KR|"Echoes of Future" Review #30: Aktrodon & Selahgorn

Toy prototype details

Name: Aktrodon^TM & Selahgorn^TM

Subtitle: double menace in piracy

Line: KR|Echoes of Future

Item type: multi-pack (2-pack) - Nº 5 in the line.

Characters details

Names: Aktrodon and Selahgorn

Real name: Anfis

Classification: archosauromorph reptiles

Sex: males

Home: Tahron

Era: Foundation

Affiliation: Rexodon

Rank: flotilla admiral and commodore, respectively.

Background

First appearance: KR|Echoes of Future #3 - The unforeseen fall of destiny

Character summary: an alternate reality version of Bi-Harr, who had been separated into two independent, yet incomplete entities by the sorcerer-scientist Ophidok. They served as the Reptonoid and Rexodon original command until they were overthrown by the time-displaced warlord Krenodos. Reassigned as leaders of a proxy force of pirates, they were ordered to steal a powerful weapon for their new master. Though skilled enough to assault the transport ship carrying the weapon, they were ultimately defeated by the Spektrosaurs, assisted by Masq-Lor, during an ensuing boarding action.

Articulation
Standard (new scheme), with the addition of a ball jointed neck extension for both figures, hinged knees capable of bending forward and backward for Aktrodon, and a ball jointed tail for Selahgorn.

Concept

The designs of these characters suggest that they are both variants of Bi-Harr, who, in an alternate timeline, was split into two separate individuals and was never killed in the battle against Masq-Lor and the false Loghar. It’s fascinating to see how each has adapted to a bipedal stance despite lacking legs. Below is a detailed look at both figures.

Aktrodon

Description

Head: similar to a Pachycephalosaurus, characterised by wrinkled dark-blueish skin, a large bony dome atop the skull, and a pair of large amber eyes with vertical black pupils. The muzzle ends in a closed, pointed reddish beak, and a slightly long, thick neck is achieved through the use of an extension piece. The rear side of the dome is edged with yellowish bony bulges, which extend toward each eye, forming a sort of bumpy eyebrow, while several short yellowish bony spikes project upward from the snout, the most central one being covered in skin. Despite this head is a completely new sculpt, it remains nearly identical to previous versions and is instantly recognisable

Body: his upper body, covered in wrinkled dark-blueish skin, retains its original arms, while his lower half is replaced by a striking pair of high-tech prosthetic legs. Several yellowish bony protrusions jut from his arms, while his hands end in sharp, claw-like fingers. Below the chest, his body transitions into a copper-toned bionic structure displaying a huge amount of cyber details: the abdomen houses an octagonal, bright magenta core (possibly a power reactor), while the pelvis appears to be built from a series of side-by-side, vertically aligned cogs. The metallic legs gradually shift from copper to bronze as they descend, ending in large, clawed feet with three toes pointing forward and one backward

Wearables: a bronze chest harness adorned with embossed round motifs and accented with silver details, two brownish leather fingerless gloves streaked with yellowish highlights, a bronze belt (somehow reminiscent of a chastity belt...) decorated with round studs and bordered by a visible lining of silver chain mail, and a brown fabric wrap skirt, cut in a high-low design with a pointed hem that falls longer in the back. The armour is interlaced with circuitry components, seemingly part of the mechanism that powers or controls his bionic enhancements; these intricate circuits extend beyond the armour, tracing across his exposed body parts like veins of light. Over his shoulders, he wears a cape that matches the skirt in colour and texture, and has the upper half heavily layered with tawny fur, lending some regality to the garment. The cape fastens loosely at the neck with an orange copper collar embossed with round motifs, its centre adorned by a skull-shaped goldish ornament featuring an elongated lower jaw.

Aktrodon's stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics, Aktrodon's bionic legs allow him to run at high speeds, leap with great agility and deliver devastating kicks. He can also unleash powerful headbutts by rapidly extending his neck. To reflect this ability, the figure includes a fairly long neck extension piece that can be used either in place of or in addition to the standard one. This makes me very happy, because this half of Bi-Harr can finally put his bony dome to good use!

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the extra neck extension, Aktrodon comes equipped with two bronze mechanical clawed appendages reminiscent of scorpion pincers. Each appendage is segmented into two bulbous sections that evoke the body and head of a robotic creature, complete with a swivelling, extendable neck and hinged jaws lined with teeth. These claws are normally stored on Aktrodon’s belt, which features two side pegs where the pincers can attach, but when needed, they can serve as vicious arm extensions—simply remove his hands and insert the claw pegs into the wrist sockets. Opening the jaws reveals a small built-in cannon inside each pincer, which is a nice touch. The figure also includes two extra pairs of small robotic legs modelled after Aktrodon’s own bionic limbs. These can attach to the sides of the pincers, transforming them into independent, articulated mini-figures with hinged ankles and swivel hips (they remind me of the Mousers from TMNT). Additionally, the lower jaw from either pincer can detach and serve as a mouth guard for Aktrodon, fitting securely onto two bumps on the sides of his head (the other can be used with Selahgorn in a similar way). Although they don’t appear in the comics, these last two features are a fun and playful bonus.

Additionally, the package includes an alternative head. The only difference from the standard version is that this head features a wide-open mouth, revealing small, sharp yellowish teeth along the edges of the jaws.

Selahgorn

Description

Head: vaguely similar to an Apatosaurus (or a similar sauropod), characterised by scaly reddish skin, a large brown cranial crest, and two short ossicones covered in skin. It also features a pair of large light-blue eyes with vertical red pupils and an almost completely closed mouth, which reveals just a hint of the sharp white teeth lining the jaws. A fairly long, thick neck (longer than his counterpart's standard one) is created with an extension piece. Like with Aktrodon, although this head is a completely new sculpt, it remains nearly identical to previous versions and is instantly recognisable

Body: a bizarre fusion of flesh, prosthetics and the remains of another creature, with one of his original arms serving as a leg (I wonder how that functional adaptation could be feasible). On the right side, the arm, leg and torso are covered in scaly reddish skin; both the arm and the leg (which end in a clawed hand and foot, respectively) are lined with large brown ridges running down their sides. The left side features a brown half-plastron partly covering the shoulder, chest and abdomen, which is attached crudely to the original body via short leather straps stitched into the torso. This plastron is adorned with trapezoidal markings that have yellow outer edges and orange interiors, and is complemented by an arm and a leg covered in scaly moss-green skin. These transplanted limbs are augmented with brass prosthetics: a high-tech mechanical extremity encased in an oversized wrist guard, and a below-knee peg leg shaped like a cylinder covered in silver spikes. At the rear, he bears a large, flat carapace evocative of a sea turtle or horseshoe crab, similar to a Psephoderma. This shell is divided into two parts, both marked by three longitudinal crests formed by protruding expansions of the ribs and vertebrae: a broad dorsal shield covering the back, and a smaller shield extending over the base of a long, thick armoured tail that ends in three radially arranged fins and a tuft of spines. Both shields are made up of partially fused brown bony plates (or scutes), roughly pentagonal, hexagonal or circular in shape (featuring decorative patterns that echo those on the plastron) and are edged with triangular bony protrusions that give the carapace a jagged appearance

Wearables: an asymmetric brass chest harness with embossed diamond motifs and accented with silver details, a brass armband encircling the right biceps (where the ridge dips into a shallow trough), a brass bracelet on the right wrist, a brass boot on the right leg, a brass belt adorned with diamond studs, and a scale armour loincloth crafted from overlapping orange copper plates laced together. The bracelet, armband and boot are all intricately engraved with arabesque patterns, while the belt features two tassets and a skull-shaped goldish buckle with an elongated lower jaw. The armour is interlaced with circuitry components, seemingly part of the mechanism that powers or controls his bionic enhancements; these intricate circuits extend beyond the armour, tracing across his exposed body parts like veins of light. A cracked brown thigh pad is secured with two straps on the left leg; this pad bears small triangular protruding plates that match his carapace. Finally, a large brass pauldron adorned with diamond-shaped bolts connects to the bionic wrist guard via three silver pliable tubes twining around the left arm, seemingly linking the prosthetic extremity to a power source (indicated by an octagonal, bright magenta core) within the shoulder plate.

Selahgorn's stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics, Selahgorn's bionic forearm houses a wide array of built-in tools, and his “hand” can transform into various weapon configurations. To mimic this, the figure comes with a set of interchangeable weapons: a large pirate’s copper hook that can be launched using a winch mechanism (in reality, the hook detaches from its base and stays connected by a string that normally coils around it), a trident (with slightly curved copper outer prongs, while the central prong has angular edges) that can extend thanks to an additional piece resembling his peg leg, and a large circular, three-clawed blaster that can spin and be equipped with an included translucent magenta blast effect (fictionally, the three radially arranged copper claws function as electrodes that generate a ball of plasma before firing it from the muzzle); alternatively, the blast effect can be plugged into the open “mouth” of one of Aktrodon’s cybernetic appendages.

