KR Review #61: Apprentice Advisor Fai-Rha

With the end of my first year of KR reviews and the news that PoliganToys will continue to send me their prototypes but not official releases yet, we’re at a point of mystery, speculation and confusion. In fall 2016, the first KR figures were expected to be introduced to the public. However, this now seems more and more unlikely to happen.

Nobody knows what PoliganToys' plans are for the KR brand. All I know is that they do intend to make it come into being in some form.

I should hang my head in shame too. The purpose of this blog was (and is still) to help the brand take off, by creating a mist of curiosity and hype that would eventually lead to demand. It didn't succeed so far.

Believe me, writing a blog about something so visual like action figures and not being allowed to post pictures of those figures is a pretty difficult task. But I'm not going to give up. I really enjoy receiving those prototypes, analysing them and writing their reviews. I *just* need to improve my promotional skills, with the hope to push for the Key Raiders being put on the market sooner rather than later.

Anyway, after that, this week I'm reviewing the formal-outfit variant of Fai-Rha -or Apprentice Advisor Fai-Rha^TM-, which is the 47^th action figure prototype I received from PoliganToys.

Details

Name: Apprentice Advisor Fai-Rha

Real name: Rhadiel

Subtitle: future supporter

Classification: human-primivod hybrid (but she looks completely human)

Sex: female

Relationships: daughter of Tir-Hing, younger sister of Desion (Masq-Lor)

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: trainee.

Since the background story of the character has been covered before and the articulation is standard (excluding the hinged abdomen), let's get straight to the point, which is all about the figure.

Description

Head: light brown skin, long unbound black hair, green eyes. Unlike the helmet-less head included in Fai-Rha's regular release, the eyebrows are in a more relaxed position and the mouth displays a subtle smile. She also wears a golden tiara decorated with a red gemstone; the tiara clips into two notches in her hair that allow for it to be reversible, exhibiting either of two slightly different designs

Body: the arms are covered with the long sleeves of a dark-grey shirt, while the legs are partially exposed and show light brown skin

Wearables: a long-sleeved dark-grey shirt underneath a long sleeveless red dress, two golden bracelets decorated with red gemstones, two golden boots and a dark-grey leather belt. The dress is characterised by a metallic shimmer, a deep V-neck, ruffles down the skirt and a double slit. The belt separates the fitted part above the waist from the skirt below and has a big golden buckle that bears a more graceful reinterpretation of the Theriom symbol, with what seems a big diamond at its centre. The dress is made of a soft plastic, so it doesn't block her articulation from the waist down. The fairly high slits allow us to see the shirt underneath being actually a leotard and the boots showing turndown dark-grey lapels.

Action feature

Like with Apprentice Minister Masq-Lor, despite the figure doesn't have any real action feature, we still get something to enhance AAF's clothing, presumably for highly formal occasions. This comes in the form of a red cape with white ornamental frills along the collar, which is fixed to the front by a small gold chain. The same shiny, glittering effect seen on the dress also characterises the mantle, except that it fades to solid red towards the upper edge.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the extra cape, AAF comes with an indispensable accessory - an alternative head that displays a daring expression and wears the inactive helmet, i.e., with neither the black-panther visor activated nor metal cat ears. Like with Masq-Lor, this new head works as the necessary bridge between the helmet-less and the helmeted-with-visor heads, both included in Fai-Rha's regular release.

Additionally, the figure includes alternative versions of Fai-Rha's normal bō stick and triangular shield. The stick is made of a reddish-brown wood and adorned with relatively simply designed golden (instead of the original silver colour) ends, and, similarly to Fai-Rha's first release, it can be inserted in a holster on the back of her dress. The shield is completely made of gold and engraved with what looks like a big cat face.

Overall, Apprentice Advisor Fai-Rha is yet another great figure. She does run a little bit taller than her regular counterpart, but just posing her with a slightly wide stance will make her end up being the right height. The paint lines are very well executed and the head sculpt is nearly perfect. She deserves to be welcome on my KR shelf, regardless of how I feel about "institutional" variants being displayed among the more combative characters.

