KR Review #72: Zektax

Let’s face it, it has taken a looooong time for the Destructomorph troops to come together on my shelf, especially in comparison to the other factions. Over the course of the first year of the KR prototype reviews, I only got half of the characters and a handful of variants.

Well, fall 2016 is making up for some lost time and now I've been getting to fill out that roster in rapid succession. The insectoid Zektax^TM is the next entry!

The wait for this 55^th action figure prototype from PoliganToys has been pretty agonising, especially with how astounding the character looked in the comic panels.

Details

Name: Zektax

Subtitle: insectile warrior

Classification: insect

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Destructomorph

Rank: commandant of the Murmirians^TM, a barbarian clan.

Background

Zektax only appears in the 12^th KR comic issue Dawn of a new past, where he is presented as the chieftain of the Murmirians, an ancient clan of insectoid barbarians from the eastern quagmires. In olden times, Zektax and his squad of ferocious warriors were well known for roaming their territory as thieves and killers. Although he initially preferred to keep his people's independence, vows of riches and authority gave him more than enough reasons to ally himself with Deptilion, who was in need to bolster the ranks for his insane project of changing Tahron's history. Using his airborne vantage point for spying and reconnaissance missions, Zektax chases his foes unnoticed, then suddenly moves in on his prey, stings and drains them of their energy.

Articulation

Standard, with the addition of a ball jointed extra neck piece, two ball hinged arms (each featuring two double hinges at about one-third and two-thirds of its length) and four ball hinged wings.

Description
Head: insect-like, characterised by a scaly greenish hood that surrounds and merges with a black snout. It displays a pair of long, thin lime-green antennae pointing backwards, a pair of fairly large bulbous glossy-black compound eyes, three smaller red eye spots on the forehead, a black mouth composed of an elongated coiled up tube (or proboscis) flanked by two short segmented appendages (or palps), and a jagged black chin

Body: all his limbs (including two main arms, two mantis-like arms and two legs) and the neck extension are protected by a segmented greenish chitinous exoskeleton and bear numerous details along their length, such as cracks, spines, small porous warts and tiny hair-shaped appendages. The main arms and the legs sport claw hands and feet, and look slenderer compared to most of the other figures. Both his head and neck extension are on ball joints, which gives him a hunched over look and an extended range

Wearables: a segmented black armour with yellow details, two scaly (with some of the scales developing a bit more into spines) black gloves, two scaly/spiny black boots, a large rhomboidal studded black belt and a yellow loincloth made of leaf-shaped leather elements. The armour shows a large hole on the front, which seems the result of a corrosion damage. Through this hole, it is possible to catch a glimpse of Zektax's internal organs, owing to the fact that his torso is fictionally transparent. The belt and the boots display a modified version of the Destructomorph symbol (i.e., a square-shaped blueish winged insect whose back slightly resembles a demoniac face) on the buckle and the shafts respectively.

Zektax's stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics, Zektax is portrayed as an extremely evil warlord, who is capable of seizing his enemies and subjecting them to a terrifying energy-sucking action. The guys at PoliganToys did do a great job of sculpting an entirely new armour that fits over a regular body and helps recreate his ruthless preying abilities. First of all, an additional pair of mantis-like grasping arms projects from the top of the shoulder guards. Each gripping limb is composed of three equally long portions, the first (nearest to the body) of which is spiky, while the second shows a number of tooth-like structures that, together with a similar series of teeth along the third portion, give the arm its grasp on the unfortunate target. Each arm terminates in a large dark claw curved downward and an appendage (made of four segments and ending in a short two-toed claw) curved upward. Aside from catching and holding a foe securely, Zektax's raptorial arms can alternatively lift the prey using their terminal appendages as hooks.

The piercing feature that enables Zektax's sucking of vital force is achieved thanks to an alternative head. This head shows the straightened proboscis that folds away to reveal a slender pointed appendage formed by a pair of white fangs.

Once Zektax finishes gorging on his victim, some of his body parts, such as his heart, antennae and inner wings, start to emit coursing light patterns by bioluminescence. The effect has been mimicked in the figure by casting those elements in lime-green glow-in-the-dark plastic. The most interesting detail is the bulbous heart that is visible through his corroded armour and transparent chest. Since a real see-through torso would have stymied articulation in the figure, a different visual solution, which I believe is the simplest, has been adopted and I think it is rather effective - everything is enclosed in the breastplate covering the front of the torso. The chest cavity wall is actually a clear window that shows details, such as the heart, muscles and other organs, sculpted in low relief behind, with the addition of a bubbling liquid trapped between the two surfaces. The effect renders the hollow torso within and makes it look full of life. Some might be disappointed by the lack of true depth, but, personally, I think it looks really cool and convincing. On the other side, the backplate carries two sets of posable wings. The leaf-shaped greenish leathery outer wings function as a threatening display (due to multicoloured marks that resemble a pair of devilish eyes) and, when folded, as a shield for the inner membranous wings, which are clear and richly patterned with veins.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the alternative head, Zektax only comes with one accessory, which is his signature shield. This piece is very nicely designed and has a cool little blueish Murmirian logo right in the centre of the oval honeycomb-like yellow plate. In the comics, the shield has metal stingers along the side edges, which can activate and retract at Zektax's will. So, the shield comes with an additional silver ring that attaches via some pegs on the back, in order to display it with the spikes deployed.

Overall, how can I not say that this is another awesome figure in a line of awesome figures? Everything is great, from the sculpt, through the articulation, to the paintwork. I particularly love the crazy armour and how it integrates most of Zektax's selling points: the grasping arms, the fluttering wings and the heart glowing through the transparent chest. He is definitively a cool looking figure and another welcome addition to the Destructomorph troops.

