KR Review #100: CoBoN Mark II

Despite everything RaiderCosm has brought to the Key Raiders line this year, I will personally remember 2022 as the year that I wrote my 100^th KR|Foundation review. While PoliganToys is still actively producing KR prototypes and they may revisit the style of Foundation characters in the coming months, this review is truly a milestone in my long running blogging streak stretching back to the first prototype of Masq-Lor in 2015. Since then, PoliganToys has produced prototypes of well over 200 regular figures, multiple oversized figures, creatures and vehicles, and even three massive playsets (with a further one in the pipeline), a feat that's quite impressive in this modern age, especially when you realise that 99% of the product never appeared on a retail shelf and only a handful of pieces were sold at conventions.

Now, it's time for my review. This final Foundation item, CoBoN Mark II, is an interesting piece and a reasonable choice, since this vehicle appears towards the end of the Foundation saga finale. While there are certainly still toys I want for the line should it ever continue (or at least be revisited via the upcoming new wave), this new version of CoBoN does feel like the cherry on top of what has been a delicious cake. So, let's take a look at it.

Toy prototype details

Name: CoBoN Mark II

Subtitle: hyper-technological war machine

Line: KR|Foundation

Item type: vehicle - Nº 7 in the line (technically Nº 12, since several vehicles were included in multi-packs).

Character details

Name: CoBoN Mark II

Classification: fighting vehicle

Home: Tahron

Era: Foundation

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: transport.

Background

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

Related character(s): CoBoN, CoBoN 2.0.

Concept

Let me immediately make this clear: the name is absolutely misleading! This prototype only represents a part of the amazing machine that is CoBoN Mark II. That being said, it is worth spending a few words about its overall look in the comics, because I really wouldn't mind to see the rest in toy form at some point.

Like the previous model, this version of CoBoN is an all-terrain fighting vehicle that is characterised by a revolutionary design, powered by a classified energy source and controlled by an advanced AI. However, this model is composed of a number of modules and, when needed, it can separate into four individual vehicles, each of which is thrusted by formidable jet engines and possesses the ability to transform into a specific attack vehicle. In all this, I can see a lot of inspiration from some Japanese toys and TV programs from the late 70s / early 80s, namely Machine Hayabusa, Cho Supercar Gattiger, Dinosaur War Izenborg, and Diaclone Change Attackers or Attacars.

CoBoN Mark II is initially painted in silver like its predecessor, but it's subsequently airbrushed with black radar-absorbent paint for stealth purposes. It is also equipped with various vertical and/or horizontal air-deflecting, stabilising surfaces on the front, side and rear parts.

The individual modules have partially transparent canopies or pairs of scissor doors that are hinged either at the back or at the front; in this way they can open by folding up and backward or forward, in order to allow access into the respective cockpits/cabins. Each cockpit is outfitted with one or two seats (all provided with 4-point safety belts), and a high-tech dashboard/handlebar that shows tons of controls and resembles the instrument panel of an aircraft rather than a road vehicle; the instrumentation includes a voice display, which shows coloured lights that diverge horizontally when CoBoN's AI module speaks.

In its fully assembled form, CoBoN is capable of a hyper-speed transformation, which provides an extra-boost in velocity beyond the vehicle's original top speed. This consists of the production of structures on the vehicle's body intended to enhance acceleration and improve road-holding when travelling at those extremely high speeds.

Side modules

Apart from two badass Lambo-like doors, each side vehicle is equipped with two sets of tank treads (covered by fender skirts in the upper portions) and a pair of powerful glass-covered headlamps at the front, as well as two ordinary-sized wheels with all-terrain tires and a single huge booster rocket at the back (this is connected to the rear module in the fully assembled mode).

During hyper-speed transformation, each vehicle's front bumper (on its external side) deploys an additional side wing for aerodynamic stability, while the fender skirt expands to bring an array of small auxiliary thrusters into action.

After separating from the rest of the machine, each side module transforms into a tunnelling vehicle. The front caterpillar tracks swing back sideways against the rear wheels during a brief wheelie action, while the front part of the bodywork swings up and back to reveal a large conical steel drill bit (with a blade-like tapered screw thread) at the front as well as a pair of missile launchers on the top (which was previously part of the undercarriage).

Rear module

The rear vehicle is equipped with a pair of humungous off-the-road flotation tires, a display of weapons (including pairs of Gatling guns and clusters of missile launchers) at the front, and two large rectangular air intakes/outlets on the top-sides; each air intake/outlet is fitted with a V-/Pelikan tail, in which the external control surface has a gun on the tip that emits a laser-rope capable of wrapping around objects. The back features a bunch of horizontal tail lights, a boarding ladder to aid entry into the two-seater cockpit (which is covered by a canopy hinged at the front top) and four exhausts (two of which are particularly large) embedded in the rear bumper.

During hyper-speed transformation, the fenders expand to reveal supplementary air inlets for increased cooling, while the top part (including the canopy) rises substantially forming an aircraft-shaped structure (characterised by a pair of wings that connect the cockpit to the two rectangular air intakes/outlets, a T-/cruciform tail with large horizontal stabilisers, and a pair of small rocket boosters on the nose) and revealing a powerful, enormous 5-piece (one large, two medium-sized, and two small) jet engine underneath. The emergency braking system works by activating the two front boosters, tilting forward the two horizontal stabilisers to create air friction, and deploying a large braking parachute.

After separating from the central module, the rear module transforms into a submersible watercraft. The sides swing down revealing a pair of large impellers in the inner surfaces of the wheels (which make the vehicle hover on dry land), the front panel swings down allowing a secondary cockpit (equipped with canopy, twin headlamps on the nose and hinged torpedo launchers on the sides) to slide forward, while the roof and the rear panel fold like a "map", exposing the huge propeller (which is the upside-down jet engine) to view.

