KR Review #65: Mal-Ah-Kros

As far as action figures are concerned, parts re-use keeps costs down. PoliganToys has proven extremely creative with re-using parts in their prototypes and this strategy has already given me a ton of figures to review in a relatively short time. But every now and then, I get a treat... and Mal-Ah-Kros^TM is a fantastic example!

You will see why this 50^th action figure prototype from PoliganToys would be difficult to make. This Cereutian guy is really weird, with no apparent way of making him that wouldn’t cost a bundle.

For some time I have tried to figure out how to assemble this character by re-using parts from previous toys, but apparently they decided to produce this as a 100% newly-tooled figure with absolutely no recycling.

Details

Name: Mal-Ah-Kros

Subtitle: hard-shell warrior

Classification: crustacean

Sex: male

Home: Cereutis

Affiliation: Destructomorph (temporarily)

Rank: leader of the Mal-Ah-Krill squadron.

Background

Mal-Ah-Kros appears in the 10^th KR comic issue Evanescing act, where he is presented as the leader of the Mal-Ah-Krills, a Cereutian group of crustacean soldiers. Mal-Ah-Kros became an auxiliary member of Deptilion's army after Denortos had crummily failed his mission on Tahron. An agile scout, shrewd strategist and keen combatant, he fought alongside the Destructomorph Troopers, leading a squadron of Cereutian warriors, during Deptilion's unexpected homecoming. With his hard shell that protects him from attacks, dreadful over-sized appendages and frightening protruding eyes, it's nearly impossible for the Theriom adversaries not to be clobbered by this uncompromising monstrosity.

Articulation

Standard, with the addition of two removable hinged chelae, four ball hinged arms and two fully articulated legs.

Description

Head: his bulky head seems encased in a purple carapace with a bumpy texture and is characterised by a spiny cranial crest, two pairs of antennae (the first of which is shorter and branching into two parts), a small greenish beady compound eye situated in the middle of the forehead, a sort of spiky nose and a small circular mouth (whose edges are thickly fringed with black hairs) flanked by three pairs of whitish jaws (the uppermost of which is larger than the other two). In his eye-sockets, where one would obviously expect to find the eyes, he actually bears a pair of small yellowish monster heads, each displaying a single bulging white eye with a vertical black pupil, a jagged bony brow ridge (slanting down towards the middle of Mal-Ah-Kros' face) and a hooked brownish horny beak (whose upper jaw ends with an ivory fang, while the lower jaw fits into the upper one and has two more fangs protruding upward from its sides)

Body: his body is protected by a purple chitinous exoskeleton with a cracked and bumpy texture. Each of his two main arms and 4 (four!) legs bears a line of fin-shaped appendages (whose fringes and folds detailing makes me think of a respiratory or sensory function) that runs down the side. His legs sport three-toed clawed feet, while his arms end with large, differently shaped chelae: a heavier, bulbous ghost crab-like crusher pincer on the left, and a longer, toothed fiddler crab-like cutter pincer on the right. Two pairs of additional arthropod-like limbs, each terminating in a forked claw, project from his back, which is concealed in a huge, beautifully sculpted and coloured empty gastropod shell

Wearables: a segmented (similarly to a shrimp's or a lobster's abdomen) golden armour with cracked orange details, two narrow golden bracelets, four segmented golden calf protectors (each with knee and instep guards; the rear feet look obviously bare, while the front feet are painted in gold, suggesting that he actually wears boots on those legs), a golden belt and an orange tail fan-like loincloth decorated with golden studs. The armour, the shin guards and the belt all carry a symbol consisting of three vertical wavy blue lines on the front.

Mal-Ah-Kros' stylised armour; the circle at the centre of the chest plate represents a Cereutian symbol.

Action feature

In the comics, Mal-Ah-Kros shows a number of abilities. First up, he can hold approaching opponents tightly with his frightful chelae and then spin like a hammer thrower to knock them down. In the figure, each pincer exhibits a gripping movement and includes a spring-loaded snap-back feature.

