KR|Dimness Review #18: Dekerus

Toy prototype details

Name: Dekerus^TM

Subtitle: horned champion

Line: KR|Dimness

Item type: action figure - Nº 14 in the line.

Character details

Name: Dekerus

Classification: perissodactyl mammal

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Era: 5 years before Foundation

Affiliation: Forseha

Rank: tribe fighter.

Background

First appearance: KR|Dimness #3 - Into dimness: Part II – Escape

Brief bio: when the Rexodon army assaulted several settlements outside the Northern Forest, the Independent Warriors of the nearby village of Erlokat^TM built a defensive wall to protect their people from Bi-Harr's attacks. Growing up within the bounds of this fortification, Dekerus felt constricted and dreamt of exploring the wilderness of Tahron, about which he had heard many stories from the village elders. Being born without the outgrowths that characterised his kinship group, he felt unfit for such adventures, but when he came of age he received a horned helmet from the Warriors' chief, which would allegedly give him special powers and allow him to overcome his fears. While traversing the jungles near the Ucamur^TM region, Dekerus helped the Forseha people oppose hostile clans during territorial disputes in the area and discovered that his helmet actually had no special power. Eventually, he returned briefly to his village and teamed up with Bellius^TM, the new leader of the Independent Warriors, when Nibeon^TM assisted Bi-Harr in attempting to breach Erlokat's walls and capture its inhabitants. After succeeding in driving away the evil enemy, the Independent Warriors applauded Dekerus' bravery and let him fulfil his wish to join the Forseha tribe for good.

Articulation

Standard.

Description

Head: similar to a rhinoceros, characterised by grey skin, blue eyes and a broad, straight square-lipped mouth. He wears a dark-green leathery helmet with red details that features a half mask (this luchador-like style makes him kind of reminiscent of Rey Mysterio) and two massive horn-shaped dull&shiny ringed brass spikes (with the horn at the front larger than the other one) on the top

Body: cracked grey skin, shoulders and upper legs covered in wart-like bumps, three-toed hooves at the feet. His armour incorporates a rubbery piece that fits right on top of the body and mimics a hump below his neck, where the thick skin folds into the shoulder and back, giving him a brawny, armoured appearance (a feature that also characterises his limbs, where the skin wrinkles realistically around his joints). Additionally, he wears two spiked brass knuckledusters over the knuckles

Wearables: a red armour with dark-green details, two red leather wrist guards, two red leather shin guards (both the wrist- and shin guards are fastened with criss-crossed rope laces), a red leather belt with a large rectangular brass buckle, and dark-green shorts.

Dekerus' stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics, Dekerus is depicted as an experienced hand-to-hand combatant and is equipped with thick-layered skin, which is highly resistant to damage and seemingly unbreakable. His extreme levels of strength, stamina and resistance to injury, together with the use of his knuckledusters which significantly increase the effect of blows, make him a formidable opponent.

Furthermore, his razor-sharp horns are shown to be capable of penetrating extremely hard materials. So, the figure comes with an additional ball jointed neck extension that gives him a heavily hunched over look and allows him to pose like he is using his head as a battering ram.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the neck extension, Dekerus comes with a double-bladed axe from his Independent Warriors days. This weapon's fairly long greenish wooden handle bears a grey stone blade at each end; the two cutting edges are parallel to the handle and oriented towards opposite directions, so Dekerus can use this menacing battle axe for a range of spinning attacks.

Additionally, the package includes an extra head, which represents an early concept design (i.e., un-helmeted/masked, with a pointed upper lip and with two horn-like growths on his snout) of this character's face.

Final thoughts
Character value: ♦♦ While he really doesn't have much of a role in the comics, Dekerus makes up for that by having the coolest helmet in the series

Articulation: ♥♥♥♥ This figure is very well-made on the articulation front. His sculpt, neck extension and outfit do not limit him in any way, and in fact his armour (which include the hump) is thinner than most, thus giving him some great range

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣♣ Dekerus is an excellent figure, extremely well detailed and designed. All the new parts on him give him a lot great definition and he truly looks like the source material. PoliganToys did an incredible job with this one and there is nothing I would change about the figure

Accessories: ♠♠♠ Fortunately he didn't come light on the accessories, but his axe, although it's a nice piece, is made of slightly soft plastic, so it can bend and droop a little if heated

Playability: ♪♪♪♪ Like nearly every other KR figure prototype, Dekerus feels very solid and durable. He has a good range of motion in most of his joints and there's nothing about the figure that feels fragile or breakable. This figure is absolutely made to be posed and played with

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ I'd say that Dekerus is one of the best looking figures of the year. He's one of the most impressive sculpts seen in this line. There really is very little reuse as well - the only thing that seems reused is his torso, but of course that's covered by the armour, which even includes a body component. Is he perfect? Well, he is a little tall, but that’s accurate.

KR|Dimness Review #17: Terebror

Toy prototype details

Name: Terebror^TM

Subtitle: baleful destroyer

Line: KR|Dimness

Item type: action figure - Nº 13 in the line.

Character details

Name: Terebror

Classification: mutant human

Sex: male

Home: Tahron

Era: 5 years before Foundation

Affiliation: Dark Legion

Rank: lieutenant commander.