Weapons and accessories

Aside from his many cyber-attachments, Selahgorn comes equipped with a copper-bladed hook sword featuring a distinctive “horned” silver crossguard and a brown leather-wrapped hilt, which can even fit snugly into his bionic forearm.

Additionally, the figure includes an optional diamond-studded brass gauntlet for his left arm, a detail never seen in the comics, but a welcome addition.

Finally, the package includes an alternate head. Like with Aktrodon, the only difference from the standard version is that this head features a wide-open mouth, revealing sharp white teeth lining the jaws.

Comic

Together with the action figures we get the third and final comic issue The unforeseen fall of destiny. Fai-Rha and Herrion tell Masq-Lor that they have received a long-preserved message from Cereutis, kept for over five centuries by the Multiversal Balancers. The message warned that if Tahron ever faced destruction, the Multiversal Balancers were to come to the Therioms' aid. That danger arose when Gladorr, after using a space-time portal, appeared in Cereutis and forged an alliance with the tyrant Krenodos. Under their rule, the Bogthropods conquered Cereutis’s surface, forcing the Multiversal Balancers underground and prompting a chain of events that now threaten to bring catastrophic consequences to Tahron. The heroes activate a new space-time portal to travel to Cereutis and rescue Ramedras, the Multiversal Balancers’ captured leader. After freeing him, they infiltrate the Bogthropods' palace, persuading Krenodos that Gladorr is an opportunist who will eventually betray him. Krenodos agrees to a truce and together they attempt to take Gladorr prisoner, but a group of loyal soldiers ambushes the group and a violent clash results in Masq-Lor and Krenodos being thrown from a collapsing bridge, while Fai-Rha and Herrion are captured. Masq-Lor survives by escaping through another space-time portal, returning to Tahron only to be captured by the Spektrosaurs and recruited to stop Rexodon pirates from delivering a devastating weapon to a mysterious warlord. The mysterious buyer turns out to be Krenodos, who survived by following Masq-Lor through the space-time portal but became stranded in an earlier era; Masq-Lor ultimately kills him. Returning home, Masq-Lor finds himself in an alternate timeline, in which he is presumed dead. Twenty-five years later, the spirit of Silef manipulates Fai-Rha into attacking her brother. Masq-Lor frees her from possession and destroys Silef, but the spirit’s final warning precedes a Bogthropod invasion. Two powerful soldiers leading the assault are revealed to be alternate, enslaved versions of Fai-Rha and Herrion, whose subsequent deaths trigger the resurgence of Gladorr in a new threatening form. Unable to fight, Masq-Lor sends his son Sajron into the past using a modified suit infused with the power of the Antikythron. Sajron lures Gladorr’s past self into a decisive battle, annihilating him and restoring the original timeline. Far in the future, the remnants of Gladorr inspire the eventual invention of space-time teleportation.

Final thoughts

Overall: what a cool pair of figures, and an even cooler concept! Both sculpts are impressively faithful to their comic-book designs, with standout detail work that fans will instantly appreciate. This duo is sure to be a hit with collectors, and the wide assortment of accessories adds a ton of play and display value

Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR|Emergence Review #26: Wog-Rauan

Toy prototype details
Name: Wog-Rauan^TM, aka Kon-Rauan^TM (Emergence Edition)
Subtitle: amphibious warrior
Line: KR|Emergence
Item type: action figure - Nº 23 in the line.

Character details
Name: Wog-Rauan (later known as Kon-Rauan II)
Classification: amphibian
Sex: male
Relationships: son of the original Kon-Rauan (Kon-Rauan I)
Home: Tahron

Era: 3 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Rexodon
Rank: warrant officer.

Background
First appearance: KR|Emergence #1 - The cradle of evil
Brief bio: originally members of a lacustrine ethnic group, Kon-Rauan and his son Wog-Rauan were among the Reptonoid army's last recruits. More openly fiendish than most of their reptilian fellows, Kon-Rauan often aimed at poisoning his foes with his highly toxic gasses, while Wog-Rauan took a sadistic pleasure in flogging them with his long tail. When, after the splitting of the reptilian forces into two factions, Kon-Rauan allied himself with Lor-Drek and took several former Reptonoid soldiers prisoner, Wog-Rauan betrayed him by freeing his comrades-in-arms. During the ensuing battle with his father and the Unnamed Clan, Wog-Rauan suffered grave injuries when he bravely shielded his fellow soldier Traark from Kelotur's deadly spinning blades. Although he appeared to die, his body only entered into a process of transformation, which not only healed him and helped him develop powerful lungs, but also erased his memory. He soon re-emerged as Kon-Rauan II, an extremely brutal creature who would serve as an amphibious scout for the Rexodons. Armed with strong legs that allowed him to quickly reach enemies in battle, Kon-Rauan II, unaware of his true parentage, killed his father by shooting him with a poison arrow. Later, after Bi-Harr's death, he acted as a double agent within the Spektrosaurs and, although he was loyal to his faction, he was tempted to serve Lor-Drek temporarily.

Articulation
Standard, except that the right hand is especially engineered with a hinge to hold an arrow.

Description
Head: somewhat reminiscent of the Gill-man, characterised by warty greenish skin, a jagged lighter green sagittal crest that seemingly runs down the middle of the upper back (thanks to an extra neck piece that fits right on top of the body), two large external gills protruding from the sides of the head, two large bulging purple eyes surrounded by whitish calcified rings (most prominently on the brow ridge and on the "nasal" bridge; similar smaller outgrowths are also visible in some other spots), two drooping skin flaps flanking the slightly open mouth, and two short, slender tendril-like appendages projecting from the chin

Body: warty greenish (a very shiny green neither light nor dark) skin with whitish calcified outgrowths here and there, webbed hands and large webbed feet; each finger (three per hand) and each toe (four per foot) bears a long black claw. His bare chest displays a red tattoo that resembles the strange symbol seen on Kon-Rauan's breastplate; smaller versions of this tattoo (which looks like a sort of upside down crown, but it may represent a webbed three-toed foot with pads) are also present on his shoulders and knees. The torso features two matt lines running down each side, from the armpits to the waist; this is probably a reference to the lateral line sensory organ that we've also seen on Aktahnor's body. Moreover, the right arm carries a studded silver armband, while a long, laterally compressed green tail with a lighter green ridge emerges from under his skirt

Wearables: a double string of wooden prayer beads worn as a necklace, two studded metallic red bracers (worn over red leather boxing hand wraps), two armoured metallic red toeless boots (with studs around the tops and near the claws, tubular coverings made out of reddish pondweed that envelop the shafts, and a pair of chest-tattoo symbols sculpted on the soles), a red leather belt with a golden buckle showing the chest-tattoo symbol, and a tattered scale armour golden skirt. The belt secures a large loop of wrinkled, white-striped green skin trimmed with reddish pondweed and worn round the waist, and is equipped with a red leather sheath for the blade of a non-removable dagger, whose golden hilt resembles an elongated, narrower variation of the chest-tattoo symbol. Additionally, he wears a golden quiver, which contains four wooden arrows (which are all removable!) and is secured to his back by a red leather baldric.

Wog-Rauan's stylised emblem.

Action feature

In the comics, Wog-Rauan's main feature is his powerful whip-like flexible tail, which can be used to deliver painful strikes and, in the figure, is made of bendable plastic.
Furthermore, when attacking his opponents, he reveals a grossly oversized open structure of his mouth - similarly to a secret toadhead agama and to a sarcastic fringehead, the head flaps that distinguish his face spread out and become very apparent. So, the figure comes with an alternative head, in which his laterally-splayed jawbones and sail-like scaly cheek membranes reveal a purple tongue, two rows of sharp white teeth (including two upper fangs), a fluorescent green mouth rim and a bright pink colour on the inside used as a warning.

Weapons and accessories
Aside from the swappable head, Wog-Rauan comes with his nicely sculpted golden bow and wooden poison arrow. Both pieces are exact replicas of Kon-Rauan's weapons, except that this version of the bow is equipped with a taut string, while the arrow, which can be held by the special right hand, has a greenish paint application that represents its toxic, rather than fiery, head.

