid shield cast with a cool pterosaur design on the front, which is reminiscent of the emblem on his Foundation chest armour. The shield is designed to fit over Torp-Tor's left bracer, since his hands are busy holding the joysticks to control the jet pack, and is painted in metallic light-blue, except for the pterosaur motif that is silver and whose beak, wings and tail project from the shield's vertices in the form of four steel blades. These blades are fictionally launchable missiles, while in reality only the "tail" can be detached.
Interestingly, the figure comes with an alternative jetpack. Why two rocket packs? Who knows! Probably just to give people another display option. The default jetpack, described in the action feature section, has a more detailed sculpt and paint job, while the extra one is much simpler in design. The latter features a single turbojet engine (very similar to a rocket-assisted bomb of the Foundation figure's), two small side-by-side hinged tailfins and a pivoting laser cannon attached to the side, which gives Torp-Tor additional support in the fight against his enemies. Either piece, which simply plugs into a square socket on the figure's back via a peg and stays on fairly well, is fully compatible with the detachable wings.
Additionally, we get two propulsion-blast effects, which work for either version of the jet engines, and a flight stand. The latter is a replica of the original Foundation accessory and is mostly made of clear plastic, but has an excellently sculpted and painted base with a stone-and-steel appearance and lots of incomprehensible symbols on it; it clips around Torp-Tor's waist and allows for various flight poses, also thanks to its single point of articulation and the figure's extended range of head movement (he can look forward when displayed horizontally).
Finally, the package includes a new head sculpt, a metallic light-blue wrench, and a boot accessory for Foundation Sei-Lha. The head is very similar to her original portrait, but its long windswept hair partly arranged in a high ponytail and messy bangs plus the addition of a metallic light-blue headband definitely help the figure look younger and closer to her Emergence appearance. The footwear accessory is basically a set of leather pockets that clips to the side of either boot, giving the figure a slightly more evident combat-ready look.
Final thoughts
Overall: Torp-Tor gets an A+ from me. OK, being a guy who is a fan of prehistoric flying reptiles and of the aesthetic of this line, then the odds were of course that I'd love him. Nevertheless, this is an objectively very well done figure that looks great with the rest of the Rexodon crew. The old prototype wasn't a bad toy, I liked him but found him a bit dull. This version has really been spruced up by having new cool sculpted details as well as some extra paint applications, and coming loaded up nicely with some goodies - he's got two jetpacks, a shooting shield and a new Sei-Lha head. Not a bad haul, really. Such improvements are always very welcome
Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ / 5
Finally, the package includes a new head sculpt, a metallic light-blue wrench, and a boot accessory for Foundation Sei-Lha. The head is very similar to her original portrait, but its long windswept hair partly arranged in a high ponytail and messy bangs plus the addition of a metallic light-blue headband definitely help the figure look younger and closer to her Emergence appearance. The footwear accessory is basically a set of leather pockets that clips to the side of either boot, giving the figure a slightly more evident combat-ready look.
Final thoughts
Overall: Torp-Tor gets an A+ from me. OK, being a guy who is a fan of prehistoric flying reptiles and of the aesthetic of this line, then the odds were of course that I'd love him. Nevertheless, this is an objectively very well done figure that looks great with the rest of the Rexodon crew. The old prototype wasn't a bad toy, I liked him but found him a bit dull. This version has really been spruced up by having new cool sculpted details as well as some extra paint applications, and coming loaded up nicely with some goodies - he's got two jetpacks, a shooting shield and a new Sei-Lha head. Not a bad haul, really. Such improvements are always very welcome
Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ / 5
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