KR Review #71: CoBoN 2.0

One of the most iconic characters from the KR line is undoubtedly CoBoN. Originally introduced as the Theriom transport equipped with a supercomputer intelligence, his futuristic four-wheeled design has appeared in several comic issues.

In the final episode, we meet a completely new version of CoBoN and this 12^th multi-pack from PoliganToys includes all three (or, to be correct, four) forms that represent his AI unit as it appears in the comic.

Details

Name: CoBoN 2.0

Real name: CoBoN Mark II AI module

Subtitle: robotic fighting unit

Classification: artificial intelligence module

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: transport component.

Background

CoBoN's only appearance in his new design takes place in the 13^th and final KR comic issue The ultimate curse. Perhaps the most advanced machine on Tahron, CoBoN assisted the Therioms for many years until a dreadful fight during the siege of Ra-Hal. It was there that CoBoN's nemesis, LoGoN, stolen by the Destructomorphs and reconfigured for being loyal only to evil, destroyed the heroic vehicle. After CoBoN's cybernetic processor unit had been miraculously retrieved, the Therioms, with the crucial contribution of Sei-Lha and Xonedar, succeeded in rebuilding CoBoN into a new, even more advanced version. To preserve his AI module in case of another wrecking, the processor was encased into a separable metallic sphere, an apparently simple configuration that in reality conceals three machines in one. CoBoN can now use his greatest abilities to protect justice also when he's not connected to the transport - fighting as an android, feline or bird form.

Description

In the comics, the basic configuration of CoBoN 2.0 is a steel hovering sphere that can transform into three different robotic forms. Besides the silver orb, the multi-pack includes the three figures that represent each alternative mode and that I'm going to describe in separate sections.

Android mode
I've to say, CoBoN looks awesome in this humanoid form! What I find interesting is how many design elements are similar to those found on the 1.0 version and also on Combat Sei-Lha's armoured suit. It is really cool to see this kind of design continuity between the various technological items created by the Therioms.

The figure's sculpt is solid, with lots of machinery details protected by armour plates on the outside. The most noticeable piece is his silver head, which resembles a cross between Robocop's and Iron Man's helmets. The upper part of the head displays the black scanner bar that characterises the nose of the original vehicle. However, its design (i.e., two linear patterns that sweep horizontally and a central pulsing "eye" that allows CoBoN to "see") is sculpted and painted in red and yellow, rather than recreated with a sticker. The lower part is composed of a hinged "mouth" shield; when this is closed, it partially covers the central eye and leaves a sort of black chin exposed, while when it's lowered, it reveals the voice display seen on the dashboard of the original vehicle, which fictionally shows coloured lights that diverge horizontally when CoBoN speaks.

Since this form, like the others, stems from the sphere configuration, all over the figure there are smooth and curved elements that derive from the sphere surface. These include six spherical lunes located on his back (running down the centre and flanked by two armour panels), shoulders, thighs and crotch.

Also, there's a lot more paint detail on this figure than on some of the more recent characters. The primary colours in this form are silver, black and metallic blue, with silver being the most heavily used. The metallic blue paint is used to wonderful effect for smaller details, such as few circuitry lines on the armour pieces and a stripe running centrally on the top of the head. The guys at PoliganToys did a great job in the paint application, with plenty of clean features and very few issues.

The articulation here is good too, similar to the standard scheme, but with some improvements that make me very satisfied, such as double hinges at the elbows and the knees, and a ball jointed chest.

Finally, except for two panels on the thighs (there will be more about this in the weapons section), no part of the armour is removable, which totally makes sense. However, the areas between the plates that form the armour show plenty of small tech-mech details, which makes me wish I could remove those components in order to see more.

Beast modes

The two beast forms are heavily mechanised representations of a feline and a bird of prey respectively, with lots of angles and robotic details that definitely capture the appearance and feel of the humanoid mode. Among my favourite features are the smooth, curved lunes that are mostly found near the shoulder and hip joints, looking sleek and elegant. Conversely, other details are more distinguishing, including the tail, neck and head designs, with the latter developing into a pointier shape in both forms.

Like the android mode, these configurations are still cast in silver, black and metallic blue. However, here we get a lot more black showing, thanks to the neck, feet and tail components. While black makes up most of their bodies, the silver colour is used for a number of eye-catching parts, such as the tail end, the lower hind legs, the hips, the front limbs and the middle of the back. Each of the four feline's paws and the two bird's feet is designed with fine embellishments, such as two large bladed, fierce looking claws in the front and two smaller claws in the back.

One of the joys of a well done beast mode is that we can get a lot of articulation. Each of these two forms has a great deal of POA, which include four points in each hind leg, two on the neck/head area and two on the tail alone.

In addition to a spherical lune running down the length of the back and another one on the abdomen, the feline form has a simple "mech-alive" feature that can be seen by swivelling the lower front legs; each one is attached to the upper leg by a silver piece with ridges on it, resembling a gear. As one turns it, it looks like the gear is turning. It's a simple, but nice touch.

The bird form's wings are spread wide across the body with blade-like structures that recall the spherical lunes. The wings are dramatic in sculpt and colour, with some metallic blue elements contrasting nicely against the silver and black colours. Each of the wings is articulated via a peg at half of its length and can move up and down as well as rotate on a ball-hinge at the base.