KR Review #60: Kelotur

2016 is giving us one exciting addition after another, and this is no exception. Kelotur^TM finally comes spinning into battle!

The Spektrosaur line-up keeps trucking along and this 46^th action figure prototype from PoliganToys is a nice addition.

Details

Name: Kelotur

Subtitle: spinning-blade warrior

Classification: chelonian reptile

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Spektrosaur

Rank: ensign.

Background

Kelotur's only brief appearance is in the eighth KR comic issue The Cereutian menace: Part I – Downfall. A feared former vandal from the Tahlapos^TM estuary region, Kelotur was a pure fury, who enjoyed nothing more than whirling flails and blades to deliberately destroy villages and terrorise their inhabitants. He eventually developed the ability to enhance his fighting skills by protruding a jagged sawtooth edge from his carapace and bursting out in a spinning action into battle. Thanks to his threatening claws, violent spin powers and fearsome chain-weapons, which he now uses in service to Lor-Drek, Kelotur swings into the battlefield and ploughs over his foes.

Articulation

Standard, except that the waist is ball jointed.

Description

Head: similar to a turtle, characterised by a short snout, olive-green skin, purple eyes, a pair of nostrils and a partly closed beak-like mouth

Body: olive-green scaly skin, webbed hands and feet with long claws. His torso is encased in a shell that is composed of a plastron on the front and a carapace on the back, each made up of a number of imbricate scutes. The dark-yellow plastron has nine scutes, while the large dome-shaped dark-brown carapace has five central scutes and four pairs of lateral scutes, each armoured with a dark-orange spike to form three dorsal ridges. The carapace and plastron are joined together on Kelotur's shoulders and flanks by bony-like tabs. He also has a short sturdy tail emerging from the bottom edge of the carapace

Wearables: an orange copper chest plate with light-blue details, two orange leather fingerless gloves and two orange leather toeless boots. The chest plate is permanently attached to the plastron, while both the gloves and boots have a palmate structure, to match the webbed hands and feet, and have turndown lapels.

Kelotur's stylised chest plate.

Action feature

In the comics, Kelotur has the ability to withdraw his head, limbs and tail into his shell, which acts as a shield against his enemies. So, the figure comes with an alternative retracted body that can be enclosed inside the shell, after this has been removed from the regular body. At first, I was worried about switching the bodies, because the tabs that hold the shell together seemed a bit brittle to me. However, once I tried, I've realised that there shouldn't be any problem, the plastic is strong enough. While the shell-less extended body has all it needs to stand on its own, including a regular olive-green scaly torso, a mottled orange&brown tortoiseshell belt and light-blue trunks, the retracted form, although being very detailed, looks kind of funny, but I guess it is not supposed to be used without the shell.

Additionally, when retracted, Kelotur can project several sharp dark-yellow teeth from all around his carapace, as well as from the keel down its centre. This ability has been brought to reality by providing the figure with an alternative serrated, spiky-edged carapace, which makes it possible to transform this evil turtle-man into a sort of whirling saw blade. Also, this additional carapace has a spiny keel, a part of which can be detached from the inside of the shell, allowing Kelotur's shell-less extended upper body to plug into a socket in the retracted body's back and form the weirdest monster you can imagine - a double cog-wheel turtle, with one body withdrawn inside the shell and another one emerging from the top of the carapace. Even though it is never shown in the comics, this feature gives us a fun bonus display option, which is always nice. The sawtooth carapace could also be used on the extended body, if one had will to display the figure in such a way, but it's worth noting that the spiky edge hampers the head and limbs movements considerably.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the retracted body and spiny carapace, Kelotur comes with his trademark chigiriki. This menacing flail weapon consists of a long light-blue metal staff, an equally long silver chain and a cylindrical wooden weight covered with copper spikes.

In addition, the figure includes a clear plastic stand to hold the fictionally flying/spinning retracted form above the ground.

Overall, Kelotur turned out far better than I ever hoped he could be. He's not only an excellent figure, but also a really funky character... and I love funky characters! I was really excited to see his prototype in the KR line and, since we are going to finish up the Spektrosaur squad soon, this guy was a must have. Sure, it is not recommended to make him fly and spin like in the comics, but the added flight stand is kind of cool. And even though the opening carapace for the torso plug-in feature is just not for me personally, I still think it's a nice touch.

