Lol

 

Man, I miss More Than Meets the Eye. You know, I even miss Lost Light. Even at their worst, I was excited enough by those James Roberts comics to go download them off Comixology or whatever as soon as they were up and available. I couldn’t summon up the enthusiasm go read a Brian Ruckley comic for free.

For all his frustrating flaws, James Roberts flung himself completely into those comics. I could feel his passion and commitment when I was read any scene with Magnus, Rodimus, Ratchet, or Megatron. And, of course, the new characters he created. And like some microcosm of his time writing in the franchise, some of these new characters served the story in truly successful ways, and others felt like self-indulgent wastes of times. I’m happy to say I consider Tarn to be in the former category.

The Decepticon Justice Division seemed like a novel and exciting concept when they were first introduced. They were almost like a Decepticon version of Judge Dredd’s Special Judicial Squad (it feels like too much of a reach to me to consider that DJD is a deliberate play on the SJS, just before anyone thinks we’re going there), a bunch of sadists used to keep the rank and file in check, run by a boastful, overcompensating bureaucrat, who hero worshipped Megatron.

But man, people seemed to turn on them quickly. They were over powered. They were overburdened with gimmicks. They had no character, apart from the leader, and were just ‘cool’ designs and plot devices. If not quite missing the point, I did feel this was holding them to a standard they were never meant to be held to. They were the Dark Judges (sorry, I’ve been on a 2000AD binge); their appearance was there to up the stakes and make you fear for the protagonists. Fleshing out Helex’s complex back story would not have been what Robert’s story needed. Tarn’s motivations were what we needed, and in his idolization of and betrayal by Megatron, we got that in spades

I resisted for quite a while, to the point where I almost missed the chance to get their takes on Vos and Kaon, but I eventually I committed to getting MMC’s takes on the DJD. It was expense, and it took years, but I did it. And they look great all together on my Lost Light shelf. If you don’t look too closely at how they scale with all the Generations figures.

‘Kultur’, aka Tarn was the one I was most hyped about, for all the obvious reasons. When I got him in hand I was…conflicted. There was so much care and attention put into this figure, but it fell short in some really glaring ways. And we weren’t going to get a second go at Tarn (we thought) and this wasn’t perfect. Ugh!

On the positives, the deco was gorgeous. Two subtle shades of Decepticon purple, with violet highlights, and generous bust tasteful touches of metallic silver and gold. This deco drew your eyes to the head and torso, both of which looked great. Then you looked past that and suddenly all the proportions seemed a bit weird. Such tiny fists on fairly chunky arms. Arms that made his head and torso seem a bit small. Tarn’s a bruiser. That Torso should feel stocky! The legs just made things worse. They were long! Far too long. I know Alex Milne always seemed to make his designs a bit heavy on the legs, but I’ve compared this closely to scenes from the comics and Milne’s design sheet, and those calves are simply about half an inch too long. I get that much of this is likely an inevitable compromise of the transformation, but man… it frustrates!

The tank mode doesn’t work for me, either as a reasonably faithful rendition of the comic design or as a stand alone vehicle mode. A lot of the essential details from the comic design are either missing or fudged, such as the covers over the tracks, or the proportions and placements of the cannons and ‘nose’ of the tank. As a toy it’s a messy and ill defined looking brick with some treads on the side and a couple of cannons stuck on the top. Too far forward on the top, I would like to add.

This design was later adapted into MMC’s takes on Thunderclash and Roller, and both were an improvement on ‘Kultur’. It’s almost a pity that this guy came first, because I can only imagine how much they could have improved him if they’d had two goes at working out the bugs.

It was maybe a little surprising when Tarn wound up having a life beyond the IDW-verse. In the Cyberverse cartoon, we were introduced to ‘the perfect Decepticon’, a cadre of cloned warriors who looked just like Tarn, and one of them wound up being Tarn. I thought it was an admirably bold move to make use of a character with a history of extreme sadistic violence. I was even more surprised when I saw Tarn was getting a Generations figure. With Legacy’s multi-versal bent, I assumed that the Tarn we’d be getting would be the Cyberverse version, but no…they are indeed giving us the torture porn version. Some world, this world!