Additionally, the package includes a new head, a harness and an axe, for transforming the Foundation version of Kon-Rauan (Kon-Rauan II, the metamorphosed form of Wog-Rauan) into his Emergence version (Kon-Rauan I, father of Wog-Rauan). The frog-like head is very similar to the Foundation portrait (characterised by a wide shape, green skin marked with white stripes and a large protruding purple left eye), but its ragged look and the presence of an eye patch worn to protect the right eye definitely help the figure appear older. The black eye patch is attached around the head by a double black string, and has a golden rim and a cross pattée red design with a small golden plate at its centre. The harness looks like a short, sleeveless red leather vest ornamented with golden edges, golden shoulder pads and two large golden studs (plus one smaller) on each front panel, which is completely open and has a loose closure (formed of two golden clasps connected with a golden gas cylinder) near the stomach. On the back, the harness features four red-and-gold pipes designed to release poison gas and fed by a number of black tubes departing from the front cylinder; the pipes are arranged like two stacked vees (V) and each has a plume of greenish smoke spreading from the end. The bearded axe shows a golden blade held in a wooden handle by two projections, leaving a cut-out at the base of the blade. The neat thing is that Wog-Rauan's bow and old Kon-Rauan's axe can combine to create a weapon that resembles the crossbow used by Wog-Rauan in the comics. The crossbow is formed by placing the bow horizontally within an indentation near the bottom part of the axe's handle, while any one of his five arrows can be placed on top of the weapon thanks to a notch at its butt end for grasping the bowstring. The cut-out on the blade and an additional small handle at right angles to the axe's haft serve as the rear grip and fore grip, respectively.

If the possibility to build a second figure isn’t enough for you, a cool great bonus is that Wog-Rauan comes with an additional soft good wrap and a set of weapons, so you can have an Emergence-kinda-accurate display option for Tauton. While Foundation Tauton was wearing black and gold, his Emergence counterpart is decked out in white and blueish-grey. You can remove all the plastic pieces on the figure and put on a newly created fabric shirt that covers his face, torso and groin. It's a padded white tunic with a screen-printed emblem in grey and blue on the chest, held tight by a simple Velcro belt that wraps around the waist. You know what? It's kind of cool! I'm not sure I like it as much as I'd like a completely new Tauton figure in his short-sleeved, all-white attire, but I do appreciate the effort to offer up something new for the figure. The piece is easy to put on and I love how the crested (i.e., with a longitudinal raised band) balaclava covers the whole head and neck except for the eyes. The printing on the cloth is super clean and pops out thanks to the colours used, and represents a new symbol that looks like a hybrid of a Theriom insignia and a throwing star. The included weapons are the same wakizashi, stick and nunchaku that came with Tauton, just redone in the new white-and-steel colour scheme. Tauton can actually tote these weapons around thanks to the built in sheathes on his tunic - there's a small loop on the back right of his belt, which can hold the nunchaku, while the slot on his back can hold either the sword or the stick (or both).

Final thoughts
Overall: as a hardcore KR fan, I'm really glad to have this prototype to finish off the proposed Emergence line, which we don't know yet if it'll ever come to fruition. Wog-Rauan is another fine entry into the series, he's just a lot of fun! Although he's not one of my favourite characters, he's indeed a great figure with excellent weapons and the ability to hold them all. The extra head and harness give us the opportunity to update an old figure while retaining the original aesthetics - the addition of the eye patch and toxic tubes definitely makes Kon-Rauan seem like a bit of an improvement over the original figure. Plus, while we're missing the chance to see a younger, whiter version of the Theriom fighting officer in this line, the included vest and weapons make it possible to get an Emergence-styled Tauton at a reasonable price. As I said, I’m happy with Wog-Rauan, but it’s a bit sad in the sense that this may be the last Emergence figure we ever see
Rating: ☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR|Emergence Review #24: Staurok (Emergence Edition)

Toy prototype details
Name: Staurok^TM (Emergence Edition), aka Metal-Prongs Staurok
Subtitle: multi-horned warrior
Line: KR|Emergence
Item type: action figure - Nº 21 in the line.

Character details
Name: Staurok
Classification: archosauromorph reptile
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Era: 3 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Rexodon
Rank: lieutenant.

Background
First appearance: KR|Emergence #2 - The war of all against all: Part I – Breach
Brief bio: before Bi-Harr created his reptilian army and confronted the mammalian people, a young Staurok, following his father's untimely death, became the tribal chief of his ceratopsian clan, which often conducted raids and loots in neighbouring villages. Despite supporting the Reptonoid's cause, he saw few reasons to fear the threats of the mammalian forces due to the labyrinthine corridors that surrounded and hid his hamlet from the rest of Tahron. However, one day Staurok met a young warrior named Khon-Uhr^TM trying to cross one of such pathways and challenged him to a duel, but quickly discovered the boy's agility surpassed his own speed and finally suffered a serious injury to his left eye. Eventually, after Bi-Harr's soldiers had killed two Theriom kings consecutively, the reptilian leader enlisted Staurok to track down pockets of resistance around Tahron. Over time, thanks to his dreaded crown of metal horns, Staurok proved a ruthless hunter and a fearsome foe. He remained one of Bi-Harr's most menacing lieutenants even after Lor-Drek's defection and continued to serve the Rexodons loyally, attacking their enemies again many times with his armoured battle horns and trashing whip.

Articulation
Standard, with the addition of a ball jointed extra neck piece and a hinged upper jaw.

Description
Head: similar to a Protoceratops, characterised by bumpy blueish skin with a few orange blotches, a pair of yellow eyes (one is squinting and crossed by a visible scar down the left side of his face), and a large bony neck frill at the back of his skull, which lacks well-developed horns. The hinged upper jaw allows his frontal beak to open and reveal the inside of the mouth packed with dozens of teeth. His neck extension is covered in tawny fur
Body: blueish (a blue neither light nor dark) scaly skin with orange blotches, massive Popeye-like forearms, hands terminating in huge claws, and large hoofed feet. His shoulders, forearms and calves are equipped with tawny fur (at the shoulder joints, wrists and ankles, respectively) as well as several bony protuberances covered in skin, which, where needed, project through openings in his worn items
Wearables: a dark-blue armour with golden-yellow details, two pairs of studded dark-blue bracelets (each pair is worn over a blueish-grey chain mail wrist guard that has a loop for the middle finger ending in a large serrated blueish-grey claw guard), two blueish-grey chain mail shin guards loosely wrapped in golden-yellow chains and equipped with spiked dark-blue knee guards, a dark-blue leather belt that holds a number of scale armour golden-yellow lappets as well as two golden-yellow tassets, and a blueish-grey chain mail skirt. The chest plate shows a bunch of tubes, wires and chains seemingly running to the back as well as a sort of mechanical device at its centre, while the golden-yellow back armour is adorned with a number of spikes. The belt has a large buckle bearing the Rexodon emblem, i.e., a red reptile skull, while each tasset displays a "crossed horns" insignia. His outfit is complemented by an additional piece of armour that sits on the figure's shoulders; it is formed of two layers (a blueish-grey chain mail lower layer and a worn out, golden-yellow upper layer) and is characterised by a wide keeled collar and broad shoulder guards. His legs also wear a pair of golden-yellow armoured thigh pads with a pair of leg boosters that project backwards and down from the back, and show blue-purple glowing propulsion effects.

Staurok's stylised armour (excluding shoulder guard).

Action feature
In the comics, Staurok has the ability to propel himself forwards with his powerful legs and to knock opponents or obstacles down with the giant horns sticking out of his super-hard helmet. To achieve this, a winch-like mechanism on his breast plate makes two chains wind round a rotating drum and hoists the set of spikes on his back, which then expands and swings over his head, covering the face almost completely (there are slits for the eyes and mouth). Such feature can be reproduced simply by detaching the spiked back armour (which reveals another back plate underneath with some cool hydraulics and wiring details, a sort of rail and a socket that can be disguised as a hook thanks to an included plug-in piece) and clipping an additional imposing golden-yellow helmet adorned with massive horns onto the figure's head. The helmet displays several battle dents and marks, numerous rivets and of course a rack of nine battle horns, two of which are fictionally electrified (and come with two translucent blue-purple lightning bolt attachments) and two look like missile launchers. Both his head and neck extension are on ball joints, which, apart from adding to the feel that Staurok is hunched over, gives him an extended range - he can look in all directions and, in particular, he can bend his head forward in order to crush his opponents with a head-butting action.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from his multi-pronged helmet, shoulder armour and a few extra pieces, Staurok comes with a golden-yellow trashing whip. This weapon combines a chain whip (consisting of nine metal rods, which are joined end-to-end by rings) and a flying claw (featuring a metal three-legged spider-like claw on the end of the chain). The whip has a dark-blue handle at one end, while the claw at the other end can fictionally close and open when the chain is pulled or released, and has a metal dart at its centre. Aside from being used for slashing, piercing or ensnaring a foe and throwing them off balance, the weapon also has the ability to store up large amounts of energy and then burst out in an electrocuting action, knocking down a trapped opponent. So, the figure includes a flexible translucent blue-purple electric effect that can wrap around the whip.

