Think it may look a bit like this: The Soggy's head is pretty small and that raicho is just about the largest TAG that said it seems to work on the Jotum.
Saying that, the new Raicho's head shares a lot of similarity with the Rasyat head in new dossier, maybe that's just the direction the new designer want's to take the morats going forwards, to be honest once we gets rasyats (and if we're lucky the rest of the kurgats and zerats) morats are in a really good position miniature range wise (aside from the lack of unhelmeted female morat). Be interesting to see what the conversion-minded folks do with the model, for me I'll leave the model as is (read: sitting sadly in my FLGS webstore wishlist).
I still wish the pelt was draped across the backpack like it is in the dossier art. That's a lot of space that in my opinion, looks kind of boring on the Raicho. I agree that more trophies would actually lessen the jarring impact of the single pelt, too.
No matter how many times they redesign this thing, it's still going to look like lipstick on a pig. You just can't polish that stuff up (yes, I know you can bronze it, though, or roll it in glitter.)
I may mis-understand but it seems you are saying a Morat TAG fundamentally can't look good whatever they do. What makes you say that out of interest?
My gut is telling me that was probably a practical choice rather than an aesthetic one, like maybe the pelt being where it is would have made for a very difficult model to cast/assemble/etc, so it was easier to move the pelt to the arm. Having said that, pelts aren't that hard to sculpt, so it shouldn't be too hard a task for those so inclined to add more.
The problem with adding another pelt, for me at least, is no matter how good it is, will amplify how out of place the original looks. I'm sure it would be an overall improvement but not as awesome as I would hope. I'm set on trying to replace or remove it, but it doesn't seem like an easy task. Before I start to hack the original apart... I need to be confident I can make it work. Otherwise, I'll have to settle for adding another instead. Risk vs reward. This isn't a cheap mini.
Not a huge fan of the new sculpt and whilst I do like the old one it doesn't IMO sit terribly well against the new style Morats. Not a huge problem though as I thought the new Szamandra was the new Raicho when I first saw it; It's bulky, domineering and the tail suggests allegiance to/cohesion with the EI, without entirely sacrificing the Morat aesthetic (irony) - a perfect proxy IMO. I'm also liking the new Tunguska Hollow Men as proxies for Nexus/Kerr-Nau (again not a huge fan). And before I took a closer look at the Kriza Boracs I thought it was a new Morat HI - lots of goodies for the Combined Army coming out of Tunguska right now
I have a personal theory that Tunguska has some kind of tie to the Combined Army. Even Hexxer has some hints of CA trickery to her.
That would be quite the curveball or wrench in the works for the Human Sphere. That sounds like a grand idea. I'll have to copy your ingenuity on this.
As pointed out before, and unless I'm missing something, the only similar design element is that chest piece. And i haven't seen renders of the Rasyat, so I can't tell how similar it actually is... Good point on Ko Dali. I have a hard time imagining a similar case with an upcoming subfaction adopting design elements of the Raicho, but why not! I know they are. Last of the previous range or first of the new one doesn't really matter. What does is that it was the first model (one of the first?) with some of the new design elements that shaped the current Morat sectorial.
I don't see Tunguska as very CA myself. But i do agree the Hollow men are great and have a close feel to the Nexus/Unidrons. I think i'll use a converted Hollow as my HVT and convert the Pneumarch HVT into a Nexus.
I don't understand all the whiners wanting a rules change for the Raicho. A shield toting, extra armour carrying TAG being represented as a bland, overcosted vanilla unit fits perfectly into the established Morat design philosophy. That said, the model looks nice, but it's a bit too EI for my tastes. Same as the new Charontid, Avatar etc. Old models were a bit janky but had more character.
I think the main beef is that the fluff doesn't match the crunch. The Raizots are described as trigger-happy nutters that have to carry loads of extra ammunition because it's easier to do that than try and train them not to use all their ammo in the first 5 minutes of a battle, rules-wise the tag is just a less interesting sogarat with better armour.