Straight off the bat, they’ve done a great job bringing Tarn to Generations. After last year’s Jhiaxus I really shouldn’t have had any doubts about how well the design team can do when tasked with bringing a comic character to 3 dimensional life. I looked at those early photos and thought ‘that’s Tarn’. Which is funny, because that’s not what I thought when I got Kultur, even though it’s arguably a more faithful version. Considering the price tags involved, it’s hardly surprising that even on the instinctual level I’m not holding these to the same standard.

But comparisons aside, there’s so much to love about this toy. They’ve captured the stern, imposing nature of the character so well. As I play with him and posing him, he always seems to find himself staring down, or standing with his hands on his hips, looking perfectly imperious. And the amount of light piping on him! Not only does he have light piping in the head, it’s through the chest, AND in the cannons. It’s a lovely bit of attention to detail.

In some ways, this Tarn manages to look a little stockier, though it’s a far less dynamic sculpt (look at how so many sharp edges have been squared off, whether it’s his chest plate or crotch). But taken from the side, it’s striking how sleight he is. And then there’s the legs. Getting those legs right seems like an impossible challenge. Legacy Tarn is another lanky take on the character model. This time we’ve got thighs that are too long and a lower calf section that’s double the length it should be. And it’s a pity that the shoulder joints limit articulation. I just can’t get him to feel quite right when I’m pointing those cannons.

Despite all this, I must admit that this is the more satisfying take on the character. It feels like a much more confident, less conflicted take on the design. It’s a mainline action figure that knows it’s limits and works magnificently within those limits. It’s not striving to be the definitive take on the character (which MMC really felt like they were striving for) but to simply be the best possible version that can be done at this price point.

Funnily enough, considering that implicit remit, the Legacy version of the tank is that bit more faithful. I mean, it’s still a way off the original, but I feel like they got the dimensions right. The cannons are further back, there’s a slope up towards them from the smaller guns, and the ‘nose; is more pronounced. But once again, it’s quite a poor toy. It’s got little plastic nubs that pose as wheels, but they’re such an odd choice. We build a fake wheel into a tank tread that shouldn’t be there. At best it offers a little more elevation, but it’s hard to see any real benefit.

The scale thing is so funny. Needless to say, Kultur scales better with the rest of the MMC DJD figures. Less obviously, He scales a lot better with the likes of TR Overlord. Legacy Tarn looks comically small next to Overlord. However, Tarn scales beautifully with Siege Megatron in ways that Kultur could only dream of.

I’m so glad they did Tarn. There’s been a winning streak of comics original characters that the Generations design team have totally nailed, from Impactor, through Jhiaxus, and now Tarn. I’ve felt passion and excitement being out in with each of these figures, and I really hope it continues for some time. There’s a wealth of characters from the comics that are just dying for a Generations take. Having had some hints, I’m optimistic we’ll be seeing a wily old buzzard in the not to distant future, but no matter what comics original characters we get I’ll continue to vote with my wallet to support getting more of this!

 

What does a Lion a Witch and a Wardrobe have in common?

Spoiler

Narnia Business

 

“This could have gone better”
From Transformers: The War for Cybertron#8 February 2023 ‘You Drive Me Nervous’

 

Obscure character and one of my most hated molds, but poses so well. Don't know whether to sell or keep.

 

Pink gets me high as a kite

 

Keep for the cool colors alone

Or just oh idk..
Gimme  

 

Reminder that we have had a modern pretender shell at big scale.

Mount up!

Let's go ape

Can't pretend(er) part of me wonders if fun pub had kept their licence I'd they'd have done a few more shells.

 

both are touched up going to do the same with tarn and set him next to these two

 

Lock in at the local dive

 

What’s eating you?
Lio Prime: I should be the one on top of the food chain.