Background

First appearance: KR|Dimness #3 - Into dimness: Part II – Escape

Brief bio: during the Reptonoid domination of O-Kin^TM, the kingdom's population suffered the mutating effects of the chemical weapons deployed by Bi-Harr for psychological manipulation. A small percentage of the inhabitants who emerged were born with defects, and while some were fitted with electromechanical prostheses, some others were ostracised and banished from O-Kin. Those outcasts were eventually welcomed by the mysterious chief monk Mohrdax^TM into the shelter of his monastery near the Ucamur^TM region. When Wordron befriended Mohrdax, many cloisterers, including an armless and disfigured man named Terebror, sided with the Dark Legion in their conflict with the Forseha tribe. Terebror's desire to become a skillful warrior allowed Wordron to lure him into his laboratory with promises of fame and glory, but instead he was transformed into an insane cybernetically-enhanced minion. Half-man half-machine, Terebror relentlessly fought his enemies by shooting vicious chisel-like projectiles with his robotic arms.

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

Description

Head: he wears a tech biter mask (which features two upwards curved rostra on the chin, as well as some rivets, grooves and tubes, making him look like a weird mash-up of Hannibal Lecter and Bane from The Dark Knight Rises) and a side-crested helmet topped with a spike (similarly to a Pickelhaube) that resembles a fairly large conical drill bit; both items are painted in metallic light-blue with shiny purple details. While not much of his face is exposed here (only his dark-brown eyes surrounded by taupe skin are visible), his furrowed brow suggests a fierce expression. The top part of the helmet can be removed, exposing Terebror's bald and disturbingly scarred scalp, while the biter mask extends over the ears with a kind of headphone-like device (to which the two side crests are actually attached) and buckles at the nape

Body: the only exposed parts of his body are the shoulders, which are the remnants of his human arms and show taupe skin, although they are mostly concealed under two purple shoulder pads that are embellished with metallic light-blue bolts and attached via a rubber “hinge” to the armour. His torso seems to be wearing a sleeveless black shirt, while his legs are covered with sturdy light-blue trousers (is he wearing blue jeans?) that bear black leather knee pads and two large side pockets, from which two sculpted chisel-looking metallic light-blue implements peek out

Wearables: a purple bulletproof vest with metallic light-blue details, two purple leather combat boots that buckle up at the sides and a purple leather belt with a four-bladed gunmetal shuriken as a buckle. A gunmetal compressor-backpack is placed on his back, and is attached to two criss-crossed purple armoured straps that run around his shoulders and chest over the vest.

Terebror's stylised helmet with side crests.

Terebror's stylised harness over bulletproof vest.

Action feature

Terebror displays his iconic huge robotic arms that he is most dreaded for in the comics. These are essentially replacements for his human arms, and sport functioning pistons and connected wiring/tubing above the "elbows". The design of these cybernetic limbs just generally gives them a martial, weapon-ish look and makes them reminiscent of other crazy concepts such as Power Arm Terminator and Dutch Schaefer from the Alien vs Predator arcade game. Instead of traditional hands, Terebror fictionally carries several tools that release, and often shoot, from his mechanical forearms (which bear blade-like shiny purple spikes sticking out the sides), and that he uses to demolish enemy structures and generate earth tremors. The jackhammer-like gunmetal arms are connected via two black pliable tubes to the two ends of a cylinder placed horizontally at the bottom of his backpack; the backpack, in turn, is connected to a slot of the biter mask on Terebror's nape with the aid of an additional black tube departing from its top.

The figure comes with a nice set of metallic-light blue add-ons that plug into his wrist-chucks: two pairs of large chisel-bits and a pair of piledriver pistons. The bits include a pair of flat blades and a pair of pointy, cross-shaped tips, while the piston-like parts (which feature a sort of release mechanism, as you can slide the shafts out) transform his arms into powerful piledrivers that, when pounded against the ground, can cause violent earthquakes.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from his tools/projectiles, Terebror comes with two pairs of metallic light-blue robotic hands and a pair of translucent orange firing effects. The cyber hands plug into the same chuck-like sockets used for the tools, and each open hand can swap out with a closed-fisted one.

Additionally, each mechanical arm can be equipped with a flamethrower effect that attaches to another slot just below the chuck.
Finally, to deal with a slightly inconsistent design in the comic book, there's an alternate unhelmeted head, which is identical to the standard one except for a black leather strap that runs centrally over the head from the biter mask to the nape.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦ After some really cool, imaginative designs through the first half of 2019, this one still shines as a solid figure and will fit in nicely with the rest of the KR|Dimness lineup

Articulation: ♥♥ The overall articulation is as outstanding as ever, but the torso and waist are a little restricted by the armour+backpack this time around. It's not terrible, but considering how good this base body is, that's a bit disappointing

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ As I said, there are a couple of different themes going on here - a bit of Bane or Hannibal with the mouth mask and a bit of Terminator vs Predator (how cool would that be!) with the arms. The detailing on both the head sculpt and the arms looks terrific; the paint work is solid, but metallic paints are always tough ones to work with. There are a few slops here and there, and some of the edges are off by a bit. Update: PoliganToys informed me that some details such as the face mask and the bolts on the shoulder guards will probably be repainted in gunmetal colour if and when the figure is released

Accessories: ♠♠♠ The sculpts are solid here too, although the paintjob on the piston pieces is pretty skimpy

Playability: ♪♪♪♪ This is a very fun action figure. Actually, with the general bionic man-like theme, one might not even realise he is a bad guy, and could have him playing either side of the field

Overall: ☺☺☺ Despite a few nitpicks, Terebror is a pretty sharp figure. The limbs sculpt is incredible, the head looks great, and it’s nice to have a cyber-themed action figure in this barbarian-filled series.

