(Femme-Bot Friday #83)
I'd be the first to admit that my knowledge of IDW's TransFormers comics is
sorely limited. I used to get the Marvel comics back in the 1980s but,
as an adult, comics just don't appeal to me quite so much. First and
foremost, they take up space that I'd prefer to use for other things.
Secondly, the individual paper comics require much more careful handling and
storage than graphic novels (what Marvel UK used to refer to as 'Collected Comics' back in the day) so, on the rare occasion I buy anything comics-related, it will be
in that form. But, more than that, my interest has always been mainly
in the toys, not any of the associated fiction, so the comics never
seemed especially important... Especially after they started
following the US version in messing up all the characters in both
appearance and portrayal.
I acknowledge that this has probably led to me missing out on some
excellent stories, as well as the introduction of new characters who
had not been part of G1 or G2 in the Marvel comics... but
media-only characters always feel like a waste of time to me,
considering any and all TransFormers media is, fundamentally,
advertising for toys. I may have encountered analogues to some
of them via the TransFormers Collectors' Club, but they carried no special
significance to me because I hadn't been following the comics.
However, there's always one sure-fire way to grab my attention with a
tertiary character, and that's to make them a Femme-Bot. And here,
Ocular Max - aka Mastermind Creations - have done just that. Some years back,
they turned the character of Tarn -
erudite leader of the so-called 'Decepticon Justice Division' - into a
figure in their Reformatted line - Kultur. It looked interesting enough
but,
lacking any connection to the character or even the concept of the
Decepticon Justice Division, it wasn't as interesting to me as the myriad repaints of
Reformatted Azalea. While the majority of Ocular Max's output seems to have been
G1 Animation-style figures, the Infinite Finity line seems to
been created with the intention of branching out,
possibly with an IDW focus, while maintaining a degree of continuity
with Reformatted.
Eris: Kultur was the first figure from this line, revealed in 2020 and
first released - available exclusively via web store Planet Steel Express - in 2021, with its original colourscheme being a very limited run
specifically for that web store. I wasn't really in a position to order it
at the time, but MMC/Ocular Max hinted at a recolour to be released
later, so I hedged my bets and waited.
And so, here is the result of my... patience..? Or,
at the very least, the response and solution to my Fear Of Missing Out.