KR Review #59: Geel-Ber & Arkiopod

To make the already great KR line even greater, there is nothing like getting a big ass wicked vehicle that I was almost sure wouldn't be going to happen - the Arkiopod^TM!

Also, included with this mecha-beast is a new figure, Geel-Ber^TM. He is one of those figures in the line that I wouldn’t really expect to care about. But after getting the prototype and previewing his comic, Geel-Ber’s character started to get into my good books.

So, let's get down to the details of this 11^th multi-pack prototype from PoliganToys.

Geel-Ber

Details

Name: Geel-Ber

Subtitle: barbaric warlord

Classification: human

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Destructomorph (temporarily)

Rank: leader of the Gunlars, a barbarian tribe; monstrous re-embodiment of Deptilion.

Background

Like with several characters I have reviewed during the last few months, Geel-Ber's only appearance takes place in a KR comic issue that hasn't been printed yet, but I had the chance to preview. Although I cannot reveal too much about the story involving this young barbarian leader, I can anticipate that Geel-Ber, due to an event related to the episode featuring Alterok, transforms into a sort of Deptilion's clone and teams up with Demo-Rha. The pair then aims at changing the history of Tahron by travelling back in time.

Articulation

Standard.

Description

Head: pale white skin, long, somewhat wavy blond hair, blue eyes, a narrow nose, a conceited, almost sadistic smirk

Body: pale white skin, exposed arms and legs

Wearables: a silver harness with black leather details, two studded silver bracelets, two silver boots with black leather fringes around the tops, a silver belt and a Roman-style black leather loincloth decorated with silver studs. The harness looks quite worn and features a strange symbol (which personally reminds me to the "W"-shaped asterism of the constellation Cassiopeia) on the chest plate.

Geel-Ber's stylised harness.

Action feature

In the story, for a series of events that I can't recount now, Geel-Ber magically acquires the appearance (and also the wickedness) of Deptilion. So, the figure comes with two alternative heads that are meant to be used with regular Deptilion, to render Geel-Ber's look after the mutation. Both heads display Deptilion's standard face, but one is un-helmeted and has a mane of greasy, dirty blond hair, while the other one wears a new black helmet with silver details. For comic accuracy, the former head will work best if Deptilion's harness is replaced with Geel-Ber's one, even though the wrist- and shin-guards don't match the pieces of armour worn by the barbarian.

Deptilion's stylised new helmet.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the two additional heads, Geel-Ber comes with a threatening halberd. This weapon has nothing to do with the halberds that form the Key. It's "just" a combined spear, battleaxe and sledgehammer, which consists of a silver axe blade and a round, flat silver hammer head, topped with a silver spike mounted on a long black shaft.

Arkiopod

Details

Name: Arkiopod

Subtitle: crawling attack vehicle

Classification: land vehicle

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Destructomorph

Rank: transport.

Description

The Arkiopod is an incredible walking fighting vehicle protected by two curved reddish-brown, copper-like layers (resembling two beautifully sculpted valves) on the upper and lower surfaces. One action figure can sit in the cockpit on the vehicle's back and grasp the handlebar equipped with sculpted vehicle control panels and two removable guns that can also fit in the figure's grip. A number of technological dark-grey structures emerge from the black gap between the two valves, namely six insect-like legs, two tentacled arms and a pair of headlights. The six legs look like they have several articulation points, despite they are only made of one very detailed piece each. Either arm splits into three cool bending tentacles that hold shape; one of these tentacles is armed with a sharp claw and another one with a spring-action pincer that can grip a figure. The headlights are slightly similar to two beady eyes and glow in the dark.

Action feature

When the Arkiopod rolls forward or backward, its amazing mechanical legs and tentacles move for attack action. The mechanism is activated by the front-underside rolling wheel (the only part of the hull that touches the ground) as the vehicle is pushed along a smooth surface. By removing the upper shell, the exposed complex gearbox lets us watch its camshaft turning.