KR Review #80: Pyrosaur

The Pyrosaur^TM (sorry Screechers Wild, but I think we got it earlier) is the first Spektrosaur land vehicle to come into the KR line... I know, there's also the Baryanoid-Cart, but I tend to consider that a creature item rather than a vehicle.

Really, this panzer is the one that makes the most sense as a land unit: it's specifically designed to carry Lor-Drek's evil goons into battle against their rivals as well as wreak havoc and destruction in peaceful places, and take on enemy armoured fighting vehicles. The Cart, on the other hand, can't be used for much more than travelling around a golf course.

Okay, petty details and jokes apart, let's look at what probably is gonna be the last vehicle under the Foundation banner of the KR universe.

Details

Name: Pyrosaur

Subtitle: battle tank destroyer

Classification: land vehicle

Home: Tahron

Affiliation: Spektrosaur

Rank: transport.

Description

The Pyrosaur is a tank-like, wheeled combat vehicle used by Lor-Drek's forces for ground assault, reconnaissance and transport of soldiers across the battlefield; when necessary, it can rise to turn into a bipedal machine that traverse the landscape on large mechanical legs. Sporting blast-impervious armour plating, this massive construct is used by the Spektrosaurs as much for psychological warfare as it is for tactical advantage. The toy version is painted in metallic light-blue with silver-gray details, exhibits tons of tech-mech details (e.g., panels, tubes, wires and pistons) and can be operated in several positions; when upright, it stands about 46 cm (around 18'') tall and is reminiscent of a mechanical tyrannosaurus.

The robotic legs display tracked clawed feet (each with an additional wide treaded wheel on the front, which is the only truly rotating part) and a pair of large ratcheted wheels at the knees, which allow the tank to roll forward or backward when in crawler mode.

The cockpit (which only accommodates one figure, unlike the comic book version that seats two combat drivers overseen by a commander sitting behind them) and the attached canopy (which can be open, closed and removed) resemble the toothed jaws of a dinosaur's head, whose neck can turn slightly left, right, up and down. Additionally, a rotating turret (which also carries one figure, and features an opening canopy and a cockpit with hand-grips) is mounted on top of the vehicle's dome-like body.

Action feature

Thanks to its rotating hip, knee and ankle joints, the Pyrosaur can easily switch positions, allowing for extreme posability with three assault modes: low-riding (i.e., kneeling) roller tank for sneak attacks, standing (i.e., two-legged) mech walker for strikes over rough terrain, and upright robotic siege engine for assailing enemy walls. Moreover, two mechanical arms are attached to the sides of the hull and feature two points of articulation each, which allow them to bend and retract. Each arm bears a menacing crusher claw that can open and close to capture enemies.

On the tank's underside (on the front when the vehicle is upright), there is an entry/escape hatch with a hinged opening ramp, which reveals a hollowed-out centre section that can fictionally hold a number of troopers and a cargo container.

The rotating turret is detachable and has the ability to act as a flying pod equipped with bat-like folding wings and a rear hatch that gives access to a weapons storage compartment. Aside from perching atop the transport's main body, the flying pod/turret can also dock at a port on the front of the head/cockpit when the war machine is set in a vertical position.

Last but not least, the Pyrosaur has an additional mechanical arm ending with a powerful flamethrower, which can be manoeuvred via a handlebar-like joystick inside the head/cockpit and can also function as a a third leg for stability. While in the comics this snake-like arm is retractable, in the toy it is a separate piece that plugs into a socket exposed by removing a metal panel on the vehicle's belly and only features a hinge at its halfway point.

Weapons and accessories

The head/cockpit armament consists of two horn-shaped temple-mounted pivoting grenade launchers and two chin-mounted heavy laser cannons; the latter are removable, in order to reveal a docking port and, as mentioned above, allow the flying pod/turret to perch and rotate. The turret itself is equipped with wing-mounted cannons and a front spring-loaded twin-missile launcher.

Finally, the vehicle comes with two attachments that plug into the flamethrower nozzle: a large translucent red blast effect and a mechanical foot-like ball jointed accessory.

Overall, the Pyrosaur is an excellent prototype and a great way to wrap up the Foundation segment of the KR line. It is a wonderful vehicle and likely to be a fan favourite. With this, we are now finished with the vehicles of the regular series (I don't believe that CoBoN 2.0 and the Gyrocarrier will ever be produced due to their enormous sizes) and while I'm looking forward to reviewing large scale items from the other chapters of the KR mythos, I still hope that new KR|Foundation figures, creatures and perhaps playsets will be created in the future. In any case, this piece makes me remember all the joy and enthusiasm with the line over the last 4 years and what was accomplished with this blog. That made it worth it.

KR|Dimness Review #16: Viluptra

Toy prototype details

Name: Viluptra^TM

Subtitle: woods goddess

Line: KR|Dimness

Item type: action figure - Nº 12 in the line.

Character details

Name: Viluptra

Classification: spirit

Sex: female

Home: Tahron

Era: 5 years before Foundation

Affiliation: Forseha (indirectly)

Rank: mother goddess.

