Plastic Imagination Rise of the Beasts Bal Kharn - Green Rhino with Grey Paint Plastic Imagination, 2015
Day #1,109: February 3, 2015
Bal Kharn - Green Rhino with Grey Paint The Rock Steady Rhino
Rise of the Beasts Wave 2 Figure
Item No.: n/a Manufacturer:Plastic Imagination Includes:n/a Action Feature:n/a Retail: est. $7.00 each Availability:January 29, 2015 Other: Nifty, get this one
He's different! Or at least, mine is. I was lucky to get an early sample of Rise of the BeastsBal Kharn - Green Rhino with Grey Paint is pretty fantastic. If you bought the first version, this is basically an improvement in terms of color - the quality of that painted black plastic release is impossible to match, but this one is still quite good.
The Glyos-compatible figure is very similar to his predecessor, which should come as no surprise - by and large, the only thing that changes on most Glyos-compatible figures from one release to the next are the colors. The figure still has the same paint masks with a fine attention to detail, complete with white teeth, white horns, and red eyes. These tiny details are probably going to be overlooked by even the most picky toy fan, which is a shame - I have a lot of action figures and let me tell you, getting the eyes right is dang near impossible in some lines. And these are just plain perfect - on a run this small, that's impressive. Consistency is important as quality goes.
The figure itself is basically a clever palette change - the grey skin is now lighter and (surprisingly) glossier, with dark grey shoes and a drab green for the armor. The figure is, again, slathered in paint and all of it is crisp and within the lines. Paint texture really does change the look and feel of the figure, with the original one feeling much less shiny and toylike. In some respects, the green release feels truer to the roots of the 1980s small figures as it is bright and shiny and feels like they're trading on the rah-rah military overtones of the era. (See: G.I. Joe, Army Ants, The Corps, etc.) If this figure came with a tank, you'd probably think "oh, good idea, that makes sense."
Despite being practically the same as Gaamik, Bal Kharn manages to take fundamentally the same toy and tweak it enough to feel different. While we're not at crazy 1980s bright colors just yet, this figure feels like a step closer to that level of madness which I hope Plastic Imagination embraces as this line goes on. I like this guy - he's sized to hold 3mm weapons (LEGO, for example) and the green seems to be a good fit for the armor color. I hope the next release is a smidgen less glossy, but as long as its as crisp I'm game to buy a few more of these.
--Adam Pawlus
Additional Images
Additional Rise of the Beasts November 2014 Images
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