Weapons and accessories

The Arkiopod comes with two pivoting black missile launchers mounted at the sides of the cockpit. The cannons can rotate for aiming and fire double-headed missiles thanks to spring-loaded mechanisms... they actually shoot farther than I would have thought.

Overall, I am absolutely thrilled with this multi-pack. Even though Geel-Ber is based on the standard male buck, the guys at PoliganToys added a few new components that give him his own style and really exude that barbarian-warlord vibe. Before his transformation, he is probably one of the more insignificant villains in the line, but I’m still pretty happy to add him to my shelf. Besides, his weapon and the two additional Deptilion heads have really great features. About the Arkiopod, the first evil vehicle is a smashing success, at least from a design standpoint. The detailing in the sculpt and paints on it are very impressive and all the cogs and cams inside the gearbox are quickly becoming some of my favourite tech details of this line. Well done!

KR Review #58: Sphenorat

Time to get the weekend started off right. This time I'm reviewing the figure of a character that I feel is one of the more menacing Spektrosaur members - Sphenorat^TM!

With his face hidden by shadows, aside from three freaky glowing eyes, this 45^th action figure prototype from PoliganToys really looks surrounded by a halo of mystery.

Details

Name: Sphenorat

Subtitle: dark-magical ghost

Classification: spirit of a lepidosauromorph reptile

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Spektrosaur

Rank: sorcerer.

Background

Sphenorat's first appearance is in the sixth KR comic issue Reptiles reunited. In life, Sphenorat served as a wizard-priest to Bi-Harr alongside his fellow sorcerer Loghar. The fierce competition between the two warlocks led to Sphenorat's death, after which he raised to a bursting spectral form through a black magic spell. When Lor-Drek left the reptilian army to form his own faction, he promised Sphenorat great power in return for mystic secrets and help in overthrowing both Bi-Harr and the Therioms. The wraith-like wizard agreed to betray the reptilian general and joined forces with Lor-Drek. Using his mastery of witchcraft and his ghostly enhanced abilities, Sphenorat strikes terror into his enemies.

Articulation

Standard down to the waist; due to his robe piece, there is no leg articulation.

Description

Head: covered with a large loose ragged headdress seemingly made of a coarse, rough dark-brown fabric. This cowl also covers the neck and face, only allowing three yellow eyes (the third eye is on the forehead) to be seen on a dark background. On the top, the hood bears three red lines forming an array of crescent-shaped markings, while on the back it tapers to a comb of tips that slightly resembles a spiny crest

Body: cloaked from neck to toe. His arms are covered by long, wide torn dark-brown sleeves, while his hands show a sickly clawed, skeletal appearance, blue-green skin and black nails

Wearables: a long, loose torn dark-brown sackcloth, a large red pendant (resembling the triple-crescent symbol on the hood) on a chain around the neck and a long, thick light-brown cord (with a red tassel at either end) used to fit the garment around the waist. The robe does a great job of blending in with the cowl and especially the sleeves, under which we can glimpse two red bracelets. He also wears a tattered dark-red (I would call this colour "burgundy") cape, which has a high standing collar and is fixed to the front by a light-brown string. This mantle fades to translucent towards the jagged bottom and is removable.

Action feature

In the comics, Sphenorat, being a spectre, has several ghostly powers, such as appearing and disappearing at will and passing through solid obstacles thanks to his impalpable consistence. Of course those abilities couldn't be recreated in the figure, but at least his hands can glow in the dark, giving him a bit of a spectral feel. Additionally, there is an alternative head that is also GITD. This head is similar to the regular one, except that the face is completely exposed and the cowl is removable. The face looks amazing - I think it is supposed to resemble a tuatara, but it's flattened in order to acquire a more humanoid appearance. It has a blue-green GITD skin, three yellow eyes with vertical slit-shaped red pupils and a slightly open mouth that displays a number of sharp white teeth. By removing the hood, two small pointy ears and a large wound (perhaps the cause of his death?) in his wrinkled, bumpy scalp are revealed.

