It isn’t unique that Animal Warriors of the Kingdom has a comic book helping to build the world of the action figures, it’s basically the template behind many, many of the toy lines from the 1970’s and 1980’s. Before toys could have a cartoon to support them, comics were the way to go. Shogun Warriors, Rom: Spaceknight, Micronauts, Crystar all hoped to use comics as the gateway to toy sales. Even toys that did have cartoons would live just as large, if not larger, in comics like G.I. Joe and Transformers. Smaller brands and also-rans like Madballs, Power Lords, and Animax also would use comics to help flesh out the world the toys were trying to sell to the kids. Some toys like Masters of the Universe and DC Super Powers would even pack a mini-comic in with the toy.
There is an innate connection between the world of comics and action figures, and AWOK’s creator Jason Bienvenu has certainly picked up on that. He has noted the influence of 80’s toys on the line in the past, and in the current mini-series he’s been writing — with Utama Prastha on art — he’s taking all kinds of influence from the good vs. bad binary of Masters of the Universe, Thundercats, Sectaurs etc. [Note: I mentioned in Part 1 that Bienvenu had created The Kingdom as a comic starting in 2011, which evolved into 4” action figures a few years later. I have not read The Kingdom as yet, so can’t say if it’s at all tied with the continuity current mini-series].
The simplest form of structuring a toy line in the 80’s was to have two easily recognized factions of the “good guys” and the “bad guys”. From just looking at the AWOK figures, without any prior knowledge of the lore, it wasn’t immediately evident who the good guys were and who the bad guys were, except Kah Lee, who was clearly the chief antagonist. But were all the apes the bad guys, and the cat-people the good guys?
The comics (first issue is currently available for free from the Spero Toys website) explain that the animal warriors were originally humans who fled from a dying earth, finding a new home, but an artificial intelligence forced changed upon the humans, turning them into bipedal animals hoping to connect them more with nature, and not repeat the mistakes of the past in this new world. But for one, warlord Emperor Kah Lee, the change hasn’t been permanent and he’s spent generations building clone ape bodies, transferring his essence into them, only to have the same effect over and over of revert to human form.
In the Chunari clan, there’s a pale ape, Pale, son of their leader Mala and General Thane, who is actually a stolen clone of Kah Lee, only one whose genes have been perfected, and now Kah Lee will stop at nothing to get his hands on him.
It’s a slight bit convoluted, yet still serves a pretty fun setup for story ideas. The scene where Kah Lee is reverting to human form is an effective bit of body horror. As the series goes on, we’re introduced to other clans, like the Feralists and the Lepus clan.
The mini-series is built to be five issues, four of which are available now, and they are a stuffed-to-the-brim bit of reading. The narrative pacing is pretty full-on, in a way that hearkens back to 80’s comics, where the panels and word balloons were much denser on the page.
Prastha’s art (he does both lines and colours here) is quite gorgeous. He’s a very, very detailed artist and so his characters look like the action figure designs moving around on the page. His colours are vibrant, and it’s all very attractive looking. At times the visual flow of the narrative is disjointed, with scene transitions happening at odd points on the page, or the spatial relationship of the characters seeming to defy logic. Not sure if this is a result of artistic liberty or of adhering to a script. They’re the kind of thing an artist tends to iron out as they become more experienced in storytelling in the medium.
In terms of the world of AWOK, I bristle a bit not at the idea that humans were transformed into animals but that they would then immediately faction off based on their appearance, such that communities are all-ape, or all-cat, or all-rabbit, rather than multi-cultural. But if we’re selling a primary world, that does seem to be how it should be structured. I’m also reminded of an anecdote from the original Planet of the Apes production (a series that also clearly is an influence on AWOK), where the actors in chimp costumes, orangutan costumes and gorilla costumes all wound up self-segregating at meal times in their respective groups, without any cross pollination. I worry that there might be some interpretation of specific animal collectives as representative of specific ethnicities (that the rabbit clan has somewhat of a samurai vibe won’t dissuade some from looking for such comparisons). If there wasn’t a human connection to this history of all this, than the different animal clans would actually be easier to rationalize.
The comics reveal a sheer plethora of other animal beings yet to come. We have apes and cat-people already, with hyenas and rabbit-people to come. The comics show lizard men and minotaur-esque bulls, elephants, rhinos and rat men. I know that Mythic Legions has done some horse men, quite a few bird men, goat and deer people among others, and Savage Crucible has waves of lizardmen and fishmen coming so I wonder if AWOK is going to try and steer away from what other human-animal hybrids are out there.
In Part 1, I looked at some of the “Ancients” line on AWOK Primal Series figures, the lower cost, less decorated, less accessorized “troop builder” figures. I was quite happy with those. Here, now, are some of the named characters:
Kah Lee In Conquest Armor - Animal Warriors of the Kingdom: Primal Series wave 1 - 2023, Spero Toy Enterprise
This is Kah Lee.
And this is his trash.
When I was originally deciding on which AWOK characters I wanted to buy, I had basically two criteria: do they look cool, and/or are they an ape.
I wasn’t certain about all the battle armour in general on the figures of this line, and Kah Lee being the most armoured and also blue for some reason, wasn’t necessarily the most appealing thing to me, but, it wasn’t a detractor either. I was already gambling with whether or not I would like these figures at all anyway, so why not gamble with the most intricately designed one. I mean, just look at that pauldron!