Final thoughts
Overall: did I have high hopes for Staurok? I don't know, he was never really a major character for me, though I had hoped that this figure would do him justice. And to an extent, it does. The sculptural details are there, everything is in the right colour and he comes with his weapon, but… each detail comes off as “okay” rather than the level of awesomeness I have gotten in other KR prototypes this year. His outfit is weird, the paint has a few problems here and there, and he doesn't include any bonus accessory. But nothing is really that terrible, just not super-super special. This makes Staurok kind of mediocre, though necessary for a full KR|Emergence collection
Rating: ☺☺☺ / 5

KR|Emergence Review #22: Nibeon (Emergence Edition)

Toy prototype details
Name: Nibeon^TM (Emergence Edition), aka Short-Tusked Nibeon
Subtitle: proboscidean warrior
Line: KR|Emergence
Item type: action figure - Nº 19 in the line.

Character details
Name: Nibeon
Classification: proboscidean mammal
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Era: 3 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Rexodon (formerly belonging to the Independent Warriors group)
Rank: captain.

Background
First appearance: KR|Emergence #3 - The war of all against all: Part II – Rise
Brief bio: originally one of the bravest Independent Warriors led by Bellius^TM, Nibeon was lured by Bi-Harr with promises of renown and fortune, and eventually brainwashed to become an evil soldier of the Rexodon military. His skills as a tactician were quickly recognised by the reptilian general, and his genius use of technology in combat helped him rise rapidly to the rank of captain. Armed with a custom-made cybernetic face mask of his own design, he was endowed with both amazing sight powers and a pair of menacing laser scourges projecting from his tusks, which he could use for attacking his foes and breaking through solid barriers. Although Nibeon was feared by the Therioms for his abilities to fight back with his enormous trunk and energy tusks while defending the Rexodon headquarters from outside threats, he eventually suffered a severe injury to his eyes after a battle against the brave Koptros.

Articulation
Standard, with the addition of a trunk, which is a solid piece with a swivel-hinge joint at its base.

Description
Head: similar to a mammoth, characterised by a fine covering of grey-brown hair, a long, properly ridged muscular trunk decorated with two cyber looking silver rings, two little beady yellow eyes resting under heavy brows, and two very short tusks ending in turbine-shaped orange copper nozzles. His ears are relatively small compared to those of an elephant (although they're slightly longer and pointier than those of his Foundation counterpart) and are adorned with lots of jewellery - from simple studs and rings near the tips to fairly big gauges at the bottom of the lobes. He also wears a permanently attached orange technological skull cap as well as an external steel removable mask, which covers his face entirely (roofing the trunk and the tusks partially) and features three curved, pointed orange copper horns (one on the forehead, and two on the sides supporting two large laminar steel ear "shields") and evil looking glossy blue goggles. There are a LOT of details on this mask, including three orange stripes in the ear screens, double rows of rivets down the middle of the face, and a few yellow glowing indicator lights

Body: he exhibits the bulkier sculpt that has previously been used for other figures such as Grabtrak and his limbs are equipped with a "woolly" coat of long grey-brown hair as well as massive hands and feet. Each arm bears a cyber looking silver armband that is similar to the rings on his trunk

Wearables: an orange harness with silver details (including a pair of huge disc-shaped studded shoulder armours, whose design resembles the turbine looking nozzles on his tusks and, like the mask, are a bit reminiscent of Kinnikuman Akuma Shogun's outfit), two laminar orange copper wrist guards with knuckle protectors (the left one is accompanied by a fingerless orange glove), two cyber looking, armoured orange boots (each with the typical broad, circular shape of an elephant foot as well as a diamond-shaped studded silver knee guard), an orange belt made of square copper plates laced together (with a buckle bearing the Rexodon emblem, i.e., a red reptile skull, and a loop on the side for stowing his weapon), and tech looking, laminar silver plate armour covering his groin, hips and tailbone. While the front part of the harness looks like a stylised representation of an elephant's head (but I might be wrong), the boots appear to be reinforced with electronics and pistons to help support and move his massive frame. He also carries a techno-backpack, which shows some cool machinery and electronics details such as a cylinder and pressure gauge, a side-compartment with an integrated turbine-shaped device, a small computer, and a pair of orange pliable tubes that emerge from a riveted hatch on the top and can be plugged into the removable mask, supposedly for transmitting power to and control his tusks (more on this later).

Nibeon's stylised harness.

Action feature
In the comics, Nibeon normally walks around with his short bony tusks, but when he wears his mask and gets battle-ready, the two teeth elongate by producing curved, pointed laser structures from their nozzles. So, since his entire gimmick is based around these laser tusks, the figure fittingly comes with two pairs of those projections, which are cast in a beautiful frosty, semi-translucent blue plastic and are interchangeable. This means that you can place one pair in front (into the sockets on his tusks after removing the two small nozzles) and store the pair not in use in back (they plug into two ports at the base of the backpack), and you get to have an option as to how you want him portrayed. The shorter laser tusks are accurate to the Emergence comic books, while the (much) longer ones are more along the lines of the Foundation toy (those tusks were entirely made of ivory and had some kind of rotating gimmick that allowed him to trap a foe in them). These laser tusks are made very well: there’s no danger of breaking off their pegs, they're easy to plug in and out, and they can also rotate while plugged in for additional posing options.

Weapons and accessories
In addition to the removable mask and the tusks' laser attachments, Nibeon includes a double-headed mace, whose fairly long handle is made of greyish wood and has two large white, pearlescent tusks nailed to the top. It fits securely in Nibeon's right hand and does feature an orange paint app on a leather strip that is wrapped around the handle for a more comfortable grip. The upper end of each tusk carries a steel mace head equipped with an appropriately formed orange copper extra part mounted to it. One mace head is essentially a studded sphere with a short spike on the top, and bears a copper axe blade with the cutting edge parallel to the weapon's handle. The other mace head is a type of war hammer that has a long, slightly downward-curved copper spike on the reverse of the hammer head. Many parts of this weapon are intricately carved with runic patterns, and a short side handle at a right angle to the main shaft allows the accessory to be stored into Nibeon's belt.
Additionally, the figure comes with a pair of golden hinged shears that is fictionally a hydraulically powered apparatus designed to rapidly cut through metal. In the Emergence comics, this weapon is used by Magda-Lyn to fight against the robotic Rexodon Troopers during the attack on Theriom City, and works best when held by her Enmity body combined with an included new head that is identical to her Foundation portrait without the ivory tiara and the golden earrings.

Comic
Together with the action figure we get the third and final comic issue The war of all against all: Part II – Rise. The Therioms are celebrating Tahron's transition from a monarchy to a republican form of government after a referendum. During the celebrations, a huge army of Rexodon Troopers invades Theriom City. Khronodon and Nibeon kidnap Koptros, and Xonedar immediately organises a rescue operation in Rokang Tar, where the evil robotic troopers are produced in masses. Although the other Therioms defend the official residence courageously, nothing seems to be able to damage the troopers, even powerful weapons can't destroy them. However, Koptros uncovers their weak spot - they explode when they are exposed to intense microwave radiation. This was also the reason why Bi-Harr wanted to abduct him - with his vast technical knowledge, he's the only person who can make the troopers invincible. Despite being forced to work for his kidnappers, Koptros succeeds in secretly warning his allies. Now that they know how to defeat the troopers, the good guys at Theriom City and at Rokang Tar wreak havoc amongst the enemy forces. Still, new robots are continuously produced, faster than they can be beaten, and the only chance is to destroy their source, a mission that is successfully accomplished by Xonedar. Meanwhile, an Unnamed Clan squad led by Sphenorat and Ophidok also arrive at the battlefield, and attempt to free their companions, who were previously captured by Bi-Harr's minions. Fai-Rha encounters her father Tir-Hing, but a mind-projection of the Deity interrupts the fight and convinces the young girl to leave the reptilian forces and side with the mammalian people. While Ir-Ash and Demo-Rha deal with Shaurus, Khronodon gets the chance to present all his mystical powers before he's knocked out by Ophidok. At the end of the battle, all the warriors use the confusion to their advantage for rescuing their fellow soldiers and fleeing Rokang Tar.

Overall, after the Rexodons have already failed to beat the Therioms several times, Bi-Harr tries something new here - a pure mass assault. That's quite innovative for the surgical strike-driven world of Tahron. The pictures in which you can see the robotic troopers coming out of the factory are best - very gloomy.

Final thoughts
Overall: while I was anticipating Nibeon, I wasn’t sure how much he’d actually impress me upon arrival. After having him for a few days and writing this review, I can say that he turned out very well and I’m definitely happy to have him on my shelf proudly with my other KR|Emergence characters. The attention to detail in his sculpt, the colours used and applied, and his humongous size really made this a fantastic and certainly unique figure. Unavoidably, those huge disks on his shoulders do inhibit his motion there, but I don’t think there’s any way getting around that specific design element
Rating: ☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR|Emergence Review #20: Torp-Tor (Emergence Edition)

Toy prototype details
Name: Torp-Tor^TM (Emergence Edition), aka Sky-Blitz Torp-Tor
Subtitle: air-combat warrior
Line: KR|Emergence
Item type: action figure - Nº 17 in the line.