To render his ghost-like nature farther, Sphenorat also comes with a clear stand, so he can be displayed in a floating pose. The stand works great and, similarly to The Deity, has a ball joint on the end.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the alternative head and the stand, Sphenorat comes with two accessories. First is his mystical sceptre, which has an impressive design. It is a wooden staff topped with a horned reptile eye. The eyeball has a similar appearance to Sphenorat's eyes and is made of a translucent amber plastic with a tinge of red here and there. The whitish horns feature some great detail work and glow in the dark.

The second accessory is a spell book. I’m not sure whether this book actually shows up anywhere in the comics, but I love its design. It's pretty detailed with a small metal plate on the front cover and some neat sculpted symbols (including the triple crescent seen on the hood and pendant) running along the front and back.

Overall, Sphenorat is surely a pretty good figure. I had some reservations before I received it, but they melted when I saw him in person. I can see that the guys at PoliganToys gave him a lot of love and attention. The two heads and the accessories are beautiful, and everything, from sculpt to paintwork, almost perfectly duplicates the add-ons that came with Koptros. In short, I couldn't have a better opinion about this figure.

KR Review #57: Reptile Masq-Lor

While during the final months of this year we'll see mostly unique characters who have not had a chance to get a figure yet, there are still a few variants waiting for being part of the KR collection, whose overall expanse is becoming more and more impressive.

Even though the new iteration of Masq-Lor that I'm going to review is a bit of a departure from what we have seen in the past, I am glad I finally got this prototype. Behold Reptile Masq-Lor^TM!

Similarly to the Steel Monster versions of Deptilion and Loghar, this 44^th action figure prototype from PoliganToys is obviously a different take on a high-profile character. Personally, I think Masq-Lor's reptile form is really, really cool.

Details

Name: Reptile Masq-Lor

Real name: Desion

Subtitle: dragon-toothed warrior

Classification: human-primivod hybrid (but he looks completely reptilian)

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: leading warrior.

Background (with spoilers)

Masq-Lor's only appearance in his reptile form takes place in one of those KR comic issues that haven't been printed yet but I had the chance to preview. This story shows the hero's ability to tap into the power of the Spektrosaur amulet, which was donated to him by Lor-Drek right before being killed during the Cereutian invasion. Masq-Lor is tasked with journeying into the past of Tahron, in order to prevent a revived Deptilion from ruling for centuries by constructing a fortress where the multiversal walls are destined to be built. After learning Deptilion's real demonic identity, at first Masq-Lor fights his foe by appearing heroic as usual, but then transforms into a reptilian warrior and leads the Therioms into victory. Thanks to this new power, Masq-Lor is able to defeat the threat of a different history.

Articulation

Standard, plus a hinged lower jaw, a pair of ball hinged wings and a tail that features two swivels at about one-third and two-thirds of its length.

Description

Head: slightly similar to Lor-Drek's dragon/Spinosaurus head, characterised by a long and narrow snout, dark-green skin, large sharp teeth along the edges of the jaws and a faintly forked tongue sculpted on the inside of the mouth. The figure wears Masq-Lor's trademark helmet, which in this case displays some unusual details in the covering, such as a metal cranial crest and a pair of metal pointy ears (each ending in a rather long, curved dark horn), and in the visor, such as a scaly texture, an ochre (i.e., light brownish-yellow) colour and a pair of intimidating large solid red eyes

Body: dark-green scaly skin, claw hands. On the back of his newly sculpted torso, similarly to Lor-Drek, he bears an ochre neural spine sail, a pair of large bat-like wings (without tears and holes), and a long, thick tail emerging from under the loincloth and ending with a dark-green zigzagged point. The wings and the tail are painted in dark-green on the underside and ochre on the upper side.

Wearables: a big gold necklace with a very detailed medallion carrying the Spektrosaur symbol, i.e., a greenish flame, on the back of the distinctive Theriom symbol, two golden bracelets, two golden boots, a golden belt and a brown scaly loincloth. The wrist guards and the belt are great updates of the respective pieces seen with Lor-Drek and are shaped to resemble reptile heads, while the boots are reused from Combat Masq-Lor.

