Toy prototype details
Name: CatosTM
Subtitle: brave resistance leader
Line: KR|Echoes of Future
Item type: action figure - Nº 3 in the line.
Character details
Name: Catos
Classification: human
Sex: male
Relationships: father of Tah-Ron and ancestor of the Amhalgaard family
Home: Idakarr (Tahron's former name)
Era: 570 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Interspecific Commission
Rank: envoy.
Background
First appearance: KR|Echoes of Future #1 - The secret origin of chaos
Character summary: a respected member of the Interspecific Commission and a skilled archer, swimmer and inventor. After becoming the brave leader of the Grand Resistance, he fell in love with Lemu-RhaTM and had a son named Tah-Ron, whom he entrusted to the KimarhanTM tribe for his safety during the war against Silef.
Articulation
Standard (new scheme), except that the right hand is especially engineered with a hinge to hold an arrow.
Description
Head: light brown skin, green eyes, and a black stubble in which the moustache is disconnected from the lower beard line. He wears a pair of golden earrings and a turban-like white headdress secured with a colour-changing gem in front (this is normally golden-yellow, but if you dip a finger in warm water and then touch it, the gem will become purple). The daring expression on his face emphasizes his resemblance to Masq-Lor
Body: light brown skin, partially exposed torso and arms. He wears a taupe necklace with a gold medallion resembling the Interspecific Commission emblem, i.e., a misshapen concave-sided rhombus. His arms are partially covered by wide white sleeves (each has a slit that goes from the cuff all the way up to the elbow, exposing the forearms completely), while his legs are covered by wide white trousers tucked into the boots (each leg is adorned with an intricate golden side band reminiscent of traditional oriental motifs)
Wearables: a pearlescent white vest (whose edges are adorned with oriental-inspired, flowing line golden patterns) worn with the front open, two wrist guards consisting of multiple brown leather straps that are stitched together and secured by golden buckles, two dark-grey boots (each featuring a turndown top, a golden-jewelled tongue, brown laces and intricate brown stitches at the welt), and a zebra-like (i.e., with taupe-and-gold stripes) sash round the waist. It looks like the material used to make the vest is distinct from the material used for the sleeves, suggesting that the vest is worn over an unbuttoned shirt. The figure also wears a removable brown leather harness composed of two shoulder straps that converge on the right side of a waist strap; the back includes a rucksack, a quiver with sculpted arrows, two straps that secure a sculpted rope, and a clip for stowing a separate bow, while the front features a sheath holding a sculpted horn-handled knife on the larger shoulder strap, as well as two pouches for storing small tools on the sides of the waist strap.
Action feature
In the comics, Catos is accompanied by a snake-like golden underwater robotic beast of his own creation (unofficially named Kimaerha), which has a slender, elongated body, a bulbous snout with white glowing eyes, a long whip-like tail, and a set of fin-like structures: two dorsal fins spaced widely apart (a large triangular first dorsal fin with an erect spine on the front edge, and a low rectangular second dorsal fin), two pectoral fins (large enough to generate lift), two smaller pelvic fins, and a caudal fin divided into two lobes, the top one being larger, tapered and inclined upwards. When Catos is in danger, the creature activates (an act usually accompanied by purple light emitted by the jewel on Catos's headdress, hence the colour-changing feature), emerging from the water and dismantling the forepart of its body, to generate a high-tech suit of powered armour around Catos's body: the snout becomes a full face, seemingly flip-up helmet, the neck splits into two spaulders, the chest becomes a cuirass, the pectoral fins break down into rerebraces and gauntlets, and the first dorsal fin produces a longbow, while the rest of the creature incorporates Catos's lower body from the waist down. When in use, the suit grants Catos several abilities, and can reconfigure itself to produce a wide array of weapons; the most common functions consist in super-fast swimming by generating waves that travel the length of the tail fin, increased strength and endurance, energy shield generation, blasts/beams creation via the gauntlets, enhanced senses via the helmet, and production of a set of trident-shaped powered arrows (which can be shot with the longbow) via the spaulders. On dry land, the lower part of the suit can free Catos's legs while equipping them with thigh guards