Also, Mal-Ah-Kros' monster-eyes can pop-out to terrorise his enemies. So, the figure comes with "standard eyes" as well as an alternative pair of pop-out eyes. All the eyes are separate plug-in pieces and can be interchanged easily, although this requires Mal-Ah-Kros' mouth to be removable as well. Each stalked monster-eye shows a bloodshot appearance and the open beak with a finely toothed tongue sculpted on the inside of the mouth.

Finally, his whole body can retract into the sea snail shell that he carries on his back, which acts as a shield against his foes. Of course this skill couldn't be rendered in the figure, but the shell is a removable piece. Once detached, it also allows the rear of Mal-Ah-Kros' segmented armour to be exposed, showing a cracked orange spinal crest and the four ball jointed shoulders (each carrying a peg that connects to the seashell) at the base of the additional arms (the illusion is that those arms come out through the armour).

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the pop-out monster eyes, Mal-Ah-Kros comes with his threatening bazooka. While in the comics this badass tubular copper-coloured rocket launcher simply emerges over his shoulder from the seashell when required, in the figure the process takes a little work, since it's necessary to replace one of the four additional arms with the weapon. First, the seashell has to be removed and any one of the four extra arms (not necessarily an upper one) must be detached. Then, the bazooka, whose butt bears a curved element that ends with a ball joint, can be plugged into the free socket and the shell can be reattached. There is also a golden rocket that is a separate piece and can detach from the weapon's barrel, but there is no spring-loaded mechanism in this case.

As I mentioned above, the figure features interchangeable eyes, to recreate the pop-out action feature. However, to accommodate this, the mouth of the figure was made to be removable. Taking advantage of this design requirement, the guys at PoliganToys have created an awesome alternative mouth for Mal-Ah-Kros, which recalls the razor-sharp toothed jaws of a Dungeness crab to an exact likeness.

Comic

Together with the action figure we get the 10^th comic issue Evanescing act, where we discover that Deptilion, using an extremely dangerous magic spell cast by Demo-Rha that almost killed them, previously fled to the extra dimension of Cereutis. There, he stole large amounts of a metal from local ores, to regenerate his crumbling body and rebuild his army of robotic troopers. In the present, Demo-Rha absorbs the energy of the inter-dimensional bridge between Cereutis and Tahron (created by Denortos) into her sceptre, making it capable to generate a ray that can teleport anybody from one dimension to the other. After punishing Denortos for failing his mission on Tahron, Deptilion hires the Mal-Ah-Krills, a Cereutian group of evil crustacean soldiers. His plan is to lead his all new militia of robots and aliens against the Therioms and to use the power of Demo-Rha’s sceptre to take over Tahron. Meanwhile, at Theriom City, the heroes are dealing with the aftermath of the Cereutian invasion; suddenly they hear some distant explosions and rush to identify the source, which they locate in a desert area. While several Theriom soldiers led by Masq-Lor and Fai-Rha travel towards the origin of the mysterious explosions, Deptilion and his lackeys launch an assault on the now-defenceless Theriom residence. The warlord demonstrates the power of Demo-Rha’s sceptre on Gax-Uhr, Tir-Hing’s brother, in order to force the Senior Minister to surrender the three halberds in his possession. After decimating most of Tir-Hing's fellows by teleporting them to Cereutis, Deptilion succeeds in completing the Key, paving the way to his dominion over Tahron. In the desert region, the Therioms find and confront Deptilion’s alleys; the Mal-Ah-Krills soon get the upper hand until Mor-Rak, who managed to escape from Theriom City, arrives and defeats the villains by transforming into a sand giant. Mor-Rak informs the heroes about the situation at Theriom City and, anticipating Deptilion’s next target, they all decide to journey to the multiversal walls. When, after their march to the walls and much to their dismay, the Destructomorphs find the Therioms waiting there, a battle between the two factions ensues. Elykta conjectures that the eye-stones of Demo-Rha’s sceptre must be crushed to save their companions. When the witch attempts to throw a lightning to Masq-Lor, he deflects the blast with his sword, causing Demo-Rha to drop her staff into a crevice in the ground. Due to the energy released by the sceptre, a mysterious arena emerges from the ground between the walls. The Deity, who is responsible for maintaining balance between conflicting forces, appears and explains that, in order to decide who really deserves to own the Key, Masq-Lor and Deptilion must fight in the arena. Deptilion, seeing his plans of supreme power in jeopardy, reluctantly accepts the contest in the arena. Although both the opponents are enhanced by the power of the Key transferred into two prodigious weapons, it is Masq-Lor who becomes the ultimate winner. Using all his strength, the hero even succeeds in separating the defeated Deptilion from his twin brother Herrion, who for many years has lived unbeknown to everybody inside the body of the Destructomorph leader, giving him much of his vigour. Deptilion, vowing revenge, manages to flee and Masq-Lor tricks Demo-Rha into giving him the recovered (but now useless) sceptre in exchange of one of the halberds from the Key. Demo-Rha consents and Masq-Lor transfers the energy of the arena back into the sceptre. He pulls out the magical eye-stones and begins to squeeze them, but the arena starts collapsing into the ground, taking the hero with it. Upon breaking the stones, the vanished Therioms are safely transported back to Tahron and Masq-Lor resurfaces from the debris. Later at Theriom City, everyone celebrates the completed reunion of Tir-Hing’s family, even if, unfortunately, the threat of Deptilion is far from over.