Background

First appearance: KR|Dimness #2 - Masq-Lor's quest

Brief bio: Viluptra belonged to an elder race of elemental creatures, who once shared Tahron with many other supernatural entities. Her bizarre character was often mistook for naivety, but in reality she mastered the greatest magical secrets of the forests, despite some flaws in her sorcery wielding abilities. When the reptilian forces invaded many territories inhabited by mammalian societies, Viluptra only wanted to see the people of Tahron free from Bi-Harr's evil tyranny. After an ancient violent conflict, most of those mystical creatures were annihilated, but Viluptra managed to rise to a spiritual form and settled in the jungles near the Ucamur^TM region. The founders of the Forseha tribe regarded her as their mother goddess and through her worship they welcomed numerous refugees into the shelter of their terramare settlement. The Forseha people viewed Viluptra as a spiritual guide who could advise them in matters of inter-tribal relationships and, more importantly, as an ally during the struggle against Wordron.

Articulation

Standard, excluding hinged abdomen.

Description

Head: grayish skin with a pinkish tinge, vivid red lips, prominent chin. She wears a pair of flower-shaped gold earrings and a domed red-orange cap resembling the fungal growth of an Amanita muscaria (which is covered with numerous yellowish-white warts and presents a few cracks along the edge); her gill-like grayish hair (with a blueish tinge) is visible on the underside. Two yellow stamens seemingly protruding from the top of her flower-like suit end with a pair of anthers that form a sort of eyewear, through which her eyes display glowing sclerae/irises, large black pupils, and long black eyelashes that extend beyond the yellow-rimmed spectacles. I would have liked a pair of either solid black or GITD eyes better, but I think this is a good compromise between the two comic book looks

Body: striated grayish skin with a pinkish tinge. She has a number of mossy green vines that wrap around the upper arms and legs, and wears many rings on her fingers

Wearables: a dual-layer, high neck flower-like body suit, two veined orange bracers ornamented with flower-shaped cuffs and several narrow golden bracelets (from which an equal number of long liana stems hang), two veined orange sandal-boots adorned with flower-shaped tops and sharp extended thongs curled upwards, a veined orange waistband, a long skirt made of many liana stems hanging from an additional golden belt (equipped with a large buckle bearing the Forseha emblem, i.e., a seven-petalled flower that vaguely recalls a Plumeria) and a short, wide cape made of feathery green fern fronds. The Plumeria-shaped body suit is composed of an orange upper layer that resembles the flower's corolla (with a small butterfly-shaped yellow marking in the centre of each veined petal) and a golden lower layer that looks like the calyx; the latter appears golden thanks to leaf-like green, creamy yellow-striped sepals that are edged in maroon (this combination of colours is also used on the liana stems hanging from her forearms and hips).

Action feature

In the comics, Viluptra possesses a number of powers, including levitation as well as the ability to control and grow plants and flowers. The figure doesn't offer any of those qualities (although a flight stand or some vine-based pieces would have been welcome additions), but has a nice display feature - her fungal headgear is removable and an additional bushy grayish (with a blueish tinge) hairpiece can attach to her head. The real Viluptra has a mushroom on her head, while Masq-Lor's mental picture of her, as seen in the comic issue Masq-Lor's quest, doesn't; so, this is PoliganToys' way of giving us the option for either style. I think it looks great, I wouldn't have missed it if this wasn't included, but I appreciate the effort.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from her alternate hairpiece, Viluptra comes with two accessories: a mushroom sceptre and her funny fruity companion Jabak. The sceptre resembles a golden oyster mushroom cap with a long whitish stipe/shaft that is twined in ivy-leaved, flowery tendrils.

Additionally, her apricot-like, red-orange sidekick has a pair of large cartoonish eyes, a couple of green leaves on top of its head and a pair of feet with green grassy shoes, but lacks a mouth, nose and arms. There is really not a whole lot to articulate on a walking fruit, but he was afforded the essential two points of articulation - a swivel-hinge on each hip. This inclusion is kind of curious, however, because I'd have expected to get Jabak's enhanced jack o'lantern-like version with this figure. See, this figure represents Viluptra's true look, but in the comics she also appears briefly disguised as an elderly lady, who is characterised by a short, stocky body and wears large thick-lensed glasses through which her eyes look magnified as well as a hip-length, long-sleeved maroon jacket with gold buttons, green trousers and a double layer creamy yellow and orange poncho with grassy fringes (everything is tattered and mended with stitching and leaf-shaped patches). The version of Jabak that I'm holding is the one that accompanies old lady Viluptra and not her younger warrior-goddess form. So, it is not perfect, but I'm getting two characters with one release and I should only be happy.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦ It’d be easy to just write Viluptra off as the Elykta of KR|Dimness, there are a lot of similarities in terms of supernatural abilities. I’m glad she got into the line and that PoliganToys did such a great job on her figure

Articulation: ♥♥♥ The lianas that dangle from her forearms have the potential to be the most discussed part of the entire figure. The concern over these obviously comes with how much they are going to impede posing options, and while they do so to some extent, it is definitely not nearly as much as I thought

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣♣ Viluptra is one of the best designed and painted character that I’ve seen so far in this series and I cannot express how awesome she turned out

Accessories: ♠♠♠♠ She was given a few greatly sculpted accessories that are executed well to the end. The paint is crisp and the colours look fantastic on all of them

Playability: ♪♪♪ Although articulation works great, I would like to get a stand for some nice levitation poses. However, the figure is fun to pose and play with

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ I know Viluptra isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think we'll all have to appreciate the work PoliganToys did here when (and if) the figure is released.