Central module

The central vehicle is equipped with four nicely sculpted all-terrain tires. The front part shows a louvered vent on the top as well as the signature nose-mounted scanner bar with red and yellow patterns, i.e., two lines that sweep horizontally and a central pulsing "eye" that allows CoBoN to "see". The cockpit is furnished with three round windows on each side below the canopy hinged at the back, while the side skirts project outwards to connect to the fender skirts of the side modules (in the fully combined configuration, the central vehicle is not attached to the rear vehicle; this connection is only established once the two side modules detach). The back part is wide and includes the hood (which can slide backward to reveal the amazing turbine engine) topped by two large exhausts and flanked by two massive air intakes/outlets.

During hyper-speed transformation, the louvered vent moves up becoming a shaker scoop, while the front bumper slides forward and partially rises to form a spoiler and to produce extra downforce.

After separating from the rear module, the central module transforms into a combat aerial vehicle. The wheels retract for hover conversion, the front bumper rotates to reveal a nose cone vaguely resembling a bird's head, the sides swing down to deploy a pair of variable-sweep wings with circular saw blades at their tips, and the bodywork (including the canopy/roof, replaced by a secondary transparent canopy that slides forward to cover the cockpit) swings up and back and converts to a H-/twin tail equipped with a pair of rotating laser guns on the sides, and a powerful jet engine fitted with four additional control surfaces arranged in an X-shape.

Description

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, although the prototype is named CoBoN Mark II like the entirety of the machine, the transformed form of the central module is the only part that comes in toy form. The cool bird-themed silver nose at the front includes the distinctive scanner bar, represented well by a black lenticular sticker, while at the tip of each swivelling wing is a spinning saw blade. There's also a piece at the back that features two pivoting (around a transverse axis) cannons. The hinged canopy (with some sculpted circuitry patterns on the clear portion) opens up and there is room inside the cockpit for one regular figure as well as the sphere-shaped AI module that came with CoBoN 2.0. No real unique features inside, but there are some handles for a figure to hold onto in order to safely control the vehicle.

Accessories

Apart from an articulated flight stand, CoBoN Mark II comes with two cybernetic processor units (basically two small tech-looking, card-shaped devices) that can be slid into apt sockets placed in CoBoN (Mark I, since Mark II's AI module is separate) and LoGoN vehicle forms' dashboards. I had never even noticed the presence of those slots in the two vehicles and I'm very happy we get these pieces of Theriom-tech that we fleetingly saw in a couple of comic book issues, namely The ultimate curse and Terror from the clouds.

Also included is an new version of Masq-Lor that features a wax sculpture-inspired look. This is basically a repaint of Apprentice Minister Masq-Lor with his Horizon Edition unhelmeted head and cuirass, which resembles the hero's waxy depiction made by Psadimyr as seen in the comics of the Horizon series. The figure is cast in an off-white/light yellow plastic and shows a shiny surface. Masq-Lor's wax sculpture comes with no weapon, but is (paradoxically) fully articulated and actually looks cool controlling CoBoN in the vehicle's flight deck.

Final thoughts

Overall: the transformed central module of CoBoN Mark II gets a solid thumbs-up from me. I like the design, I like the quality, but there's not much more to it than what I described. The spinning blades are fun, but another more imaginative feature or two would have been welcome. It is a rather decent sized vehicle, though, and I'm still trying to decide how to display it, since I'm not planning to make it a centrepiece item, but it does need an adequate amount of space. Of course, including a (sort of) variant of Masq-Lor, the figure that started it all, was a clever decision that really brought a smile to my face

Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR Review #99: Leutra

Toy prototype details

Name: Leutra^TM

Subtitle: tricky rebel

Line: KR|Foundation

Item type: action figure - Nº 62 in the line.

Character details

Name: Leutra

Classification: human

Sex: female

Home: Tahron

Era: 521 years before Foundation

Affiliation: Kimarhan^TM (a tribe of forest warriors who resist, among others, the rising reptilian authority); possibly becoming a member of the Theriom faction at a later time

Rank: apprentice tracker and scout.

Background

First appearance: KR|Foundation #12 - Dawn of a new past

Related character(s): none.

Articulation
Standard, excluding hinged abdomen.

Description

Head: Hispanic features, cream white skin, hazel eyes. She wears a boar's tusk helmet, i.e., a helmet made of ivory slivers of boar tusks that are attached to a purple leather cap in rows (the cap is visible through the gaps between the horizontal rows), with the tusks running all around in alternate directions in each row. The helmet also has a pair of cheek-guards and a double bony hook on top

Body: the exposed parts of her body (i.e., lower torso, forearms and legs) show cream white skin

Wearables: a V-shaped brown crop top with a purple motif (i.e., a seven-rayed sun) on the front and mid-length sleeves marked with beige stitches, a purple jacket with very short jagged sleeves, a brown emblem (again a seven-rayed sun) on the back and a collar made from brown-coloured fur that is darkly marked with both blotchy spots and stripes, two pairs of armbands made of either black leather or green woven grass, two finger bracelets (each made of a brown leather strap that wraps around the wrist and part of the forearm, forms a harness with a silver stud attached across her knuckles, and then loops around her middle and ring fingers), two brown leather shoes, two narrow loose fitting criss-crossed brown leather belts, and a short tattered purple skirt. The jacket (whose serrated hem, like the crop top, is cut short so that it reveals the stomach) is completely open and exposes a necklace, from which several pendants resembling teeth or claws hang down in front. The skirt doesn't really match the upper body's outfit and I guess it's a reference to the short dress with criss-crossed straps briefly seen in the comics.

Action feature

In the comics, Leutra is a young tribeswoman who dreams of becoming a great hunter like her father. She develops impressive skills in concealment and prefers to work alone, since she thinks that few could reach her level of sneakiness and camouflage technique. So, the figure comes with an alternative head as well as an alternative lower section that replaces the standard legs and attaches to the upper body by a peg at the waist. The alternate head shows brown camouflage paint applied on both her face and helmet as well as some natural foliage such as grass, leaves and twigs added to the helmet. The alternate lower body includes a pair of above knee-length purple trousers patched with beige, green and brown pieces of cloth, a pair of under knee brown leather boots (whose shafts are fastened with two pairs of bands made of either black leather or green woven grass), and two wide loose fitting criss-crossed brown leather belts, which incorporate several sculpted darts plus one loop for a separate dart. Each dart consists of a stone point fitted with a triangular bony arrowhead and attached to an equally long shaft of wood that is fletched with feathers to provide stability of flight.

