KR|Horizon Review #26: Tarmann

Toy prototype details
Name: Tarmann^TM
Subtitle: kicking officer
Line: KR|Horizon
Item type: action figure - Nº 21 in the line.

Character details
Name: Tarmann
Classification: monotreme mammal
Sex: male
Home: Tahron
Era: 15 years after Foundation
Affiliation: Theriom
Rank: officer cadet (he is eventually promoted to second lieutenant for replacing Alyptro).

Background
First appearance: KR|Horizon #3 - The last horizon
Brief bio: a member of a legendary group of duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed humanoids inhabiting small streams and rivers in the eastern wetlands, during his childhood Tarmann was saved from the attack of a horde of insectoid invaders by a young Mor-Rak while on a hiking trip with his father Gax-Uhr^TM. Although none of such elusive creatures had ever passed through Theriom City's gates before, Gax-Uhr recognised the bond between his son and the orphaned child, and welcomed Tarmann within the walls of their residence for being adopted by the Amhalgaard^TM family. From then on, he became Mor-Rak's closest companion and despite his natural timorous disposition, he could be brave whenever his friend fell into danger. Growing up, along with the courage gradually came the talent for combat and the two friends discovered that their bond gave them an almost supernatural awareness of each other's thoughts, aiding them in training and granting Tarmann a tremendous cunning in contrast to his innate clumsiness. Years later, when Mor-Rak learnt to master the power of the Antikythron^TM, Tarmann, resenting his lack of bravery when he was young, in turn became a mighty soldier, proving that even a fearful child can still flourish into a courageous warrior.

Articulation
Standard, excluding hinged abdomen (the figure has a hinged flap instead), and with the addition of a ball hinged tail.

Description
Head: covered with a dense reddish-brown furry hood that surrounds a fairly elongated snout; the latter is covered in grey skin, forming a pliable bill shaped like that of a duck. The nostrils are located on the dorsal surface of the snout, while a pair of small dark eyes is located in a mask-like area (similar to that of a raccoon) covered with short greyish hair and set just between the furry forehead and the snout; a pair of slightly rounded ears are also bordered by greyish fur
Body: covered with a dense fur (reddish-brown on the upper parts of the torso and of the limbs, and greyish on the lower parts), webbed grey-skinned hands and feet (the latter are much larger than the former) with sharp black claws; furthermore, each forearm/calf is equipped with a cream-coloured, horny venomous spur. He also has a broad, beaver-like flat tail covered with alternating wide reddish-brown and narrow greyish bands of fur on the dorsal surface, and grey scales on the underside

Wearables: a dark-blue partially removable armour with metallic light-green details, two studded dark-blue wrist guards, two dark-blue shin guards, a double belt (i.e., a smooth matte dark-blue band with a lozenge-shaped buckle, above a studded metallic dark-blue piece with short tassets) and a ridged metallic light-green groin protector. His back is covered with cream-coloured horny spines, but it's unclear whether these are attached to the armour or to his body; the second hypothesis is more likely, since the armour looks to be only comprised of a front portion (covering the chest and abdomen) attached to a collar and to a pair of armholes. The overall theme of the armour seems to be "faces": the breastplate is sculpted like a kind of robotic beast face, with a very angular, stern expression highlighted by two small light-green teeth pointing up toward two menacing light-green eyes on his chest. Even his greaves appear to have distinct eyes and a nose above a tiny pair of fangs. The bracers on his forearms don't have any sort of faces, but the overall effect is "get near me and I'll tear you to pieces".

Tarmann's stylised armour.

Action feature

In the comics, Tarmann's most distinctive feature is perhaps his broad, flat tail, which has multiple functions: it acts as a prop when he balances on it to powerfully kick his opponents with his large feet, and sometimes it is also used as a striking weapon for attack. The figure's tail can move up and down as well as rotate on a ball-hinge at its base.
He also has a spur on each limb, which fictionally delivers a non-lethal venom with the ability of causing an opponent to become partly or wholly incapable of movement for a limited period of time.