Weapons and accessories

CoBoN 2.0 comes with a clear hover stand for the sphere form and two black laser sub-machine guns. The weapons are very similar, but their barrels are not identical, since one resembles a small Gatling gun, while the other is more cannon-like. Both have a fair amount of detail to them, including several raised lines and armour sections. They can be handheld by the android form, as well as mounted on the hips in the rear of the feline form or on the upper side of the wings in the bird form.

Additionally, an amazing touch involves the android's mechanical holsters, which fictionally unfold and pop out of his legs, to dispense and receive the guns. The gimmick is recreated by means of two holster components that can replace the removable thigh armours.

Finally, an alternate mouth shield is also available, featuring a slightly different shape and colour from the standard version.

Overall, I love this multi-pack very much. A lot of craft went into these figures, which are all solid and fairly accurate to the comics. In particular, the feline and bird forms are awesome beast-based high-tech figures... we don't get a lot of these in the KR line, so, when we do, it's cool to see what a great job the designers at PoliganToys can do with it. The feline is my favourite figure of the set, because it is in this form that CoBoN jumps through LoGoN's robotic body, destroying him, towards the end of the comic. Most of all, these items are fun toys and those are always welcome additions to my collection. If and when this pack is released, I will highly recommend it, even though I fear that folks might be a bit put off by its price.

Special thanks to Michael F. Nelson of Cobon Plastics Corp for allowing us to use the name CoBoN.

KR Review #70: Todahr

The character I'm reviewing today is one of those one-episode wonders that I didn’t know I've been looking forward to getting until I received the figure. For some reason, when Todahr^TM first appeared in the penultimate KR comic issue, I wasn’t overly impressed with the illustrations.

Now, I'm really glad to hold this 54^th action figure prototype from PoliganToys and to see one of the few remaining Destructomorph slots filled by a new monstrous member.

Details

Name: Todahr

Subtitle: tentacular warrior

Classification: mollusc

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Destructomorph

Rank: commandant of the Belemnians^TM, a barbarian clan.

Background

Todahr's only appearance is in the 12^th KR comic issue Dawn of a new past. The history of Tahron is flecked with many barbarian figures, few of which are more savage and devious than the Belemnian chief Todahr. This unsightly creature from the eastern quagmires worked his way up the ranks throughout his youth and eventually became the commandant of his clan. When Deptilion arrived on his quest to change Tahron's past, the promises of wealth and power were enough to persuade Todahr to serve the Destructomorph leader in his evil plans. Todahr is a cunning fighter who uses his thrashing tentacles to capture his foes and crush their bodies into defeat.

Articulation

Standard, with four additional tentacles and two valves, which are ball hinged separate pieces. Each tentacle features two swivels at about one-third and two-thirds of its length.

Description
Head: his head resembles the entirety of a Nautilus' body and is composed of a coiled pearlescent grey shell, from which the snout protrudes. The upper side of the shell is marked with irregular red stripes and equipped with a comb of shiny spikes running centrally. The snout is topped with an orange leathery hood marked with white spots and is characterised by two evil yellow glowing eyes with beady black pupils, as well as eight short grey arms and two fairly long outstretched grey tentacles (the latter ending in pads with suckers) arranged around his syphon-like mouth. Definitely this head has a lot of a Cthulhu feel!

Body: all his limbs, including two main arms, four tentacle-like arms and two legs, have a wrinkled grey skin and bear numerous suckers along their length. His anthropoid arms and legs carry webbed claw hands and feet, as well as fin-shaped extensions that project from the forearms and the calves through openings in his worn items. What really makes Todahr unique are the four large tentacles (each decorated with two studded golden armbands) and the two elongated, wing-like valves (smooth and painted in pearlescent grey on the underside, while cracked and of a darker colour on the upper side), all of which plug into six sockets in his back armour

Wearables: a yellow armour with silver details, two yellow leather gloves, two studded golden armbands around the biceps, two yellow leather boots, a large rhomboidal studded yellow belt and a scale armour (i.e., consisting of several overlapping silver plates laced together) loincloth (reused from Blomok). The belt and the boots display a modified version of the Destructomorph symbol (i.e., a square-shaped blueish octopus whose back slightly resembles a demoniac face... who copied who?) on the buckle and the shafts respectively.

Todahr's stylised armour.

Action feature

Although the tentacles aren’t bendable, Todahr's fictional ability to seize his enemies with a powerful grip has been recreated by providing each tentacle with three points of articulation, including two swivels at the armbands. Also, when in danger, Todahr can retract into his bivalve shell, which acts as a shield against his foes. This feature is mimicked by disconnecting the two large valves from the figure and joining them to form the closed shell.

As an additional display option, the four tentacles can also be removed, to transform Todahr into a simple two-armed, shell-less warrior.

Finally, Todahr is able to eject a dark sticky liquid from his mouth as a response to attack. So, the figure comes with a glossy black spitting effect that plugs into the end of the snout snugly. This attachment is the sixth repaint of the same effect we've already seen with other figures.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the ink attachment, Todahr only comes with one accessory, which is a whip modelled after the sticky tentacle-like scourge seen in the comics. This weapon has a silver handle and a slimy-looking yellowish bendy lash ending in a rigid pad with suckers sculpted on the underside.

