ThreeA - Popbot : Tomorrow Kings Seven Bones Shogun Shiho.

There were only ten that ever walked with us, that each could held an army at bay single handed. They say we will never see their kind again and each of the ten shelter a silent wisdom cast from a memory of the end. These are the Shogun TKs.

- write up from the box.

It is worth it they thought, to fight a universe for a cat and a guitar.

Dumper was a transitional planet, between the ground level universe and the underverse. The Tomorrow Kings have used it as traditional base of operations for nearly 800 years, well until today. One Interloper was all it took, hidden in a troop movement via Dumper. It was always known that this would occur, and plans were made.

The last two Shogun, Gorei and Tsuki, had always had the mission, they were born with the task of holding a legion of Mortis for 37.3 seconds and all would be corrected.

The Mortis only had to stop a boy and a cat from going home, but they had to do it via Dumper.

For 29.8 seconds the two Shoguns held a line that saw not a single Mortis trooper pass, then an errant and un-expected thought of a long dead TK made Gorei falter, in an instant he knew he had lost his position, but he marvelled at a feeling he had never been allowed, the feeling of loss was thrilling, a feeling for a universe,  he thought, was worth it. 29.9 Tsuki pivoted to take the onslaught alone, 7.4 seconds and he could rest.

Lady Sham held the young boy's hand tightly, and guided him across the silent road towards his house. Her grip tightened, not wanting her life to walk away, she knew they would meet again, someday, but that didn't make any difference now.

A white cat with black cow like markings darted in front of them, and barked. "Move it ya slapper, they'll all be here soon!"

- short write up from the "Dumper" Gorei and Tsuki twin pack.

 

The inferno spews out hell's horde
Casting the flames upon our world
As death eclipses all the light
We make our last stand, 'til death: fight
- Shogun, Trivium.

A (mis) interpretation:

Category: Limited production replicants.

Model type: The Tomorrow Kings - GEN 1.0.

Unit type: The Seven Bones / 七骨

I.D: Shiho.
Rank: Shogun.
Function: Leadership / close assault.

Manufacturer: The Luthor Bean Jr. Corporation.

Incept Date: 15th Jan. 1986.
Serial no.: TKG01MAB000000007B.

Longevity: Unknown.

Physical Level: A+.

Mental Level: B.
Std. armaments: Monohoshi Zao - nodachi power blade x 1; Ō-yoroi - artificer power armour : menpō - faceplate x 1; kabuto - helm x 1;  mabisashi - forehead plate x 1;  sode - spaulder x 1; wakibiki - upper chest armour x 1; han kote - vambrace x 1.

Abilities: Panzer Kunst - anti- armour martial art; Tsubame Gaeshi - sword technique; superhuman physiology; precognition.

1987. The Great Scouring of Mortis. Ten legions of titans and battlebots were raised by Queen Mortis to put an end to the replicants super warrior of Luthor Bean Jr. once and for all. Leviathan 1 trembled before the movements of the massive war machines pouring out from the Underverse Warp rift. The skies blackened with smokes from the Soot Divers. The population, hidden within the bunkers, their eyes locked and focused on the vid-vox of the upcoming onslaught upon the nigh unstoppable Tomorrow Kings and Queens, themselves numbered in millions. Luthor Bean Jr. threw in everything his corporation had against the machines relentless march. Waves after waves of his replicants threw themselves and fought off the Mortis legions. The Underverse battle had begun once more. But this time, Queen Mortis was steadily gaining an upper hand in her campaign to seize Leviathan 1. 'Flesh is f***ed. Metal rule!', the vox caster screamed across the charred, scorched and burning battlegrounds within the belly of the derelict, massive interstellar spaceship. But Luthor Bean Jr. had a triumph card up his sleeve. The Shogun series Tomorrow Kings. Specially customised male replicants with selected genomes from the finest gene seeds formulated by the DNA Organ. They are to a standard Tomorrow Kings what the latter is to a normal human. Ten times stronger and faster with pre-programmed ancient sword technique, known as the "Turning Swallow Cut", in addition of the Panzer Kunst anti-armour martial art. Only ten were produced. Each is armed with a master crafted electro-plated, great power sword and half artificer power armours, helms and face plates inspired from an ancient, feudal Eastasia war-culture. They do not wear the standard Ion Cyclotron power gloves. They don't need it. Shogun TKs were effective enough to stop the onslaught of the machines before they breached the outer limit of the rift from total incursion into the realspace. The remaining eight Mortis legions were annihilated by the ten Shogun TKs alone. Regardless, only three remained standing - Gorei, Tsuki and Shiho. Not since the times of General Showa and the Oyabun of the Old Guards were the population so enthralled by the virtuoso display of combat skills. The Shogun TKs became overnight legends and heroes of the Underverse War.