KR|Dimness Review #15: Anobiac

Toy prototype details

Name: Anobiac^TM

Subtitle: insectoid bounty hunter

Line: KR|Dimness

Item type: action figure - Nº 11 in the line.

Character details

Name: Anobiac

Classification: insect

Sex: uncertain (the character was originally conceived as a male, but the figure's body frame size suggests that it might have been changed into a female during production)

Home: Tahron

Era: 5 years before Foundation

Affiliation: Dark Legion

Rank: auxiliary warrior.

Background

First appearance: KR|Dimness #2 - Masq-Lor's quest

Brief bio: using the magic of the ancient spirits enshrined in Clavisaur's body, the evil Wordron transformed some of the most savage animals of the jungles near the Ucamur^TM region into his own beastly servants. Grown to a human-like size and endowed with enhanced strength, these monsters fought under the Dark Legion banner as mercenaries. Anobiac was just a flying insect when one of the spirits possessed it and transmuted it into a ferocious warrior, who savoured destruction and death. Even after the Dark Legion's ultimate defeat, Anobiac continued to act proudly as a fearsome and deadly bounty hunter in his old master's name.

Articulation

Standard, excluding hinged abdomen, and with the addition of two ball hinged arms and four ball hinged wings.

Description

Head: insect-like, characterised by a segmented light-blueish hood that surrounds and merges with a black snout. It displays a pair of long, thin light-blueish antennae pointing forward, a pair of fairly large bulbous silvery compound eyes, three smaller yellow eye spots on the forehead and a whitish-jawed Predator-like mouth composed of a two-fanged upper labrum, two mandibles and two maxillae with cutting edges (the latter are flanked by two short black segmented appendages or palps), and a finely serrated lower labium (also flanked by palps)

Body: all her body is characterised by a segmented black appearance and is protected by a number of light-blueish chitinous exoskeletal plates, which act as shoulder guards, rerebraces and thigh guards (we can even get a glimpse of a similar harness-shaped structure on her torso, under the armour), and bear numerous details on their surfaces, such as cracks, spines, small porous warts and tiny hair-shaped appendages. Her slender arms and legs sport three-clawed black hands and feet, with the third claw of each foot pointing backward and down, and functioning as a sort of high heel. An additional pair of arthropod-like light-blueish arms, each terminating in a long bifurcated claw, project from her lower back

Wearables: an orange armour with red details (including a furry collar and a pair of spines projecting from the top of the shoulder guards), two scaly (with some of the scales developing a bit more into spines) orange wrist guards, two scaly/spiny orange shin guards, a spiked orange belt and a red furry loincloth.

Anobiac's stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics, Anobiac can protrude a vicious dental plate at great speed from her mouth. This whitish chitinous structure lies in a horizontal position and has a row of curved, piranha-like teeth along the edge, resembling a circular saw blade; it also folds bilaterally, helping with the extending/retracting motion she uses to attack her opponents. So, the figure comes with a spectacular alternative head, which displays the open mouth armed with the threatening dental plate out.

Additionally, her back plate carries two sets of posable wings. The leaf-shaped iridescent silvery outer wings function as a menacing pair of sharp blades and, when folded, as a shield for the reduced club-shaped inner wings, which are light-blueish and carry a pair of toothed whitish chitinous structures at their ends. These parts are quite different from the dental plate, each having a series of five vibrating curved blades that in concerted sequential motion resembles a circular saw; although these organs do not fictionally rotate, they actually do in toy form.

Weapons and accessories

Apart from the alternate head, Anobiac includes an intimidating "corkscrew" spear, which consists of a long reddish wooden shaft with a metallic red handle and a pointed, spiral whitish chitinous tip. This weapon is actually never shown in the comics, but it's a quite cool addition in my opinion.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦ As a collector of the KR|Foundation line prototypes, Zektax was probably my favourite figure. Another insect character has been on my personal most-wanted lists for several years and now it's finally here

Articulation: ♥♥♥♥ The range of motion on the extra appendages is great and Anobiac looks awesome in a variety of flying poses

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣♣ I know this was a pet project for the folks at PoliganToys, and, indeed, they delivered a figure that makes for a visually stunning addition to the line

Accessories: ♠♠♠♠ The frightening add-ons she comes with should make everybody learn it may not be worth the trouble of fighting with this creature

Playability: ♪♪♪♪ This figure not only gives the Dark Legion a new monster amongst their ranks, but also further fleshes out Tahron's complex biology and perhaps provides a friendly foil for the Murmirians descendants

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ This is another triumphant concept-design made into action figure. I have often thought about how there really weren’t enough insectoid characters produced in the KR line. That's now changed with Anobiac being successfully produced in the Dimness series.

KR|Dimness Review #14: Moh-Qi

Toy prototype details

Name: Moh-Qi^TM

Subtitle: forest warrior

Line: KR|Dimness

Item type: action figure - Nº 10 in the line.

Character details

Name: Moh-Qi

Real name: Mohqiros^TM

Classification: human

Sex: male

Relationships: older brother of Koptros^TM

Home: Tahron

Era: 5 years before Foundation

Affiliation: Forseha (indirectly)

Rank: lone fighter.