Overall, I don't only find Mal-Ah-Kros to be an outstanding figure (there’s no doubt about it), I genuinely think he is the best Destructomorph figure created so far... sorry Ah-Rak! This figure got turned from a potential weird crab-man into a solid surreal alien, and I love it. I can’t decide whether to pose him with his eyes in or out, with or without his bazooka, with or without his shell... but no matter what I do, this creepy arthropod is awesome and easily a candidate for figure of the year. I hope that PoliganToys will remember the possibilities of the great execution Mal-Ah-Kros represents when considering the near future of the KR line, since there are a few figures still left to be done.

About the comic, well, it's simply one of the best so far, both in terms of plot and illustrations. The fight between Masq-Lor and Deptilion in their Ultra configuration is amazing. And, ***HUGE SPOILER***, discovering that Deptilion is actually Tir-Hing’s brother and is also responsible for his children’s abduction, damn, is unsurpassable!

KR Review #64: Cah-Mal

Here is the thing, as much as I have been looking forward to complete another KR faction after the Rexodon, Cah-Mal^TM wasn't even in my priority list.

Don't get me wrong, this 49^th action figure prototype from PoliganToys is cool and has been executed rather flawlessly in terms of concept. But there are some other prototypes (*cough* Herrion *cough*) that I would have liked to receive by now.

However, Cah-Mal has allowed the Spektrosaurs to cross the finish line and this is enough to consider him a success. So cheers to him!

Details

Name: Cah-Mal

Subtitle: camouflage-expert warrior

Classification: lepidosauromorph reptile

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Spektrosaur

Rank: petty officer.

Background

Cah-Mal's only appearance is in the ninth KR comic issue The Cereutian menace: Part II – Salvation. Evolved from an ancient species of lizard-like warriors, Cah-Mal was recruited by Bi-Harr after displaying his extraordinary camouflage ability. Like many other reptilian soldiers, he eventually became a member of the Spektrosaur army after Lor-Drek's defection. Armed with exceptional acrobatic skills, Cah-Mal often distinguished himself in battle by stunning his foes with his quick lashing tongue and tail. Despite his loyalty to Lor-Drek, during the Cereutian invasion he was brainwashed by Noctylius into allying with Denortos. Defeated by the Therioms, Cah-Mal was then abandoned in the former Spektrosaur stronghold, where he now waits for the next master to serve.

Articulation

Standard, with the addition of a ball jointed extra neck piece, hinged fingers and toes, and a tail, which is composed of 12 ball jointed pieces and can work as an auxiliary limb.