and shin guards. So, the figure comes with a plethora of extra pieces for changing Catos from his basic look to his enhanced form. Firstly, there are two alternative heads with the golden helmet closed and open. When closed, the helmet bears a fin-like crest from front to back, a chin bar and a face shield for absorbing impacts, and resembles a humanoid face (with purple glowing eyes) framed by what looks like the robotic creature's mouth. Its chin bar and face shield can be fictionally pivoted upwards to reveal most of Catos's face, as in an open-faced helmet. His battle outfit comes in the form of a cuirass (replacing the removable vest and harness) and two alternative armoured arms. The golden cuirass with pearlescent white details is not a completely new item, as it is mostly reused from Combat Masq-Lor. It's a two-piece armour that features the Kimarhan/Grand Resistance symbol (i.e., a laterally stretched, 14-rayed golden-yellow Vergina Sun symbol, from which the Theriom emblem derives) and functions like the above-mentioned Masq-Lor figure, where the armoured chest panels swap out. Catos has three newly made panels, the second of which depicts purple cracks forming across the symbol (indicating energy shield/blast projection), while the third one features some damage across the emblem. The arms, on the other hand, are reused from the enhanced form of Myneran and display various golden-and-white pieces of armour such as spaulders, rerebraces and gauntlets. Finally, there are two alternate lower sections that replace the regular legs and attach to the upper body by a peg at the waist: one with the robotic tail fin and one with armoured legs. The tail fin has amazing tech-mech details, golden paint deco, and articulation in three parts (hinged crotch, swivel-hinged "knees" and swivel-hinged tail fin). The second type of armoured lower body is human-like and is reused from Myneran too. It features two criss-crossed studded belts as well as pairs of tassets, thigh guards and boots with knee/shin guards, all with the same golden-and-white colour scheme and intricate decorative details as the upper limbs. The small gem-ornamented Theriom emblems on the wrist and knee guards have been retooled into Kimarhan symbols, while the little gaps here and there reveal pearlescent white chain mail details beneath the armour.
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| Catos's stylised alternative cuirass; the oval at the centre of the breastplate represents the Kimarhan symbol. |
Weapons and accessories
Apart from the wealth of interchangeable parts, Catos comes with two longbows. The first one is for his basic form and consists of a large, nicely shaped brown wooden cable-backed bow with off-white leather strips wrapped around the grip and the ends of the limbs, and a taupe bow string. This bow is reinforced with a brown tensioned cable along the face of it, and is complemented by a long brown wooden arrow with off-white fletching and a pointed dark-grey head. The second longbow is for Catos's enhanced form and consists of a beautifully sculpted golden bow (with a white "energy" string) fictionally derived from the spined dorsal fin of the robotic creature, and is accompanied by a golden arrow whose head has protrusions on the sides, giving it the look of an H-shaped trident (the arrowhead is flanked by two barbed prongs extending side by side with both the central pointed tip and part of the shaft).
Furthermore, we get a translucent purple blast effect for Catos's enhanced form, which is attached to an alternative open hand that replaces the default bow-drawing hand.
The final accessory is the robotic creature's foremost body! Made from the same golden-painted plastic and equipped with white glow-in-the-dark eyes, this piece attaches to the tail fin, to assemble the full Kimaerha figure. Also, included with the figure is the water-looking, articulated posing stand that was used for Xehrea. It has a sort of clamp for the robotic tail, which allows either the creature or Catos to be displayed in a few different swimming poses.
Final thoughts
Overall: Catos is simply epic! He's a really cool looking figure that is tons of fun. Lots of accessories, a great action feature, and plenty of play value. However, there are two areas where the toy could be improved, both of which were featured in the comics. I would have loved to see an additional head with Catos's thick black hair exposed, or perhaps a removable turban on the regular head. Also, it would be great if the trident-arrow could attach in some way to either shoulder pads. Despite these minor shortcomings, I'm really excited to see what this line has in store for us in the future
Rating: ☺☺☺☺ / 5
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