Ocular Max IF-01 Eris: Kultur

Welcome back to MythicTFs, it has been a couple weeks but i wanted to do this one right because, boy am I excited for this one. This is a figure I have been waiting for since it was revealed and I pretty much preordered her on the spot and it is the first 3rd party Transformer I have bought brand new and I have no regrets. I almost did this review in place of Titans Return Hot Rod last week but I was really busy and Hot Rod is a much more simple figure so I pushed her to this week cause I really want to do this one right. This review is going to be a little different since this is the first foray into 3rd Party Transformers on the website and there is just so much to cover, but without further adieu, let's take a look at MMC Ocular Max IF-01 Eris: Kultur. 

I feel like there is a lot of background to cover with this figure so let’s just jump right in. As far as I know this figure wasn’t teased or revealed before the first official reveal so it just came out of nowhere and it is such a unique idea too. Within the canon that Ocular Max is building Eris had the ability to mimic any combatant but then Psyaxus(their version of Jhiaxus) experimented on her and enhanced her ability so now she can transmogrify her exo-skeleton to mimic the appearance of any combatant as well as copy their skill set. This makes me wonder if we will end up with more Eris figures down the line, each one mimicking a different character. On the topic of mimicry, this version of Eris is mimicking MMC’s Kultur or as he is better known, Tarn the leader of the Decepticon Justice Division from the IDW comics. I know a lot of people bought this figure because she looks cool(which she does) but I bought her for a slightly different reason. For a long time, probably close to 10 years at this point, I have been working on an AU(Alternate Universe) of my own creation and in it I switched Tarn’s gender to female, mainly because I could and I wanted more female characters in my story. This figure just so happened to line up with what I was creating that I felt obligated to grab it. 

We are starting off as always with the head and it is incredible. Just to get it out of the way, she does come with a mask that homages Tarn’s own Decepticon badge mask and it just fits over top. The face is a nice pale lavender with some pink painted lips and large red eyes. There is also a second set of eyes placed right above the large lavender unibrow, and in between the second set there is a large golden headcrest with a hot pink gem in the middle, which leads into a whole golden faux hawk. The rest of the head is cast in a nice black plastic with a good amount of molded detail none of which gets lost in the plastic. You may have noticed that she even has little kitty ears which is actually an homage to VERY obscure Japanese G1 character Esmeral but we have do idea if Eris is Ocular Max’s version of Esmeral. Head articulation is very good with a ball jointed head with tons of clearance both up and down plus there is a neck hinge for even more downward articulation.

Her torso is a very slender and well built bod, but not oversexualized like most 3rd Party female transformers are these days. The chest is just a condensed version of Tarn’s, capturing all the important details, like the mine catcher chestplate, the silver cylinders underneath it and all the bio light sections picked out in a hot pink, all condensed to fit onto this form fitting chest plate. The back is not quite as interesting, well at least not on the detail front, the main attraction are the giant tank tread sections. They are on these support beams and they do slot in to stay straight but it isn’t a very strong connection and they are on quite a few hinges so you have a lot of options when posing them. I personally like to keep them at an angle as I find them more visually appealing that way. Torsos usually don’t have much in terms of articulation but Eris here has quite a bit. I am pretty sure her waist is ball jointed, giving her a slight ab crunch and the ability to rock in any direction as well as a full waist rotation. She also has forward butterfly joints for her arms, which is an EXTREMELY nice addition and gives her so much more character and posing options.