Comic

Together with the action figure we get the 12^th and penultimate KR comic issue Dawn of a new past. Due to an accident, Geel-Ber, the savage leader of the Gunlar^TM tribe, absorbs a residue of Alterok’s devilry and transforms into a clone of Deptilion. He meets Demo-Rha and is informed that during the night a rare astronomical alignment (which looks like a lunar eclipse) will allow him to travel through a temporal gate and change Tahron’s history. The Deity summons Masq-Lor and his fellows, and tells them that Deptilion is in the past, working alongside two barbarian clans in a plot to prevent the construction of the multiversal walls. Because of the risk this could alter history significantly, the heroes use the Antikythron to open a portal to the past and travel back in time. There, they immediately meet and save Leutra^TM, a young member of the Kimarhan^TM tribe, from a barbarian’s attack. Teaming up with the Kimarhans, the heroes storm Deptilion's new fortress, which has been built in the future site of the multiversal walls. After several battles, Masq-Lor confronts Deptilion and during the fight he discovers that Geel-Ber, acting under Deptilion’s influence, is part of the evil plan as well. Geel-Ber, now powerless, separates himself from the demonic entity within, against whom Masq-Lor can't defend himself easily. Eventually, tapping into the energy of Lor-Drek’s medallion, which magically strengthens him, the hero changes into a reptilian warrior and fights the demon back, finally destroying him with his sword. Even though the powers of good have won this fight and the damage to the time stream has been undone, the Kimarhans talk about their plan to join the newly formed Theriom faction and take part to the even fiercer war against the reptilian forces. Masq-Lor can't just travel back to the present and, instead, decides to stay and have a hand in the conflict. Elykta explains to Masq-Lor that although this will unlikely interfere with history, he must hide his real identity, in order to avoid creating a time paradox.

Overall, Todahr is a fantastic figure that really stands out on the shelf. It’s just a pity that the giant tentacles and shell pieces, despite being ball hinged, interfere with each other a bit. But few articulation constraints aside, he does not disappoint and his appendages still make for a striking look posed with the other Destructomorphs.
About the comic, this was supposed to be the start of a spin-off series, of which only few ideas have been developed so far. The formerly planned next issue (The beginning) is not even in the making. Instead, we’ll get a new issue, where Masq-Lor returns to his own time to end the war against Deptilion. However, from the interesting concepts set up in this comic, one can say for sure that the expansion of this ancient era would be a worthy successor to the KR saga.

KR Review #69: Kinod

Another week has come and gone, and with it we have another KR review. With the rush to fill out the prototype roster before the year ends, PoliganToys chose to plug October's last slot with Kinod^TM!

I have some mixed feelings about this 53^rd action figure prototype. The character looks great on paper, but, in my opinion, is a little lacking in practice.

Details

Name: Kinod

Subtitle: thorny warrior

Classification: mutant holopodian^TM*

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Destructomorph

Rank: holopodian mutant commander.
*Holopodians are fictional large-sized echinoderms with some characteristics that are shared with crustaceans.

Background

Kinod's only appearance is in the 11^th KR comic issue Herrion's ordeal. Originally belonging to a spawn laid by a holopodian, an endangered species of giant echinoderms, Kinod and his fellows were created by Demo-Rha after submerging the unhatched eggs into an enchanted pool found in Dekropolis' understructure. The mystic water mutated the brood's genome, transforming the holopodian offspring into a ferocious army. During Demo-Rha's attempt to overtake Tahron alongside Alterok, many of these mutant soldiers were also fused with fearsome spike-studded and multi-pronged weapons for battling against the Therioms. Banished from Dekropolis after the defeat of most of Kinod's army, the surviving holopodian mutants are now outcasts who wander along the borders of Tahron.

Articulation

Standard, except that the left wrist is ball jointed.

Description

Head: his star-shaped, bumpy blue head has five "arms", which radiate from a central disc and are connected by a membrane. The top and the two bottom arms bear three curved sharp whitish horns pointing forwards, while the two remaining arms exhibit two evil pinkish eyes. The central disc carries the mouth, which is made up of five whitish jaws with a small tongue-like black structure within. The back of the head is protected by a dome-shaped black shell, which seems composed of bony plates and is covered with long, thick sharp glossy-black spines

Body: pinkish skin (which bears a number of projections in the form of porous warts), star-shaped claw feet. His right arm sports a claw hand, while the left arm ends with a steel hydraulic device that shows some great details, such as wires, pistons and tubes. His limbs and back are equipped with five separate black shell clip-on pieces, which have the same bony, spiny appearance of the head piece

Wearables: a light-blue armour with dark-blue details, two light-blue bracelets with star-shaped studs (the left one is concealed by the hydraulic attachment), two light-blue boots (each with a spiky top), a spiky light-blue belt and a dark-blue gorgonian-like loincloth (reused from Colotros).

Kinod's stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics, when Kinod is in danger, he folds over and turns into a spiny globular form, to roll into battle and drive back attackers. The figure did not retain this bending down feature, but, instead, its back, arms and legs are covered with spiny shell pieces that can pop/clip out and connect to an included extra piece. The sea urchin form is then completed simply by placing the detached figure's head on top, to seal the remaining hole. I couldn’t quite get the head to fully submerge, so there is a part of the spiky ball popping out a little bit, but this is probably due to the fact that the head piece doesn't actually attach to it, but just rests on top, which is a bit disappointing. Other than that, I have to say the effect works pretty well.

Kinod is also equipped with a five-pronged silver weapon that extends and contracts from his left arm. The feature requires two interchangeable pieces to accomplish: the retracted and extended versions of the weapon. Both pieces plug into the hydraulic component and are very well designed; the shrunk form looks like an elaborate spear tip, while the lengthened-broadened (and even spinning) form slightly reminds me of an egg-beater... of course more badass!