Weapons and accessories

Aside from the alternate head, lower body piece and projectile, Leutra comes with a kestros, a specially designed sling that she uses to throw her heavy darts. The sling is composed of a metal ring to which two chains are linked. Each chain is connected to a length of rope: one rope ends with a loop, while the other rope is attached via a circular leather patch to a backbone (roughly of the same length as the chain-plus-rope section) ripped out of some animal. To throw the dart, Leutra holds the weapon by looping her middle, ring and small fingers around the central ring, passes the butt of the dart through the loop at the end of one rope, wraps the dart's head in the leather patch by bending the other rope and the spine at their joint, and grasps the end of the spine portion with her thumb and index finger (in the accessory, the end of the backbone clips onto the ring). The dart remains fixed in that position while the weapon is whirled round and round similarly to a lasso, but when at maximum centrifugal force the end of the spine is released, the dart is propelled towards an enemy. Wow, sounds like it takes great amounts of training and skill to properly deploy a dart with this weapon! The accessory is made of real metal chains and pliable purple (except for the brown leather patch) "rope" parts, while the silver central ring and the bony white spine portion are made of rigid plastic. It is also fictionally used as a spiked whip (that's why the sling is not just made of rope - the spiny backbone and the chain sections look pretty vicious) and can be worn over the shoulder and across the body like a bandolier.

Additionally, the figure includes another alternative portrait, which is helmet-less and shows auburn (i.e., reddish-brown) hair tied in a short ponytail at the back, and with side swept bangs at the front.

Final thoughts

Overall: Leutra is an excellent figure with a great likeness to the character. This heroic female warrior was featured in one of the best episodes in the Foundation series and I think she's a pretty good representative of the Kimarhan tribe, which is incredibly important to the KR mythos (after all, that's King Tah-Ron's tribe!) She definitely deserved a figure. The attention to detail, paint applications, sculpt and accessories look great. The neck peg seems a bit fragile though and I had to make sure to use some caution while swapping out the heads, as I definitely don’t want to risk breaking it

Rating: ☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR Review #98: Vehicle Driver

Toy prototype details
Name: Vehicle Driver
Subtitle: mysterious vehicle maneuverer
Line: KR|Foundation
Item type: action figure - Nº 61 in the line.

Character details
Name: unknown
Classification: uncertain
Sex: presumably male
Home: Tahron
Era: Foundation
Affiliation: varying
Rank: maneuverer.

Background
The Vehicle Driver has the distinction of being the only figure in the entire KR line that doesn't correspond to any characters in the stories. The figure comes with a set of interchangeable heads, chest plates and weapons that match up with the eight vehicles included in the Foundation series.

Articulation
Standard.

Description

The basic look of the figure hails from the generic warrior design on the tokens of the Key Raiders board game. In terms of sculpt, the figure makes extensive re-use of previous moulds... there’s very little new here.

Body: the figure's torso and limbs use the same proportions seen in other KR human male figures. In addition, he wears a whole-body protective clothing of dark red-and-purple leather, while black leather is visible in the form of gloves and boots on the hands and feet

Wearables: a golden armour with black details, two golden wrist guards with knuckle protectors, two golden knee/shin guards, a golden belt and a black groin protector. The new, relatively simple armour features some great design elements such as raised edges, rivets, and circuitry details. The back of the armour shows off what are presumably some sort of air tanks, while the attached spaulders are softer and do move nicely when you pose the shoulders.

Action feature, weapons and accessories

The included heads are inspired by “made-up” background characters for the artwork on some large items packaging, promotional posters and comic books. To help tie each of these characters more closely to the vehicles they're identified with, PoliganToys have incorporated design elements from the rides into a number of unique chest plates and weapons. The interchangeable chest plates are separate pieces that merely plug into a socket in the armour. You can easily remove one and replace it with another.

Wheel-Wolf driver

Head: a bulbous silver space suit helmet with an orange visor, a trapezoidal breathing apparatus connected to two headphone-like devices on the sides by bundles of golden tubes, and lots of cyber details all over the dome at the top, which is reminiscent of the Theriom Trooper's helmet. The visor is nice and wide, and can be popped off to reveal the eyes of a beast-looking, brown-furred character inside

Chest plate: modelled after the silver armour on the Wheel-Wolf's hull front, which subtly resembles a wolf's head

Weapon: a shield modelled after one of the Wheel-Wolf's wheels, including the black off-the-road flotation tire and a silver central spike.

Aviotak driver

Head: a full-face golden helmet with a pair of blue-violet lenses and a breathing apparatus composed of three silver hoses (two smooth that are threaded horizontally through two loops on the sides of the head and one corrugated that extends vertically between the lenses, with all three hoses ending at the back of the helmet) and black O-rings

Chest plate: an electronic panel modelled after the Aviotak's high-tech silver dashboard and equipped with a blue-violet pliable hose that plugs into the figure's mouth piece

Weapon: a double-barrelled (side-by-side, with a substantial gap between the two barrels) red-and-silver gun modelled after the Aviotak's pair of turbojet engines.

Ceratank driver

Head: an off-white (i.e., a white colour with a grey tinge that looks like tarnished silver) great helm consisting of a flat-topped (actually slightly curved) cylinder of metal that completely covers the head and has small openings for ventilation and vision. The helmet is also extended downward until it reaches the throat and has a cross-shaped shiny steel ornament riveted to the face portion

Chest plate: modelled after the ivory-white bony armour on the Ceratank's hull front, which strongly resembles a Centrosaurus skull (with some metallic dark-blue tech details and red glowing eye sockets)

Weapon: a club modelled after the Ceratank's wavy ivory-white bony tail ending with a head shaped like the tank's metallic dark-blue missile-launcher.

