Dave's TF Legacy Rant: Tarn

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Transformers Legacy Evolution Rant: Voyager wave 1

Tarn (Tank)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/VTarn

While Tarn appeared in the Cyberverse cartoon, this is the first toy for
the IDW-original Transformer and leader of the Decepticon Justice Division.
Also, the Cyberverse Tarn just had the look and name, little to none of the
character.


CAPSULE

$30 at Target, $35 at Walmart.

Tarn: Quite close to the comics design, but even if you've never read
the IDW comics this is a solid toy and a good Cybertronian "heavy". No
serious problems, but nothing really stands out as bringing it up to the top
recommendation unless you have affection (or whatever) for the character.
Recommended.


RANT

Packaging: Same as Leo Prime's.


DECEPTICON: TARN
Assortment: F7205
Altmode: Tank
Transformation Difficulty: 27 steps
Previous Name Use: None
Previous Mold Use: None
Function: Leader of the Decepticon Justice Division
Origin Universe: Comic
Signature Weapon: Dual-barreled Fusion Cannon - Fires massive explosions of
energy that decimate anything inside the blast radius
Evo-Fusion: Tank barrels fuse together to form a long-range precision
fusion cannon

Tarn is fiercely loyal to the Decepticon cause, taking his allegiance so
far as to affix the Decepticon insignia to his own face.

STR 9 INT 9 SPD 4 FRB 9

(Basically, "Megatron Tank but no 10's" stats.)

Packaging: Three rattan strings on the robot mode, one holding both
cannon barrels in the lower right, another holding the core for the dual
barrel weapon in the lower left. You need to unfold the shoulderpads to free
up the strings, and you need to be careful getting the toy off the tray or
the backpack mini-cannon barrels might pop off.
While the online techspecs just refer to him as Tarn, the packaging
consistently calls him COMIC UNIVERSE TARN.
The renders on the box back have some of the chestplate left clear red,
but on the actual toy the entire piece is painted over.

Robot Mode: Gotta hand it to Tarn...in a setting where everyone brands
their faction symbol onto their bodies, he just has to be EXTRA and reshape
his entire face. Otherwise, he's rather lanky with arms that feel a little
short compared to his legs, and big upper arms and torso sides made up of
folded over tank treads. Two thin cannon barrels stick up like sword hilts
on his back, or you can fold them down and mount his dual cannon on his back.
(The joke is that he's such a Megatron fanboy that one fusion cannon isn't
enough, he had to get two.) Color-wise, he's mostly shades of gray, plus
dark purple, silver, some clear red, and incongruously gold kneecaps.
A respectable 6.5" (16.5cm) tall at the head, the backpack guns rise
about a centimeter more, and if you mount the main guns on the back the max
total height rises to about 8" (20cm). A dark warm plastic is used for the
back of the head, the tread pieces (torso sides, upper arms), and the core
piece that the cannons attach to. A purplish red clear paint is used for the
cannons, the front of the head, the chestplate, the abdomen front, and the
backplate. A dark somewhat unsaturated purple plastic is used for the pelvis
front (including parts that are attached to the fronts of the hips to move
with them), panels on the outer faces of the forearms, the lower legs and the
feet. A more "Decepticon purple" color plastic is used on the fists,
shoulder joints, smaller cannon barrels on the back, elbow joints, hinges on
the upperarm treads, pelvis back, and ankles. Light silvery gray plastic is
used on the forearms, lower biceps, baseplate of the cannon core, back of the
torso, hips, thighs, and knees.
Lots of paint, especially on the clear plastic parts. The cannons are
almost entirely painted over in dark desaturated purple (not a great match
for the plastic), as is much of the chestplate. The non-mask parts of the
head front are painted a decent match for the dark warm gray plastic.
Decepticon purple paint covers the mask, most of the backpack plate, much of
the forearms, about half of each shin, some of the chestplate and most of the
abdomen. There's some silver bits on the chest and rings around clear ports.
There's also some silver rectangles on the shins and silver toe-claws, and
there's silver paint on the inner bits of the treads on the torso sides under
the armpits. The kneecaps and some strips on the tops of the feet are
painted gold, and a gold Decepticon symbol is printed on the center of the
chest.
Notably unpainted are the eyes, a bit on top of the head for
lightpiping, ports on the chest, details on the abdomen, and various details
on the cannons.
The head is on a ball joint. The waist is a smooth swivel but limited
to about 60 degrees either way from forwards as the backpack runs into the
belt. The shoulders are a little weird, hinged at the top and then a swivel
at the end of the hinge. There's a transformation hinge in the upper arm
which can give a little flexibility to poses, and swivels just above the
hinge elbows. The wrists swivel and the fingers are hinged to open in mitten
style. Hinge and swivel hips, upper thigh swivels, hinge knees. There's
technically a second hinge in each knee, but they're snapped in place and
really meant for transformation. Dual hinge ankles, both directions although
the "keep the feet flat" ones only bend a little bit. The cannons on the
back are on mushroom peg swivels so they can point up or down.
The thumbs make 3/4 circles so the hands can hold 5mm pegs whether or
not the fingers are closed. The left forearm armor has one 5mm socket while
the right has two (presumably so you can adjust positioning of the cannon on
that arm if you want), there's a shallow peg on the outer face of each
shoulder, one on the underside of each toe, one on the outer face of each
boot, and one top-center of the backpack. There's the usual 3mm socket in
the back of the pelvis. The small cannons on the back end in 3mm studs.
The weapon is a combination of two dissimilar but equally long barrels
that attach to a trapezoidal core which itself is on a swivel link to a base
with both a 5mm peg and two thin tabs (for vehicle mode). One barrel fits
snugly against the core while the other leaves a visible gap because of some
rounded spacers. The core (1.5"/3.5cm long) has two 5mm sockets on either
side so the guns can be positioned differently in different uses, plus a 5mm
socket on top and a 5mm peg in front for Evo-Fusion purposes (aka "5mm peg
compatibility"). While the cannons look different from each other, they're
both single pieces of clear purple-red plastic 3.25" (8cm) long with 5mm pegs
at the non-aperture end, 5mm pegs in handle position near the back end, and
5mm sockets for the muzzles. Each has molded iron sights positioned for dual
barrel mode, but when you assemble them for long-barrel mode the front one
ends up sideways. Combined into sniper rifle mode it's 6.25" (16.5cm) long
and the core piece just stores on the backpack.

