KR|Emergence Review #27: Tauton (Emergence Edition)

Toy prototype details
Name: Tauton^TM (Emergence Edition), aka White-Outfit Tauton
Subtitle: fighting cadet
Line: KR|Emergence
Item type: action figure - Nº 24 in the line.

Character details
Name: Tauton
Classification: human
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Era: 3 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Theriom
Rank: officer cadet; expert in hand-to-hand combat and weapons master.

Background
First appearance: KR|Emergence #2 - The war of all against all: Part I – Breach
Related character(s): Tauton.

Articulation
Standard.

Description
Head: he wears a crested (i.e., with a longitudinal raised band) white balaclava that covers the whole head and neck except for the eyes

Body: the torso and the legs are covered with a tight, sleeveless white uniform. The uniform looks solid white at a distance, but up close it appears to be painted in a camouflage pattern of dull and pearlescent white. While his upper arms wear two white leather armbands, the trousers are equipped with two pearl-white knee pads, a high-tech looking blueish-grey strap around the left thigh, and a simpler white leather strap bearing a side-pocket around the right thigh

Wearables: a padded white vest held tight by a pearl-white sash that wraps around the waist (with a small silver non-removable dagger tucked in), two white gloves fitted with silver knuckledusters, two white boots, a blueish-grey belt equipped with many pockets, and two vertical flaps hanging from the front and back of the belt. The vest is accompanied by two shoulder pads (which almost look like short sleeves) as well as a chest plate shaped like a hybrid of a blueish Theriom insignia and a silver throwing star, and held in place by an asymmetric arrangement of white leather straps choke-full with small silver weapons, i.e., throwing stars and hand grenades. The shoulder pads and the flaps protecting the groin and the posterior are made from white leather strips reinforced with blueish-grey steel plates, while the sculpt of his feet vaguely suggests that the boots are actually a combination of socks and rope sandals. Moreover, both the gloves and the boots are complemented with white boxing wraps around the forearms and the lower legs (another small silver non-removable dagger is stowed in the wraps on the right leg).

Weapons and accessories

Although in the comics Tauton is depicted as a skilled hand-to-hand fighter even in his younger days, his figure has no action feature, but it does come with some nice weapons and accessories. The included weapons are the same compound bow (plus separate arrow), techno-katana and kamas that came with Foundation Tauton, just redone in the new white-and-steel colour scheme. He can actually tote these weapons around thanks to a brand new white backpack/quiver piece that contains several sculpted arrows, and has an attached pearl-white sheath for the katana (the quiver and the sheath intersect each other like in an X) and two clips on the bottom for holding the kamas.

An extra spinning nunchaku is also part of the package. The effect is achieved using a white handle connected perpendicularly to a spinning disc, mimicking the appearance of the other stick whirling around. A semi-transparent plastic disc with white accents is used to create the spinning look; to complete the illusion, six white sticks, each attached to a few steel chain links, radiate from the centre of the disc.

Additionally, the package includes an alternate unmasked head, which shows Asian features, olive brown skin, black hair and a pair of hazel eyes, and two blueish-grey hoods (or rather a hood in two different forms: down and up) that can be positioned between the body and either head.

Finally, Tauton comes with a weapons rack, which looks like a conical frame made out of wooden poles and is done with the same premium detailing found on the figure. You can load it up with both the included weapons and those that came with Wog-Rauan.

Final thoughts
Overall: as a hardcore KR fan, I'm really glad to have this version of Tauton to finish off the Emergence line. If the second portrait isn't enough for you, you can remove the plastic armour on the figure and put on the cloth piece that was included with Wog-Rauan. This gives you yet another option to display Tauton on your shelf, though I’ll really have to ponder what style to have him represent on mine. I may be leaning towards the soft goods look, because it’s unique to the series. If the line ever comes to fruition, I'll even be ready to buy more than one figure, so I can showcase them all
Rating: ☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR Review #95: K'Ran

Toy prototype details
Name: K'Ran^TM
Subtitle: shielding mayor
Line: KR|Foundation
Item type: action figure - Nº 60 in the line.

Character details
Name: K'Ran (pronounced Karan)
Classification: human
Sex: male

Relationships: descendant of Al-Mih-Tek
Home: Tahron
Era: Foundation
Affiliation: Theriom
Rank: mayor of the city of Ra-Hal^TM.

Background

First appearance: KR|Foundation #13 - The ultimate curse

Related character(s): Al-Mih-Tek.

Articulation
Standard.

