KR Review #90: Combat Training Robot

Toy prototype details
Name: Combat Training Robot
Subtitle: robotic trainer
Line: KR|Foundation
Item type: action figure - Nº 57 in the line.

Character details
Name: Combat Training Robot
Real name: Unit ⎐⍀⏁-⊬⎍⟟⎅
Classification: robot

Home: Tahron
Era: Foundation
Affiliation: Theriom
Rank: combat training device.

Background
First appearance: KR|Foundation #6 - Reptiles reunited
Related character(s): small robot included with the Tahron playset.

Articulation
Standard, excluding hinged abdomen.

Description

Head: protected by an aerodynamically designed golden helmet that resembles a modern hockey goaltender mask and has a large cut-out in the eye and nose area (which, instead of being covered by a metal cage, exposes the robot's bronze face underneath) as well as a lower extension (embellished with three holes) to guard the neck. There's lots of metallic light-blue details all over the top and back of the helmet such as bolts, tubes and even an aerial. The face has a vaguely human-like appearance and wears a sort of light-blue headband with a cyber scope (for looking in on targets) covering the right eye. The helmet includes a movable black glass visor, which can be positioned on top (i.e., flipped up) or on the front (i.e., covering the face). The surface of the visor seems to be an electronic display for the visual presentation of combat instructions, which makes the piece look very high-tech

Body: several parts of the figure's body are made of reused pieces from Combat Sei-Lha, specifically the silver upper arms, the silver upper legs with glued thigh guards, the metallic light-blue belt and the golden crotch piece. On the other hand, the torso, forearms and lower legs are brand new. There is an impressive amount of intricate decorative features all around the various components of the robot's body and, in fact, there are very few spots on the figure that do not have some kind of sculpted cyber embellishments, such as cables and tubes, bolts and pistons, gauges and switches. The metallic light-blue torso (with gold details) looks very similar to the torso of Demo-Rha's LoGoN's driver variant, except that the housing for its disc-shaped lenticular counter-screen is sculpted into the chest piece (more on this later). The torso also includes two armoured golden shoulder guards as well as three pairs of small thrusters on the back. Additionally, the two metallic light-blue gauntlets are equipped with large armoured, studded wrist guards, while the two bulky metallic light-blue armoured boots include two knee guards with wheels mounted to the sides.

Combat Training Robot's stylised torso.

Action feature
In the comics, the Combat Training unit is normally in an R2D2-like diminutive droid form, but by request of its user it can convert to a much more badass expanded form (the way it transforms reminds me of that robot fight scene in the 2010 Gulliver's Travels movie). The smaller version came in the form of a 5-inch tall figure included with the Tahron playset; now we finally get the larger form. I still think that its transforming action feature could have been recreated in a two-in-one figure with an assortment of snap-on body parts, but I don't mind the designers at PoliganToys decided to go the two-separate-figures route.

The robot fictionally possesses a limited degree of intelligence and draws from a library of pre-programmed instructions and past experience to complete its training tasks. Its ability to move nimbly during the training sessions is achieved thanks to sets of repulsors embedded in its boots (mainly used to lift the robot above the ground) and mounted to its back (which are used to stabilise the movements and to change direction). The figure comes with two small plumes of blue smoke that attach to the soles of the robot's feet, giving the impression that they come out of the boots while it's hovering around.

The onboard computer housed inside the robot is programmed with a quantity of combat drills, and each drill ends after a preset time or when a score has been reached. The chest piece has a large, round impact-activated target that registers hits from the trainee. The aim of the training is deactivating the defence-shield of the robot within a certain amount of time. This is accomplished by hitting the robot's chest-target with any weapons the opponent decides to use. A counter and a timer, each made of a circle of luminous segments (green for the former and red for the latter) are located in a concentric manner around the target. In order to weaken the robot's defence-shield, ten direct hits have to be registered before the time limit. When this is achieved, the session stops; otherwise, missing the finishing time results in the chest piece blowing open and releasing a number of training remotes. Each remote will then weave around the opponent while firing numerous stinging laser blasts able to numb a limb for several minutes, which the trainee will have to dodge or deflect while waiting for an opportunity to retaliate. In the figure, the chest display that includes the target, counter and timer is a lenticular sticker whose design (i.e., a CGI blue pattern on a black background in the target, and a series of green- or red-coloured segments in the counter and timer, respectively) animates as it is viewed from different angles. An alternate burst open breastplate can be used to replace the regular piece of armour covering the robot's chest (I love all the amazing circuitry and panelling details inside the torso). Two remotes with clear flight stands are also included (I wish there were more); each remote looks like a small gold&light-blue sphere covered with manoeuvring thrusters, laser emitters, and sensors.

Weapons and accessories

In the comics, the Combat Training Robot has the ability to control laser energy and generate an arsenal of weapons from thin air. So, the figure comes with an axe and a shield that it can grasp in its mechanical hands, as well as rotating mace and blade attachments that plug into the outer sides of the gauntlets, replacing the two removable wrist guards. All the weapons resemble the golden accessories included with its Tahron playset counterpart, but they are larger and their translucent coloured plastic makes them look like laser creations (besides, the rotating weapons spin around axes that are perpendicular to -instead of coincident with- the robot's arms).

Additionally, the package includes the bomb disposal robot seen at the end of the KR|Enmity comic book Terror from the clouds. This 5-inch tall, wheeled figure represents the collapsed version of Demo-Rha's blast suit and features a vertical mount that houses pairs of cameras and mechanical limbs, as well as a white&ochre paint job. The tool-accessories that came with Demo-Rha's figure can even clip smartly onto the sides of the wheeled section. It's worth noting that the similarities between the collapsed/expanded forms of the Combat Training and Bomb Disposal robots suggest they belong to the same series.

Final thoughts
Overall: the Combat Training Robot was a concept character developed by PoliganToys and only made into toy as its collapsed form, which was included with the Tahron playset. It didn’t appear too often in the Foundation comics, but when it did, it made a strong impression on me. Overall I’m pleased with how this expanded version came out and I think it is going to make a great addition to the KR collection
Rating: ☺☺☺☺ / 5