Description

Head: similar to a chameleon, characterised by bumpy, wrinkled purple skin with few black stripes, a prominent maroon cranial crest and large green eyes with beady black pupils. For the first time in this line, the eyes are articulated and can move separately from each other, fictionally to achieve an extremely wide visual field and detect enemies on the opposite sides. He bears three large ringed bony horns (one protruding from his snout and two from his brow) that have an aged (i.e., with a very slight tint of yellow) ivory colour. The underside of his throat displays a small saw-tooth shaped maroon crest

Body: purple scaly skin with a bumpy texture and black dotted stripes. On each hand and foot, his five digits are divided in two flattened groups of two and three long sharp claws respectively, giving each extremity a tongs-like appearance. Both his head and wrinkled neck extension are on ball joints, which definitively gives him a hunched over look and an extended range without hindering the movements at all. He also displays an amazing curled prehensile tail emerging from under the loincloth

Wearables: a short-sleeved leather garment (orange at the top and black at the bottom) with a large Spektrosaur symbol (i.e., a greenish flame) stitched onto the front, double wrist and shin guards (each composed of an orange leather band and a copper cuff overlapped), an elaborate copper jockstrap with a buckle that resembles a reptile skull and a black furry loincloth. The shirt-like garment blends in with an elaborate copper collar, which is actually part of the neck extension, and shows ripped sleeves as well as a crest of spikes that are attempting to push through the cloth along the spine.

Action feature

In the comics, Cah-Mal is distinguished by several characteristics, including spectacular acrobatic skills, a very long and rapidly extrudable tongue, and the ability to become invisible by changing his overall colouration and blending into the surrounding environment. In the figure, the only elements related to his gymnastic mastery are his articulated pincers-like hands and feet, and prehensile tail.

Cah-Mal can project his long sticky tongue from his mouth in order to, for example, steal weapons from his foes located some distance away. So, the figure comes with an alternative head, which displays sculpted (i.e., not articulated) eyes, the open mouth armed with two rows of small sharp teeth and the club-tipped tongue out. The tongue, whose colour fades from green to orange-pink, is also articulated and can move left and right on a little disk set at the back of the mouth.

Finally, the colour change feature can be achieved using something warm. Simply by rubbing Cah-Mal with a cloth that has been wet with tepid water, his skin will become mustard with rust dotted stripes, while the flame on his tunic will turn red. Due to the resulting bright colouration, I believe that this colour change functions more as an aid for displaying aggressively to the enemies, rather than becoming invisible. I honestly think it's a nice touch, but, like with regular Masq-Lor, I'm not a big fan of it.

Weapons and accessories

Cah-Mal comes with just one accessory, but it’s such a cool and fun piece. It’s his really unique and creepy skeletal crossbow. It looks like it has been engineered using a number of long bones and utilises an undefined fanged reptile's skull as a bolt (which is a separate piece, not shooting though). The real neat thing is the paint job: the weapon seems made of black charred bones, while the bolt has the same aged ivory colour of Cah-Mal's horns. It is nicely detailed with cracks and pits, and includes a clip for Cah-Mal's arm.

Overall, Cah-Mal turned out to be a pretty great figure. He’s a solid addition to complete what I consider to be the funnest among the four factions. His "chameleonic" colour scheme gives him a unique touch that is only matched by the newly sculpted parts. Both his body and his accessory received a nice amount of detail and much more engineering than I expected. To be honest, I’m happier to add him to my shelf than I thought I’d be.

KR Review #63: Tmohrr

With the aim to create a storm of hype around the KR universe, it is always good to get another addition to the "not-yet-printed-comics" roster and, altogether, I think that Tmohrr^TM is a great (literally) inclusion!

When this character showed up in the final episode pre-prints, which I had the chance to view, I knew that he would become one of my most anticipated KR items. And this second large scale figure prototype from PoliganToys does not disappoint me.