Pterajet driver

Head: a tech looking glossy black covering, which looks like a full face motorcycle helmet with an overall shape that is reminiscent of the Rexodon Troopers' robotic head. Instead of being covered by a visor, the large cut-out in the eye and snout area exposes a reptilian face underneath, characterised by an insanely wrinkled and orange-coloured skin, two yellow eyes with round black pupils and open jaws lined with sharp whitish teeth

Chest plate: modelled after the black-and-gold shape and outline of the Pterajet

Weapon: a double-bitted axe (similar to an onzil with a golden handle) whose glossy black blades are modelled after the Pterajet's bird head-shaped, red-eyed nose and one of the folded-wing structures mounted to the neck, respectively.

Pyrosaur driver

Head: a metallic purple helmet with three parallel ridges (or crests) raised from the top of the skull and running from front to rear (the two on the sides are smooth and sharp, while the keel-like, segmented one in the middle is made of silver laminar armour), a thin curved translucent red eye guard and a pointed, serrated flap of silver chain mail for mouth and throat protection. The visor plus curtain of mail can be detached to reveal a reptilian face underneath, which is characterised by scaly greenish skin, three white eyes with small round black pupils, a purplish proboscis-like nose and two large yellowish tusks pointing upward

Chest plate: modelled after the head of the Pyrosaur Siege Warfare cannon's battering ram, which looks like a robotic lizard's silver skull equipped with bronze tusks, chin spike and sagittal crest

Weapon: a large silver-grey gun modelled after the Pyrosaur's flamethrower.

Serpocraft driver

Head: characterised by slimy light-blueish skin, a pair of goggles with large oval glossy black lenses (or are they actually eyes?) and a segmented greyish bony nose/mouth guard that kind of resembles a trilobite's carapace. He wears a ceremonial Attic-like red-orange helmet that is very reminiscent of the Spektrosaur Troopers' helmet

Chest plate: modelled after the Serpocraft's dark-green cockpit that resembles the head of a cobra

Weapon: a double-sided sword whose slightly curved jagged-edged pearl-grey blades are modelled after the Serpocraft's rotor aerofoils.

Arkiopod driver

Head: human-like, characterised by a ghostly, pale blue-green skin, thick black eyebrows and dark-green face war paint on the forehead, around a pair of solid purple eyes, down the cheeks (somehow slightly extending beyond the jawline) and the top part of the nose. He wears a dark-red cowl that also covers the upper back, similarly to a short cape

Chest plate: modelled after the Arkiopod's reddish-brown copper hull front equipped with a pair of tech looking dark-grey arms (each split into three tentacles) and a pair of headlights (similar to two beady eyes)

Weapon: a wrist-mounted retractable whip modelled after one of the Arkiopod's tentacles ending with a sharp claw (the dark-grey whip portion is detachable from the tech looking reddish-brown portion that clips onto the wrist).

Rotakord driver

Head: warty purplish skin, two large light-blue eyes with slit-shaped dark vertical pupils, two small nostrils, and a wide mouth that is equipped with sharp dark-grey teeth and flanked by two pairs of arthropod-like dark-grey crushing mouthparts. He also wears a silver-horned golden-yellow helmet, whose design, combining barbaric and tech features, is very reminiscent of the Destructomorph Troopers' helmet

Chest plate: modelled after the Rotakord's metallic purple canopy with translucent yellow windscreen, which is shaped like two connected devilish eyes

Weapon: a purple staff with one end modelled after the Rotakord's boring/suction mechanism fitted with spinning steel saw blades, while the other end is shaped like the chainsaw/jackhammer-like silver tool mounted to the vehicle's nose.

Final thoughts

Overall: while the Vehicle Driver isn't really a fan-demanded character, the figure itself came out nicely despite having mostly reused parts. I know a lot of people don’t like these obscure characters, but this is the kind of thing that makes the line cool to me, so I am very glad to have him as well. PoliganToys was also smart to just call him a “vehicle driver”, so you could potentially army build him

Rating: ☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR Review #97: Murmirian Warriors

Toy prototype details

Name: Murmirian^TM Warriors

Subtitle: insectile hooligans

Line: KR|Foundation

Item type: multi-pack (army builder 2-pack) - Nº 21 in the line.

Character details

Name: unknown

Classification: insect

Sex: male or female

Home: Tahron

Era: Foundation

Affiliation: Destructomorph

Rank: vandal.

Background

First appearance: KR|Foundation #12 - Dawn of a new past

Related character(s): Zektax.

Articulation
Standard, with the addition of two fully articulated arms (each pair of arms on either side is connected to an extra swivelling double socket) and with the exclusion of a hinged abdomen.

Description

Heads: each figure's head is somewhat human-like, and is characterised by a scale armour golden-yellow helmet that surrounds and merges with a reddish face. The helmet is equipped with water polo-like ear coverings, a central caterpillar looking crest and two short tubes from which a pair of fairly long, thin black forward-pointing antennae projects. The face displays a pair of evil almond-shaped glossy-black compound eyes, three smaller red glowing eye spots on the forehead, a vampire looking mouth complemented with two pairs of honeybee-like black mandibles and elongated black maxillae (above and beside/below the lips, respectively) as well as a housefly-like stretched out black proboscis extending from the chin, which is equipped with two palps and ends in a pair of fleshy protrusions that are more or less fused to form a single structure similar to a sucker

Bodies: each figure's four slender arms are protected by a segmented reddish chitinous exoskeleton and bear spinous ridges running down the sides. The arms and the legs end with reddish clawed hands (four-fingered in the upper arms and two-fingered in the lower arms) and digitigrade feet (reused from the Destructomorph Goblins, with the heel section high up, and three massive claw-like black toes in front and one in back). The figure's torso is essentially a jar of viscera, which is filled with a slimy fluid that allows his/her internal organs (such as heart, air sacs, guts and ganglia) to float around; these can be seen through the transparent chest (which features sculpted pecs and abs) and back, while the sides are spray-painted in red

Wearables: each figure wears a metallic purple collar characterised by a triangular shape in front and back, "insect-style" sculpting and golden-yellow details, four scaly (with some of the scales developing a bit more into spines) purple bracelets, two purple shin guards fastened with criss-crossed leather laces, a purple belt with a rectangular golden-yellow buckle, and a pair of laminar armour golden-yellow trousers.

