#liolaeus

Finished this little pet project between work.

Rathalaugust 2023 Day 1: Rathalos and Rathian

RATHALOS

Rathalos are large, bipedal wyverns with a spiny, armored hide covering their body. Their outer shell features much brighter and more vibrant colors than that of their female counterpart, the Rathian. It is primarily bright red, with black markings throughout. Like the Rathian, Rathalos possess a flame sac which is used to produce deadly flaming projectiles from the mouth. The talons upon their feet are highly poisonous and are known to inflict toxic mortal wounds on larger prey. In addition, their long, thick tail features a heavy spiked club at the end. Rathalos' wing membranes feature ornate patterns which are likely used to attract potential mates.

Rathalos have been spotted in many kinds of environments, from the temperate Forest and Hills to the extreme heat of the Volcano. As a master of flight, they will travel far and wide, searching for prey from the skies. Rathalos is also the apex predator of the Ancient Forest alongside Nargacuga.

RATHIAN

Rathian is a medium-sized true flying wyvern similar in looks to her male counterpart, Rathalos. Her hide is a dull, muted green in contrast to the Rathalos's deep red, and her lower mandible features a long, protruding chin spike. Her upper back and wingtips are covered in a moss-like fur not seen on the Rathalos, and while her clubbed tail lacks bony spikes, it makes up for this with the presence of sharp and highly poisonous needles, which she can use to poison foes upon contact.

Rathian, like her mate, can generate flaming projectiles from her mouth. She is notably more proficient in the use of this weapon however, as she is commonly seen releasing multiple blasts at once. In addition, she is capable of charging up and releasing a more potent fire blast which can ignite a swath of ground in front of her. She can use the poisonous barbs on her tail club to inflict blunt-force, toxic wounds on foes, even if her tail was cut off. Her powerful legs allow her to run at high speeds, making her easily capable of chasing down most prey. Like the Rathalos, her vision is very keen, so Flash Bombs are useful in combat.

Monster Hunter Chogokin G-Rank Henkei Liolæus

Or the G-Rathalos, whichever you prefer. It’s what I’m going to be calling it. This toy was released back in early 2015, and I remember wanting it back then. I’ve been trying to pick up a lot of the non-old Sentai stuff on my backlog that I’ve wanted to handle, and since I’ve been getting into Monster Hunter World recently (put somewhat on hold by KHIII), I was reminded of this guy. Oddly though, I knew this was released by Chogokin, but I thought this was a joint Monster Hunter and Gundam venture since I learned about it in either an old Hobby Japan or Dengeki Hobby in the Gunpla section. Didn’t learn that that wasn’t correct until I actually got it in hand.

The Good: That Gundam-esque Rathalos Armor is very posable. It has a bit of Gorilla-arm syndrome because of the transformation, but has enough rotation joints in the arm to make up for it. Those shoulder pads and hip skirts, despite their size, have a lot of range to them, and don’t interfere with posability at all. The Armor Mode is definitely the highlight of this release for me.

The Rathalos Mode is a little finicky, but the transformation itself is very crazy and involved. There’s a lot of extending joints, armature swivels, etc. It has some posability, though not as much as I’d like, including a few joints in the sword so it can emote as a tail. There’s some cool engineering in there.

The Bad: That transformation, while cool, is sort of loose. Not loose in a tolerances kind of way, but in a “no locking points” kind of way. It’s almost all ball joint connections, and while they’re strong since there are a lot of metal components involved, everything can be knocked loose if you’re not careful.

Also, while that tightness helps it hold a lot of really good poses, especially with the size and length of its weaponry, because it’s plastic cups rubbing on metal balls, it fights back against you when moving it.

And on the note of its weapons, it has a weird adapter piece that’s required for the Rathalos head to hold the shield or to store the weapons on its back. I feel like it would have been easy to have a piece fold out of the shield center.

Anyone up for a crossover?!