Background

First appearance: KR|Dimness #1 - Into dimness: Part I – Awakening

Brief bio: born on the mountains of southern Tahron, Mohqiros and his younger brother Koptros were descendants of the legendary Cereutian knight Galamars^TM, who masterminded the construction of the multiversal walls. Unlike his brother, Moh-Qi (that was his nickname) never sought to prove that he was worthy of his valiant ancestor's legacy and, instead of enlisting in the Theriom army, spent several years training in the jungles near the Ucamur^TM region to become an ormurid tamer. Eventually, he became an expert with the blowgun and domesticated many ormurids as a member of the Forseha tribe. During a time of turmoil due to territorial disputes in the area, Moh-Qi confronted a number of hostile jungle clans until Dakun promoted an ideology of peaceful respect and cooperation; feeling in conflict with such ideals, he left the tribe to become a reclusive lone fighter in the Saseham^TM shrubland. Later, after he had initially refused Solamya's offer of an alliance, Moh-Qi single-handedly fought the volcanic monster Tolaaf to help his former fellows end the ruthless war declared by Wordron and his Dark Legion upon the brave tribesmen. Despite not being a Forseha member anymore, he returned to his old tribe whenever his fighting skills were needed.

Articulation

Standard.

Description

Head: Native American features, dark brown skin with a reddish tinge, long black hair partly arranged in a ponytail and amber eyes. He sports an orange finger-woven headband with black tribal designs on it, as well as a dangle hair ornament (composed of a beaded deerskin strip and a long feather) worn on the right side of the head

Body: the exposed parts of his body (i.e., arms and chest) show dark brown skin with a reddish tinge, while the legs are covered with tight orange deerskin trousers

Wearables: a sleeveless black leather jacket, a copper-studded black leather fingerless glove on the left forearm, a black leather strap wrapped around the wrist and part of the forearm plus an orange deerskin armband on the right arm, and a pair of black leather chaps. The jacket, whose hem falls to the waist, is completely open and exposes a necklace (from which a pendant similar to a stone arrowhead hangs down in front) and an orange shoulder belt made of deerskin, which incorporates several loops for a number of darts, a sheathed knife and a satchel (I'm very impressed by the smart way all these components have been combined in a single removable piece). Each sculpted dart seems to be made of hardwood and fletched with animal fur, while the knife is removable and looks like it’s made of bone. The chaps are buckled on over the trousers with their copper-studded black leather integrated belt; each legging is worn over a black boot (or rather a combination of a furry sock and a cross-strap leather sandal), giving the appearance of a thigh-high boot, and is fringed along the outside edge.

Action feature

In the comics, before engaging in combat Moh-Qi is shown to consume a small amount of the addictive, highly potent enchanted mushroom he carries in his satchel, which, in addition to his mystical connection with the jungle environment, grants him enhanced strength and agility, as well as acute senses and reflexes. Even though this detail will probably generate complaints from various drug prevention organisations, the figure comes with an alternate battle head that displays Zartan-like black face warpaint markings around a pair of solid white glow-in-the-dark eyes.

Weapons and accessories

In addition to the alternate head, Moh-Qi includes a blowgun consisting of a long copper tube, through which the above-mentioned darts are fictionally propelled by force of his breath.

Additionally, as a reference to Moh-Qi's comic book appearance, the figure comes with a mushroom's domed cap as an accessory. It resembles a weird mash-up of different mushrooms, with the shape of a wood hedgehog, the texture of a maitake, plus the colour of a black trumpet (which is a little darker than I’d like). It’s a cute item, even if it doesn’t really have a use, but it can be stowed in the satchel thanks to the bag's moving flap.

Finally, this figure and character has a long and controversial history. When Moh-Qi first appeared in the rough draft of the first KR|Dimness comic issue, he looked more like a concept version of Koptros. It turns out that there were two different pitches for a Native American-inspired character back in 2015: one became the basis for the actual Koptros figure, while the other one never went anywhere (until now). This figure is a tribute to them both, having its main look based on the discarded concept art as well as some add-ons that can make it reminiscent of Koptros' earlier version. So, Koptros' harness with hyper-technological backpack is present and re-coloured in black with orange details. A matching rod-shaped antenna for radio communications plus a corded gun-shaped 3D scanner are also included. The two black&orange accessories can plug into two sockets on the top and the side of the backpack, and (with some effort) can be stored inside the latter. In one more nod to Moh-Qi's complex origin, PoliganToys even slipped in the idea of making him Koptros' older brother, which explains the strong resemblance between the two.

Koptros' stylised harness repurposed for Moh-Qi.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦ I think PoliganToys is sewing up a lot of previously unexplored historical footnotes of Key Raiders. For me, Moh-Qi represents the most intriguing way of creating a new character - not only a discarded concept art has been given a new name, but it has also been given a neat backstory that helps the character integrate right into Tahron history as Koptros' older brother

Articulation: ♥♥♥♥ My figure doesn’t have any issues with loose joints and posing him in numerous ways is easy to do

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣ No, he is not just a repaint of Koptros with a new head and outfit. He has an abundance of new parts (including a pair of funky trousers) and his hair has gone from box-braided to straight with some embellishments here and there. Unfortunately, the alternate head has some black scuff-marks on the face and chin... I had hoped these would rub off, but then I realised this is the black plastic showing through (yes, this head is moulded in black)

Accessories: ♠♠♠♠ I have to say that I really like the Koptros gear repaints, they make for some interesting display options and the black makes them look really badass. I had a hard time deciding between having the figure wear the jacket/satchel and carry the blowgun or running around in high-tech armour with a cool "gun". At the end I've decided that Moh-Qi looks great with his original outfit and I can't wait to swap the black Koptros armour with the one that came with the original figure

Playability: ♪♪♪ Potentially, he'd be very much a nod to die-hard KR fans, representing just how dedicated PoliganToys is to the line. I don't think Moh-Qi is a must-have figure, except for completists, but he's fun and the colours do give him a great savage look

Overall: ☺☺☺ Overall, I’m happy with this figure despite his strange origins and his being based on a rejected artwork. Personally, I think the idea of Moh-Qi is really fun and I am glad to have this mysterious character on my shelf. He’s a welcome addition to my collection.