Weapons and accessories
Although in the comics the Murmirian Warriors are shown to be extremely skilled hand-to-hand fighters, to have the ability to lift 20 times their body weight, and to communicate with each other telepathically via pheromones produced by their antennae, these figures have no action feature (apart from the translucent torso as well as the additional shoulder joints that allow the arms to spin in an attack motion). However, each figure comes with a giant winged weapon that can either be worn on the back or used as a dual-bladed staff of sorts. Designed to look like insect wings, these two pieces are as tall as the figures, are cast in translucent yellow with added golden glitter, and feature some excellent golden-yellow and metallic purple paint apps to bring out all the detail. On the back of each figure's collar is a clasp that the handle of the winged melee weapon can snap into. I like to imagine that they are made of an extremely lightweight material that could enable the Murmirian Warriors to glide.

Final thoughts

Overall: the Murmirian Warriors turned out wonderfully and have a lot of new parts to make them stand out on my KR shelf. Even if they were not my most anticipated figures, there is a lot to like about these excellent prototypes. And I'm very happy with how the translucent chest came out... with almost 100 prototypes in the line, I definitely appreciate a KR toy that stands out from the rest due to some unique feature. Their weapons design and colour scheme is rather eye catching too

Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR Review #96: Deptilion's Legacy Demon (One-Horned)

Toy prototype details

Name: Deptilion^TM's Legacy Demon (One-Horned)
Subtitle: cruel leviathan
Line: KR|Foundation
Item type: large scale figure - Nº 8 in the line.

Character details
Name: unknown
Classification: spirit
Sex: uncertain
Home: Tahron
Era: Foundation
Affiliation: Destructomorph
Rank: demonic entity possessing Geel-Ber.

Background
First appearance: KR|Foundation #12 - Dawn of a new past
Related character(s): Geel-Ber, Deptilion, Three-Horned Demon.

Articulation
Standard, with the addition of a ball jointed tail.

Description

Head: sea serpent-like, covered in warty dark blue-green skin and characterised by a spiky grey-brown sagittal crest, a pair of deep-set solid purple glowing eyes, a pair of small pointed ears, and one dark-grey forward-pointing horn on the beak-shaped, orange-tipped muzzle. The slightly open mouth shows some sharp whitish teeth

Body: the figure is 23 cm tall (around 9'') and displays a body covered in warty dark blue-green skin, with large scales occurring especially on the neck (thanks to a rubbery removable neck piece that fits right on top of the body and mimics a horny collar with a sequence of extended, spinous grey-brown processes running down the middle of the upper back) and shoulders (the latter are also equipped with two pairs of curved grey-brown spikes), and sharp grey-brown spikes sticking out of the elbows. He also has clawed hands and feet (including one claw protruding from each heel) as well as a fairly long dark blue-green scaly tail with grey-brown spikes projecting from its upper side

Wearables: none.

Weapons and accessories
The Demon has no action feature and doesn't come with any proper weapons, but includes two interesting accessories. The first piece is an alternate head that shows a screaming, much angrier expression compared to the regular portrait.

The second accessory is Demo-Rha's sceptre as it is shown in the 10^th issue of the KR|Foundation comic book series Evanescing act, where it is used by Deptilion to teleport his enemies to Cereutis. The staff is moulded in purple plastic and is topped with a modified version of the Destructomorph symbol, i.e., a square-shaped black spider, whose back resembles a human skull. The only difference with Demo-Rha's standard sceptre is that two red gemstones are embedded in the skull's eye sockets. As another option, the staff can also be grasped by the Demon and wielded as a weapon.

Final thoughts
Overall: of course PoliganToys couldn't deny us the perfect companion of the Three-Horned Demon. He is tremendously sculpted and looks great on my monster shelf or with the rest of my KR prototypes
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

KR Review #94: Belemnian Warriors

Toy prototype details
Name: Belemnian^TM Warriors
Subtitle: tentacular thugs
Line: KR|Foundation
Item type: multi-pack (army builder 2-pack) - Nº 20 in the line.

Character details
Name: unknown
Classification: mollusc
Sex: male or female
Home: Tahron
Era: Foundation
Affiliation: Destructomorph
Rank: berserker.

Background
First appearance: KR|Foundation #12 - Dawn of a new past
Related character(s): Todahr.

Articulation
Standard, with six additional tentacles, which are ball hinged separate pieces. Each tentacle features an additional swivel at about one-third of its length.

Description

Heads: each figure's head is composed of a slender tusk-shaped pearlescent off-white shell, from which the snout protrudes. While the upper side of the shell is marked with red spots, the snout is topped with a bumpy orange leathery hood and is characterised by two evil solid yellow glowing eyes as well as eight short greenish-grey arms arranged around a small syphon-like mouth
Bodies: each figure's anthropoid limbs (two arms and two legs) have a wrinkled greenish-grey skin, bear numerous suckers along their length, and carry webbed clawed hands and feet as well as fin-shaped gill-like extensions that project from the forearms and the calves through openings in the worn items. Additionally, six slim tentacle-like greenish-grey arms (each decorated with a plain golden-yellow armband) are attached to the underside of a limpet-like shell that plugs into a socket in the back armour. The shallow, conical shell is smooth and painted in pearlescent off-white on the underside, and cracked and of a darker colour on the upper side, while the tentacles have skin-rings running all the way down and suckers near their club-shaped ends

Wearables: each figure wears a golden-yellow armour with metallic light-blue details, two golden-yellow wrist guards, two golden-yellow shin guards, a triangular studded golden-yellow belt and a scale armour (i.e., consisting of several overlapping metallic light-blue plates laced together) loincloth.

Belemnian Warrior's stylised armour.