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the extra spiny fragment and the two arm attachments, Kinod comes with a cool assortment of accessories. First of all, his signature flail, which comprises a metallic dark-blue haft connected by a long real metal chain to a spherical silver-spiked dark-blue striking end, looks great.

In addition, the guys at PoliganToys tossed a few alternative pieces in the package, so that Kinod can match his fellows' styling. I never thought I would consider displaying that, but now that I have the chance, I am giving it a serious thought. The set includes a head, a back armour, a plain left hand and a number of weapons. First of all, it's necessary to remove all the spiky shell pieces, since Kinod's soldiers have a more "naked" look, except for their heads. In fact, the alternative head consists of a spherical bivalve black shell covered with spines and partially open, whose serrated opening allows a pair of evil green glowing eyes to peek out. The alternative back armour is also a black shell, but instead of being covered with spikes, it displays four strips that run down its length and bear comb-like bands of seemingly vibrating translucent light-blue hairs. The comb rows originate from an eye-like dark-blue decoration situated at the top part of the shell, while a pair of long pliable pinkish tentacles (each fringed with little filaments and ending in a bony tooth-like structure) emerges from the sides of the shell and projects forwards over the shoulders. Since the hydraulic arm attachment is a separate piece too, this can be removed to display the figure with two regular hands. As a further option, there is a selection of dark-blue&silver plug-in weapons for the left arm, which includes a rigid whip, an elaborate bow-shaped sword blade, a shield (which looks a little like the rotating arrangement of blades of a fan to me) and a spiked striking ball. The last accessory is interesting, because it may be replaced by Kinod's flail (whose haft can also plug into the arm) in order to simulate an extending/retracting feature of the same weapon. Of course, one can mix and match all these parts in various ways to create more original characters.

Comic

Together with the action figure we get the 11th comic issue Herrion's ordeal. At Theriom City, Herrion is slowly becoming accustomed with his new life. The Therioms are informed of a group of holopodians (i.e., giant marine creatures) attacking a coastal village. The heroes travel to the site, to save the villagers from the dangerous situation, and manage to force the holopodians back to the shore where their mother, the queen holopodian, has laid a large number of eggs. Herrion, who took part to the mission, is upset because of his very limited role in the operation, due to the fact that the helmet he received from Elykta, unlike his sibling's ones, didn't activate. During the night, Herrion feels urged by a mysterious force to wear again the helmet, which turns him into a monster. Under Demo-Rha's control, Alterok (this is how the monster calls himself) walks to the strand with the holopodian spawn. The two steal several of the queen's eggs and when the mother attacks, Demo-Rha traps her. The eggs are then magically dispersed over Tahron and the witch orders Alterok, after erasing his memory, to change back to Herrion. The day after at Theriom City, a crashing sound is suddenly heard from outside. The troopers investigate and they find a holopodian's egg on the residence grounds. The egg hatches and a baby holopodian appears, growing to full size in a matter of seconds. The creature attacks the people present, but Masq-Lor and Fai-Rha tackle and restrain it. Meanwhile, other soldiers report that several holopodians have invaded many parts of the territory. The Therioms plan a new mission, but when Herrion rushes to wear his helmet, he turns into Alterok again and hides inside the residence. At Dekropolis, Demo-Rha gains great pleasure as baby holopodians grow to full size and cause panic all across Tahron, while the Therioms reach as many locations as possible and confine the creatures. The witch journeys to Theriom City and upon arrival is welcomed by Alterok. Together, they seize the remaining Therioms inside the premises and overwhelm Tir-Hing outright. Masq-Lor and his entourage return to Theriom City just in time for Demo-Rha to seal the perimeter with a wall of fire. Clued by an armour ornament lost by the enchantress, Masq-Lor and Fai-Rha decide to reach Dekropolis, where they hope to find an explanation for what is happening. There, they confront an army of mutated holopodians and defeat them quickly. Masq-Lor has the idea of attaining the help of the queen, now freed from Demo-Rha's restraint, to extinguish the fire at Theriom City. He sends Fai-Rha back to the residence, where all the holopodians unite and thrust their collective jet of water against the fire, freeing the citadel. The Therioms regain control and attack Demo-Rha and Alterok, but the two manage to escape riding a giant bird and fly to Dekropolis. There, Demo-Rha commands Alterok to confront Masq-Lor and the two battle inside the fortress. When Alterok falls off the edge of a precipice, Masq-Lor grabs his hand and saves his life, causing a huge conflict of feelings inside him. This helps Herrion to separate himself from the evil entity within and turn back to his good human form. Demo-Rha disappears and Masq-Lor fights back the demon with enormous difficulties. Suddenly, the queen holopodian surprises the demon and kills him by destroying the ground beneath him. Herrion recovers and realises that the evil essence left by Deptilion is not part of his personality any more and he cannot be a threat again. Together with his brother, he watches the holopodians walking towards the sea, to return to their home.

Overall, I feel like Kinod is a good figure, but for some reasons I’m just not very excited about him. I think one factor is definitely all the hindering going on. His spiny armour can definitely make for a challenge while posing. Even without it, his head only seems to be able to look down comfortably, but other than that there’s no added bonus. I’m also a bit disappointed this wasn’t a two-pack with the holopodian mutant as a separate figure. Some of the best figures in this line are army builders. While that would make the pack more expensive, I also think the commander&soldier pair would go a long way in adding to its value.

About the comic, a bit rivalry between the good and the bad guys, some new characters, some morals - there we have another episode. It may not be too original, but it's a very gripping story, both entertaining and well drawn. And I love characters that have multiple personalities!

