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.

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