Action feature
The Belemnian Warriors' fictional ability to seize their enemies with a powerful grip has been recreated by providing each figure with six cool extra arms. Each arm is unique and numbered, has a pin/disc joint (with a ball-shaped peg that pops into a slot in the underside of the shell) at one end, so it can turn and tilt, and is bendable towards the other end. These arms can turn up and down, and hinge forward and backward, but the forward range of motion is blocked by the body and the backward range is mostly blocked by the shell. I was afraid that they couldn’t really be posed in a forward attack motion, but fortunately the folks at PoliganToys made them a bit more fun to pose by including a swivel at the armbands and by making them from a bendy material. Also, you can get a variety of tentacle poses by swapping around the order they are inserted in the shell. As an additional display option, the six tentacles can also be removed from the shell piece, to transform each figure into a simple two-armed warrior.

Weapons and accessories

The Belemnian Warriors come with two weapons, one for each figure: a "pearl-shooting" gun and a crystal lance/spear. The metallic light-blue gun (with some golden-yellow details) has a fairly long barrel which is seemingly enclosed within a hinged double shell (which looks like an open clamshell) and consists of concentric tubular sections supposedly designed to slide into one another. The barrel ends in a bell-shaped muzzle that holds a hemispherical, pearl-like off-white emitter, which in the comics has the ability to shoot deadly globular blasts of plasma. The bulky, hi-tech main body of the weapon is equipped with a rear grip, an L-shaped fore grip (i.e., with a handle sticking off the side for two-handed firing), a stock, and a laser sight (conveniently, the upper shell has a hole). The rear grip and the vertical part of the fore grip are joined by what looks like a chipped axe blade. Two fin-shaped ornaments projecting from above the sight and the butt of the weapon have loops for fitting a faux leather baldric.

The other weapon is a dangerous looking, long shard of crystal, which either figure can wield nicely in either hand. This tapering lance-like accessory is moulded in translucent light-blue plastic and is the same weapon that came with Helimex (minus the white frosting).

Final thoughts
Overall: the Belemnian Warriors are among those one-issue only characters that I have been looking forward to getting and, a few articulation quibbles aside (namely the uselessness of the hinge joint at the base of each extra arm), they don't disappoint. The tentacles, although a bit limited, still make for a striking look posed on the shelf. This is a pretty great 2-pack and one of the more interesting prototypes this year
Rating: ☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR Review #93: Combat Sei-Lha (Black Repaint)

Toy prototype details
Name: Combat Sei-Lha^TM (Black Repaint)
Subtitle: brave armoured soldier
Line: KR|Foundation
Item type: action figure - Nº 59 in the line.

Character details
Name: Sei-Lha
Classification: human

Sex: female

Relationships: daughter of Xonedar, Masq-Lor's love interest
Home: Tahron
Era: Foundation
Affiliation: Theriom
Rank: second lieutenant; expert in electronic & computer engineering and veterinary medicine.

Background
First appearance: KR|Foundation #13 - The ultimate curse
Related character(s): Sei-Lha, Combat Sei-Lha.

Articulation
Standard, except that the wrists are ball jointed and there is no hinged abdomen.

Description
Head: protected by a full-face black helmet with a couple of coral red details and a black glass visor. This helmet is a little Boba Fett, a little Iron Man and a little G.I. Joe Cobra Commander, but it works overall. It includes a removable face plate, which can be magnetically attached to the front (i.e., covering the face) or to the top (i.e., flipped up) of the helmet. The inside of the face plate displays a surprising amount of sculpted features, which make the piece look very high-tech. Sei-Lha's face underneath bears a striking resemblance to the regular figure's face, but has some additional details, such as a silver cyber eye mask (with an eye hole on the right and a translucent light-blue scope, for looking in on targets, on the left) and a silver headset microphone that runs down the right cheek
Body: covered from neck to toe with a black armoured suit with a few coral red details. There is an impressive amount of intricate decorative features all around the various components of this suit and, in fact, there are very few spots on the figure that do not have some kind of sculpted tech-mech embellishments, such as cables and tubes, bolts and pistons, gauges and switches. But it all works together and does not get too busy
Wearables: the chest armour recalls the harness seen with regular Sei-Lha and carries a beautifully sculpted gunmetal Theriom symbol that juts out from the black background of the chest plate, while the armholes look like ammo belts. She also has black gauntlets, black thigh protectors, black boots (with fin-shaped flight control surfaces and jet engines), a black belt (which also looks a bit like an ammo belt) and a black crotch piece with some coral red details, everything with a lot of great cyber decorative patterns.

Combat Sei-Lha's stylised chest armour; the oval at the centre of the chest plate represents a gunmetal version of the Theriom symbol.

Action feature
Like with Combat Sei-Lha's standard version, in the comics the black armour is shown to be equipped with multiple guns that flip out from the wrists, thighs and chest. In the figure, all the gunmetal blasters are separate pieces that can be added during Sei-Lha's combat mode. We get two pivoting arm guns (which plug into the inner sides of the gauntlets), two knee guns (which connect to the flip-down leg guards) and a double-barrelled laser cannon mounted to an alternative open chest plate (which is designed to replace the detached regular chest plate, revealing some nice circuitry patterns underneath).

Furthermore, two interchangeable back plates+shoulder amour pieces are included as accessories and can be placed (one at a time) on the figure's back after removing the head. The default piece is a shoulder/back armour equipped with two weapons (a grenade launcher and a flamethrower, with a separate large-calibre projectile and a blast effect respectively) mounted on two adjustable armatures, so that they can either be set in a vertical rest position or flipped over Sei-Lha's shoulders for attack. The second piece is another shoulder/back armour equipped with swivelling wings. The wings are incredibly detailed, with hinged air-flaps and sculpted rocket launchers and turbojet engines. The outboard parts of the wings can be disconnected from the central structure and grabbed by Sei-Lha's hands (holding the plugs that normally fit tightly into the inboard parts), to be used as shields or blades or handheld missile launchers.
Lastly, in the comics the armour is shown to activate a self-operating mode, eject Sei-Lha and then surprise the opponents by suddenly bursting apart. To mimic this auto-destruction feature (or rather the moment immediately before the blast), there is a thin glow-in-the-dark line that splits the front armour in two down the middle. The figure also comes with two alternative elements, i.e., a full-face helmet and a chest piece, which are amazingly sculpted in such a way that they look like exploding, with shooting parts (especially the face and breast plates) and flames.