Character details
Name: Torp-Tor
Classification: archosauromorph reptile
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Era: 3 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Rexodon
Rank: flying officer.

Background
First appearance: KR|Emergence #2 - The war of all against all: Part I – Breach
Brief bio: once the evil leader of a dynasty of gliding reptiles who lived high on the western cliffs, Torp-Tor engaged with his people in a long war against the Therioms for conquering Tahron. After a series of defeats, he was convinced by Bi-Harr to put aside his desire for supremacy and join the Rexodon army, in order to work together as allies. Both a tough warrior and a skilled engineer, he often left his technical duties to fight in the airspace above the battlefield. Torp-Tor's massive wings and powerful jet engines gave him the ability to move through the air at an incredible speed, which he utilised to reach his mammalian enemies and then attack them with his destructive weaponry.

Articulation
Standard, with the addition of a ball jointed extra neck piece, a hinged upper jaw and two hinged wings.

Description

Head: similar to a pterosaur, perhaps a mix of a Pteranodon and a Pterodactylus, characterised by yellowish skin, a cranial crest (which compared to the Foundation version is more vertical and has a broad forward projection) and solid blue eyes. The jaws form a long, slender beak with a full complement of large sharp teeth visible along the edges. Thanks to the articulated upper jaw, Torp-Tor's mouth can open and show the tongue sculpted on the inside. Both his head and extra neck piece are on ball joints, which not only give him an extended neck (longer than in his Foundation counterpart), but also make it possible for him to look in all directions
Body: yellowish scaly skin with purple blotches, hands with long serrated black claws, digitigrade legs (each knee is bent to accommodate the foot portion with the heel section high up). His biceps and thighs are equipped with small, sturdy skin appendages that look a bit like wings and might work as stabilisers. On the back, a pair of large wings projects through the sides of the armour; these wings are formed by membranes of yellowish skin with purple blotches and are sustained by two long brown bones (each with three protruding claw-like steel, seemingly articulated digits in the middle). Also, he has a short, thin pointy yellowish rubbery tail that is permanently glued to the figure’s rear

Wearables: a dark-blue leather harness with a metallic light-blue buckle, two laminar, spiked metallic dark-blue bracelets (long enough to reach to just below the elbows), two spiked metallic light-blue thigh/knee guards, two metallic dark-blue boots, and a two-tone (dark and light) metallic blue belt/loincloth piece. The harness is complemented by an additional shoulder guard formed of two scale armour spiked metallic dark-blue pauldrons connected by a light-blue collar (which is jagged on the front and high-standing on the back; the pauldrons are attached via rubber “hinges” to the collar, so they retain a little movement in the shoulders). The massive boots are equipped with large, serrated steel talons that are seemingly articulated, and with calf-mounted booster rockets.

Torp-Tor's stylised harness (excluding shoulder guard).

Action feature

In the Emergence comics, Torp-Tor is a jet-powered air soldier, who can perform different tasks in combat, such as air-to-air fights and airstrikes. His turbine-powered wings are just leathery structures suited to a gliding style of flight rather than active. For that reason, Torp-Tor wears a rocket pack (equipped with two massive turbojet engines) on his back. Two joystick-looking devices can be held in his hands and fictionally used to control the jet pack, to which they are connected by means of two cables. The wings (which are somewhat flexible and, in case, removable) are articulated on hinges at the sides of the jet pack and can move back and forth, allowing the figure to simulate a kind of wing-flapping action.
Torp-Tor is armed with an impressive assortment of weapons. Two metal mounts located on the underside towards the tips of the wings bear two pairs of fictionally launchable (in reality just detachable) javelin-like steel weapons in an side-by-side configuration. Also, by pressing a fin on the bottom part of his jet pack, a spring-loaded mechanism opens a hinged cover on the top part, revealing two stacked toothed discs with slightly different designs (one has straight teeth and the other has curved teeth); in fact, one of the two discs is a trigger that, when pressed, fires the second buzz saw blade.

Aside from the different weaponry and the addition of the metal claws, one new design aspect I like a lot compared to the Foundation version are the two pivoting impellers built into the centre of the surface of each wing and connected by a (sculpted) wire to the jet pack. While Torp-Tor is shown flapping his wings in the comics, it is hard to imagine how simple flapping would be enough to give such a heavily armed and armoured soldier adequate lift. It makes more sense that he has an extra method of lift, which these fans offer.

Weapons and accessories
Apart from the already mentioned javelins and bladed disc, Torp-Tor comes with a small selection of accessories. First up is a rhomboid shield cast with a cool pterosaur design on the front, which is reminiscent of the emblem on his Foundation chest armour. The shield is designed to fit over Torp-Tor's left bracer, since his hands are busy holding the joysticks to control the jet pack, and is painted in metallic light-blue, except for the pterosaur motif that is silver and whose beak, wings and tail project from the shield's vertices in the form of four steel blades. These blades are fictionally launchable missiles, while in reality only the "tail" can be detached.

Interestingly, the figure comes with an alternative jetpack. Why two rocket packs? Who knows! Probably just to give people another display option. The default jetpack, described in the action feature section, has a more detailed sculpt and paint job, while the extra one is much simpler in design. The latter features a single turbojet engine (very similar to a rocket-assisted bomb of the Foundation figure's), two small side-by-side hinged tailfins and a pivoting laser cannon attached to the side, which gives Torp-Tor additional support in the fight against his enemies. Either piece, which simply plugs into a square socket on the figure's back via a peg and stays on fairly well, is fully compatible with the detachable wings.

Additionally, we get two propulsion-blast effects, which work for either version of the jet engines, and a flight stand. The latter is a replica of the original Foundation accessory and is mostly made of clear plastic, but has an excellently sculpted and painted base with a stone-and-steel appearance and lots of incomprehensible symbols on it; it clips around Torp-Tor's waist and allows for various flight poses, also thanks to its single point of articulation and the figure's extended range of head movement (he can look forward when displayed horizontally).
Finally, the package includes a new head sculpt, a metallic light-blue wrench, and a boot accessory for Foundation Sei-Lha. The head is very similar to her original portrait, but its long windswept hair partly arranged in a high ponytail and messy bangs plus the addition of a metallic light-blue headband definitely help the figure look younger and closer to her Emergence appearance. The footwear accessory is basically a set of leather pockets that clips to the side of either boot, giving the figure a slightly more evident combat-ready look.

Final thoughts
Overall: Torp-Tor gets an A+ from me. OK, being a guy who is a fan of prehistoric flying reptiles and of the aesthetic of this line, then the odds were of course that I'd love him. Nevertheless, this is an objectively very well done figure that looks great with the rest of the Rexodon crew. The old prototype wasn't a bad toy, I liked him but found him a bit dull. This version has really been spruced up by having new cool sculpted details as well as some extra paint applications, and coming loaded up nicely with some goodies - he's got two jetpacks, a shooting shield and a new Sei-Lha head. Not a bad haul, really. Such improvements are always very welcome
Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR|Emergence Review #18: Traark (Emergence Edition)

Toy prototype details
Name: Traark^TM (Emergence Edition), aka Merman Traark
Subtitle: swimming warrior
Line: KR|Emergence
Item type: action figure - Nº 15 in the line.

Character details
Name: Traark
Classification: sauropterygian reptile
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Era: 3 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Rexodon
Rank: major.

Background
First appearance: KR|Emergence #1 - The cradle of evil
Brief bio: a vicious aquatic reptile warrior, Traark was dedicated to his service lurking beneath the surface of the ocean around Tahron, but later made his home in the inland bodies of water near Rokang Tar, to join the rise of the reptilian forces against the Therioms. For his disloyalty, Traark was confronted by his former commander, but Bi-Harr forced the newly enlisted soldier to behead him. Although he possessed the power to inflict thunderous tail strikes and lethal bites, as well as the frightening ability to regrow his sharp teeth after projecting them like knives in battle, Traark sought to learn the art of weapons craft and eagerly studied the advanced technology behind the Reptonoid's military machines. Thanks to his new-found knowledge and to his empathic rapport with many forms of aquatic life, Traark eventually built his own battalion of tech-enhanced swampland reptiles and set them loose on his mammalian enemies, delighting in the bloodbath they engendered. Proving a deadly servant worthy of rising through the ranks of the Rexodon army, Traark was promoted to major and became one of Bi-Harr's most devoted soldiers, willing to die for his master's honour, a distinction that the evil reptilian general prized most highly.

Articulation
Standard down to the waist, plus a hinged lower jaw and a ball jointed extra neck piece; his lower body has been replaced by a "fishtail" piece with articulation in three parts.