Action feature

Although being probably the coolest (or at least the most peculiar) Masq-Lor's variant would be satisfactory enough, we get a little add-on. Like with other versions of the Theriom leading warrior, a pair of brownish claws can snap into each bracelet, to simulate the retractile claws seen in the comics. The only difference is that in this case the pairs of claws are more similar to the pincers seen with Alterok.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the grasping claws, RM comes with an exact replica of his regular release's enhanced sword, characterised by the threefold silver&gold blade and the bronze hilt. Additionally, there is a brick block that matches the design of the fortress seen in the comic issue and is intended to hold the sword vertically thanks to a small slot.

Also, the team at PoliganToys has decided to give the figure an additional head and a pair of reptile arm attachments that are meant to be used with regular Masq-Lor (or perhaps with his Apprentice Minister variant) to simulate a mid-transformation stage. The alternative head shows the helmet with the reptile visor activated plus some hints of the metal ears and crest, as well as the human mouth at the beginning of its mutation into a prognathous and toothed snout. The reptile attachments snap on Masq-Lor’s forearms and look enough like RM's bracers and clawed hands, but they are definitely too big and their entire underside is necessarily left open with no additional detailing.

Overall, I think this is a great figure and, aside from the too big reptile arm attachments, I really dig it. The sword holder is also fine and works as it should, but it is not at all exciting on its own. I look to be getting several surprises throughout the final part of this year and if they are all as solid as this one, we'll be in good shape. This figure opens a lot of doors and it makes me think that the rumour that an official Key Raiders release will be announced in a couple of weeks has some merit to it.

KR Review #56: Koptros

Yes, I’m missing review deadlines. And I can see the effect - traffic is down. It’s not that terrible, but still...

To compensate for my slightly long absence, here is the review of a long-awaited prototype - Koptros^TM!

Koptros has been one of my most anticipated figures in the line. The novelty of being a retired member of the Theriom faction always made him look interesting to me.

There is a lot to like on the sculpt of this 43^rd action figure prototype from PoliganToys. He has a few new pieces that all look sharp. Getting the figure right, anyway, was all about the head and the defining action feature that comes with it. The guys at PoliganToys needed to make it right. And they did!

Details

Name: Koptros

Subtitle: knowledgeable auxiliary

Classification: human

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: formerly marshal of the Theriom air force; expert in astronomy, communication engineering and espionage.

Background

Koptros appears in the exciting KR comic double-issue The Cereutian menace, where he plays a crucial role in discovering Denortos' evil plan. The descendant of an ancient engineer, who masterminded the construction of the multiversal walls, and a former member of the Theriom air force, Koptros left King Li-Khon's army after a battle injury and found peace in a remote astronomical observatory on the Gumazir^TM plateau. Although he is dedicated to a solitary and contemplative life in his hermitage, when he is called to protect justice, Koptros is still available to assist his one-time fellows with the help of all the skills and technology at his command. In particular, using his talent for disguise and telecommunication, he can act as a double agent in the reptilian armies.

Articulation

Standard, except that the wrists are ball jointed.

Description

Head: Native American features, dark brown skin with a reddish tinge, long box-braided black hair partly arranged in a ponytail, brown eyes

Body: dark brown skin with a reddish tinge. The exposed parts of his torso, arms and legs are covered in coloured tribal tattoos, which even glow in the dark to some extent. Also, his chest and back are mildly hairy

Wearables: a silver harness with red details, two silver fingerless gauntlets with a few studs around the wrists, two silver boots fastened with criss-crossed leather laces, a silver belt with some bullets all the way around and red trunks. The harness features a number of tubes along the straps and an electronic panel on the front. The gauntlets, the boots and the belt show an overlapping-plate structure with a hint of technology. He also carries a silver backpack, which, together with the harness, kind of resembles Sei-Lha's battling gear.

Koptros' stylised harness.

Action feature

Koptros is equipped with a hyper-technological backpack, which probably has a similar origin to Sei-Lha's one. Fictionally, this backpack can produce a number of tools, some of which are included as accessories with the figure. These silver&red tools, which can plug into two sockets on the top and the side of the backpack, include a rod-shaped antenna for radio communications, a rotating radar dish for land surveying, a corded gun-shaped loudspeaker for sounds and voices simulation, and a corded gun-shaped 3D scanner.