Weapons and accessories
Apart from the five plug-in guns, the additional shoulder/back armour and the exploding helmet and chest plate, Combat Sei-Lha comes with a few more accessories. Firstly, the figure includes a total of five swappable hands, which add a nice variety for posing. There is one pair of gloved open-palm hands to be used with the pivoting wrist guns, one pair of gloved gripping hands for clutching the wing-weapons and, just for fun, one ungloved relaxed left hand.
Moreover, the figure includes a fantastic accessory - a halberd (the one with the sawtooth blade curved inward) lodged within an opal stone. The challenge for Masq-Lor and Deptilion of drawing the halberd from the milky, semi-transparent stone placed in the Quartz Tower is depicted in the very first KR comic book issue The hidden halberd. Eventually, the two opponents realise that the halberd is actually a lever, which, instead of being designed to be pulled out from the stone, operates a mechanism allowing a secret compartment to slide horizontally in and out of the base (made of metal and wood with amber inlays), and making it possible to acquire the real halberd hidden in it (this weapon is not included in the set).

Final thoughts
Overall: some may like Combat Sei-Lha as she appeared in the "Herrion's ordeal" and "Dawn of a new past" episodes. Some have wanted to see her as she's shown in the last KR|Foundation comic issue for long, sporting the total black armoured suit that she dons in the Gyrocarrier. I prefer this look, because it is so much cooler in my opinion. If you don't like the new colour scheme, that's fine, but as a figure there's not too much to complain about here
Rating: ☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR Review #92: Ramalik

Toy prototype details
Name: Ramalik^TM
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.
*Primivods^TM 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

KR Review #91: Holopodian Mutants

Toy prototype details
Name: Holopodian^TM Mutants
Subtitle: thorny minions
Line: KR|Foundation
Item type: multi-pack (army builder 2-pack) - Nº 19 in the line.

Character details
Name: unknown
Classification: mutant holopodian*
Sex: male or female
Home: Tahron
Era: Foundation
Affiliation: Destructomorph
Rank: officer.
*Holopodians are fictional large-sized echinoderms with some characteristics that are shared with crustaceans.

Background
First appearance: KR|Foundation #11 - Herrion's ordeal
Related character(s): Kinod, Queen Holopodian.

Articulation
Standard, except that the left wrists are ball jointed.

Description
Heads: each figure's head consists of a spherical bivalve black shell covered with spines and partially open, whose serrated opening allows a pair of evil green glowing eyes to peek through
Bodies: each figure's body has pinkish skin (which bears a number of projections in the form of porous warts), clawed hands and star-shaped clawed feet. The back is equipped with a separate black shell clip-on piece; this bony shell displays four strips that run down its length and bear comb-like bands of seemingly vibrating translucent light-blue hairs. The comb rows originate from an eye-shaped dark-blue ornament situated at the top part of the shell, while a pair of long pliable pinkish tentacles (each fringed with little filaments and ending in a bony tooth-like structure) emerges from the sides of the shell and projects forwards over the shoulders
Wearables: each figure wears a light-blue armour with dark-blue details (including studs, spikes and rivets), two light-blue bracelets with star-shaped studs, two light-blue boots (each with a spiky top), a spiky light-blue belt and a dark-blue gorgonian-like loincloth (reused from Colotros).

Holopodian Mutant's stylised armour.

Weapons and accessories
The Holopodian Mutants have no action feature, but they come with a cool assortment of accessories. First of all, two weapons, one for each figure: a flail and a staff. The flail, which is a replica of Kinod's signature weapon, comprises a metallic dark-blue haft connected by a long real metal chain to a spherical silver-spiked dark-blue striking end. The staff, which is a repaint of Xehrea's weapon (retooled slightly in order to be grasped by these figures) consists of a metallic dark-blue pole that has a trishula-like trident at one end and a swordbreaker blade at the other end, and features a translucent light-blue gem at the base of the central prong.

Furthermore, there is a selection of dark-blue&silver plug-in attachments for the figures' left arms, which includes a rigid whip, an elaborate bow-shaped sword blade, a shield (which looks a little like the rotating arrangement of blades of a fan to me) and a spiked striking ball. The last accessory is interesting, because it may be replaced by the flail (whose haft can also plug into the arm) in order to simulate an extending/retracting feature of the same weapon.
Last but not least, the package includes two pairs of alternative heads, one pair for each figure. The first type is the unfurled head that also came with the Queen Holopodian. The spread-out head-shell reveals a star-shaped, bumpy face, while its back is still protected by a spiny black carapace. The five "arms" are connected by a pinkish, seemingly muscular membrane and radiate from a central disc that has an anthropoid brownish calcified nose. The two blueish top arms exhibit a pair of evil pinkish eyes, which are topped by rough, brownish brow ridges and bear two elongated lobes resembling sensory appendages. Below the eyes on either side of the head are bunches of tendril-like pinkish filaments, which look like the stinging tentacles of a jellyfish. The blueish bottom arm is similar to a protruding chin and carries a humanoid mouth, which is slightly open and reveals several sharp whitish teeth. The second type is the "concept art" head. This is similar to the entirety of a shell-less, green-eyed pink jellyfish, with a number of tentacles surrounding its supposed mouth; this concept design was finally discarded because considered too similar to Cthulhu, but I'm happy that we are finally getting it in toy form.

