The Cover to MTMTE #7
While not without its faults, the More Than Meets The Eye comic series is a highpoint for Transformers media. Fan-turned-writer James Roberts brought both a British sense of humour and a political eye to what was a fairly novel idea at the time. The war was over, what happens now? For the characters of MTMTE, it was go off on a quest, with a tone somewhere between Red Dwarf, and that run of Justice League: International everyone loves. The comic would do a lot of worldbuilding that stuck, and would endear itself to the LGBQT community with Chromedome & Rewind, whom were unambiguously married, and others. However, as often happens when people passionately love something that goes on to challenge preconceptions, you'll find a lot of very strong opinions about the comic. Some justified, some merely masking a distaste for representation and change in general. Roberts’ use of characters like Ultra Magnus, Megatron and Getaway provoked endless fandom spats that still rumble on today. My personal take is that things started to go off the boil with the Lost Light rebranding, and I got rather impatient with the series treading water and shuffling some of my faves out of the roster in rather unsatisfactory ways. I. E Tailgate. I think what we all loved were the character dynamics, whereas Roberts got more interested in big picture stuff of his own creation, as IDW was getting ready for a continuity reboot, so things suffered, but I will die on a hill for the good bits. Also: shout-out to Anode and Lug, good to have you ladies along.
An early panel of "Tarn" and the hateful sadists of the D.J.D
So, where does "Tarn" fit into this? Well, he's a concept that would be as edgelord as fuck in the hands of another writer. He leads the Decepticon Justice Division, a team of codenamed sadists whose job it is to enforce discipline on the rank and file. Their modus operandi is to work their way down a list of offenders, torturing these poor bastards for a prolonged period, before killing them in the messiest way possible. Several of the group transform into torture implements, and are quite capable of brutalising almost anyone you care to name. While horrifying on several levels, if you step back for a moment, and think, another layer presents itself. The D.J.D are fascist try-hard cringe. A bunch of murderers given licence by a political philosophy to kill folk, and grossly ineffective at their implied role as military police. This was entirely the point, as their spotlight issue demonstrated. "Tarn" is the king of cringe mountain, although this was not immediately obvious. He was the subject of much fan theory, as Mr Roberts was a writer fond of laying plot seeds that would sprout years later. "Tarn's" given name was not stated, and he wore the Decepticon badge as a mask. It wasn't clear who this dude was, but he was scary, could literally talk people to death, and he was positioned as a peer to Grimlock in the realm of brute force. There were also a few characters currently AWOL from the story, so people had their theories. People got a little upset when these theories proved to be wrong, not least because Roberts liked red herrings too. Who "Tarn" is wasn't a mystery to the characters, just the audience, because who would want to talk about such a person? I wouldn't want to acknowledge that I knew someone whom joined the fecking Spanish Inquisition with a gun in one hand, and a management textbook in the other. It's more about what he is. And what he is, is Kylo Ren before Kylo Ren was a thing. "Tarn" is deep down a pathetic fanboy, but that does not make him any less dangerous to those around him. The guy is bad news personified.
Let's start with the tank mode, and the related matter of transformation. What is basically amazing here is the extent to which the art has been replicated in plastic. This is a comment very applicable to the robot mode too, but the tank mode is where you'd expect them to do a Jhiaxus, and phone it in. MTMTE often forgot about transformation, so it would not have been a shock if they did so here. Not least because "Tarn" had a highly distinctive alt mode with six sets of tank treads, two fixed guns on the hull and a twin cannon turret, him being a Captain Trying-too-hard even in this sense. It totally would not be a surprise if "Tarn's" natural altmode was something much more mundane. But no, the tank mode is, as near as it makes no difference, spot-on to Alex Milne's character model. Now, this is pretty great, but it's not perfect, as it's a got a few little things that invite nitpicking. First off, the hands are visible at the back, a downer that I don't have an obvious fix for, but I'm willing to forgive. Then there are the treads, which lack rolling wheels, something you don't miss until its not there. I can only assume that these were cut on budget and parts count grounds, which stands out given the attention to detail and the lavish paintwork throughout. An awful lot here is purple translucent plastic painted over with more/different purple and metallic highlights, which looks gorgeous. No kidding, they made this pretty. Functionally, it's a fairly typical post-Siege vehicle mode, with the 5mm ports nicely integrated into the sculpt, with the turret & guns based on the same system, and a soft tab that can hold the assembly straight. The transformation meanwhile is simple overall, but with complications in the upper body. It's the tread assembly that is the tricky bit, getting them retabbed and such is a marked contrast to the legs that largely go where you'd expect. Also, there is a case of Visible Head Syndrome. Those nits having been picked, I have to say they did fine work with the tank form. Because, well, it's doing a good job with difficult source material. And then there's the robot mode.
The robot form is where it all comes together, and damn. It is, as near as it makes no difference, perfect. The nitpicking does however come back, "Tarn" generally being so good that any weakness becomes glaring. Overall, the proportions tend towards the lithe, and this has led to people calling him flat. Another way to describe it would be "kibble-free", as everything integrates so well, but I do see where people are coming from on this. "Tarn" was depicted as a fairly hench sort of guy, with the toy definitely being wide at the shoulders, and big of feet, but otherwise not fully capturing that hench-ness. Of course, we can easily chalk this up reality getting in the way, or, and I think this fits "Tarn's" fundamentally try-hard vibe, we can assume that this is a skinny guy in a muscle suit, trying to look more intimidating. That is exactly the sort of thing he'd do. Another visual point of interest is a reported similarity in some details to Alex Milne's most recent character model for Bludgeon, a fellow tankformer, and Decepticon rather famous in comics. If this foretells a future retool, colour me interested. Meanwhile, there is a lot of paint over translucent plastic, and some easily missed light piped eyes.
So, with the visuals on point, what's it like functionally? Generally pretty good, with a few touches that go beyond the brief. "Tarn" has all the legacy standard joints, with opening hands, which are always fun. Due to how the transformation works, the legs end up with notable freedom, those chunky feet helping with balance, and you can unclip the knees for more movement. The arms aren't quite as good, as this is where the tank tread design meets Hasbro engineering. They have enough, don't get me wrong, but an additional swivel at the shoulder would have been nice. Its almost as if having a bunch of tank treads for arms is a cool-looking but slightly impractical idea? "Tarn" and the D.J.D in a nutshell, that. The twin fusion cannon, as mentioned, also gives you a few options for use, with alternative long-barrelled and backpack configurations. So, he can definitely do more than stand there and look intimidating. A good robot mode.
My point? Well, I have several beyond this toy actually existing, when many thought it never could. Looking at this toy, I am reminded of the feeling I had with Combiner Wars, in that a lot of third party items just got put on eBay. If you collect actual Transformers, i.e. robots that become other things and can (theoretically) be found at retail, this is immediately the best "Tarn", and probably the best one we are ever likely to get. Yes, you could go for one of the third party options, but you maybe aren't getting more for your money? Or an actual toy? Yes, there is a model kit and Super7 version if you want licenced merch, but those don't transform. But if you want an actual Transformer? I have good news, they did a fine job here. Also, as the lengthy preamble implies, "Tarn" is an important-if-cringey character in the Transformers fandom, so it's good that they tried, and even better that they succeeded.