Additionally, his beast-themed chest plate (from the "brow" to the "upper jaw") can rise and shrink to become a curved face guard on top of his armour, which is designed to conceal his head, giving him some realistic facial protection during combat, and to enhance his ability to sense his opponents through electrolocation. This is achieved thanks to two swappable breastplates, one normal and one with the raised faceplate, which swap fine and clip securely onto the collar and armholes sculpted on his torso piece. Based on his description in the comics, Tarmann has a distinctive quacky voice, which becomes deep and authoritative when the faceplate that protects his head is lifted - this might be due to what looks like a speaker box or mouth grill below the plate's sculpted upper lip. Other details that distinguish the extended armour piece from the standard one are the two glowing green eyes on the faceplate and a Theriom emblem (i.e., a seven-pointed golden star with the two side points elongated) on the underlying breastplate.

Finally, we’ve got an opening abdominal receptacle, in which Tarmann carries the ammunition for his crossbow-like weapon. The abdomen piece representing the beast face's lower jaw is actually a hinged flap that swivels open, allowing us to plug an included curved metallic light-green magazine (seemingly containing a fan-shaped reservoir of blueish-grey titanium bolts) in a vertical position into a revealed slot. The panel opens smoothly and snaps shut pretty tightly, fitting seamlessly when closed.

Tarmann's stylised armour with raised faceplate; the circle at the centre of the underlying chest plate represents the Theriom symbol.

Weapons and accessories
Apart from the alternative breastplate and bolt magazine piece, Tarmann comes with his signature repeating multi-shot dart launcher that can clip onto his wrist. The weapon consists of two bow-like blueish-grey stacked assemblies (a single-bolt one on top of a dual-bolt one, with their limbs slightly resembling the two pairs of wings of a dragonfly) mounted horizontally on a metallic light-green main frame with three blueish-grey darts sculpted on it, a side slot for attaching the above-mentioned bolt magazine in a horizontal position, a metallic light-green top-mounted binocular sight, and a blueish-grey dagger-bayonet fixed to the front of the main frame for close-quarters combat.

Additionally, before being finally redesigned for this non-technological warrior styling, Tarmann was originally conceived as a cyborg-like soldier (as his empty abdominal cavity may suggest) built by Mor-Rak. So, as a nod to this early robotic concept, the figure includes two pairs of blueish-grey clip-on biceps and thigh pads that show raised plating with sculpted electronic circuitry and what appear to be various rivets holding such armoured plates together.

Final thoughts
Character value: ♦♦♦ I believe Tarmann has the potential to be a very polarizing character. I love almost all the characters in the KR|Horizon line, but this one does grate on my nerves a bit and gives me some Jar Jar Binks-y feelings. I think the end of the comic book in which he appears really salvages him as a character though 

Articulation: ♥♥♥ As has been the case with most KR prototypes for quite a few years now, the articulation is awesome for the main part. It's durable, plentiful and tight. While he lacks the hinged abdomen that most other male figures have, it's not a huge loss considering he has the belly flap for the bolt magazine to "hide" in

Sculpt and paint: ♣♣♣♣ Say what you want, but Tarmann is not a bad looking character, I think. While there might not be much potential love for this kind of slaptsticky character, he still has a very nice looking design. And what does he reuse? His furry biceps and thighs are standard, that’s it. Everything else is brand new! Does this clash with the normal KR style? Maybe, but so do a lot of other characters. His paint job is more complex than you’d think. The one aspect to his paint that really threw me at first was the bright green on his armour and groin - it clashes with the blue, but in a good way that makes the figure stand out

Accessories: ♠♠♠♠ His armour pieces (including the breastplates and the four tech-looking pads) fit on Tarmann's body pretty well, while his weapon looks great with its weathered paint job and removable magazine
Playability: ♪♪♪ Although the tail joint allows for a few poses, I think having more articulation would have been nice. I also wish the hands were set up a bit better to hold the dart launcher more properly, but that's not a deal breaker for me

Overall: ☺☺☺ While I can't imagine a ton of KR fans will be desperate to run out and grab a Tarmann figure, there is an odd charm to this toy and one might want to consider adding it to their collection at some point. He's colourful and well sculpted, and I really like that he comes with a badass armour and weapon. This guy is a good entry in the line.