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Wednesday, 15 June 2022

KR Review #92: Ramalik

Toy prototype details
Name: RamalikTM
Subtitle: bomb-hurling warrior
Line: KR|Foundation
Item type: action figure - Nº 58 in the line.

Character details
Name: Ramalik
Classification: ape-primivod* hybrid
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Era: Foundation
Affiliation: Independent Warriors (eventually becoming a member of the Theriom faction)
Rank: assistant leader of the Independent Warriors.
*PrimivodsTM are fictional anthropomorphic marsupials that can interbreed with some other species of mammals and produce fertile offspring.

Background
First appearance: KR|Foundation #7 - The siege of Erlokat
Related character(s): none.

Articulation
Standard, plus long hinged fingers and toes for hooked hands and feet poses.

Description
Head: predominantly ape-like (looking like a combination of an orangutan and a gibbon, even if he's partially a primivod), characterised by a thick sandy-brown fur that surrounds a grey/black-skinned face. The largely hairless (except for a beard) face includes the small ears, a pair of amber eyes with white war paint, a small nose and two fairly large cheek pads (or flanges). Displaying his brow corrugated in a frown and his mouth tight-lipped gives his face an overall bold expression
Body: he exhibits a partly new bulky sculpt characterised by long powerful arms and covered in coarse, long sandy-brown hair (but, like the face, most parts of his long hands and feet are bald and grey/black-skinned with white markings). His shoulders and thighs are equipped with pairs of russet bony spikes, while the hair on his forearms and lower legs is maroon
Wearables: a light-green armour with purple details, two laminar light-green bracelets, two laminar light-green shin guards, a light-green belt and a tattered purple leather skirt. The armour displays a large light-green metal disc in the front, which, together with the rest of the T-shaped shoulder guard/chest plate, is sewn on a lamellar purple leather vest. Each stirrup-style shin guard lacks a calf-protecting section and instead has a loop that fits under the heel of the foot. The belt has a large round buckle that holds a laminar light-green flap for protecting the groin (this flap looks like an extension of the armour's central strip).

Ramalik's stylised armour.

Action feature
In the comics, Ramalik is shown to have an enlarged throat sac, which inflates and serves as a resonating chamber when he produces loud hoots that can knock his enemies unconscious or shake and destroy targets. This structure can become quite large, sometimes equalling the size of his head. So, the figure comes with an alternative head that includes the greyish throat pouch inflated and displays his mouth wide open, exposing the long, sharp whitish canines. Obviously, the presence of the gular sac hinders the neck articulation.
Additionally, Ramalik's armour can be equipped with an included back-mounted trebuchet and an explosive projectile. This wooden machine (which fictionally works by a lever and ropes, and is intended to set targets on fire) has a sling made of intersecting leather strips for holding the projectile, as well as a pull-and-release spring action triggering a mechanism that catapults the incendiary bomb. The fire pot seemingly comprises a brownish-orange external earthen casing filled with a highly flammable mixture; on impact, the shell is designed to shatter, spreading its incendiary filling around the target.

Weapons and accessories
Apart from the alternate head and back-mounted catapult, Ramalik comes with a chained multi-blade throwing axe. This weapon consists of an X-shaped four-bladed axe (i.e., with two stone blades placed at the ends of each of two imaginary intersecting lines) on a length of chain with a grip (which doubles as a weight for flailing and striking) at the end, and is painted in purple (on the leather strips that are wrapped around the short wooden handle and grip for a more comfortable grasp), grey (on the blades and rigid faux chain) and light-green colour (on the metal wedges that secure the blades to the wooden haft). Since Ramalik has no grasping hands, both the handle and the grip have leather loops that allow the figure to hold the weapon with his hooked hands.
Additionally, the package includes a separate spiked steel helmet for the regular head. This helmet is characterised by a skull with a rounded shape and a keel-like crest running from front to rear. A distinctive feature of the helmet is the presence of two door-like, side moving parts attached to the skull; when closed, these two hinged cheek-pieces meet and connect at the chin, forming a rigid structure protecting the lateral parts of the head, cheeks, chin and throat. A movable top shield (in the form of a visor with two pairs of horizontal slits for the eyes) is closed by being drawn down, locking the two side pieces. All the parts (skull, cheek-pieces and visor) are equipped with various pointed pieces of metal.

Final thoughts
Overall: this chap has been on my most wanted characters list for a long time. How couldn't we love him? He has an orangutan look, his colour scheme is vibrant, and he can take down an enemy in hand-to-hand combat almost as rapidly as Masq-Lor. This figure turned out wonderful, has a great sculpt and excellent articulation, and is just lots of fun to play with
Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ / 5

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