On the topic of her arms, they are very nice looking but they feel a little lacking in places. Starting with the shoulders they are these large tread chunks, but these ones are only single tread wide instead of Tarn’s iconic double tread shoulders. The treads themselves are free moving and are surrounded by this nice purple plastic, which I kinda wish we saw more of from the front, but we get enough of it to help break up the greys and blacks. The forearms are rather small comparatively but still look rather nice. I really like that the black looks like a small arm gauntlet she is wearing on top of her silver exoskeleton to help reinforce her lore. Now we get to the hands and these hands are insane. Including the ball joint and hinge at the base of the wrist there are 21 joints in EACH ONE of her hands. All the fingers are individually articulated with 3 joints in each as well as a joint where they connect to the palm allowing them to be splayed out.  The thumb is slightly different as it only has 2 hinges and is connected via a ball joint. As for the rest of the arms articulation Eris has full 360 rotation at the shoulder, 90 degree outward shoulder movement, full bicep rotation and a double jointed elbow that is so well engineered and hidden I didn’t know it existed until doing this review 

Continuing downwards to look at the legs and man are they great. The thighs are nice and chunky, cast in this dull silver with lavender accents so break it up. They are actually attached to the waist at an angle giving her a much more natural stance. The articulation here is really good as well with a full rotation at the thigh, a double hinge for outward movement and two thigh rotations; one inside the upper thigh and one right above the knee. Speaking of knees, Eris has some insanely deep knee bends. They go as close to 180 degrees as you can get and it is all one joint. The shins are really nice black pillars with some nice golden knee pads, which are on a double hinge for some extra posability action and diecast metal making up the entire back and sides of them. Finishing up with the feet which are considerably small but are packed with articulation. The toe has a 90 downward movement, the foot itself can go up and down at 2 different joints, the heel can hinge up and down, and there are 2 ankle tilts, one at the ankle itself and one just below the shin. This can be a bit annoying as the lower one is tighter than the upper one and that one can make her leg look broken. I should also mention that the main part of the foot is diecast and I think part of the rounded section is too. 

For accessories Eris only comes with two. The face mask which I have already covered and her arm cannons. Now these cannons are pretty cool, they are obviously Tarn’s signature asymmetrical double cannons but obviously scaled down to fit with Eris. You can plug the entire thing into either arm but traditionally it goes on the right arm. The cannons themselves can rotate separately if that interests you, but they are also removable from the centerpiece and can be plugged into either arm separately to give her dual arm cannons.

This transformation to tank mode is extremely unique and not super challenging or panel heavy which is a change of pace. The way the backpack becomes the front half of the tank is neat but the main surprise is the legs folding up to become the tank turret, which is such a cool design and not one I have seen done before, at least never to this extent. The cannon assembly just plugs into the inside of each leg and the back of the crotch piece so it is very secure. Tank mode is incredible, it seems to be some sort of future tech/cybertronian double barreled stealth or speed tank. I love the primarily purple body accented with lots of lavender on the sides plus little bits of gold and silver to liven things up. The cockpit is situated right in the middle of the turret picked out by a nice magenta that really pops against the black. Speaking of the turret it can do a full 360 and even aim up a little and you can increase that range slightly if you untab the turret from the center piece. All of the treads roll freely, better than most wheels on official transformers, although they are plastic meaning they don’t work great on most hard surfaces.

I guess that is about it for Eris here, I was expecting this review to be a lot longer but I guess I covered everything I wanted to cover in a concise manner. Overall final thoughts, Eris is a fantastic figure, who is extremely expressive thanks to all the articulation she has and on top of that she is a very unique figure especially for the world of 3rd party transformers which is mainly dominated by G1 cartoon accurate Masterpiece or Legends scale figures, and while she is technically scaled with MP figures, she is about the same height as a modern leader class figure so she fits right in with the rest of my CHUG collection. She is an easy 9.5/10 for me and probably my figure of the year, I know we are only half way through but she is gonna be tough to beat.

The next review is review #10 and so I am doing something special. It is my first group review so it might take a bit longer to do and combine that with the fact that I am in the process of redoing my room, it might take 2 weeks as well but I promise after that we will be back to weekly reviews. I hope you all enjoyed this one and don’t forget to check out the gallery for Eris as at the time of posting this it is only around 70 images but I plan on adding more sometime later in the week, seems time got away from me. I will make a post on my Twitter(@Mythic_Gears) when I do add the pictures, while you're waiting for that feel free to check out the other galleries and blog posts and share them around if you like them. See you all next time.