ThreeA - Popbot: Tomorrow King Underverse Dark Ninja TK.

Blade swing with the force of a cyclone
Cut crystal and bone, pistol and chrome
Stand in my path, you're a dead man
- RZA, Afro Samurai Theme.

A (mis) interpretation:

Category: Mass production replicants.

Model type: The Tomorrow Kings - GEN 3.0

Unit type: Ninja TK.

ID: Nokizaru.

Rank: Shatei.

Manufacturer: The Luthor Bean Jr. Corporation.

Incept date: 27th July 1994.

Serial no.: TKG03MAC27071994.

Longevity: 4 years.

Function: Infiltration/espionage/assassination/close assault.

Physical level: A.

Mental level: C.

Abilities: Panzer Kunst - anti-armour martial art; ninjutsu skills; superhuman physiology.

Std. armaments: "Cameoline" shinobi shozoko - stealth uniform; monomolecular-edged nodachi x 1; krak grenade x 3.

 

1994. Leviathan 1, a massive interstellar space ship the size of a planetoid was originally envisioned to carry mankind to search for a new, habitable planet to live. Its construction alone nearly bankrupted the Seven Nations of Terra and is left unfinished. The grand plan is abandoned as funds are channelled into war efforts. Leviathan 1 is left perpetually dock at Site 7, L3. It becomes a haven for outlaws, mercenaries and those on the run from Terra and Mars. Its population eventually ballooned to nearly three billion, as the disenfranchised and poor migrated there. When a pleasure model gynoid called Morgan Le Fay which neural programme has been corrupted by a former Nine Sisters, Morgause, causes one of the hyper drive engines to damage, it opens up a warp rift, where real space and the otherworldly dimension known as The Immaterium become intermingle. Known as The Byssos, millions of inhabitants are slaughtered by the malicious warp entities that pour out from The Immaterium before it is sealed off. The gynoid sentiency merged with Morgause, turning into a nightmarish incarnation of mechanical horror, calling herself Queen Mortis. She raises an army of machines, known as the Mortis Legion and built massive manufactorums and forges to produce war engines and robots the likes of the Titans, towering massive battle bots with the singular intention to wipe out humankind within the Leviathan 1 due to her intense hatred against any form of biological organism. Standing in her way is Luthor Bean Jr., whose late father is responsible for creating the pleasure provision gynoid, of which template Luthor Jr. uses to advance the technology further through biorobotic engineering. The result are replicants called the Tomorrow Kings and Tomorrow Queens. The resultant war between the machines and replicants become known as the Underverse War. The Underverse is the massive area of several levels of which the real space and Byssos, the eye of the Warp rift, lies and stretches for several thousands of miles whereby reality and warp energies intermingled.  

The Ninja TK series is a Tomorrow King model cloak in mystery. Their history and deployment are not made public nor ever explained. They are primarily deployed as saboteurs, infiltrators and carry out espionage and covert activities within The Underverse. Ninja TKs (and TQs) are neural programmed with the ancient Eastasian skills and knowledge of ninjutsu which is the martial art, strategy, and tactics of unconventional warfare and guerrilla warfare as well as the art of espionage. They are issued with light bending or absorbing material, "Cameoline", giving them invisibility to the sensors of Mortis Titans. The metal monsters in turn relies on movement of air particles to detect them. A Ninja TK is standard issued with a nodachi katana blade and krak grenades, although they do carries other forms of weaponries depending on their assignments. They are one of the most feared TKs amongst the population of Leviathan 1. Rumours of Luthor Bean Jr. accepting blood contracts from various crime families to carry out assassinations are said to have been mostly assigned to a Ninja TK and TQ.

 

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The Ninja TK first debut and is sold exclusively at WonderFest, Japan via Goodsmile. It is called Ichihito Underverse Ninja TK and is beige / whitish in colour. For the Bambaland guys and gals, we were offered the Dark version. Well, not quite and that's my gripe with this figure. Instead of darker colourway, it turns out to be more on the green-ish tint side. The "hood" is unfortunately not colour co-ordinated with the "uniform". It is also very difficult to adjust nicely even if it is lined with wire. Otherwise, this is one of the very few figures from ThreeA which is not floppy nor having any QC concerns. The joints are truly taunt and tight and poses very easily. Since I feel something is not quite "complete" about the figure, I adds the arm protectors from DAM Toys' Gangster Kingdom Diamond 2. And that's about it. Oh wait, the head sculpt. Darn, seems like the TKs are evolving into Elves or Vulcan with those "pointy ears". I may not have noticed it on the UKTK or UKTQ earlier but it is now much more pronounced and obvious on this one.