Details

Name: Tmohrr

Subtitle: shocking ultimate enemy

Classification: temporarily unknown

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Destructomorph

Rank: new chief marshal.

Background

As I mentioned above, Tmohrr's only appearance takes place in the not-yet-printed final KR comic issue. Introduced as the new leader of the Destructomorphs, this enormous, web-footed creature of a mysterious origin wields a king-sized axe and carries four massive technological tentacles permanently attached to his head. In the story's climax, it is revealed that Tmohrr is actually a giant robotic suit worn by Deptilion, who, after being weakened by Masq-Lor’s victory at the end of a previous battle, devised the armour to sustain himself. Having learnt of the power of a machine owned by the inhabitants of the city of Ra-Hal, he plans to lead his new army into another war against the Therioms. Deptilion is now ready to fight a spectacular mental battle, to destroy Masq-Lor and rule Tahron once and for all.

Articulation

Standard, excluding hinged abdomen. Each tentacle can swivel at both ends.

Description

Head: monstrous appearance characterised by an oblong face shape, wrinkled and warty blue skin, pointy ears (each ending in a long curved, spiky whitish horn), red glowing eyes and a large nose with five nostrils. His mouth is slightly open, exposing several razor-sharp crooked gnashing teeth (including two large fangs in the upper jaw and one in the lower jaw) and giving the face an overall angry expression. His eyebrows are replaced by a metallic dark-blue diadem with silver edges and a silver Destructomorph symbol at its centre. He also has a sort of silver cyber component with techno-tendrils going into the skull on the back of his bare scalp

Body: blue bumpy skin, webbed claw hands and feet. Oh, did I mention that this giant is... ehm... gigantic? Standing 46 cm (around 18'') tall, he easily dwarfs the likes of CoBoN and Xonatron, not to mention the regular 16 cm figures that now look tiny by comparison

Wearables: a silver chest armour with metallic dark-blue details, two silver bracelets, two silver calf protectors, a silver belt and scale armour (i.e., consisting of several overlapping metallic dark-blue plates laced together) trunks. The chest armour is embedded in the flesh and shows tubes, sensors and wires running everywhere. Some of those tubes and wires connect the armour to a kind of backpack, which is shaped like a robotic spine and bears what looks like a large battery (probably powering the cyber-structure on the head). The bracelets and calf protectors display large ridges that run down the sides, while wrapped around each biceps and thigh there is a silver band with a pair of spikes sticking out of the side, which is connected to the wrist/shin guard by a pliable silver tube and can be unhooked if one has the will to do so. The detail on his outfit that impresses me the most is the amount of greatly sculpted Destructomorph symbols all around: there is a quite large blue one at the centre of the chest plate, two smaller silver ones near the shoulders and another silver one on the belt.

Tmohrr's stylised chest armour; the three grey circles represent Destructomorph symbols.

Action feature

Tmohrr carries four huge mechanical tentacles on his head, which he uses to seize and crush his enemies. The silver bendy tentacles plug into four slots in the cyber-structure on the back of the head and have four differently shaped articulated claws on their ends.

But what sets Tmohrr apart, aside from the gigantic scale, is that his torso can actually open to reveal an incredible surprise inside. After removing a piece composed of Tmohrr's head and neck and another bit consisting of his chest, we can see that the figure is actually an electromechanical suit of armour and includes a static bust of Deptilion’s upper body in the chest cavity. For reasons related to space, the inner bust lacks the head, which can be attached via a ball joint after opening the outer shell. Deptilion's shoulders and chest (the only visible parts of his torso) show a few metallic red sockets with real (i.e., not sculpted) wires connecting his body to Tmohrr's internal structure.

Weapons and accessories

Tmohrr comes with a few accessories, one of which is a huge metallic dark-blue staff with a silver axe blade and a pearly orb at one end, and a short curved silver blade at the other end. This weapon looks really sharp and is packed with amazing details.