In the comics, the backpack also has the ability to produce a disguise, especially a mask, after performing a 3D scan of an enemy by the apt handheld device. So, the figure comes with six interchangeable faces that can be stored inside the backpack. To change Koptros' face, it's necessary to remove the hairpiece, rotate the head by 180°, connect the new face to the exposed socket and reattach the hairpiece. There are six faces, two of which show Koptros' regular visage with additional details: a sort of virtual reality visor and a headset (with a visible earpiece and a mouth shield-like microphone) respectively. Three other faces have been added, I suppose, for fun and resemble Masq-Lor, Deptilion and Mor-Rak respectively (Masq-Lor's face is the only one that may work well with Koptros' body and hair). But the most important face is the one that resembles Sphenorat^TM, the Spektrosaur three-eyed wizard, because this is the disguise that Koptros uses in the Downfall episode. The camouflage can be completed with an additional brown cowl that replaces the hairpiece, two alternative emaciated reptilian hands and a slightly pliable poncho-like brown robe (as a result, the arms are covered by a pair of loose sleeves only on the front side and are stuck in a preset position). It's pretty amazing to get a forthcoming figure lookalike even before the regular prototype is ready! But I'm not going to describe this guise in detail, since the real Sphenorat will be reviewed soon.

Weapons and accessories

Aside from the backpack tools, alternative faces and camouflage outfit, Koptros comes with his manifold laser pistol. This metallic red gun has three interchangeable terminal parts: a single-barreled piece (with three silver blades projecting from it), a double-barreled piece (each barrel is placed at one end of a curved horizontal silver blade, slightly making the pistol resemble a crossbow) and a triple-barreled piece (one of the three barrels, which are positioned at the apexes of a triangular pattern, is actually a spring-loaded missile launcher). Additionally, the double-barreled component can be reversed, to show a horned reptile eye, and then connected to a wooden shaft, in order to mock Sphenorat's sceptre. Now, that's a nice touch!

Overall, although this is a great addition to the KR line, Koptros is a middle-shelf figure. Don't get me wrong, I’m delighted that Koptros is finally upgrading my shelf, there’s really a lot to like about him, but he just doesn't deserve the front spot. His look is unique enough that he will still pop. He received a great head sculpt with a cool feature and I think the PoliganToys designers couldn't do better than this. My only complaint is about the poncho solution for the additional robe. I'm afraid it doesn't really match Sphenorat's cloak from the comics and, more worrying, from the upcoming action figure. Maybe a fabric robe (perhaps reversible, to get even more display options) would have served as a better strategy to really enjoy it.

KR Review #55: Steel-Monster Loghar

I know, I haven't been very active this month. I'm actually trying to enjoy a bit of summer holidays, but I still want to get a review up for the end of July.

Since this variant includes shared parts with both the regular version and a bunch of robotic figures, I guess Steel-Monster Loghar^TM has the potential to be one of the most debatable inclusions in the KR line.

Anyway, this 42^nd action figure prototype from PoliganToys also features some noticeable differences, such as a few paint variations, a set of newly sculpted attachments and, above all, a re-tooled chest piece with a surprising action feature.

Details

Name: Steel-Monster Loghar

Real name: Unit ГЗК-Д

Subtitle: robotic impostor

Classification: robot

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Rexodon

Rank: drone.

Background

Steel-Monster Loghar appears at the end of the sixth KR comic issue Reptiles reunited. After the Therioms have succeeded in rescuing several hostages held by Loghar (whose spirit possesses Herrion's body) and Lor-Drek, Masq-Lor is confronted by his demoniac twin brother. During their fight, Loghar, like Deptilion previously, reveals that he's in actual fact a droid, whose trunk enshrines a deadly worm-like drilling machine that can lash out at any enemy. The robot has been programmed by the real Deptilion, who also killed the real Loghar. While Masq-Lor appears surrounded and defenceless, Tir-Hing manages to help his son, allowing him to strike out at Loghar, thanks to a nearby Ceratank, in a final violent blow.

Articulation

Standard, except that the left wrist is ball jointed and there is no ab crunch.