Description

Head: similar to a marine reptile, perhaps a mix of an Elasmosaurus and a Nothosaurus, characterised by black skin with few yellow stripes, three parallel cranial crests (the two on the sides are smaller, while the one in the middle is slightly larger), blue eyes, and two pairs of short spikes emerging from the sides of the lower jaw. The sculpt of the jaws is fantastic, with large bladed teeth visible along the edges as well as a very cool Helicoprion-like tooth-whorl sitting in the middle of the lower jaw. Both his head and wrinkled neck extension are on ball joints, which not only gives him a slightly longer neck and a hunched over look, but also an extended range without hindering the movements at all
Body: wrinkled black skin with yellow stripes, webbed hands with long serrated claws. His biceps bare flattened, wing-like appendages that look a bit like the pectoral fins of a flying fish, while his lower body comes in the form of an ichthyosaur-like tail equipped with hind limbs fully transformed into flippers and three points of articulation (a hinged crotch, swivel-hinged "knees" and a swivel-hinged symmetric tail fin that is normally displayed vertically). Finally, Traark carries a shelled parasite on his back; this (detachable) greenish-grey creature looks remarkably similar to a Placochelys and is characterised by a flat turtle-like carapace covered with knobbly dark-grey plates, a triangular beaked head, two pairs of paddle-shaped limbs that have individual clawed toes, and a short tail

Wearables: a silver armour with purple details (including two laminar spaulders), two laminar silver bracelets, a V-shaped silver belt with engraved details that look like a pair of evil eyes, and a fishtail-shaped, laminar/scale-armoured purple loincloth. While the armour blends in with a studded silver collar (which is actually part of the neck extension), the wrist guards show several barnacles and seashells stuck to their surfaces

Traark's stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics, Traark possesses the ability to swim at super-fast speeds as well as to make powerful, self-propelled leaps out of the water and to glide for considerable distances above the surface using his long wing-like arm fins. So, the figure comes with a water-looking, articulated posing stand with a sort of clamp for his tail, which allows Traark to be displayed in a few different swimming or gliding poses.

Finally, thanks to the articulated lower jaw, this evil creature's menacing mouth can swing open and snap shut to inflict lethal bites to his foes. In addition, similarly to his Foundation counterpart, Traark has the bizarre ability to shoot a hail of sharp teeth out of his mouth. The figure includes the same cluster of eight "flying" fangs that came with the old version. Each tooth has a cool shark-like triangular, saw-edged shape and is held up by a slender clear curl of "air"; these air streams converge toward a pin that plugs into the open mouth tightly. The effect suggests that those teeth thrown by Traark are immediately replaced by a new set that has grown from the tooth-whorl inside his mouth.

Weapons and accessories
Apart from the posing stand and throwing fangs attachment, Traark comes with a badass double-barrelled torpedo launcher. This metallic purple shotgun has an over-and-under configuration, i.e., the two barrels are arranged vertically, and the muzzle of each barrel looks like a little shark head with the tip of the silver warhead protruding from the open mouth.

Furthermore, the package includes one of Traark's telepathically-controlled creatures. This powerful monster resembles a mosasaur and is characterised by a bumpy dark-red skin and a body shape similar to that of a monitor lizard, although it is more elongated and streamlined for swimming; its paddles are formed by webbing between its long clawed fingers and toes, while its tail is broad and has small, crescent-shaped shark-like flukes on the end. The creature features minimal articulation (neck and tail only) and even wears a tech-mech copper covering, which encloses its body for protection in battle (leaving the head, limbs and tail free) and has a dorsal crest running the length of the back plate.

Final thoughts
Overall: so yeah, Traark wins big for me here. I love everything about the concept of the character and his two different forms over the years. While it all started with the Foundation legged version, which will carry a soft spot with me forever, I would consider this Emergence merman figure the perfect take on him for me. This is a fun figure, and while some of the variants in this line don’t appeal to me on the same level as their Foundation counterparts, I am very happy overall with Traark
Rating: ☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR|Emergence Review #15: Goln (Emergence Edition)

Toy prototype details
Name: Goln^TM (Emergence Edition), aka Robotic-Legs Goln
Subtitle: striding warrior
Line: KR|Emergence
Item type: action figure - Nº 13 in the line.

Character details
Name: Goln
Classification: archosauromorph reptile
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Era: 3 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Rexodon
Rank: brigade general.

Background
First appearance: KR|Emergence #3 - The war of all against all: Part II – Rise
Brief bio: once a legless slave in the mines of the Atogg^TM River valley, Goln was hired as a soldier of fortune by Bi-Harr, who noticed his potential skills in tracking down the mammalian enemies. He was promoted to brigade general when he helped the Reptonoid army fight the heroic Therioms and free the prisoner of war Khronodon. Enhanced in return by the advanced technology of the rescued wizard and mad scientist, Goln gained tremendous agility and strength thanks to a pair of highly sophisticated robotic legs. He also possessed the ability to leap tremendous heights, vaulting over his enemies to overwhelm them in battle. Typically overconfident and presumptuous, Goln often overestimated his advantage, but his resolve in a fight against all the odds and willingness to serve his double-headed master in the face of danger were unrivalled. Taking the code name "Raptor", he was frequently assigned to missions together with his comrade-in-arms Zourr, with whom he gradually became close friends despite occasional clashes of temperaments. Eventually, as members of the Rexodon troops, Goln and Zourr got along effectively and formed an evil well-matched duo. In battle, the two showed an excellent ability to synchronise with one another at just the right moment and were ultimately praised by Bi-Harr in reward for their team spirit.

Articulation
Standard, with the addition of a tail, which is a ball jointed separate piece and features two articulation points, two swivels at about one-third and two-thirds of its length.

Description
Head: similar to a Deinonychus, characterised by violaceous skin, a series of five brownish spikes running centrally from the middle of the forehead to the back of the head, a pair of green eyes (which strangely look like compound eyes), and powerful jaws lined with curved, blade-like whitish teeth

Body: violaceous scaly skin. While the arms are standard and equipped with large hands (each carrying three long, curved claws), the lower body consists of a long snake-like tail with imbricate scales arranged in rings, which give him a segmented appearance. The scales running along the underside of the tail have a warty look, while the ones on the upper side are keeled and received a nice dark-purple wash alongside a few irregular brownish markings. Additionally, the tail ends with a spiked, mace-like steel ball

Wearables: a black leather shoulder belt decorated with silver studs (each resembling a small reptile skull), two black bracelets ornamented with zigzagging engravings, a studded black tasset belt and a reptile skull-shaped silver loincloth. While the shoulder belt is equipped with a large reptile skull-shaped silver pauldron, the tassets are held flush against the sides of the tail.

Action feature

Goln is equipped with a pair of large, T-Rex-like fully articulated robotic legs, which are made of steel and are attached to the tassets on the sides of his "pelvis" via swivel-hinged joints, so they can move forwards, backwards and also in and out slightly. The two cybernetic legs are fictionally self-repairing and display a huge amount of tech-mech details as well as two lower extremities that resemble large electromechanical dragon's feet. While the swivelling joint between the two halves of each lower leg is seemingly sealed by a black O-ring, each foot has three long toes arranged in a Y-shaped pattern (two toes point forward and one goes backward), and each toe bears three sharp claws, the second of which is sickle-shaped. The "hips" bear two sockets, to which two additional black&silver pivoting blasters can be attached. Each weapon is composed of a large cannon, fictionally designed to shoot jets of an inflammable liquid, and a small gun.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the two leg-blasters, Goln comes with his signature adze, which has a short black bamboo handle and an arched silver blade with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle. This weapon can be connected to the quarterstaff that came with Emergence Zourr, to create the Tyrannoraptor's long-handled adze.
Additionally, the package includes a new head sculpt and a shield for Enmity Koptros. The head is very similar to his normal form's portrait, but its unhatted style definitely helps the figure look closer to his Emergence appearance. The shield seems to be an expanded version of his weaponized boomerang and consists of five V-shaped flat units located one above another like in a Venetian blind.

Final thoughts
Overall: Goln might not be the most exciting KR character when he doesn't hang around with his buddy Zourr, but PoliganToys did a good job with him. He's a solid, fun figure, and besides his bionic legs I especially like his shoulder belt and adze. His head sits a bit too low on his neck, making he look like he has no neck, but that's an easy fix on my own
Rating: ☺☺☺ / 5

KR|Emergence Review #13: Alatryx (Emergence Edition)

Toy prototype details
Name: Alatryx^TM (Emergence Edition), aka Steel-Wings Alatryx
Subtitle: winged amazon
Line: KR|Emergence
Item type: action figure - Nº 11 in the line.

Character details
Name: Alatryx
Classification: archosauromorph reptile with bird-like traits
Sex: female
Home: Tahron
Era: 3 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Rexodon
Rank: observer captain.