The other accessories are two interchangeable heads for the inner Deptilion's bust. Both are very similar to the creepy head included with Ultra Deptilion, but one displays a multitude of dark-green living snakes on the top, while the other has a large greenish brain (with all the visible folds and vessels) that is fictionally formed by the snakes themselves. In the comics, the two hemispheres of this super brain move apart to reveal a powerful energy source, which Deptilion uses for sending mental signals to overwhelm Masq-Lor. The source of brainwaves is rendered in the figure by using a glow-in-the-dark spherical piece; the interesting thing is that the figure's brain opens up and allows the GITD sphere to be removed and replaced by other similar plastic elements of different colours (greenish -same colour as the brain-, translucent orange and translucent blue respectively).

Overall, I thought it would be hard for most giant figures to follow a spectacular specimen like CoBoN, but I think that Tmohrr did a fantastic job of keeping his head well above water. His sculpt and design are completely top-notch, I can’t say it enough, and all the accessories are nicely done. Even with his great size, the guys at PoliganToys didn’t skimp at all on the detail work, covering him horn to toe in cracks, wrinkles, warts and scars. The paintwork is sharp and, despite not being fully articulated, this figure has a fairly impressive range of motion. Also, it fits a Deptilion inside, which is kind of a big deal. If it weren't for the high demand of space on the shelves, I'd just wish such amazing characters would pop up a bit more often.

KR Review #62: Noctylius

The character I'm going to review today is a mammalian creature that is prone to treachery and works for the reptilian enemies. That makes Noctylius^TM extremely interesting to me!

This villainous bat warrior is the 48^th action figure prototype I received from PoliganToys. Let’s take a closer look at him.

Details

Name: Noctylius

Subtitle: bat warrior

Classification: chiropteran mammal

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Spektrosaur (formerly belonging to the Theriom faction)

Rank: officer candidate.

Background

Noctylius is a one-episode wonder that appears in the ninth KR comic issue The Cereutian menace: Part II – Salvation. The descendant of a line of mammals that are capable of flight, Noctylius has not always been an infamous accomplice of the reptilian forces. In the past, he loyally served the Theriom air force as a stealthy pilot officer, until he was expelled for causing an accident due to an irresponsible action. Having developed a deep resentment at being discharged, Noctylius joined Lor-Drek's faction for many years. Eventually, he allied with Denortos in an attempt to overpower both the Therioms and the Spektrosaurs. This treacherous plan ultimately met with failure and now this winged revengeful warrior is forced to scheme by himself against all who fight for freedom on Tahron.

Articulation

Standard, plus hinged toes.

Description

Head: similar to a bat, specifically a Carollia perspicillata, characterised by a grey-brown fur, a fairly long snout, large ears, black eyes and a lance-shaped noseleaf. The top of the head has a more evident strip of hair running centrally from the middle of the forehead to the back of the neck, while the mouth is open and shows a number of sharp white teeth

Body: dense grey-brown fur. Each hand includes two fingers of a normal size and three much longer ones connected by a veined translucent brown membrane. Each forearm (longer than the average length), triceps and thigh is equipped with a number (four, two and two respectively) of bony extra digits, also connected by a translucent brown membrane. Each foot bears two small outer toes and two large inner hinged toes, while a fifth toe protrudes backward and up from each calf. Each digit, either regular (on hands and feet) or additional (on arms and legs), displays an orange-ish skin and ends in a black claw. He also carries a rubbery removable neck piece that fits right on top of the body and mimics a woolly collar with a strip of fur that runs down the middle of the upper back, like an extension of his mohawk

Wearables: a dark-blue armour with silver details, two metallic dark-blue wristbands, two dark-blue furry calf protectors (each tied to the leg by means of two silver studded bands), a metallic dark-blue belt and a medieval-style silver armoured loincloth. The armour possesses highly technological components, which I imagine help Noctylius cope with such an energetically demanding activity like sustained flight. However, the back of the armour looks more like a harness and leaves the furry mane piece exposed. A bulging detail on the back of the loincloth suggests the presence of a short tail, although there is no evidence of that.

