As stated in the subject line I am missing the tools setting between filter and settings is there an alternative means to access it's features such as 'record'.

Sounds like you tested both the 4.0 pre-alpha and the regular 3.x releases. If so, you should clean out your local krita.xmlgui file. Open Krita, open the settings menu, open resource manager and press the button that says something like "open resource folder". That should have a krita.xmlgui file or something like that. Close Krita, and remove that file.

Thank you but, it didn't work.

Oh, that's weird. Which Krita do you have anyway, and are you on windows or linux?

windows