Background
First appearance: KR|Emergence #2 - The war of all against all: Part I – Breach
Brief bio: originally a member of a civilisation of feathered reptiles, Alatryx met and fell in love with a winged warrior named Tharrgos^TM when he saved her village from wicked attacking scavengers. Like other bird-like creatures who lived high on the peaks of southern Tahron, Tharrgos had large feathered wings which grew from his back, and could fly thanks to the power of a gemstone magically connected to a mystical spear-staff. Tharrgos returned Alatryx's affection, and eventually the two married in his home. Self-conscious because of her inability to fly on her own, Alatryx still strove to protect Tharrgos's people when the war between the mammalian and reptilian forces started and Lor-Drek stole the magical spear-staff, thus trapping the bird creatures, who didn't side with either army, in their mountain city. Although Alatryx managed to retrieve the powerful artefact from Lor-Drek in battle, she was gravely injured. To cure her, Tharrgos took Alatryx before the spear-staff, whose magic combined with his love both healed her wounds and gave her the power of flight, killing him in return. After Tharrgos's death, the bird people selected Alatryx to lead their city and she did so for several centuries, until she saw in the Rexodons an opportunity to get her revenge against Lor-Drek. She ran off with the spear-staff and offered her service as an air soldier to Bi-Harr. Despite her ability to fly like an angel using the power of the mystical staff, Alatryx augmented her forearms with artificial wings to increase her speed and manoeuvrability, and proved a merciless warrior when engaged into battle.

Articulation
Standard, excluding hinged abdomen. The figure also has a hinged lower jaw and a pair of swivel-hinged wing pieces attached to the wrists.

Description

Head: similar to a bird of prey, characterised by large red eyes with black pupils, which are surrounded by fawn feathers (except for a bit of purplish colour that gives her eyes a dark, smokey appearance), as well as a fairly large hooked, serrated (including a pair of bone-coloured fangs) blue-grey articulated beak with cracked details, nares and, due to a backward-curved bony spike projecting from the extremity of each mandible, a hammer-like shape. Aside from having a relatively long fawn-feathered neck, her bald, vulture-like scalp allows her to wear a metallic dark-blue removable armoured helmet, which is ornamented with a dark-orange gemstone on the forehead in addition to several bronze details such as a set of three longitudinal, talon-like top crests, two side crests (each looking like a mix of a pointy ear and a feathered wing), a pair of cat eye goggles with yellow glowing lenses, and two "feathery" cheekpieces. The sculpt also includes a pretty large quantity of highly elaborate, elongated, colourful feathers flowing out from the back of the helmet similarly to hair - the colours are the same as those used in her Foundation version, but they are displayed in a different order (from the centre to the edges: orange, light-blue and purple)

Body: arms and legs covered with fawn feathers, scaly blue-grey hands with large bone-coloured talons, long tail rimmed by colourful feathers similar to the "hair". Each digitigrade leg ends in a four-digit foot with massive bone-coloured talons (three of which point forward and one goes backward in each foot), while each knee is bent to accommodate the foot portion with the heel section high up. While the upper arms are embellished with a pair of studded bronze armbands, the thighs are equipped with two small wing-like fawn-feathered appendages
Wearables: a bronze armour with dark-blue details, two brown feathery wrist guards (which also cover the backs of the hands), two laminar/scale armour bronze boots (each showing a raised silver talon ornament running down its length and ending with the real front talons that protrude outward), a broad V-shaped studded bronze belt with a jagged lower edge, and a dark-blue feathery loincloth. The cuirass features a ruff of pointed dark-blue feathers, a bird (with its wings wide spread) emblem decorated with a dark-orange gemstone on the breast plate, as well as a couple of battle scratches, while the armour scales that compose the pointed boot tops resemble small feathers.

Alatryx's stylised armour.

Action feature
In the comics, Alatryx is able to fly at great speeds as if by natural winged flight thanks to a magical anti-gravity gem worn on her armour as well as a pair of semi-artificial bird-like appendages attached to her arms. So, the figure is equipped with large wrist-mounted battle wings attached to two bronze bracers, which are sculpted over her feathery wrist guards. Each appendage appears to be made of long feathers mounted on three steel wings with bronze trims along their leading edges, which revolve around a pivot on the bracer, so that they can spread or fold like slats in a fan. Each wing carries feathers of a specific colour, namely orange, light-blue or purple, but some of the feathers on the trailing edge look like made of steel and are painted in silver (in the comics, Alatryx is capable of launching these feather-like, wingtips daggers at her enemies). Although the spreading/folding pivot point mechanism is purely fictional (the three wings are actually one solid piece), each snap-on appendage has a ball-hinged joint and can also rotate together with the wrist/forearm piece, so that it can be posed in any direction. Additionally, there are two bronze tekkō-kagi, each with four claws, which also attach to the bracers and are used for striking and slashing opponents as well as ensnaring and disarming weapons.

Weapons and accessories
Apart from the two tekkō-kagi, Alatryx includes four accessories: a dual spear-staff, two alternative "hair" pieces and a flight stand. The dark-blue spear-staff has two bladed ends (a long pointed tip resembling a feather, and a broad, flat piece resembling a pair of "phoenix rising" wings), which can be detached from the shaft and used as independent weapons, a sword and a shield, respectively. The sword has a "winged" cross-guard, while the "feathered" shield has an egg-shaped, dark-orange gem on the front; each weapon's grip (the shield's one is on the back) also acts as a pin that plugs into the shaft piece of the staff.
The first alternate hairpiece is meant to replace the default one attached to the back of the helmet, and displays some differences in length, shape and colour arrangement (from the centre to the edges: light-blue, purple and orange), so that the helmet can be used with the Foundation version of this figure. The second item is a complete hairpiece that the figure can wear when the helmet is removed; aside from its long, elaborate colourful feathers extending towards the back (some of them also reach the shoulders on the front, but fortunately these elements are pliable and don't limit the head movement at all), this piece also bears three small bone-coloured horns on the top.
Finally, the flight stand has a cool base covered with little skulls, as well as a curved bronze element that clips onto the belt on the back of the figure (this actually looks like a belt extension and carries two wing-shaped ornaments that "rise" along Alatryx's flanks, reaching her shoulders on the front).

Additionally, the figure comes with a baby carrier that supports an infant version of Mor-Rak. The brown leather carrier, which can be used by either Sih-Len or Gax-Uhr, on front or back, has two adjustable shoulder straps ornamented with leaf-shaped motifs, as well as a chest strap and a waist strap. Baby Mor-Rak is a mini figure with swivel arms and a swivel head, and painted in his traditional colours, with light-green pants and suspenders, and two large bronze buttons on his chest.

Final thoughts
Overall: I think this figure turned out good. I mean REALLY good. I dig the sculpt a lot, she has a great look to her that feels very unique and fresh. Despite the inability to spread and fold, the winged attachments look awesome, and all her accessories are winners. Baby Mor-Rak is also very well done and I'm pleased he has articulation, rather than being just a PVC figure (one may argue that he looks too small compared to his Foundation version, who is just three years older, but I'd say that probably primivods grow faster than humans and hybrids). Alatryx has been on my top 25 most wanted prototypes list since this soft reboot line was announced, and it's great to finally have her - she's not only a great action figure, but a great villainous character as well thanks to her new bio
Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ / 5

KR|Emergence Review #10: Khronodon

Toy prototype details

Name: Khronodon^TM
Subtitle: black-hearted occultist and technomage
Line: KR|Emergence
Item type: action figure (dual figure) - Nº 9 in the line.

Character details
Name: Khronodon
Classification: mutant archosauromorph reptile

Sex: male
Relationships: Elykta's former lover
Home: Tahron
Era: 3 years before Foundation
Affiliation: Rexodon
Rank: chief war strategist and tactician.

Background
First appearance: KR|Emergence #2 - The war of all against all: Part I – Breach
Brief bio: originally a hot-tempered young member of a mutant reptilian race, Khronodon was banished by his family to a monastery, where elder wizard-priests attempted to teach him adultness alongside the ways of the black arts. He fell under the tutelage of the powerful sorcerer Sphenorat^TM, from whom Khronodon learnt to master many forms of witchcraft, including occultism and necromancy. During that time, he also fell in love with another troubled mentee named Elykta and, when Sphenorat broke faith with his compeers and pledged his devotion to Bi-Harr, both decided to follow him and to join the evil Reptonoid army. Quickly assigned to assist Bi-Harr’s most vicious war strategists, Khronodon roamed throughout Tahron terrorising the mammalian populace and causing havoc all over the land. Thanks to the heroics of Ki-Shudan, Khronodon was eventually chained in a magical prison beneath Theriom City, where he remained for years until Bi-Harr's minions freed him. Now seeking to defeat the Theriom troops for good and to aid Bi-Harr in his war of conquest, he began mastering alchemy and technomancy, and served as a spy, a slave trader and, most of all, a time predator. Impressed, Bi-Harr gave Khronodon command of his foot soldiers, until they rebelled against their general and sided with Lor-Drek's Unnamed Clan. Eventually, combining dark magic with occult science to drain the mystical energy from a number of relics that were connected to the legendary SpawnCrystals, Khronodon aimed at extracting their essence and converting it into solid shards to recreate the great ancient power of the lost Antikythron. Although Bi-Harr considered Khronodon's plan overly ambitious, he hoped to take advantage of the chaos created by his wicked eagerness. To Bi-Harr's surprise however, Khronodon finally succeeded in collecting the six SpawnCrystals quintessences, and in unleashing the unstoppable strength and great magic of an Antikythron-like mechanism of his own devising. Striving for destroying any opponents who got in his way, he vanished by using his ability to jump through time after a fight with his rival and former fellow sorcerer Ophidok had almost killed him. After travelling to the future, Khronodon ended up in a frozen, inhospitable world, unable to get back to his original time. There, he survived on his own for decades before dying of exposure during a brutal cold wave.