Noctylius's stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics, thanks to the extra set of digits that form broad leathery bat wings along his arms, Noctylius is able to perform spectacular flying manoeuvres. Due to an injury caused by his past accident, he is blind, but possesses a super-sensitive hearing and can employ echolocation as a method of navigation during flight and orientation in combat. He emits intense, high-pitched sound waves that originate in his mouth, and can hear the echoes of those waves when they bounce off nearby objects. He can also use those ear-shattering screeches to overwhelm his enemies or to shake and disintegrate targets. So, the figure comes with a conical clear sonic blast effect that plugs into his open mouth tightly. It's not a lot, I know, but I'm very pleased to finally see a new mouth effect in addition to the "splashing" one that was originally made for Nibeon and has been used so many times.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the above-mentioned sonic-scream effect, Noctylius comes with a shield in the shape of a massive bat surrounded by flames. Besides being completely vac-metallised silver, this shield has a neat design that greatly combines the bat nature of the character with the flame motif of the Spektrosaur symbol, and is conceived to fit over Noctylius's either bracer. However, it looks purely ceremonial to me, since it has a massive gap between the wings - a design that doesn’t look like it would lend itself to much protection.

Additionally, we get a translucent stand, which is very similar to the one included with Zor-Kan. It has a clip that allows it to be used as a flight stand, but can turn into a kind of perch by replacing the clip with a T-shaped horizontal piece. The latter structure is designed to let Noctylius rest upside down, by making him clasp the bar with the toes sticking out of his calves.

Comic

Together with the action figure we get the ninth comic issue The Cereutian menace: Part II – Salvation. After succeeding in finding and activating an ancient machine buried deep beneath Theriom City, Denortos creates an inter-dimensional bridge between Tahron and Cereutis. Masq-Lor, Fai-Rha and Lor-Drek realise that Denortos' actual plan was to open a portal that would lead him beyond the multiversal walls. Instead, due to a malfunction of the machine, he opened a portal to his own dimension, from which more creatures similar to him were knocked over Tahron. The Therioms and the Spektrosaurs see only one way to overcome this new threat - to form a coalition and fight together. Empowered by the presence of his sidekicks, Denortos begins hunting for the halberds that compose the Key, starting from the ones in Lor-Drek's possession. The Cereutian creatures aim at imprisoning the Spektrosaur leader within his own dominion in Artelon, but the Therioms are also there. During a spectacular fight, Denortos offers Lor-Drek to rule Tahron together, but the reptilian marshal declines and gets severely injured. The Therioms can't save him, but just before drawing his last breath, he gives his halberds (together with a mysterious amulet) to Masq-Lor and commands his army to keep on fighting alongside their allies against the evil invaders. With the help of the Spektrosaurs (except for a few renegades), the heroes are even able to lead the fight for a while, but eventually the Cereutians unite to form a huge monster that neither Masq-Lor nor Fai-Rha can beat. Xonedar decides to use a prototype feature of CoBoN's to create an equally large robot, which proves a match for the creature's strength. Meanwhile, Masq-Lor rides back to Theriom City and reactivates the machine to reopen a portal to Cereutis. The robot formed by CoBoN and Xonedar forces the monster to be swallowed by the portal just seconds before the machine is destroyed and the inter-dimensional bridge disappears.

Overall, Noctylius was not a character particularly high on my wish list, but the final figure turned out really cool. His wings are attached to the arms and, despite their complete anatomical inaccuracy, they are smartly designed not to hinder the figure's movement. Paint is also great, the fur sculpt has a light highlight to it, and the belt and wristbands have a gloss blue finishing that adds a nice touch to the figure.

About the comic, on the whole this is possibly one of the weakest issues in terms of plot. But the artwork is great... the monster shown towards the end looks amazing and I seriously hope it will come in the form of an action figure at some point! The only very interesting thing about the story is the good and the bad guys being forced to work together against a new and stronger threaten than anything seen before. That is enough to make this comic a very good one.

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!