KR Review #68: LoGoN

It might be easy for a relatively obscure character to get lost in the horde of KR prototypes that has been produced this year. But when you are LoGoN, a guy that looks like CoBoN on steroids, you demand your props!

Well, it also helps that this third large scale figure prototype from PoliganToys is the best piece of such proportions in the line yet.

Details

Name: LoGoN

Subtitle: hostile robotic machine

Classification: land vehicle

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Destructomorph (formerly belonging to the Theriom faction)

Rank: transport.

Background

LoGoN's only appearance takes place in the not-yet-printed final KR comic issue, the same episode where also the Xonatron and Tmohrr appear. LoGoN is said to be a prototype of CoBoN, originally designed and built by Xonedar and Koptros, and is depicted as an off-road armoured vehicle that looks identical to its successor, except for the colour being metallic-black rather than silver. It is recounted that LoGoN's AI algorithm became corrupted, causing unpredictable and dangerous responses of the automated vehicle. For that reason, it was deactivated and placed in storage. Believed to be non-functional, its central processing unit has been reactivated via an unauthorised data transmission by a mysterious Destructomorph member, who has eventually stolen the vehicle with the aim of using it as a powerful weapon against the Therioms.

Description

LoGoN is able to convert into an heavily armed humanoid-looking robot with wheeled legs that also functions as a powered exoskeleton for its driver. This is the only form of LoGoN included in the package. If a transport version is ever made available, this will merely be a black repaint of CoBoN's vehicle mode.

Like its heroic robot counterpart, this figure is 30 cm tall (around 12'') and, due to cost saving reasons, it is mostly rotocast, which means it's essentially hollow. Except for lacking the hinged abdomen, LoGoN has as much articulation as a standard KR character, which allows the figure to move sufficiently well and pose properly in a number of dynamic action scenes. It also has all of the attention to detail in sculpt that one should be expecting from such a figure. Its "body" has tons of little details, while staying very accurate to the vehicle configuration. The paint job is great too, with a glossy black colour on its bodywork components and flat black (plus some silver here and there) on the parts that become exposed after the transformation.

Basically, the lower body derives from the front and rear parts of the vehicle that include the wheels (its feet are essentially a pair of two-wheel in-line skates), the arms from the sides, the back from the canopy and the head from the nose. The head reminds me of Optimus Prime a bit, which doesn't look evil enough in my opinion, but after all, having being built by the good guys, it makes sense. However, the centrepiece is the front surface of its torso, which includes the chest plate (derived from the forepart of the vehicle, which displays a scanner bar, represented by a black lenticular sticker, with green and purple patterns, i.e., two lines that sweep horizontally and a central pulsing "eye" that allows its driver to see) and the abdomen, and consists of a removable shell made of metal and glass.

Action feature, weapons and accessories

This all-new robot comes complete with real rolling wheels and two large pivoting black&silver weapons (i.e., a spring-loaded rocket launcher and a plasma cannon) mounted between its torso and arms, so that they can either be set in a vertical rest position or flipped over the shoulders for attack.

Also, in the comic issue that I previewed, LoGoN is operated by a mysterious white-suited driver; during its transformation into robot, the vehicle merges the driver with itself as an enclosed operator. So, the figure's trunk includes a static-ish bust of the driver’s upper body, which can be seen through the transparent parts of the front shell and can be completely exposed by removing such shell. The only moving part of this bust is the helmeted head, which is a ball jointed piece and whose white helmet (with a black visor and a thin longitudinal ochre line on the top) looks like a combination of the Stig (Top Gear) and a Peacekeeper (Hunger Games) headgear. The driver's torso is covered with a white armoured suit that has few ochre details and some cyber elements (such as tubes and circuitry), and shows a slender figure that suggests it might belong to a woman. The bust also displays beautifully sculpted silver tech-mech parts that mimic the physical connection between the driver's suited limbs and LoGoN's internal structure.

LoGoN driver's chest plate.

Overall, while I would certainly have preferred a complete vehicle + driver + robot set, I’m not willing to end this review with a low score because of that one drawback. I don’t think I would have criticised PoliganToys much if they’d said it was too expensive to develop a CoBoN-style multi-pack version of LoGoN and not produced anything at all. But instead, they created an outstanding, well-sculpted and super-detailed amalgamation of two components of that hypothetical 3pk. And they deserve big respect for it. This is easily the all-around best giant figure in the KR line so far and potentially an absolute must-have for collectors.

KR Review #67: Herrion

After a long time, we have finally been given the opportunity to discover more about Herrion^TM, Masq-Lor's and Fai-Rha's brother.

With the addition of the 10^th comic issue to Mal-Ah-Kros' prototype, some details about Herrion's story have been revealed and, after enjoying two variants based on him (Loghar-possessed Herrion and Alterok), it's now time to meet this dude "in person"!

This 52^nd action figure prototype from PoliganToys is a very fun specimen. Yes, most of the figure's components are reuses/repaints of Masq-Lor's and Apprentice Minister Masq-Lor's parts, but it's really cool to get a character in plastic that has been on the fringe of the KR mythos for more than a year.

Details

Name: Herrion

Subtitle: bright-eyed warrior

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

Sex: male

Relationships: son of Tir-Hing, non-identical twin brother of Desion (Masq-Lor), older brother of Rhadiel (Fai-Rha)

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: service warrior; trainee.