Transformation: The chestplate folds up to become a ramplate, the head
tucks inside the torso, the backpack swings around 180 degrees, the legs fold
up onto the back, and the arms unfold weirdly to become the treads. One
slightly deceptive bit is that there's a panel that looks like it's part of a
visible tread, but it's purely for robot mode aesthetics, and it ended up
opening so that the panel can snap onto the underside for stability. Another
part which might be unclear design or just my copy, is that it feels like the
chestplate is supposed to snap into place on a tab molded under the collar
section, but it just sort of rests loosely there. My attempts to get it to
go on more firmly just popped the chestplate off entirely. Finally, the
turret assembles from its pieces in a slightly different way than robot mode,
and it pegs onto the top via two long thin tabs that go into slots on the
shins.
Transforming back isn't too difficult unless you really don't want the
chestplate popping off. Getting the arms back into position without popping
the chest requires doing things in the One True Order, and ain't nobody gonna
do that. Well, I didn't. :) You might say his chest is a little Glitchy.

Altmode: So, it's your basic "treads and cannons, so it's a tank"
vehicle, with two ranks of treads (inner in front and outer in back) and a
sort of cow-catcher sort of ramplate so whatever can't be run over gets
scooped up. I get a vaguely OGRE-like vibe here...not that it looks like one
of the OGRE cybertanks, but it looks like something that might have been
built in that setting. However, that's pretty much how he looked in the
comics, the only "cheaty" bit is that his robot kneecaps just kinda stick out
the back of the hull top. There are little nubs under the treads to slide
on, rather than going to the expense of putting tiny wheels inside the
treads.
A little under 6" (15cm) long, mostly the same colors as robot mode but
far less of the lighter gray (it's really only visible in a little but of the
front hull now). The upper hull is made from the boots, the treads are the
arms, the ramplate is the chestplate, the driver's compartment part of the
hull with its two smaller cannons is the backpack plate, etc. No newly
visible plastic colors in this mode.
Most of the paints were also visible before, but the folded open tread
pieces all have dark silver paint on the not-actually-drive-wheels parts.
The sternum's gold Decepticon symbol is now on the front of the ramplate.
The turret can turn on a swivel and the cannons can elevate a little on
their peg connections. The smaller front cannons are hinged and can swing to
the sides, but do peg into place by default. Note, don't pick up the toy by
the turret, the tabs that hold it on are not strong enough to support the
weight of the tank unless you're realllly careful.
Loads and loads of 5mm sockets. Two on the outer face of each rear
tread, one on top of the left rear tread, two on top of the right rear tread,
one on top of the turret, the muzzle of each main gun, one on the back end of
the lower hull (backpack socket), one on either side of the rear of the upper
hull, and technically the robot hands sticking out the back of the treads can
hold some things. The underside has the front of the pelvis, but two shallow
5mm sockets are available on the underside, one under each rear tread.

Overall: Very close to the comics design, it helps that he was likely
designed to be toyetic in the first place. While not the first comics-
originated character to get a mass market toy, it's a very distinctive one.
Even if you aren't familiar with the comics, it's a good Cybertronian tyrant
sort of toy.


Dave Van Domelen, technically has a 3P version of Vos, but it's Titan
height and would not go well with this Tarn.