1991. 'They have breached Grid 7175. I repeat. The Hekatonkheires have claimed 7275', said Lady Sham into the vox caster, 'the squids would reach 7175 in t-minus 40 seconds'. Lady Sham, demi-goddess taken the form of a mortal to stop her insane techno-mancer sister, Queen Mortis, stands atop Grid 7174, the final defence line of the Underverse Warp rift, should they be able to claim it. 'Hold on to your position, Your Highness. Reinforcements on their way. Brace for deep strike teleportation. Teleport beacon in place. Co-ordination, 108958', Luthor Bean Jr. replied from the smoking ruins of Hatchery 51. After rejuvenating himself with the blood of a half alive hatchery engineer, the dhampir biorobotics, genetic engineering genius and reclusive CEO of the Luthor Bean Jr Corp. proceed to activate the three remaining, hibernating Shogun TKs, together with several hundreds of thousands of other remaining TK  and TQ series, and teleported them directly into the path of the Hundred-Handed Ones. Each Shogun TK is programmed with skills to hold and annihilate a Mortis legion within 37.3 seconds timeframe, no more, no less. For 29.8 seconds the three Shoguns held a line that saw not a single Mortis squid pass, but an Interloper mutation manifested suddenly amongst one-third of the TKs and TQs. Gorei was distracted and he faltered, split apart instantaneously in a hail of shredded flesh, bloods and bones by the squids. At 29.9 seconds, Tsuki and Shiho pivoted to take the onslaught themselves, while the remaining un-corrupted TKs and TQs fought the Interlopers to the last replicant standing. Another 7.4 seconds and the remaining two Shogun TKs could rest. But the peace Tsuki long for did not reach him. He was fending off one hundred Squids when his mind suddenly turned errant, with thought of a dead TK. A precognition of death. All it took was a deadly swing from a remaining Interloper to severe Tsuki's head from his shoulder. The Interloper berserker was in turn cleaved into half by Shiho. Shiho alone held the final bastion against the tide of the killer machines. Lady Sham arrived later and described a scene of extreme carnage but no sight of Shiho. Luthor Bean Jr. later deducted that the process of creating the Shogun TKs had resulted in an irreversible damage to the DNA Organ's gene seeding process and selection, resulting in a random, unpredictable Interloper mutation within the genome and gene codex of the TKs and TQs. Luthor could not find any solution to this anomaly up to now. The Ten Years of Darkness is said to begin at this point.

1995. The Fourth Punk King sat upon a throne fashioned out from a pile of severed Mortis titans' heads within the grasp of a massive titan hand, worthy trophies of his personal battles and victories against the anti-flesh giants, symbol of his office and rights of the champion of champions. 'Have you located him?', asked the brooding Punk King at a Dot Info TK. 'Yes. The Great Waste', replied the TK. 'The Waste...prep up the matrix. I'm going in to retrieve him', thundered the anarchic rogue ultimate warrior of Leviathan 1. Trapped in the intermix of psychic energy of the Warp and physical space-time of the real-space, Shiho is alive and fully functional. Within the Warp rift, space and time do not exist and reality changes in accordance to the chaotic flows of the Warp. For Shiho, he felt like 800 years had passed. When the Punk King found him, Shiho's skin colour had turned pale due to the influence of the Warp but not corrupted for, as a replicant, there is no soul for the daemons to corrupt nor consume. His precognitive ability are awakened and amplified. Shiho had came to this place when a techno-mage champion of the Mortis summoned a breach in its death throes during the battle and pulled Shiho into deepest zone of the rift, known as the Great Waste. Shiho would be trapped eternally in limbo within the Underverse but the Punk King is strong enough to locate him after obliterating a thousand corrupted machines standing in his way. Shiho was retrieved and brought back to be initiated as the fourth member of the Seven Bones. Shiho is recognised as one of the few surviving deadliest replicant ever come into existence.

 

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Shogun is quite a departure from previous TKs released by ThreeA. It lived up to its designation. Very samurai like, with botak style head and a tuff of hair, yet still retaining the sytlised "essence" of a TK with tinge of modern vibe. Just wish that 3A would revert back to the older, broad shoulder body as slim body is kinda, well, not macho enough. Personal opinion of course. Absolute love its shoulder/arm's armour, and that massive sword/blade. Three versions are made and released. My first choice would be Gorei, the "orange one", which has the best colour way as well as extra decals on the helm. Tsuki is alright but it didn't catch my eye, and so is the random drop (?) DIY, Light and Shadow sets. I have had to settle for Shiho as default due to it being designated as a member of the Seven Bones. The skin tone is kinda pale compared to Gorei and Tsuki. I wonder if there were some sort of story behind this. I noted that Seven Bones Oya Kyoku has the same skin tone. There's a goatee on the head sculpt as well as the mandatory Seven Bones tattoo on the right arm and left leg. Noted that the kanji characters are different from one Bones to another. Curiously, Wasabi and Kyoku tattoos are black while Queeny and Shiho are now blue in colour. I searched the Wiki for infos on samurai armours, as well as curiously inspired by the swordsman, Sasaki Kojiro. I am eager for ThreeA to complete the release, and follow by the Punk King but, I think, fat chance. Seems like ThreeA is "character hopping", for the lack better sentencing, jumping around various licensing and (pre-mature) announcement. Like, what da heck happen to Hammerstein? Or Mrs Shadow? But putting all that aside, the Shiho figure I got is pretty sturdy after the heart-attack inducing "problematic" NTQ Munich TQ that I have. Nevertheless, the moment I opened up the turpentine tinged figure from the box (yes, that means fresh and mint condish from 3A), one of the mouth guard's err..thing...which is to be slotted onto two grooves on the helm to hold it on place, well, broke...and gone missing (it is really tiny). Then the slot in of one of the wire's connecting the massive sword to the battery pack broke as I tinkered with the position. Sigh. I have to resort to good ole glue again, to resolve it. That aside, Shogun stands out as one of, if not the, most outstanding TK release from 3A thus far.