KR|Dimness Review #13: Dark Legion Plant Creatures

Toy prototype details

Name: Dark Legion Plant Creatures^TM

Subtitle: deadly vegetal monsters

Line: KR|Dimness

Item type: multi-pack (3-pack) - Nº 4 in the line.

Character details

Name: Dark Legion Plant Creature

Classification: plant

Sex: male, female or hermaphrodite

Home: Tahron

Era: 5 years before Foundation

Affiliation: Dark Legion

Rank: footman, steed or queen.

Background

First appearance: KR|Dimness #1 - Into dimness: Part I – Awakening

Brief bio: when the ancient Reptonoid^TM warrior Rabidriss^TM was killed during a fierce battle against King Khon-Uhr^TM and his Theriom^TM armies, the deadly pits produced by his parasitic plant sank in the swamps of Ucamur and remained confined for many centuries. The seeds were eventually discovered by Wordron, whose wicked intentions led him to use them in an attempt to revive the mystical golem Clavisaur. The seeds transformed into voracious crawling critters and their hunger for life force was viciously tested on the Forseha people. Once Clavisaur reawakened, he transformed the parasites into a demonic army of soldiers and steeds, and enhanced them with new powers that allowed them to fight using toxic vines and to manipulate plant life according to Wordron's cruel will. The reclusive warrior Moh-Qi^TM, who initially refused Solamya's offer of an alliance, helped the heroes stop the evil monsters from becoming an even bigger threat for the entire tribe. Together, they used a powerful antidote to end the Plant Creatures' ruthless war upon the brave tribesmen, but couldn't prevent them from becoming a menace to all people of Tahron through their proliferation and spread.

The set includes three figures: a Plant-Man, a Plant-Beast and a Mother-Plant, which I'm going to describe separately.

Plant-Man

Articulation

Standard, with the addition of a ball jointed extra neck piece, two fully articulated arms with hinged pincers, and one fully articulated leg.

Description

Head: roughened brown appearance, two stacked pairs of devilish deep set red eyes. The top and lower jaws (between which a subtle dark-green, seemingly muscular membrane stretches) end in serrated edges fringed by tooth-like white protrusions, which make the mouth resemble the snap trap leaf of a carnivorous plant and look like displaying an evil grin. A cabbage-like black washed magenta structure on the top of its head recalls an unopened flower bud or seed pod. The decidedly creepy design of its head is completed by an extension piece that represents its forward-bent, branch-like knotty wooden neck

Body: its knotty brown wooden body comprises a trunk-like torso, four branch-like arms with spiny shoulders and forearms (the bottom arms have clawed, snap trap leaf-like hands, while the topmost arms carry woody pincers) and three root-like radially arranged legs+feet with spiny knees and calves

Wearables: a torso covering made of veined dark-green leaves and trimmed with dark-brown woody vines; a Dark Legion symbol (i.e., a diamond-shaped gemstone, which, when looking deeply into it, shows a subtle discolouration resembling a demonic face) is placed at the centre. A number of spiny and ivy-leaved dark-green vines wrap around the forearms, lower legs and waist; these vines are also loosely connected to the upper arms, thighs and hips respectively, preserving the full range of motion. The design includes leaf-shaped details such as a tall collar, two shoulder pads and a loincloth, which are dark-green on the underside and dark-brown on the upper side.

Dark Legion Plant-Man's stylised covering; the circle at the centre of the chest piece represents the Dark Legion symbol.

Action feature

The Dark legion Plant-Man has slightly longer arms compared to the standard figure, which allow for a menacing enemy-crunching action pose.

Weapons and accessories

The figure comes with two vine-based accessories, both with slender ivy-leaved dark-green tendrils that twine round larger spiny dark-brown woody stems. One is a tangled cluster of such vines that attaches snugly to the Plant-Man's claw-fingered right hand and looks like the monster is growing it straight out of its body. The other piece is a single vine that ends with a small carnivorous plant-like mouth ready to attack the Forseha people. This piece is bendy and can wrap around any one of the Plant-Man's arms or around other figures to ensnare them; when the monster is not using it, there are two little bumps on its back that can act like a weapon clip. While these pieces may have been even better with a lighter brown paint application, to match the Plant-Man's body colour, I’m not going to complain because they work so well with the figure and are easy to attach and pose.

Plant-Beast

Articulation

The Dark Legion Plant-Beast's articulation includes a ball jointed upper neck, a hinged lower neck, a swivel-hinged tail and eight swivel-hinged legs (each featuring two additional swivel-hinged joints at about one-third and two-thirds of its length).

Description

The roughened brown top and lower jaws (between which a dark-green, seemingly muscular membrane stretches) of this horrifying creature's head end in serrated edges (fringed by tooth-like white protrusions with trickles of resin-like drool) and have two pairs of devilish deep set red eyes each. Its crustacean-like knotty brown wooden body has four branch-like, spiny front legs (the frontmost of which don't touch the ground and carry a pair of mantis-like woody pincers), four root-like, spiny hind legs and a root-like tail.