Associated SpawnCrystal

Name: Time Dice
Shape: cube
Colour: green
Corresponding element: wood
Powers and capabilities: controlling coordination and efficiency
Creator: Multiversal Balancer Elibhurn^TM
History: after the impact of a meteor had devastated the Earth environment, mainly through a lingering impact winter that triggered an ecological collapse and a subsequent mass extinction event, Elibhurn housed the Time Dice in an enchanted seed and sent it to the land which became known as Tahron, aiming at creating a mass transformation process that would restore the original potential of the entire planet's biological evolution. The seed generated a massive tree of a tropical type, several times taller than other trees already existing in Tahron's forests. The sentient tree had the ability to communicate with other plants through its long bioluminescent roots, making them capable of transferring vital faculties to other living beings at risk of extinction. When the tree's mission was completed successfully, its crown died out, while its trunk and roots entered a quiescent state. Millions of years later, the sage warrior-wizard Ki-Shudan found and identified the mystic tree, and learnt how to use its roots to see into the past and the future, and to improve his soldiers' fighting skills by enhancing their synergistic interaction. The evil reptilian sorcerer and scientist Khronodon attempted to steal the roots from Ki-Shudan in many occasions, but was always foiled by the Theriom army. After many years of research, before the top of the enchanted tree was used as the load-bearing foundation of the Ucamur^TM Citadel, Khronodon finally tracked down the prodigious plant and stole some precious wood material from its roots, in order to create the toothed wooden gearwheels that would drive a powerful mechanical device embedded in his armour.

Articulation
Standard.

Description

Head: his face is supposed to resemble a Dilophosaurus, but it is flattened in order to acquire a more humanoid look. It has a steel pink (i.e., a strongly purple-toned shade of pink) skin marked with super pink glowing streaks (mainly around, between and below the eyes), three solid red eyes (the third eye is on the left chick bone), a four-nostril nose flanked by two fleshy protuberances (each composed of three tendril-like appendages connected by a seemingly muscular membrane), a jutting lower jaw with two sharp yellowish teeth protruding upward (while a single central tooth projects downward from the upper jaw), and a dark-grey growth of facial hair, which is composed of a beard separated into two strips running parallel to each other at either side of the chin and a long, thin curled chin puff. He wears a peculiar headgear composed of a dinosaur head-shaped dark-purple metal diadem (with a single yellow gemstone-eye that in the comics can change to green or orange, two horizontal tusks forming a brow guard plus a short nasal, and a pair of longitudinal, arched mahiole-like crests) and a multitude of large, branched scaly greenish (some are actually smaller and purplish) horns that kind of resemble lizardy creatures with heads and legs

Body: super pink-veined steel pink skin bearing a few dark-grey calcified outgrowths (some of which are spine-shaped) here and there; the glowing streaks on his chest form a complex pattern similar to a stylised dinosaur head. While his left hand and feet have long dark-grey nails, his right hand resembles a dark-grey chela with a large blade-like fixed finger and a much smaller "movable" finger

Wearables: a cuirass similar to a mirror armour (consisting of a complex clockwork and a large dark-green metal disc in the front and back, respectively, connected by dark-green metal plates sewn on purple leather), a dark-green cross-strap leather fingerless glove accompanied by a large jewelled dark-green wrist guard and a knuckle protector on his left arm, two dark-green cross-strap leather calf protectors equipped with studded dark-green metal instep guards and upper shin/knee guards, a dark-green studded belt with an elaborate dinosaur head-shaped buckle, and a jagged scale armour skirt composed of several leaf-shaped pieces. He also wears an asymmetric, jagged cape that matches the skirt in colour and pattern, and is held in place by a giant dark-grey dinosaur head on his right shoulder. It is worth noting that similarly to the diadem, the dinosaur-themed buckle and shoulder guard look like one-eyed, tusked Dilophosaurus skulls.

Action feature
In the comics, Khronodon is shown to have the ability to manipulate time; the way he does that is through the infamous clockwork embedded in his cuirass, which even allows him de-age his body and mind as well as to travel in time. However, Khronodon is not very experienced in time-travelling yet, and he's extremely careful to avoid potential problems and dangers related to this capability; for example, if he jumped to the wrong point in time, he might get stuck in the void of space where Tahron doesn't exist yet or anymore. Nonetheless, in the story he is shown to slow time down, which also allows him to alter the future, even if it's just a small change by a matter of minutes or seconds. He could potentially use the device in such a way that the flow of time not only slows down, but it stops, reverses or even speeds up (the last is what he accomplishes for saving his life at the end of the story). Additionally, once Khronodon succeeds in collecting the essence of the six SpawnCrystals, he can unleash the full power of his device, which works similarly to an antikythron. In the comics, this power allows him to transform into a giant metal warrior created by combining a large number of weapons. So, included with the black-hearted technomage is an alternate clockwork piece (the front part of his cuirass is actually a shell that can accommodate two interchangeable pieces: one with the coloured shards set in it and one without) as well as his post-transformation alter ego - a massive walking pile of weapons.

This figure is nearly 23 cm (around 9") tall, which is in the same scale as Mor-Rak's and Al-Mih-Tek's enhanced forms. The body is designed to look like being composed of actual weapons from Bi-Harr's relics museum, showing an impressive amount of intricate details, and has as much articulation as the standard figure. The paint is mostly silver, bronze and gold with some metallic dark-purple details.

His torso includes a round spiked/bladed shield on the chest and a complex broad spiked ballista on the back. The lower legs are made of a ball-and-chain flail (left) and a halberd-like weapon in the form of a combined adze, battle-axe and kama (right), while the forearms look like a bazooka (left) and a tech-sword (right). The head is formed of his signature cannon-like weapon (more on this in the next section), which bears several spiky projections (three in the lower part, four in the upper part and two L-shaped handles on the sides), and displays some robotic-face features such as a sort of mouth grill below the single yellow "eye"-muzzle (originally, Khronodon was intended to resemble more a one-eyed Lovecraftian monster, a design that in a way has been transferred to his enhanced form). The cool thing is that all the above-mentioned weapons can be detached from Khronodon's enhanced body and stored on the ballista (which doubles as a rack) or used individually by most KR figures.

Weapons and accessories
Included in the plethora of weapons described in the action feature section is the Quintextractor, a dual-handled, cannon-like metallic dark-purple device, which Khronodon uses to drain mystical energy from any objects that were connected in some way to the SpawnCrystals, and to convert the essence extracted from such objects into solid, coloured shards (he does also come with three green shards symbolising the essence of the Time Dice). He looks great with it and I’m so glad the figure is well articulated to be able to hold it with both hands (yes, even with his pincer-like right hand). The quintextractor can be stored into a loop in Khronodon's back armour (the part not covered by the cape) thanks to a little clip hanging off the bottom-rear part of the barrel. Also, an included translucent orange blast effect can plug snugly into the weapon's muzzle - this is a recast of Spelekos' accessory, which starts off as wild energy, and then turns into a bundle of tendrils at the end, which mimics the action of absorbing the SpawnCrystals' energy.
In addition, there's an alternate head for Khronodon's basic form that has a one-eyed face (the single large central eye is solid red) and a two-eyed diadem, which is closer to his original design. Nice touch!

Finally, the figure comes with a dark-bronze&steel stand for the energy stone. This is beautifully sculpted with cool details that recall some of the architecture of Rokang Tar, especially the curved stairway leading to the top of the main tower. However, I'm just disappointed that they didn't include a new version of the stone, since the only one available was packaged with Colotros.

Final thoughts
Overall: Khronodon is the first completely new figure in the Emergence line, and an excellent add to the KR shelf. Both his forms look great and are extremely well sculpted with beautiful details. Especially his basic form, thanks to the pink-purple plastic that dominates his colour scheme, has a sort of “demon” feel, and I love him leading my army of reptilian warriors. His enhanced form also stands out nicely on the shelf. I think the writers of the first KR stories were going to build Khronodon up to be a big deal, but the character got discarded before they could get there; it's cool that PoliganToys is honouring that in this new toy/story-line, and that we've got yet another great prototype

Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ / 5