Having read the comic, I now really dig Kah Lee. Of the various Animal Warrior tribes, he’s the only one who is adopting technology, something the remaining tribes have chosen to leave behind. So the fact that in the span of maybe two generations he has become overlord of the planet is not a surprise. I especially like the bit about him cloning himself into newer, improved bodies. His blue apeness hearkens back to Keldor from MOTU, and there’s certainly a bit of Palpatine in his back story…I like the additional wrinkle that his clones revert back to his legacy human after a while.
The fact that Kah Lee was one of the first settlers, but was also transformed from human into an ape is interesting, because he actively hates being in human form. I’m not clear from the comics what advantage his ape form gives him, or if it’s just he feels somehow inferior by the fact that his transformation doesn’t stick.
The paint app on this figure is phenomenal. The golds have a nice shine to them, the darker blues of the armour compliment both the gold and the skin tone well. Under the armour, if you remove his gauntlets or look at his legs, there’s like an armoured bodysuit that has a blue sheen to it that stands out from the other two shades displayed on the figure.
He’s got great ape feet. The shin armour, his skirt, pauldrons and hair all have enough flexibility to not hinder posability too much. In general just a great looking bad guy.
Lexion — Animal Warriors of the Kingdom: Primal Series wave 2 — 2023, Spero Toy Enterprise
This is Lexion.
And this is his trash.
What a great face. Inspired by the lynx, I believe. At once curious and completely over it, I think, besides Thane (who was my objective when backing the Kickstarter), Lexion was my first selection, the first figure I was certain I needed.
A lot of the AWOK accessories are removeable, but some items, like Lexion’s one pauldron is a permanent fixture. His shin guards, like other creatures with similar accessories *could* be removeable if you can pop the feet off. They don’t want to pop off easily and I haven’t tried boiling water or a hair dryer yet. I’m not sure I ever will….
The packaging says Lexion betrayed his people, but he’s not part of the Feralist crew that betrays King Hannibal, so as far as I can tell he doesn’t have an appearance in the comics I’ve read. That’s a little disappointing, because as of right now, this guy’s like the Boba Fett of AWOK for me.
Khor Doon - Animal Warriors of the Kingdom: Primal Series - 2023, Spero Toy Enterprise
This is Khor Doon.
And this is his trash.
During the Kickstarter, Khor Doon was one I deliberated over a quite a bit. My whole intention of getting AWOK figures was to pad out my apes. But I didn’t really like the look of Pale or Blight (Blight is the Faker to Pale’s He-Man), and I was really digging Khor Doon’s look. But would I really choose another cat-person over an ape-man?
Yes. Yes I would.
If Khor Doon is a little disappointing to me it’s because the blues on his armour don’t quite have the same vibrancy as his solicitation photos. It’s still a pretty great looking figure, but just shy of what I was expecting.
Of interest is the figures all come on basically the same or similar buck (Kah Lee excepted of course), with hands, feet and heads swapped out, and maybe a few other mix-and-match parts. It looks like in the design, the chest and possible the traps are separate pieces. I thought that I had seen an “exploded” version of the buck during the Kickstarter but can’t find it now, so I may be thinking of something else. I’m sure the chest “plate” is part of laying the butterfly joints into the structure, it’s just not something I think I’ve seen before, and I don’t think I’ve seen any figures that have a swapped out chest.
Also just to note that the bandoliers or cross-body items can scuff the paint if you’re not careful when moving/removing them.
As far as I can tell, Khor Doon also doesn’t appear in the comics. Various Feralist soldiers who betray King Hannibal have similar armour to Khor Doon but if he’s like the general or whatever then maybe this is the look of the soldiers.
Pale faces off against one of these soldiers in Kah Lee’s arena, but it’s clear from the colouring and spots that it’s not Khor Doon in that gladiator arena.
Chunari Legionary - Animal Warriors of the Kingdom: Primal Series - 2023, Spero Toy Enterprise
This is a Chunari Legionary
And this is his trash.
I think, when it comes right down to it, I just want about a dozen variations of this guy. A warrior ape. This feels like some alt-Planet of the Apes type design.
Variations that can be easily achieved with weapons packs and head swaps, as was designed. Alas, I didn’t get the Chuari Armory Weapons Pack, and my (all ape) Vile Villains head set didn’t arrive (as far as I can tell). I see Wave 3 has gold version of this, the Chunari Centurions, which is sorely tempting.
The shield has two peg holes, and two different types of pegs. The two peg holes in the shield are for right hand or left hand gripping. One peg is a gripping peg for holding the shield, the other peg is for mounting the shield on the figure’s back. This is why all the AWOK bucks have peg holes in their backs.
This is the only figure I got that comes with a shield, and now I want more shields. They’re fantastic. Excellently detailed, beautifully painted and the perfect accessory. I’m sad the glow-in-the-dark Radiation Weapons set didn’t have a g-i-t-d shield.
The Toy Kollector Problem
My TK Problem is evident. Now that I’m at least somewhat invested in the world of the comics I want more of the figures that are actually in the comics. About half of the main comics characters haven’t been produced yet (Kanji, Mala and Jadoo have all been teased, and a plus-sized King Hannibal would be wonderful). I want more accessories and maybe even a bit of an army build.
I didn’t want this to happen, but also hoped it would be something I could really get into.
In Part 3 of this TKP look at AWOK: General Thane, comparison time (to other lines), and rankings.