Final thoughts

Overall: thanks to a few additional pieces, Kinod could also be displayed as one of his soldiers, but a pair of Holopodian Mutants as separate figures is a great choice for an army builder multi-pack. They are really solid figures and I like them quite a bit. Honestly, I kind of like them better than the Kinod-based version, which isn't as comic book-accurate as these ones
Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ / 5

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

KR Review #89: Seutron & Deutron

Toy prototype details
Name: Seutron^TM & Deutron^TM
Subtitle: multiform henchmen
Line: KR|Foundation
Item type: multi-pack (2-pack) - Nº 18 in the line.

Characters details
Names: Seutron and Deutron
Classification: poriferans
Sex: males
Home: Tahron
Era: Foundation
Affiliation: Destructomorph
Rank: sergeants.

Background
First appearance: KR|Foundation #13 - The ultimate curse
Related character(s): Pleutron, Xonatron.

Articulation
Standard, except that in each figure the connection points at the waist, shoulders, wrists, hips and tail are ball&socket (but the shoulders and hips are also hinged), and the neck features a double ball joint.

Description
Both figures are 23 cm tall (around 9'') and display a richly porous skin. Each has a short, thick segmented (i.e., formed of a longitudinal series of similar parts) tail emerging from the trunks, which is reused from Pleutron and is painted in a more greenish colour on the upper side.

Seutron

Head: characterised by an irregular chanterelle-like shape, light-blueish skin, human-like ears, a pair of bulging orange eyes (with slit-shaped dark vertical pupils and thick black vertical lines over and under the eyes), boar-like nose, a human-looking mouth exhibiting plump lips and white gnashing teeth, and a prominent cleft chin

Body: light-blueish skin. The arms bear a pair of spiked copper armbands and have human-looking hands with black nails, while the legs wear armoured copper knee guards

Wearables: a large metallic dark-green collar with copper inlays (which holds a tattered red cape on the back, and is connected via copper chains to two spaulders showing layers, from bottom to top, of reddish fur and shiny dark-green metal), two studded metallic dark-green manacles with broken, loppy copper chains, two armoured metallic dark-green ankle boots, a studded metallic dark-green belt (with dangling copper chains and a copper buckle displaying the Destructomorph emblem, i.e., a square-shaped spider whose back slightly resembles a demoniac face), and a torn red fabric loincloth. It is worth noting that only the chains attached to the shackles are real and not sculpted, and that the cape splits into two parts towards the lower back.

Deutron

Head: characterised by an irregular sea anemone-like shape (with a ring of tentacles around the top part, three of which are longer and resemble loop-shaped antennae), purplish skin, pointy ears with golden earrings, a pair of bulging bloodshot yellow beady eyes, boar-like nose, two sharp-pointed ivory tusks that protrude from the lower jaw, and a prominent square chin

Body: purplish skin, a large hump on his upper back. The arms and the legs wear laminar blueish-grey steel rerebraces and thigh guards, respectively. Each hand has four ivory claws as well as four dark-grey spikes emerging from the knuckles, while each foot has two dark-grey claws plus an ivory one

Wearables: a dark-green furry garment worn over the left shoulder and under the right (secured by a large blueish-grey steel pauldron showing the Destructomorph emblem), two dark-green leather bracelets with jagged ridges and knuckle protectors (the latter allow the dark-grey spikes to come through), two dark-green leather shin guards with jagged ridges and instep protectors, a dark-green leather tasset belt, and a light-blueish furry loincloth.

Action feature
In the comics, Seutron and Deutron are depicted, like Pleutron, as shape-shifting giants who can rearrange their cells to acquire countless monstrous forms, as well as stretch, squeeze and tear apart their jelly-like bodies, and then recover their original forms. In each figure, these transforming abilities are well recreated by a modular action feature that involves several snap-on body parts, namely the head, neck (double ball jointed), torso, pelvis, arms, hands, legs and tail.

The figures are not only fully modular with themselves, but they are also fully modular with Pleutron and the Xonatron; as they all share the same ball&socket joints, parts can be swapped back and forth between them at random, and they can be combined into a vast array of creatures, including a single crazy enormous monster.

Weapons and accessories
Each figure comes with a tech-looking, gun-like hand-held launcher, which fits in the figure's right hand and has no spring-loaded mechanism. Seutron's metallic red launcher fictionally allows him to fling two included bladed discs. The weapon's "barrel" ends with a hook, into which a fan-like four-bladed (actually, eight-bladed, but four of the eight blades are smaller) clear, glassy disc can be slotted. Either disc can alternatively be clipped onto the left bracer, acting as a sort of shield, or stowed on the back of the collar. Deutron's metallic light-blue weapon has two side-by-side barrels and two separate drill bit-like whitish, chalky projectiles. The butts of the two weapons bear pairs of slots and plugs, respectively, which allow them to connect to each other and form a larger weapon.

The set also comes with two different weaponized attachments to replace hands: a double-bitted light-blueish axe for Seutron and a giant purplish mallet for Deutron.

While I find that I prefer having the two figures separate, thanks to an additional cube-like abdomen piece (which has two balls and two sockets, and whose colour fades from light-blue to dark-blue to purple end to end) plus two extra dark-blue legs (wearing studded golden thigh bands and dark-green furry boots) it is actually very easy to place them into the combined configuration shown on the back of the box, with six legs and a torso and head at each end.
In addition, there are nine additional organic-looking (i.e., with a porous and segmented texture) dark-blue pieces for bigger and better builds. That includes five Y-connector joints (one of which is larger than the others) and four extension pieces (one male-male/neck piece, one female-female piece, and two male-female pieces), which make it possible to form double shoulders, hips and neck, and generate, for example, amazing double-headed, multi-limbed creatures. They’re all solid and a lot of fun to mess around with.

Last but not least, the package includes an alternate, taser cannon-shaped dark-blue-and-silver head for the Xonatron, which briefly appeared in The ultimate curse comic book.

Final thoughts

Overall: Seutron and Deutron are excellent figures with tons of accessories. PoliganToys improved on the interchangeable concept of Pleutron and Xonatron to release an even more technically impressive set. However, I don't like them as much as I like Pleutron, partially due to the design and the colour scheme, but they are still very, very high quality figures
Rating: ☺☺☺☺ / 5