Action feature

The Plant-Beast has two powerful raptorial legs on the front, each terminating in a large woody claw-blade curved downward and a cleft appendage curved upward. Aside from catching and holding a foe securely, these arms can alternatively lift the prey using their terminal appendages as hooks.

Accessories

The figure comes with a removable bridle, consisting of an arrangement of spiny and ivy-leaved dark-green tendrils that twine round larger dark-brown woody stems (which develop into a pair of reins), as well as a saddle, which has a button closure on the bottom and is characterised by a dark-green leafy texture with dark-brown woody details (incorporating a pair of stirrups).

Mother-Plant

Articulation

The Dark Legion Mother-Plant's neck is a ball joint with a swivel-hinge at the base of the neck-peg, which gives it a full range of motion, wile her unique hip system accommodates five swivel-hinged legs in fantastic fashion; her shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees and ankles share the same swivel-hinge joint, allowing for excellent motion and play.

Description

The Mother-Plant is basically a larger-scale (roughly 38 cm tall, around 15''), less articulated version of the Plant-Man. Her roughened brown head is a hybrid of the Plant-Man's and Plant-Beast's heads, and carries a complex and bizarrely shaped bloomed flower on the top. The flower resembles that of Rafflesia arnoldii and has a few leafy green fronds surrounding its base, four fleshy maroon petals covered with whitish warts and poisonous spines, as well as a bowl-like central structure from which a number of lime filaments emerge. Additionally, a fifth, enlarged and highly modified petal on the front functions as a specialised lip and is divided into three lobes: the side lobes are erect and form a spur-like tubular projection that seemingly extends from the base of the bowl-shaped central structure, while the middle lobe has wavy lime ridges on the upper surface and a pair of slender whitish appendages that resemble fangs pointing upward.

Her knotty brown wooden body comprises a trunk-like torso, four branch-like arms with spiny shoulders and forearms (the bottom arms have large claw hands, while the topmost arms carry woody pincers) and five root-like radially arranged legs+feet with spiny knees and calves. Even if her leg articulation works pretty well and allows her to get into a standing pose, the Mother-Plant is meant to be displayed in a crouched/sitting pose with her knees bent.

There are leafy/woody/viny embellishments here and there, which recall the Plant-Man's design, such as a torso covering as well as a number of stalks that wrap around the limbs and the lower trunk.

Action feature

In the comics, the small animated vine creatures produced by the Plant-Men are eventually coated by a sticky, viscous resin exuded by the Mother-Plant's flower, transforming them into new, fully developed Plant-Men. At some point, Wordron has the intuition to use this process on his enemies, converting the Mother-Plant into a torture chamber of sorts. After the victim has been bound to the monster's trunk-like torso by her woody claws, and slimed over with the awful ooze of resin from the flower, the gruesome goop quickly solidifies and transforms the captive into a mindless zombie, who bursts from the translucent hardened material and shows total loyalty to Wordron. In the toy, the articulated arms can trap an action figure securely and, after filling the flower with a slime-like fluid (it's necessary to remove a cap hidden in the central bowl structure) and tilting the Mother-Plant's head forward, the slimy resin is dumped from the flower's lip onto the figure's head, slowly coating it completely.

Accessories

The figure comes with a 180 cc (approximately 6 fl. oz.) plastic container made to resemble a cauldron that contains a honey-orange oozy material. I'm not sure we can call this substance Slime, since that was a toy product manufactured by Mattel and introduced in the winter of 1976, but the main components of the material released by PoliganToys are the same polysaccharide guar gum and sodium tetraborate. Though not originally manufactured for the Key Raiders line, I'm happy that it found it's way into the series alongside the Mother-Plant prototype.

Additionally, the figure includes a base, onto which an unfortunate figure can be posed. This stand is fully sculpted and painted in beautiful grey stone detail.

Final thoughts

Character value: ♦♦♦♦ PoliganToys continues to find exciting ways to breathe life into the KR|Dimness series. It's been almost six months, and prototypes are still pouring into my mailbox. This multi-pack, comprised of an action figure, a creature and a large scale figure, is the best possible addition to the Dark Legion's ranks, although it is probably going to be so pricey that it'll be very unlikely to use it as an army builder

Articulation: ♥♥♥ Most of the usual KR articulation for anthropomorphic and animal-like creatures is here, even though it can be a bit restricted by different add-ons

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ The design of these creatures matches up with their comic book representations nicely, and incorporates an insanely large number of newly tooled pieces. There's a hit of red tints with the eyes and flower pieces, but the rest of these monsters is painted in various shades of brown and green. I can totally live with that, as they're plants after all

Accessories: ♠♠♠♠ All the accessories (including the slimy resin material) are great, but my favourite piece is the snake-like chunk of vine (complete with open mouth) for the Plant-Man; it's a weapon of sorts, since it could bite an opponent, but it's also the monster's offspring... how creepy is that!

Playability: ♪♪♪♪♪ These items truly pop on the shelf and are a ton of fun. The articulation and accessories allowed me to have a really good time posing and... sliming them :)

Overall: ☺☺☺☺ These guys are characterised by a few issues here and there, such as lack of army-building potential and some odd decisions in the articulation and paint application departments, but nothing major or compelling. I love their head sculpts, and their overall design does a great job of using many new parts to create a unique look. This set would definitely be a solid release for the KR|Dimness line.