Background

Herrion first appears at the end of the 10^th KR comic issue Evanescing act, but his presence becomes significant from the 11^th issue Herrion's ordeal onward. During his childhood, Herrion was abducted, together with his twin brother and younger sister, by his uncle Ir-Ash and sent through a mystic vortex created by Demo-Rha into the body of the future Destructomorph leader. Many years later, Masq-Lor succeeded in separating his brother from the defeated Deptilion, to whom Herrion had given much of his vital force unbeknown to everybody. Once rescued from his long-lasting segregation, he received the third prodigious helmet from Elykta, in order to channel the same ancient power that Masq-Lor and Fai-Rha had been using to acquire incredible abilities. However, at first, due to a remainder of Deptilion's wickedness left in his inner-self, something went wrong and instead he transformed into an evil monstrosity, Alterok. Upon his definitive healing, Herrion swore in gratitude to defend the free people of Tahron alongside his siblings forever.

Articulation

Standard.

Description

Head: like his siblings, Herrion wears a silver magic helmet, which in certain circumstances produces a bobcat-like half mask (or visor) and gives him incredible physical and mental powers, changing his appearance slightly. Herrion's default head wears the helmet in its inactive form, i.e., without visor. His face is very similar to his brother's one and has the same green eyes and daring expression, but the skin colour seems lighter. I'll get more into the details when I describe the alternative unhelmeted head

Body: the arms are exposed and show cream white skin, while the legs are covered with black trousers

Wearables: a black vest with golden edges and armholes (this piece includes a burgundy ascot tie), two golden bracelets, two golden boots, a golden belt and a black crotch piece.

Herrion's stylised helmet with frontal crests.

Action feature

Since this figure encompasses both the institutional and the fighting appearances of Herrion, we get a great deal of add-ons, to upgrade his outfit accordingly.

Let's start with his apprentice advisor mode. First, there is an unhelmeted head that, at a first glance, might look identical to the one seen with Apprentice Minister Masq-Lor. However, this head is actually characterised by fairly lighter complexion and hair, respectively cream white and dark-brown. The thick hair also shows a slightly different style, but apart from that, the two brothers share the same green eyes and "at ease" look. The default vest can be complemented with an extra piece composed of a short black skirt with golden hem, a burgundy belt with a golden buckle that resembles the Theriom symbol (i.e., a seven-pointed star with the two side points elongated), a burgundy shoulder sash and a short burgundy cape. All those components have been combined in a single removable piece, which is a repainted replica of AMM's add-on.

For his combat mode, the figure comes with an alternative helmeted head that displays the lynx visor activated (fulvous and marked with dark-brown streaks and spots), fierce glow-in-the-dark eyes (from which, in the comics, he can radiate powerful light beams, at either a very high or very low temperature) and metal cat ears. Like with his siblings, when the helmet is activated, various accessories become different: the bracelets, boots and belt become more showy, and the vest transforms into a golden armour with black leather details. These fictional improvements are rendered by means of clip-on bracelet, boot and belt pieces, while the armour can be worn easily after removing the vest. Additionally, a pair of long brownish claws can be attached to each enhanced-bracelet, to simulate the retractile claws seen in the comics. Finally, similarly to Masq-Lor, the skin of the torso and the arms develops jaguar-like black-and-brown rosettes when using warm water or a hairdryer over it.

Herrion's stylised armour.

Weapons and accessories

Aside from the two alternative heads, formal outfit, armour, clip-on pieces and claws, Herrion comes with a few more accessories. First up are two battleaxes, or better, one axe in two versions: normal, with a black haft and a broad silver blade (whose cutting edge is parallel to the handle), and enhanced, with a longer haft, a bronze grip and a double-bladed silver&gold head. Each axe's handle can be inserted in a loop on the back of either the vest or the armour. Additionally, the figure includes a round metallic-black shield decorated with a number of golden bolts, which can be clipped on Herrion's either wrist (obviously when the clip-on wrist guard is not attached).

Finally, we also get a long burgundy cape, which is meant to be worn by Alterok. The mantle's surface sports a cool dark symbol that represents a stylised stencil-like depiction of Alterok's head. I particularly enjoy this addition, it’s a nice touch.

Overall, the figure had to grow on me a little bit. There were things I liked immediately, such as his combat gear, and things I wasn’t sure about, like his repurposed formal outfit. But, after having fun with him, I came to the conclusion that he is a cool figure. He’s another solid piece in a line that, in my opinion, hasn’t missed yet. My biggest issue with him is that he's got too many display options and I don't know which one I should choose for my shelf. Most likely, he’ll end up as a front-line feline warrior.

KR Review #66: Combat Sei-Lha

Combat Sei-Lha^TM is one of those figures that was flying a bit under the radar for me, due to everything else that is expected to show up at the end of this year. But I am very pleasantly surprised by her.

PoliganToys has pulled out all the bells and whistles for this 51^st action figure prototype. So, let’s take a look at this cool new "Iron Woman" variant of Sei-Lha.

Details

Name: Combat Sei-Lha

Subtitle: brave armoured soldier

Classification: human

Sex: female

Relationships: daughter of Xonedar, Masq-Lor's love interest

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Theriom

Rank: second lieutenant; expert in electronic & computer engineering and veterinary medicine.

Background

Sei-Lha's first appearance in her combat armour takes place in the 11th KR comic issue Herrion's ordeal. Here, we learn a bit more about Sei-Lha's hyper-technological backpack, which was originally engineered by her father while working alongside Koptros. The two heroes put their invention to the test during their joint service in the Theriom armed forces, but eventually Xonedar reprogrammed the device to be utilised by his daughter. Similarly to Xonedar's body, the backpack is comprised of a series of microscopic technological elements, which can rearrange themselves in innumerable configurations, allowing Sei-Lha to exploit incredible tools in battle against enemies. Now, thanks to her backpack, Sei-Lha can even transform into a cyber-soldier with a spectacular arsenal of fire power.

