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As the investors in Oktomica were involved in toy manufacturing it was inevitable that a Virtex action figure would be developed. Basing on a standard 6-inch size, artist Kano was
asked to draw the “turns” of the character for the sculptor
to use. Kano’s amazing detail brought a classic pose to the
character as shown below:
From there the sculptor - Chris Lee - went to work taking the artwork and developing a dead-on 3D representation of Kano’s artwork. This is literally bringing Kano’s art to life:
The figure was to have a few extra’s not found in normal action figures because Oktomica could work closely with the factories in various industries. First up, Virtex’s eye was to light up and cast a laser beam out from the eyehole when the legs were pushed together and the arms would raise up with both guns going up at the same time. It was later worked to have the figure on a base so that when the arms went up the sound of gunfire would be heard emitting from the base. The Virtex action figure was actually solicited through Diamond’s Previews catalogue and was to ship with a special edition of Virtex #2. All the extra features that were added took to long to prototype perfectly and ended up the figure was never released. It was advertised in a 2-page spread in Virtex #3 and that will be the closest representation the public will see of this action figure. A new Virtex prototype was commissioned by ActionAce.com to co-incide with the launch of the first animated episode. A non-painted prototype 2-up was developed but never completed. No pictures of this prototype were available for this website publication but renowned comic artist and product designer Chuck Wojtkiewicz did the 3D turns for Virtex, Ripnun and Gunmorra action figures which were stunning and really set the line up for what was to come.
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