Description

Head: black metallic reptile skull, showing a few mechanical and electrical components, the eyes emit a red glow. This head is essentially a reuse of the robot-mode Rexodon Trooper's head, which also came in different versions with the Destructomorph Troopers and Steel-Monster Deptilion. Its structure resembles an Ankylosaurus' skull, characterised by a wide and low shape, the front part of the jaws ending in a beak, two horns projecting backwards from the back of the head and two additional horns below those pointing backwards and down. The only innovation in this variant's head is that it is topped with a silver blade crest

Body: arms and legs have a black metallic look, showing lots of machinery/circuitry patterns and few grey scaly artificial skin fragments on the right arm and the left leg. Like with the other Loghar variants, the right leg is equipped with a silver tripod instead of a claw foot and the left arm ends in a ball&socket connection. Additionally, his creepy and menacing cyborg-like clawed right hand has four little spikes sticking out of the knuckles

Wearables: a silver armour with black details (not removable), two silver cuffs, a silver boot (with a spike sticking out of the side) on the left leg, a silver belt and a black crotch piece that shows lots of cyber details. From a distance, this figure is basically a mix of Loghar's and Destructomorph Trooper's reused pieces, but side-by-side there are subtle differences, such as shinier silver parts with some glossy black trim here and there. The belt is the only completely new piece and displays a diamond-shaped buckle.

Steel-Monster Loghar's stylised armour.

Action feature

Unlike Loghar's previous versions, the left arm extremity is not the main feature of SML, since there is no mechanism attached to it. Instead, we find a black hook with a cog halfway down its length and some loppy wires, which is the remainder of his lost spinning incendiary device. The hook can still be detached to make the forearm look like a kind of cannon. SML also carries the same technological backpack seen on the other versions, with identical sculpted details, such as wires, panels, piping, tubes and dials. However, in this figure the insulated tube that usually runs to the left forearm is absent, except for a short leftover attached to the cuff.

So, nothing exciting... except for one big thing! Yes, because if this Loghar figure were just a collection of reused components with a new useless accessory, it would really suck. Thankfully, this variant gets an all new hollow chest. We lose the ab crunch articulation, but the front plate opens up to reveal SML's true heart, which nestles inside his upper body and looks like the rotating cutting wheel of a tunnel boring machine. This nicely designed silver drilling head has copper-coloured cutting bits, disc cutters and drag picks arranged in such a way that it resembles a demonic face. As another option, the cutter head can be pushed and attached into SML's chest (the chest plate that normally accommodates it can also be disconnected from the abdomen and snapped back into place at will) or connected to the arm-cannon when the hook is detached. In the comics, after Loghar's chest plate has popped open, the drilling-machine weapon flies out and becomes longer and longer, acquiring a mechanical worm-like appearance. So, the cutter head comes with a tubular articulated attachment that is composed of 12 ball jointed pieces. The complete form of this weapon, which is characterised by several intertwined flexible metal hoses and a number of curved spikes, looks amazing and bears some resemblance to Steel-Monster Deptilion's acid thrower.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the drilling weapon and the detachable hook, SML comes with a few cool accessories. The first accessory is Bi-Harr's stolen outward-curved-bladed halberd, which is identical to the original one, except from being painted with some subtle black shades here and there rather than plain silver.

In addition, there are four pivoting laser rifles that can clip on and off the elbow and knee joints, and a second cyborg-like hand that can replace the hook on the left arm.

Last but not least, we also get an alternative head. This is a battle damaged Loghar-possessed Herrion head, basically a Terminator-style shrunk version (i.e., with retracted beak, horns and blade crest) of SML regular head with some fake flesh and hair left on it.

Overall, I think this figure is actually really well executed. He’s just got a lot of little nice things that make him look sharp to me. Sure, because of the chest cavity hosting the surprising drilling-machine head, he loses the ab crunch, but at least now we understand why we didn't get a removable armour in his previous versions. About the (many) reused parts, I applaud the folks at PoliganToys for making the trimming different enough from other figures to be notable. His artificial skin remains are great and even the colours look better. I actually do like him!