Articulation

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

Description

Head: protected by a full face silver helmet with light-blue details and a black glass visor. This helmet is a little Boba Fett, a little Iron Man and a little G.I. Joe Cobra Commander, but it works somehow. It includes a removable face plate, which can be magnetically attached to the front (i.e., covering the face) or to the top (i.e., flipped up) of the helmet. The inside of the face plate displays a surprising amount of sculpted features, which make the piece look very high-tech. Sei-Lha's face underneath bears a striking resemblance to the regular figure's face, but has some additional details, such as a light-blue cyber eye mask (with an eye hole on the right and a translucent green scope, for looking in on targets, on the left) and a silver headset microphone that runs down the right cheek

Body: covered from neck to toe with a silver armoured suit with metallic light-blue details. There is an impressive amount of intricate decorative features all around the various components of this suit and, in fact, there are very few spots on the figure that do not have some kind of sculpted tech-mech embellishments, such as cables and tubes, bolts and pistons, gauges and switches. But it all works together and does not get too busy

Wearables: the non-removable chest armour recalls the harness seen with regular Sei-Lha and carries a beautifully sculpted silver Theriom symbol that juts out from the light-blue background of the chest plate, while the armholes look like ammo belts. She also has silver gauntlets, silver thigh protectors, silver boots (with fin-shaped flight control surfaces and jet engines), a silver belt (which also looks a bit like an ammo belt) and a light-blue crotch piece, everything with a lot of great cyber details.

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

Action feature

Like with Sei-Lha's regular version, the real strength of this figure lies in the add-ons that come with it. First of all, in the comics the armour features multiple blasters that flip out from the wrists, thighs and chest. In the figure, the leg guards and the chest plate flip down (revealing some nice circuitry patterns underneath) and all the metallic light-blue guns are separate pieces that can be added during Sei-Lha's combat mode. We get two pivoting arm guns (which plug into the inner sides of the gauntlets), two knee guns and a chest double-barreled laser cannon (with the barrels that actually move in and out).

Of course, she's always equipped with her silver hyper-technological backpack, which is basically identical to the one that came with the regular figure, but this time it also has some moving and opening parts, to render the suit up machinery seen in the comics. Aside from the exoskeletal armour, the backpack can fictionally produce some other tools, which are included as accessories and can be placed (one at a time) on the figure's back after removing a piece that is comprised of the backpack itself and the shoulder armour (it's necessary to detach the head too). The first accessory is a shoulder/back armour equipped with two weapons (a grenade launcher and a flamethrower, with a separate large-calibre projectile and a blast effect respectively) mounted on two adjustable armatures, so that they can either be set in a vertical rest position or flipped over Sei-Lha's shoulders for attack. The second accessory is another shoulder/back armour equipped with swivelling wings. The wings are incredibly detailed, with hinged air-flaps and sculpted rocket launchers and turbojet engines. Surprisingly, since this is never shown in the comics, the outboard parts of the wings can be disconnected from the central structure and grabbed by Sei-Lha's hands (holding the plugs that normally fit tightly into the inboard parts), perhaps to be used as shields or blades or handheld missile launchers.

Lastly, in the comics the armour is shown, in at least one occasion, to activate a self-operating mode, eject Sei-Lha and then surprise the opponents by suddenly bursting apart. To mimic this autodestruction feature (or, more precisely, the moment immediately before the blast), there is a thin glow-in-the-dark line that splits the front armour in two down the middle. The figure also comes with an alternative full face helmet, which is amazingly sculpted in such a way that it looks like exploding, with shooting parts (especially the face plate) and flames.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the five plug-in guns, the two additional shoulder/back armours and the exploding helmet, Combat Sei-Lha comes with a few more accessories. First, the figure includes a total of five swappable hands, which add a nice variety for posing. There is one pair of gloved open-palm hands to be used with the pivoting wrist guns, one pair of gloved gripping hands for clutching the wing-weapons and, just for fun, one ungloved relaxed left hand.

Also, the guys at PoliganToys have thought to give us an additional head that is actually meant for regular Sei-Lha, since it's a battle damaged version of her original helmeted head. This is a very nice piece, with the partially crushed and scratched helmet displaying a misshapen microphone, a bent antenna and a broken glass visor. The visor is my favourite detail, exposing a kind of light source used to illuminate the inner display panel when slid into place over Sei-Lha's eyes. The helmet can be removed, revealing a brand new Captain America-style headgear with a beige&brown camouflage colouration.

Finally, the figure includes a surprising weapon that is also meant for a previous Sei-Lha variant. It's an energy whip version of the sword that came with Possessed Sei-Lha, meaning that it has the same greenish oxidised bronze hilt and golden blade tip, both similar to small tridents, at each end. The lash portion is translucent yellow with silvery glitter mixed in and is made of an extremely soft plastic, so it really feels like a whip. I'm not sure about the relationship between this weapon and Combat Sei-Lha, but it's still a welcome addition.

Overall, I like Combat Sei-Lha an awful lot. The sculpt of this figure looks great and has been engineered really well. She has a lot of robotic feel to her and is very unique in both character and appearance. I think she is going to rank higher than I originally thought for my prototype collection. This Combat variant completes all the possible versions of Sei-Lha in the comics. I know a lot of people don’t like too many variants, but this is the kind of thing that makes the line cool to me, so I am very glad to have her as well.