KRULE

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“A member of the long-lived strain of mutantkind called the Externals, Krule has had literally a millennium to perfect the arts of savagery and torture he enjoys so much. Because of his fiery personality, he finds himself unable to work his evil schemes slowly over centuries in the manner of his fellow Externals. Krule is more likely to act in a moment of passion, counting on his ferocious mutant strength to see him through to victory! Krule’s campaigns have led him into battle against the members of X-Force, particularly Cannonball who, as one of the External High-Lords, he considers to be a blood enemy!”

Hey, remember when I was talking about Cannonball theoretically being one of the “Externals” last week?  And also talking about the whole concept of “Externals” as a whole back in February with the so goofy I have to love him Gideon?  Well, let’s talk about it more, I guess. Here’s Krule, who it’s very important to note has absolutely no similarities to Clancy Brown’s character The Kurgan from Highlander, because that would require you to believe that there were any similarities between the Externals and the immortals in Highlander, and that would be crazy because X-Force definitely wouldn’t just rip-off Highlander like that, right?  And they wouldn’t also change the name of the character from “Krule” to “Crule” to further distance things, right?  Right.  Anyway, let’s look at this figure of a guy who in no way looks like he could be voiced by Clancy Brown.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Krule was released in Series 2 of Toy Biz’s X-Force line.  He follows Gideon’s lead, in sort of a “one External per set” kind of what that would be totally dropped after this series, because the Externals were also rather quickly dropped themselves.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  He’s got no movement on the elbows and knees, and also, for some reason, his waist swivel is only one direction?  And his left arm has sort of a click to it like it’s supposed to do something, but it doesn’t so it’s just…odd.  Also, I’ve not mentioned it before now, but this entire assortment has no peg-holes in their feet, which becomes more of an issue with Krule, whose lack of knee joints makes him a bit less stable.  His sculpt was unique to him and it’s…I mean, it’s accurate, I guess. He’s bulky and bald and wearing very little.  He’s got a separate braid piece that I guess he can kind of use as a weapon?  It wound up re-used for the Fantastic Four Thanos.  It at least makes a little more sense here.  Krule’s color work is fine.  Basic, and super wonky in its shades, for sure.  Who doesn’t love the mix of magenta and orange?  They go so naturally together, right?  My copy has some pretty notable slop around the edges of the orange, especially on the arms and legs.  Krule is packed with a pair of alien skulls (which are most certainly not a Xenomorph and a Predator, because why would they do that?) which…like, he can’t hold them, and the back just tells you to put them on the braid, which you can remove and turn into a “Radical Warrior Bracelet.”  You know, as you do.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Unlike Gideon, who I remember from my childhood, I don’t recall anything about Krule (and in fact frequently confuse him with Killspree).  I got him with a few other sealed X-Force figures (which I believe included the Gideon in my collection currently), and then he just kind of sat for a while before I noticed him.  He’s…fine.  Kind of boring, for the most part, with some strange and not really worked out gimmicks.  Honestly, there’s a part of me that wishes we’d gotten the rest of the Externals in equally phoned in figures to Gideon and Krule, just for the absurdity of it all, but, alas, it was not to be.