Description

Head: Middle Eastern features, brown skin with a pale blue tinge, thick dark-brown/grey hair and beard, blue eyes, and a tattooed headband with a sun-shaped central design on his forehead. He wears a flat-topped conical light-green hat similar to a mix of a fez and a taqiyah, which has a red tassel on top as well as a red band embroidered with gold-and-silver triangular motifs

Body: covered by a whole-body protective clothing of brown leather, which is also visible in the form of gloves and shoes on the hands and feet (although their colour is darker and each shoe has the ankle collar trimmed with off-white fur)

Wearables: a complex garment formed of a set of coloured items, which create a layered effect. The items include: a thigh-length, short-sleeved light-green wrap vest, a Y-shaped lamellar chest plate, and an ankle-length, sleeveless open red robe (with green bands embroidered with gold-and-silver triangular motifs on the front and hem, and arm holes trimmed with off-white fur). The wrap vest is secured by a red sash wrapped around the waist and accompanied by two loose criss-crossed studded red leather belts (one of which is equipped with a scabbard on the left side) that are joined by a large, elaborate disc-shaped silver buckle. The chest plate is made from small rectangular red leather scales laced into horizontal rows, and is edged with metallic light-green plates, while its vertical central strip extends and falls down tucked between the vest and the belts buckle. Additionally, he wears two square metallic red wrist guards with knuckle protectors, and two metallic red shin/knee guards, each embellished with a silver disc on the knee area; each wrist/shin guard is ornamented with studs and spikes.

K'Ran's stylised chest plate.

Action feature

PoliganToys gives us the possibility to display K'Ran's figure in two different ways: a KR|Foundation younger look and a KR|Horizon older look. The former has been described above and can be completed with an included asymmetric brown&purple cape, whose "closed" right side conceals the right upper arm almost completely, while the flowing left side looks windswept. The cape also features a high standing collar and a sun-shaped silver brooch on the left side of the chest, while an intricate ornament consisting of braided silver-wire cords hangs from the brooch and on the mantle.

The Horizon look is simply obtained by replacing his head with an older version of it (sporting longer grey/white hair and beard, and wearing a pair of bottom half-frame glasses) and by adding a different symmetric brown&light-blue cape with a "down" hood, a loose closure formed of two silver clasps connected with an elaborate sun-shaped silver brooch (this time, the sun looks split in the middle and is accompanied by a golden beam of light projecting downwards), and bunches of off-white ribbons hanging from the shoulders.

Finally, a third head+cape set allows us to transform the figure into a completely different character from a completely different series - Lord Tafmohr^TM, O-Kin's legitimate ruler, from the KR|Enmity line! The head, which looks predominantly feline (even if he's a primivod, a fictional anthropomorphic marsupial) and wears a relatively simple gold crown on a purple field (i.e., a cap), is characterised by thick brown fur striped with magenta, green eyes, the mouth wide open (which exposes a number of sharp whitish teeth and fangs), and a very long beard ornamented with a Golden Eagle army emblem (i.e., an eagle with two crossed axes). The heavy layered cape is composed, from bottom to top, of a dark-yellow mantle, an off-white fur collar that forms a half-length coating on the back portion, and two large spiked silver spaulders connected by chains on the front and back. The outfit is mostly comic book-inaccurate, but I don't mind and I'm glad we got this additional display option.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the alternative heads and capes, the figure comes with three weapons: a shield and two swords. In the comics, every time K'Ran refers an important political question to his citizens for a direct decision, he senses the voters' choices across the proposed courses of action via his forehead tattoo (which glows) and the result of the vote appears in the form of a pie chart on the bulletproof glass disc of his shield. I really love the lenticular sticker on the shield, and PoliganToys has recreated the comic book modelling perfectly for this. It works in four parts and if I were allowed (unfortunately, I'm not), I'd try to capture them individually in pictures, to show you the difference in each stage. The decagonal metallic light-green rim of the shield is actually a rotating ring with a silver marking that allows the reading of the winning option.

About the two swords, one is meant to be for K'Ran, which has a metallic light-green blade, a sun-shaped silver hand guard and a handle wrapped in red leather, while the other is for Lord Tafmohr, and has a silver blade, an eagle-shaped golden hand guard and a handle wrapped in purple leather. Either sword can be stowed in the belt scabbard.
Last but not least, the package includes a communicator-projector (or comjector), a type of communication device employed by the various factions throughout the Key Raiders saga. In the comics, the comjector allows two parties to converse as if in the same room by projecting moving visual images of each other courtesy of a "light well"; each user stands in the middle of a disc-like platform in front of a semi-circular slit (the so-called light well) near the edge of the disc, and the light coming out of the slit shows the user on the other end (with the intensity of the light varying while they speak). What we actually receive in toy form is just the high-tech looking gunmetal platform, which kind of disappoints me, because I would have liked to get some sort of vertical light effect that could be attached to the base as well. Still, the piece looks nice and it's better than nothing.

Final thoughts

Overall: I’m glad we finally got K'Ran (and in some way Lord Tafmohr) in the KR line. This proves that a supporting character like this can go years without receiving a figure (if they ever get one at all), especially if we consider that in the Foundation comics he was one of the last characters to be introduced before the curtain fell. Despite some hindered articulation issues and a few paint inaccuracies (in the Horizon comics, K'Ran's robe's arm holes are trimmed with dark fur), the mayor of Ra-Hal deserves a front spot on my shelf and PoliganToys ensured the figure wouldn't disappoint

Rating: ☺☺☺☺ / 5